So this is the concert for you folks who missed our Ear Taxi show and have been weeping in a darkened bedroom ever since. If you haven’t had a chance to see a show at Northwestern University’s Galvin Hall, you are in for some serious acoustic gratification. It may very well be the best-sounding chamber music hall in the city, and the back of the stage is literally a window to the Chicago skyline.

Here’s a time lapse video of the construction of the Ryan Center for the Musical Arts, which houses Galvin Hall:

Construction of a new building to accommodate the School of Music and the School of Communication building began in June, 2012 along the lakefront at the southeastern part of campus. The new building will envelope Regenstein Hall on two sides. Additionally, the area south of Pick-Staiger Concert Hall and between the new building and the Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts will be developed into a new Arts Green. Approximately one third of the existing parking deck will be removed to provide a dramatic vista of Lake Michigan and downtown Chicago. The 155,000 square foot building will consist of 5 stories plus a lower level. The top floor will accommodate administrative and faculty offices of the School of Communication. The majority of the building, will serve the Bienen School of Music, and will include classrooms, teaching labs, academic faculty offices, teaching studios for choral, opera, piano and voice faculty, practice rooms, student lounges and administrative offices. There also will be a choral rehearsal room and library, an opera rehearsal room/black box theater and a 400-seat recital hall.

As you know, one element that sets us apart (according to composers, anyway), is that we stage new works well beyond their premieres. Certain aspects of a new piece only reveal themselves over multiple hearings, so subsequent concerts only benefit from being...subsequent. We’ll have a had a chance to digest these new commissions from George Lewis, Tomeka Reid, and Samuel Adams since their Ear Taxi premieres – so don’t tell anyone, but those of you coming to this event are going to hear an even deeper delivery of these extraordinary works. Plus, we have Mikel Kuehn's mesmerizing String Quartet No. 1 "If on a winter's night..." for you, so bonus!

PROGRAM
Tomeka Reid - Prospective Dwellers
Samuel Adams - Quartet Movement
George Lewis - String Quartet 1.5: Experiments in Living
Mikel Kuehn - String Quartet No. 1 "If on a winter's night..."

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE