Thoughts From the Artistic Director: Welcome To Our Ninth Season
- On May 31, 2008
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 2008 season of Rush Hour! We have been counting the days until Rush Hour means summer in Chicago – or summer means Rush Hour, whichever your pleasure!
The term “Rush Hour experience” has emerged in the course of the last few seasons. It describes a user-friendly format that is reliably the same each week, combined with programming which is completely different, one week from the next. Its weekly audiences are culturally curious, not wary of “leaving their comfort zones,” interested in having new experiences or dipping into familiar experiences on a regular basis to re-charge their humanity. The result: a weekly summer gathering place, an island of calm to assuage the ever-increasing demands of our contemporary lifestyles.
Rush Hour audiences are indeed culturally curious and we strive to honor that curiosity and make it worth people’s while. This season, fifty-six artists from around the country will offer thirteen programs of great music. They will meet and greet you at our weekly pre-concert receptions and share their excitement about their work with you. Our staff has been hard at work all winter to create many entry points into the Rush Hour experience, from our rich weblog and website (rushhour.org) to weekly program booklets. We are excited to announce the launch of Rush Hour Conversations on our website, where you can hear extended interviews with artists, Rush Hour advisors, and other trailblazers and innovators in the arts and culture world today, hosted by me and other members of the Rush Hour team. We invite you to join us online to expand and continue your weekly experience here.
One such interview, with Tuesday’s composer, Clancy Newman, will be posted Wednesday, with excerpts from the performance to follow soon after. Speaking of which, I couldn’t think of a more exciting way to begin our ninth season: the prestigious Chicago String Quartet performing Clancy’s String Quartet from 2002.
There are so many ways to bring your ears and humanity to the performance. Here are a few to consider: the richness of four exquisite string instruments (several made in the 17th century) working together to make one sound, one expression; the brilliance and excitement of this piece written a few years ago and joining a rich heritage of music for string quartet over the last three centuries; the ability of the piece to reflect the “way” music sounds on string instruments – violin, viola, cello – as compared, say, to the organ, or the guitar, or the trombone; and last, but not least, what happens to you, the audience, the listeners, in a space as generous as St. James Cathedral filled with other engaged, active “listeners,” working together with the artists performing, to create the energy of what we now know is the Rush Hour experience.
- Deborah Sobol
Fanfare Committee Corner: May
- On May 15, 2008
The Fanfare Committee recently hosted two exciting events:
Looptopia was held Friday, May 2 at the Chicago Temple.
Third Coast Percussion dazzled the audience and we unveiled our new RH umbrella for sale, which came in handy for the evening downpours!
The second annual “Rush Hour Tasting” was held Saturday, May 10 at photographer Sandro’s studio in Ukrainian Village.
Over 40 young professionals attended for an engaging evening of refreshments, conversation, and music by violinist Jasmine Lin and cellist Clancy Newman.
To date, RH has raised $1,500 out of the $5,000 goal of the challenge grant for donors aged 40 and under, thanks to proceeds from the Rush Hour Tasting and gifts from other generous donors. Please help us reach our goal – click here to make a contribution. Your gift will be doubled through the challenge grant opportunity.
Many thanks to all who helped support Rush Hour at these two events or through the challenge grant opportunity – stay tuned for details about upcoming post-concert events hosted by the Fanfare Committee.
Clever Correspondence
- On May 14, 2008
Looking for an effortless way to help spread the word about Rush Hour? We invite you to add a RH tagline to your email signature block. Use one of our suggestions below, or create your own!
- * What’s the rush? <rushhour.org>
* culturally curious? <rushhour.org>
* How to outsmart Rush Hour Traffic every Tuesday: <rushhour.org>
* great music for busy lives: <rushhour.org>
Thoughts & Recommendations from the Artistic Director: The Rush Hour Experience
- On May 14, 2008
More than a just a reception and great live music in the time frame of an hour at the end of the day, Rush Hour, like Starbucks, has now become known on the summer cultural landscape of Chicago as an “experience.”
The clever little dashboard icon on my Mac brings up a dictionary in addition to the time and the weather. (The dictionary has been more encouraging than the weather this week.) Here’s what it says about “experience”:
Noun: “Practical contact with and observation of facts or events. Knowledge or skill acquired by such means over a period of time. An event or occurrence that leaves an impression on someone.”
Verb: “To encounter or undergo (an event or occurrence); to feel (an emotion).”
It seems Rush Hour fits the bill in all descriptors.
I’m often asked by people unfamiliar with Rush Hour and with classical music, for that matter, what they will “experience” at Rush Hour. Now, in mid-May, less than three weeks away from the opening of our ninth season, I’m reflecting on how someone will feel on June 2 (the day before Rush Hour opens) and again on August 27 (the day after the last concert event of the upcoming season). What will they experience over the summer? What will they take with them? What will the arc of the ‘08 Rush Hour experience feel like for them?
