“"Yo Soy La Tradición" is brilliant, an entrancing, attractive, intelligent, and often stunning collection of songs that blur the lines between classical, folk, jazz, and popular music. In fact, throw out any and all labels. The insistence on labels only insults the intelligence of the audience. Instead, focus on how beautiful - yes, beautiful - this music is. Listen deeply, smile with it, be moved by the passions and the emotions, and enjoy how seamless the arrangements are throughout. This is not "background music"; instead, this album will resonate for as long as you give yourself fully to the experience. Kudos to Miguel Zenón and the Spektral Quartet!”
The Lake Michigan Shoreline Is Our Concert Hall: Photo Gallery
Our 2018/19 season launched with the world premiere of Tonia Ko’s Plain, Air, commissioned by Chamber Music America and presented in partnership with Chicago conservation organization Openlands…and it was easily one of the most enlivening events we’ve ever attempted.
The Bluegrass Situation: MUSIC WITH PURPOSE BY MAGOS HERRERA, MIGUEL ZENÓN
“Zenón’s album Yo Soy La Tradición is not as explicitly political, though he says it’s hard not to find that in the series of eight new compositions, his alto sax woven with the Spektral strings.
Zenón says that much of the mission of this album is to shed a light on the beleaguered island commonwealth of Puerto Rico – not just post-Maria, with help still slow to come, but with a mind on issues that have existed for decades, some coming from its perceived status as a “lesser” part of the U.S. But the learning process most essential to the album, he says, was his own.
“As a Puerto Rican and a Puerto Rican musician, I’m amazed by how little I know,” he says. “Always something to discover, something around the corner. And when you get into something, there’s something more after that. A lot of the ideas on the album I’ve been focused on for a while, but wanted to dig deeper for this project.””
Why Our Album Release Concert Is A Benefit For Puerto Rico
It tends to surprise me, though at this point it shouldn’t, just how quickly a catastrophe gets swallowed by the news cycle. In the day prior to Miguel Zenón’s arrival in Chicago for our recording sessions, the front pages and top-of-the-hour newscasts were strewn with images of a submerged Puerto Rico – of razed homes and trees at improbable angles.
Spektral Becomes a Quintet
We are ecstatic to announce the newest member of the Spektral team, Alyssa Martinez, who joins us as Development and Production Coordinator!
Deeply embedded in arts scenes around Chicago, Alyssa brings a veritable cornucopia of production and performance experience to her new role with us. We first encountered her manifold talents at a private chamber music series, where she burned brightly as events coordinator and general purveyor of good vibes. Our friendship went into orbit from that day forward, and we can't think of someone who "gets us" more than Alyssa when it comes to our many (and often mischievous) endeavors.
Behind the Scenes: Miguel Zenón
We have a brand-new record with saxophonist Miguel Zenón – Yo Soy La Tradición – dropping on September 21st, but this album release show is actually a benefit for the Puerto Rican victims of Hurricane Maria... a chance to celebrate new music and help out our fellow citizens!
With the date fast approaching, memories of our rehearsals and recording session have resurfaced. We'll delve into Miguel's experience with the fallout from the hurricane – which hit just days before we started working together – but today we'd like to share the rehearsal photos taken by our friend and supporter, Bob Watson.
CMI 2018: 'Music Made Visible' Photo Gallery
We had an incredible time presenting our fifth annual Chamber Music Intensive in partnership with the University of Chicago Department of Music and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, with support from the Associated Chamber Music Players. This year we had an absolutely lovely collection of participants, our second go-around teaching alongside pianist Daniel Pesca, and had the great good fortune of inviting violin pedagogue Lucy Chapman as our guest artist. And that's only the half of it...
