2008 marks the third summer of our internship program, which gives college students hands-on participation in operations, decision-making, and the continued evolution of Rush Hour in its mission. We are fortunate to have four intelligent and energetic young people with a passion for live music and community building with us this summer, thanks to generous [...]

[Read more →]

This week, Rush Hour was delighted to welcome Yang Wei, pipa, Brant Taylor, cello, and Artistic Director Deborah Sobol, piano, for their cross-cultural exploration of the works of European and Chinese composers. This “outside the box” program featured unique instrumentation in works of Bach, Beethoven, and Dvorak, as well as 2 pieces from or inspired [...]

[Read more →]

I had a conversation with a colleague from our ‘08 artist roster last week in which he remarked how Rush Hour is one of the few musical organizations he plays with that is willing to experiment with projects a little “outside the box.” Tuesday’s program, an East-West fusion, might fall into that category. After [...]

[Read more →]

This week, we invited the Rush Hour audience to join acclaimed musicians Mathieu Dufour, flute, Karina Canellakis, violin, Yukiko Ogura, viola, and Kenneth Olsen, cello, for a stunning performance of chamber music from the Classical period in Eighteenth Century Virtuosity: Music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Joseph Haydn.
Executive Director Megan Balderston prefaced the concert [...]

[Read more →]

Rush Hour prides itself on presenting the traditional art form of chamber music in innovative ways. One thing all performances have in common is the level of detail that goes into producing them. Stephen Sondheim’s song, “Putting It Together,” explains this more eloquently than I could. Each concert event is actually a series of decisions, [...]

[Read more →]

This Tuesday, Rush Hour was delighted to welcome distinguished performers Sandra Morgan, flute, Robert Morgan, oboe, and David Schrader, harpsichord, in their striking renderings of the works of J.S. and C.P.E. Bach. Beginning with the elegantly tempered Sonata in G Minor by Johann Sebastian and ending with the lively Sonata in G Major by Carl [...]

[Read more →]

This week, Rush Hour audiences joined acclaimed clarinetist Larry Combs and the finalists of the Chicago Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Competition in an exercise on interpretation in Impromptu Interplay: Improvisations on Poetry. The reciters read the works of a variety of noted poets including Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, W.H. Auden, and Pablo Neruda while [...]

[Read more →]