There are clearly many components to this “arc,” but if pressed to name one, I would choose the role of the audience. The audience’s role in the Rush Hour experience is central – and, to the surprise of many, active and participatory. 
As a Rush Hour listener, you will learn that role, revel in it and experience it weekly. You will experience the difference between “hearing” and “listening.” You will enter the dynamic triangle of composer/performer/listener and experience the energy unique to this activity. Each week you will be given what you need to be able to listen in an engaged manner, with as much additional follow-up enhancement material available online at rushhour.org.
I refer you to my column in the April newsletter for a programmatic overview of our ‘08 season. As to the question of how you will feel at the beginning of June and then again at the end of August– you will have “experienced” 13 weeks of culture and community working together. I invite you to make our regular, user-friendly format of concert events – each Tuesday different than the next – part of your routine. These weekly trips to (as I like to call it) “the 35,000 foot level” will enhance the other six days of your week.
If you (or friends and associates) are unfamiliar with classical music or Rush Hour, please know that all you need to bring to our weekly “summer city salon/cultural happy hour” are two things: your ears and your humanity.
We look forward to seeing you in just a few short weeks for our opener on June 3. But before our ninth season starts, I’d like to make two recommendations:
St. James Cathedral concludes its concert season this Sunday, May 18 with Handel’s “Coronation Anthems.” Trumpets, oboes, drums, strings, organ and choir—all the makings of a royal feast for the ears! Based on biblical texts and composed for the coronation of King George II and Queen Caroline in 1727, these four anthems were Handel’s first composition as a British subject. The concert begins at 4:00 p.m. Click here for more details.
The final event in CCM’s Freshly Scored series, “Music of Light and Shadow,” explores new worlds through sound. Kyle Werner’s “Blueprints,” inspired by the Great Lakes and the winning composition of CCM’s first ever young composer competition, joins Stoeger Prize recipient Pierre Jalbert’s delightful meditation on Louis Tiffany’s stained glass windows and Pulitzer Prize-winner Steven Stucky’s gentle and dark quartet and Debussy-inspired trio. The concert will take place Monday, June 2 at 7:30 p.m. at Merit School of Music’s Gottlieb Hall. For more information, click here.
Best wishes,
Deborah Sobol
The Gourmet Cultural Consumer
- On May 14, 2008
Lately I’ve read a few fascinating books that talk about the brain, philosophy, and ultimately how to live life. One of my favorite little books is The Philosopher’s Diet: How to Lose Weight & Change the World, by Richard Watson. Watson is, as one might deduce, a philosophy professor and author, but his bio also lists him as a spelologist (look it up), runner, and novelist. I’ll summarize the diet part of the book: one should eat fewer calories, avoid all processed foods, and run four miles a day. That’s not why I love this book, or how it ties into Rush Hour. The book’s philosophical premise is that losing 20 pounds and keeping it off is not a matter of weight loss, it is rather a matter of changing one’s life entirely. Although the core pieces of this life change are in principle quite simple, the act of change can be staggeringly difficult. It is, therefore, a noble pursuit.
How does RH compare to a Spartan diet plan? Aha, I knew you would be wondering! Watson talks of going from being a glutton to a gourmet—in other words, to change from being a mindless consumer into a mindful one. Because you are working with fewer calories, you must make the ones you have worthwhile, memorable, and breathtaking.
I have always wondered why I’ve met so many “foodies” who are also involved with classical music, and the answer I’ve come up with is that we are sensation junkies. According to Steven Pinker, author of How the Mind Works, music “appears to be a pure pleasure technology…that we ingest through the ear to stimulate a mass of pleasure circuits at once.” We love hearing something exquisite; it gives us the same rush that tasting something wonderful does. I have a constant soundtrack playing in my ears all day, every day. I usually have the radio on in the car, and hear at various times the drone of traffic, background noise of the office, cartoons at home, and countless other things when I am even conscious of it. So I had a light bulb moment with Dr. Watson this week in thinking about how special it is to experience something of the finest quality, even if that is limited slightly in quantity. My time is limited, as is most everybody’s. As I’ve said in this column before, concentrating on getting to the heart of the matter and then being fully present is my mantra this year. I love it when I can wrap things up neatly!
So, how does Watson feel we should live life? We should enjoy it to the fullest by taking control of it. It is all about form; making a commitment and sticking to it. Perhaps Rush Hour (or losing 20 pounds) will not save the world, but it will make a difference to you. What if this year, you make the commitment to be at St. James Cathedral when the doors open each Tuesday, and devote one hour to being a gourmet of music and camaraderie? That hour will not suddenly fix global warming, get you a raise (unless you bring your boss along), or make the price of gas drop back under $3 per gallon. But it will give you space, and control over your time, as well as 100% of your RDA of aesthetic nourishment. Come find me when you get there. I’ll save you the best piece of cake.
- Megan Balderston
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