Events by this organizer

Chicago Philharmonic
Scott Speck Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
Susan Platts Mezzo-Soprano

Schumann Symphony No. 3
Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer)
Larsen Deep Summer Music

Buy tickets to Songs of a Wayfarer

Key Notes:

• Join Chicago Philharmonic and renowned Mahler specialist, Mezzo-Soprano Susan Platts for Gustav Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, or Songs of a Wayfarer. The music and text of this Lieder cycle was written by a young Mahler, with many of the lines reminiscent of heartbreak, beauty, and the end of a season.
• Headlining the program is Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, written to capture his euphoric response to the grand Colgone Cathedral.
• Also on the program is living composer Libby Larsen’s Deep Summer Music, offering an intimate taste of Americana.

About Susan Platts

British-born Canadian mezzo-soprano Susan Platts brings a uniquely rich and wide-ranging voice to concert and recital repertoire for alto and mezzo-soprano, particularly esteemed for her performances of Gustav Mahler’s works. She is a Fellow of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, which gave her the opportunity to work closely with Jessye Norman.

She has collaborated with many of today’s leading conductors including John Adams, Marin Alsop, Roberto Abbado, Sir Andrew Davis, Ludovic Morlot, Leon Botstein, Josep Caballé-Domenech, Christoph Eschenbach, JoAnn Falletta, Jane Glover, Vladimir Jurowski, Jeffrey Kahane, Carlos Kalmar, Keith Lockhart, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Roger Norrington, Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Bramwell Tovey, Osmo Vänska and Pinchas Zuckerman.  Ms. Platts has appeared on many distinguished art song series including Vocal Arts Society at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Ladies Morning Musical Club in Montreal, Aldeburgh Connection in Toronto, and both the Frick Collection and Lincoln Center “Art of the Song” series in New York City.

Ms. Platts’ recent opera highlights include Die Walküre with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Royal Opera House,  John Adams’ Nixon in China with the BBC Symphony, as well as Britten’s Albert Herring (Pacific Opera, Vancouver Opera), Erda in Wagner’s Das Rheingold (Pacific Opera), and Bernstein’s A Quiet Place (Montreal Symphony Orchestra).

Grammy-nominated in 2020 as “Best New Artist,” New Orleans-based Tank and The Bangas are quickly gaining wide acclaim with an incredibly uncategorical soulful mixture of R&B, hip-hop and spoken-word that’s fused into an atomically combustible energetic live performance. Led by the incomparable Tarriona “Tank” Ball, Tank and The Bangas is joined by Chicago’s “Ferrari of orchestras” to newly unleash their music as a massive orchestral concert experience.

About Tank and the Bangas
Grammy-nominated in 2020 as “Best New Artist,” New Orleans-based Tank and The Bangas are quickly gaining wide acclaim with an incredibly uncategorical soulful mixture of R&B, hip-hop and spoken-word that’s fused into an atomically combustible energetic live performance. Members of Tank and the Bangas met at a New Orleans open mic show called Liberation Lounge at now closed Blackstar Cafe and Books in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans. They debuted as a band in 2011. In 2017, out of more than 6,000 acts entered in NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest, the judges came to a unanimous decision in choosing the Tank and the Bangas for the top honor. Led by the infectiously positive Tarriona “Tank” Ball, the genre-defying group blends clever spoken wordplay with laidback grooves and beautiful melodies to create a progressive sound that defies a single categorization.

Celebrating thirty years on and eight albums, the Grammy-nominated superstars Lettuce have breathed new life into the classic funk genre and pushed musical barriers combining groove-infused jazz, soaring horn lines, and modern hip-hop beats. Fans are treated to a unique night in the historic landmark Auditorium Theatre as Lettuce augments their rhythmic genius, stunning improvisations and the outstanding musicality of their compositions with orchestrations created by Denver-based composer Tom Hagerman and perfectly executed by the Chicago Philharmonic orchestra.

About Lettuce
Lettuce began in the summer of 1992, when all of its members attended a music program at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts as teenagers. Brought together by the influence of various funk bands including Herbie Hancock, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Tower of Power, the band jammed throughout that summer before going their separate ways.

