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What’s New at Chicago a cappella

• Chicago a cappella announces auditions
   

• Read the reviews of Voces latinas
   

• Interview with Tania León
   

• Chicago a cappella's Gala: The Black and Red Ball
   

• Free downloads at ChicagoClassicalMusic.org!
   

• New Chicago a cappella T-Shirt
   

• 15th Anniversary Commissioning Series
   

• A Choral Christmas Card

Interview with Tania León

Acclaimed composer Tania León wrote an exciting new piece as the finale to Chicago a cappella's 15th Anniversary Commissioning Series.  Her Estampas was performed at the ensemble's recent concert, Voces latinas.

We caught up with Tania between her many engagements to find out more about the piece:

Tell me about the three-movement structure of Estampas.

All three poems are by Cuban-born women now living in the U.S., and the poetry definitely inspired this structure. I think of the piece as being three “snapshots,” just descriptions of a particular moment: looking at a landscape, a mother holding her child, really universal moments that are part of our human experience regardless of our culture or heritage.

I have previously written music set to poems by all three of these poets, and have known these women for a long time. In the previous piece, their work was mixed with that of other poets. I liked the idea of putting these three poets together, showing how different three points of view can be, even from people born in the same place.

Can you describe the sound that you had in mind when composing Estampas? Are there particular musical associations or connections to particular rhythms you're hoping to evoke?

There are Cuban overtones in the music, some are traditional sounds, some are derivatives of son. Son is the primary source of many forms of expressions in Cuba, and can be considered the “classical” expression of music of that culture. This influence also transcends Cuba to the rest of the Caribbean.

Can you talk a bit about writing for vocal ensemble? Is it more or less challenging than composing for symphonic forces, for example, or instrumental ensembles?

Not necessarily – when I want to write for any specific force in music, I get into that. In fact, before I begin, I listen to a lot of choral music – it doesn’t matter what style: early music, avant garde, even music of other cultures. My intention is to get closer to the power of the voice, whether I’m writing for a vocal soloist or an ensemble. I also love to connect with the sound of each specific ensemble. [Before undertaking a new commission] I usually ask for a recording, so I can get acquainted with the group's individual voice – each ensemble has its own voice. I try to work into the piece my understanding of what that sound means to me. [Before writing Estampas] I listened to two of Chicago a cappella’s CDs, and I was struck by the variety of music. It gave me the possibility to create whatever style I wanted to create.

What are you working on next?

Right after I leave Chicago, I travel to Beijing, China, to open an international congress of women composers with my piece Horizons. That piece just came out on a new CD called Singin' Sepia. After the congress, I stay in Beijing one more week to act as composer/conductor-in-residence at the Beijing Conservatory. In early May I’m conducting a concert of my own music at Symphony Space in Manhattan, and of course continuing my teaching in the graduate center at the City University of New York. I’m also working on a new ballet with a Brazilian company, which will premiere in spring 2009, a string quartet for the Emerson Quartet, and my first real band piece for the Harvard University Band.

Free downloads have arrived!

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Simply log in to ChicagoClassicalMusic.org and follow the link on the main page blog to retrieve your track. Of course, ChicagoClassicalMusic.org is still the place to read Jonathan Miller's blog and find out what's going on at a dozen other classical groups in town.  Check out the hot deals and join the conversations.  It's the one space for all things classical in Chicago!

New Chicago a cappella T-Shirt

Fans will want to grab one of our cool new slate gray T-shirts.  Surprise the Chicago a cappella fan in your life with a great gift!

15th Anniversary Commissioning Series

With the exclusive sponsorship of the Sara Lee Foundation, Chicago a cappella will commission three composers to write five new works in celebration of the ensemble’s 15th season in 2007-08.  Read the press release.

Stacy Garrop will write new two new works: one will debut at Chicago a cappella’s season-opening concert in October, Days of Awe and Rejoicing, and one will receive its premiere at Holidays a cappella in December. Garrop has received awards from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s First Hearing Composition Competition, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the Omaha Symphony Guild, and she was a finalist for the 2001 Rome Prize. She has served as composer-in-residence of Chicago’s Music in the Loft chamber music series, and a recording of her String Quartet No. 2 will be released by Cedille Records in 2007. Garrop’s works have been performed by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Minnesota Orchestra, and New England Philharmonic, among many others. Dr. Garrop is an Associate Professor in Composition at the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University.

Rollo Dilworth will also compose two new works for the series. His pieces will be premiered at Holidays a cappella in December and Romanticism and Rock ‘n’ Roll in February 2008. Dilworth is Director of Choral Activities at North Park University School of Music in Chicago. He received his Doctor of Music degree from Northwestern University and has also studied composition with Robert Ray, Pauline Oliveros and Marta Ptaszynska. An active and respected conductor, educator, and clinician with engagements literally around the world, he is especially acclaimed for his masterful arrangements of African-American spirituals.

To cap off the celebratory season, Tania León will write a new work to be debuted at Voces latinas in April 2008. Born in Cuba and based in New York, León has distinguished herself in genres from orchestral music to opera, ballet scores and film projects; she has been written choral music for Chanticleer, the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, and many other groups. Her music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, and on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNow series. She has received awards for her compositions from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund, ASCAP and the Koussevitzky Foundation, among others. From 1993 to 1997 she was New Music Advisor to Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic, and she has appeared as guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Santa Cecilia Orchestra (Rome), and the Gewaundhausorchester (Leipzig), among many others. León’s opera Scourge of Hyacinths was given to great acclaim at the Grand Théâtre de Genève (Switzerland), and Dawn Upshaw recorded an aria from the opera on her CD The World So Wide. León has been Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University, Visiting Professor at Yale University, the University of Michigan and the Musikschule in Hamburg. She has taught at Brooklyn College since 1985, and in 2006 she was named Distinguished Professor of the City University of New York.

Exclusive Sponsor of the 15th Anniversary Commissioning Series