(photos by interns Doyle Armbrust and Maeve Feinberg)
Finding Ourselves in Schoenberg
It’s always an interesting exercise to look back at the previous season in the summer months. Like revisiting New Year’s resolutions, it’s a good way to do a personal barometer check and hunker down for a think about questions like “In what elements were we most successful?”, “Did we accomplish what we set out to?”, “How did our goals change along the way?”, “What were our biggest learning experiences?”, “Did we make something meaningful?” Even the busiest summer feels a little like coming up for air, and it’s easy in hindsight for a reflection on the season to resemble a string of highlights and failures. This year has certainly seen it’s fair share of both of those, but I’m ending the season feeling differently about Spektral’s work than I ever have...
This Is What A Classical Concert Can Be
We created the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS series as a way to draw you further inside the music...something beyond you sitting politely with your hands folded in your lap. We've been astounded by the response to this interactive (and...shhhhh...don't tell anyone...FUN!) concert format, and the fact that it was launched with some, at times, seriously heady music (Schoenberg), we know it's a keeper.
You Painted Your Feelings!
What a way to close the 2017/18 season! We are still riding high from the vibe at our final Close Encounters event, Paint Your Feelings!, and are eager to fill you in soon on what we have in store for you next season. First and foremost, we were taken aback by how LOCKED IN you all were while painting. We'd finish a piece, and it would be silent...with you all feverishly brushing away at your creations. I guess we could have known that our audience is made up of a bunch of secretly-talented painters.
Chicago Classical Review: Spektral Quartet wraps Schoenberg series with metal virtuosity
"How many string quartets are there today that can make late Schoenberg seem like heavy metal?The Spektral Quartet wrapped its season-long survey of Arnold Schoenberg’s string quartets Sunday afternoon at the Art Institute. It’s a testament to the ensemble’s devoted local following that Fullerton Hall was quite respectably filled for a program that didn’t exactly cater to populist tastes.
....
A superb coda to the group’s ambitious and distinguished Schoenberg series. One looks forward to seeing what the Spektral Quartet will cook up for the 2018-19 season."
Read the entire article here
The Grand Finale to our 2017/18 Season!
Fireworks will be arriving early this summer...
This Sunday (5/20) marks the grand finale of our season with the final event of our Schoenberg cycle: In Search of Futures Past! We want to send you into the summer months in style, so here's what we have in store for you:
You Are Loved, Matt Marks...
Reconditioning the String Quartet: An Interview with Wadada Leo Smith
There are certain artists with whom you dream of coming into orbit, and Wadada Leo Smith is finally in our galaxy. Clara and I went to see his trio play Constellation a while back, when the Cubs were winning at sportsball or whatever – so it was a small house – and both of us were struck by the patience and nuance with which he infused his performance. Every note felt purposeful and considered, and more importantly, honest.
Chicago Tribune: Spektral Quartet confirms Schoenberg's power in stirring concert
(photo credit: Erin Hooley for Chicago Tribune)
"The first great upheaval in modern concert life occurred more than a century ago, in Vienna, with the 1908 premiere of Arnold Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet, which elicited booing, heckling and laughter.
Audiences today are much more polite, though the consequences of the score’s emancipation of dissonance still are felt in concert halls, as many listeners are yet to warm to music that Schoenberg and his disciples felt was historically necessary.
But few can warm to scores that are not being played, so the Spektral Quartet has created an important series of programs presenting all four Schoenberg quartets surrounded by some of the richest music written by others around the same time. Saturday night’s stirring concert at the University of Chicago’s Fulton Recital Hall placed the Schoenberg Second Quartet among works by Anton Webern and Bela Bartok.
There was to have been a progression from the first work Webern wrote under Schoenberg’s tutelage, the “Langsamer Satz” of 1905, to Bartok’s First Quartet, which was contemporaneous with Schoenberg’s Second (on the concert’s bottom half). But travel considerations because of snow forced some rearranging of the order of pieces, with Bartok ending the program, creating a slight letdown.
Not that the playing was anything but ardent, precise and expressive throughout. Yet many in the audience were in no mood for anything after the transcendent Schoenberg and did not return from intermission. This was an unexpected confirmation of the Schoenberg’s power. All it requires are keen and committed performers, which it got in the Spektral and soprano Kiera Duffy."