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L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
October 15 - November 6, 2016
|
17
ctober 15 - ove ber 6, 2016
Renée Fleming, Lyric’s creative consultant,
is the guiding spirit behind
Chicago
Voices
, a two-year program encompassing
performances and participatory events that
celebrate the city’s highly diverse vocal scene.
C
hicago is renowned worldwide for
its diverse and influential musical
life. It’s the home of Lyric Opera
of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, but it’s also, as noted by
Rolling
Stone
magazine, a “central player in the history
of American music, from the advent of blues,
which was arguably the start of rock & roll.”
Beginning in 1950, the legendary Chess
Records (now the Blues Heaven Foundation)
was making history here, with such spectacular
musicians as Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf,
and Chuck Berry creating their distinctive,
pioneering interpretations of the blues. Artists
as varied as Benny Goodman and Kanye West,
Chaka Khan and Ramsay Lewis, Tom Paxton
and Mavis Staples, were all born in Chicago.
It’s the birthplace of house music and gospel,
soul and jazz, each with an unmistakable
“Chicago style” of its own.
As a self-proclaimed “music fanatic,”
Renée Fleming is attracted to every type of
music that audiences can enjoy in Chicago.
The internationally celebrated soprano is well
aware of both the city’s rich musical heritage
and Chicago’s continuing emergence as a vocal
hotspot. It’s been the ideal city for Fleming to
explore musical genres and the human voice
over the past six years, in her extraordinary
work as Lyric’s creative consultant. In 2013,
Fleming developed and hosted
American
Voices
, a week-long music festival for the
Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., later
seen as a documentary on the PBS series
Great Performances
. From that project came
Fleming’s desire to take it another step,
focusing the activities and lens exclusively on
the vibrant musical life of Chicago.
Lyric’s general director, Anthony Freud,
had been a participant in one of the
American
Voices
seminars. Fleming asked him, “Do you
think we can do something like this in Chicago?”
The idea appealed immediately to Freud, who
was intrigued by its potential to accelerate Lyric’s
engagement with communities across the city.
“We were all really excited about this new idea,
one that would prove to be the most ambitious
community-engagement program we have ever
taken on,” he says. After numerous discussions,
much preliminary research, and two successful
pilot programs, a plan materialized with Lyric
Unlimited, Lyric’s education/community
engagement division, providing the perfect
launchpad for
Chicago Voices
.
In January 2016 at The Hideout, a funky
northside music venue tucked into Chicago’s
Noble Square neighborhood,
Chicago
Voices
was introduced, with Fleming as its
guiding spirit. This is a multi-year program,
celebrating the city’s vibrant, diverse vocal
culture and exploring the untold stories of
Chicago communities. There are four signature
elements:
• Community Created Performances;
• a citywide celebration encompassing
participatory events and performances;
• an all-star, multi-genre gala concert;
• expert panels and master classes.
Renée Fleming with members of Blu Rhythm Collective, one of the pilot groups
for Community Created Performances, at the January 7th launch event.
KYLE FLUBACKER