In the fall of 1994, the band reconvened as undergrads at Berklee and attempted to play at various Boston jazz clubs, walking in and asking the club owners and other musicians if they would “let us play”, giving birth to the name Lettuce.

Its members consist of guitarists Eric Krasno and Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff, Neal Evans, Adam Deitch, Erick “E.D.” Coomes, Ryan Zoidis, and partial-member Rashawn Ross. In 2011, Trumpeter Eric “Benny” Bloom replaced Rashawn Ross in the band. They are known for their energetic live shows!

Lettuce – Phyllis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZaPW_L21WU

Chicago Philharmonic
Kaoru Ishibashi (Kishi Bashi) Violin, Vocals, Composer
Scott Speck Conductor
Marcus Norris Donna Milanovich Composer in Residence

Buy tickets to Kishi Bashi’s Improvisations on EO9066 on April 15, 2023

In this powerful concert, award-winning multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Kishi Bashi explores Executive Order 9066, which saw the incarceration of thousands of innocent Japanese Americans during the Second World War. This immersive, multimedia experience with Kishi Bashi and the full Chicago Philharmonic features photography by Dorothea Lange and the filmmaking expertise of Director JJ Gerber.

Critics have hailed Kishi Bashi’s work as “an uplifting documentary about a musician, but also about sympathy, compassion, and basic humanity” (Screen Zealots) and “a celebration of the diversity of America” (AU Review).

Plus, Donna Milanovich Composer in Residence Marcus Norris shares a World Premiere with Chicago Philharmonic.

About Kishi Bashi

Kishi Bashi is the pseudonym of singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Kaoru Ishibashi. Born in Seattle, Washington, Ishibashi grew up in Norfolk, Virginia where both of his parents were professors at Old Dominion University. As a 1994 graduate of Matthew Fontaine Maury High School, he went on to study film scoring at Berklee College of Music before becoming a renowned violinist. Ishibashi has recorded and toured internationally as a violinist with diverse artists such as Regina Spektor, Sondre Lerche, and most recently, the Athens, Georgia-based indie rock band, of Montreal. He remains based in Athens.

Kishi Bashi is also the singer and founding member of the New York electronic rock outfit, Jupiter One. In 2011, he started to record and perform as a solo artist, opening for Sondre Lerche, Alexi Murdoch, and of Montreal. He supported of Montreal on their spring 2012 tour.

Following on from “Sonderlust”, he released his album “Omoiyari” (a Japanese word for the idea of creating compassion toward other people by thinking about them) in 2019, in support of his feature length documentary “Omoiyari: A songfilm by Kishi Bashi” which explores minority identity and the Incarceration of Japanese Americans in WWII. After 4 years in the making and over $100,000 donated by backers across the globe, the film officially premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March 2022.

In 2020 Kishi Bashi scored the entire soundtrack for the touching Apple TV kids show “Stillwater” with composer Toby Chu, and released it as an album featuring 18 tracks of uplifting orchestral tunes.

His Emigrant EP, released in 2021, is a very special companion piece to ‘Omoiyari’ and serves as a time capsule of the 2020 condition and a continuation of the concepts explored in ‘Omoiyari’.

In 2022 he announced the re-issue of his debut album 151a in honor of the 10 year anniversary of its original release, as his first double LP which includes original demo’s of all the album tracks. “151a (Demo-arigato Version)” is available now on all streaming platforms.

An all-new global touring film concert series, “DC In Concert,” debuts with the box office smash, The Batman. Experience the caped crusader like never before as a Chicago Philharmonic performs Michael Giacchino’s instantly iconic score alongside the film for an unforgettable live concert experience.

Released March 4, 2022, Warner Bros. Pictures’ “The Batman” is set around Bruce Wayne in the dual role of Gotham City’s vigilante detective and his alter ego, reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne. Two years of stalking the streets as the Batman, striking fear into the hearts of criminals, has led Bruce Wayne deep into the shadows of Gotham City. Starring Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Jeffrey Wright, Paul Dano, and Andy Serkis.

“The Batman proves that any story can be retold with freshness and ferocity.” – Noëlle D. Lilley, Chicago Reader