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MusicNOW, the CSO's contemporary music series, presents the cutting edge in the genre. In this stylized performance shot, a quartet of CSO musicians performs in a MusicNOW concert at the Harris Theater.
Todd Rosenberg Photography
Contemporary music figures prominently in the winter and spring programming of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with world premieres of CSO commissions and works new to the CSO repertoire.
This winter, the CSO and Riccardo Muti will offer the ensemble’s first performances of Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 11 (Feb. 17-19), written to mark the American composer’s 80th birthday and heard here to honor his 85th. “Like most composers, I’m working with an evolving language. It’s always recognizably me. Not because I don’t try not to be me: I do try, and I fail all the time,” he said about this work in an interview with the New York Times. "The best thing for me is when I play a new piece and someone says, ’Oh, it doesn’t sound like you.’ That, to me, is success."
The next month, Muti and the CSO offer the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Orpheus Undone (March 31, April 1-5), commissioned by the CSO during her tenure as Mead composer-in-residence from 2018 to 2021 (and rescheduled from its original April 2020 premiere). Of the work, inspired by Greek myth, Mazzoli has said, “It has moments of incredible lightness and determination. And then at the end, a sort of resolve, and pain."
Muti and the CSO present the world premiere of the first CSO-commissioned work (April 28-30 and May 3) by Jessie Montgomery, the current Mead Composer-in-Residence.
Another work receiving its first CSO performance is Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3 (May 7-9), from 1940, commissioned by the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Music Project. Price was the first Black female composer to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra, when her Symphony No. 1 received its world premiere in 1933 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Written by former CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates, Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra (May 12-14) invites audiences to discover a fusion of music, animation and live action that introduces the instruments of the orchestra. Co-commissioned by the CSO and several other major U.S. symphony orchestras, the multimedia work was scheduled to have its premiere in 2020 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This spring sees the work’s world and CSO premieres.
Karina Canellakis, principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic, leads the CSO in its first performances of Brio (May 19–22) by former Mead Composer-in-Residence Augusta Read Thomas.
During his two-week residency, Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the CSO’s first performances of a violin concerto by Bryce Dessner and composed for Pekka Kuusisto, the soloist. The program (May 26-28 and 31) opens with another CSO first performance, this time of Entr’acte for string orchestra by Caroline Shaw. For Salonen’s second week (June 2-4), he leads the CSO’s first performances of his own work Gemini (written 2018-19) based on the Greek myth of Castor and Pollux.
After its first concert of 2021-22, presented Nov. 1 at Orchestra Hall, CSO MusicNOW, the ensemble’s contemporary music series, returns to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance for two programs, curated by Jessie Montgomery, Mead Composer-in-Residence.
Night of Song, March 14: Inspired by the traditional form of art song, this program will feature works by Shawn Okpebholo and Dale Trumbore, and a world premiere, CSO MusicNOW commission by Damien Geter. The evening opens with a pre-concert opportunity to create an original poem with assistance from the poet collective known as Poems While You Wait.
Concerto, May 23: Contemporary interpretations of the classic concerto form make up this program featuring works by Joan Tower, Alyssa Weinberg and James Moore. Among the soloists are cellist Gabriel Cabezas and Stéfan Ragnar Höskuldsson, CSO principal flute.
