For jazz lovers, April means it’s time for the annual Tribute to Duke Ellington concert, a superb program sponsored each year by Jazz Unites, one of the city’s top presenters of musical/educational events.
Like last year’s installment, the 19th edition will be presented at the Chicago Cultural Center, at Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue. The double-bill will feature singer Ernie Andrews and pianist Billy Taylor.
Taylor will be particularly familiar to audiences from his contributions to “CBS Sunday Morning,” where he has been profiling jazz masters and rising stars for the past 15 years.
The Ellington program will begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. For details, phone 312-667-2707.
– Several major jazz saxophonists will be blowing through Chicago in coming days:
Branford Marsalis and pianist Ellis Marsalis, his father, will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at Mandel Hall, 5706 S. University Ave.; phone 312-559-1212.
Wayne Shorter will headline at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Park West, 322 W. Armitage Ave.; phone 312-559-1212.
And Johnny Griffin will open a weeklong engagement Tuesday at the Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand Ave.; phone 312-670-BIRD.
– Howard Reich
CLASSICAL MUSIC
The Apollo Chorus, Chicago’s oldest performing arts group, will mark a special milestone–its 125th season–with a performance of Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah,” at 8 p.m. Friday at Orchestra Hall. Baritone Sherrill Milnes, Downers Groves’ gift to opera, will sing the title role, and Thomas Hoekstra will conduct. The Apollo Chorus, it’s worth noting, is only 25 years younger than “Elijah” itself. Phone 708-960-2251.
– Devotees of song recitals will wish to note two such events.
Soprano Rebecca Lister, winner of this year’s Harry and Sarah Zelzer Fellowship and Prize, will present songs and arias by Bach, Purcell, Mozart, George Crumb and others in a recital at 8 p.m. Monday at the Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St. Admission is free, but reservations are required. Phone 312-255-3700.
A more established soprano, Kathleen Battle, returns to Orchestra Hall at 8 p.m. Wednesday for a varied program of songs and arias by Handel, Wolf, Liszt, Donizetti and Richard Strauss, with spirituals. Cliff Jackson will be her pianist. Phone 312-435-6666.
– Concertante di Chicago under Hilel Kagan’s direction will wrap up its season with a program titled “American Sounds and Rhythms,” at 3 p.m. Sunday at the DePaul University Concert Hall, 800 W. Belden Ave. Works by Aaron Copland will bracket Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade for violin, strings and percussion, with violinist Rachel Barton as soloist; Michael Torke’s “The Yellow Pages”; and William Bolcom’s “Commedia.Phone 312-454-3030.
– Pianist Norbert Heller inaugurates the Golden Prague Chamber Series, a yearlong series of recitals and chamber music throughout the metropolitan area, designed to promote important musical performers from the Czech Republic. His recital will take place at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in Evanston’s Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Phone 847-467-4000.
– The celebrated Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman will present sonatas by Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert as part of his Virtuoso Piano Series recital at 3 p.m. Sunday at Orchestra Hall. Phone 312-435-6666.
– John von Rhein
ARCHITECTURE
Ready for take-off?
Spanish-born architect Santiago Calatrava’s design for a major expansion of the Milwaukee Museum of Art has been unveiled by museum officials, and it resembles a bird about to take flight.
The expansion will extend the museum southward along Lake Michigan. One of its visual focal points, a 60-foot-tall entry pavilion, will have a movable sunscreen that controls light and temperature. The architect has compared this part of the building to a bird poised to fly or flower petals opening.
A single-story galleria, made of glass, concrete and steel, will join the pavilion to the existing museum, designed by Eero Saarinen in 1957 with a 1975 addition by Milwaukee architect David Kahler. The galleria, which will have a view of the lake to the east, will include temporary exhibition space.
In all, the expansion will add 58,000 square feet to the museum’s 160,000 square feet of space.
Calatrava is best known for his visually dynamic, structurally-expressive bridges, and another hallmark of his design will be a suspended pedestrian bridge that links the museum to Milwaukee’s main street, Wisconsin Avenue. The bridge will cross heavily-trafficked Lincoln Memorial Drive.
Construction of the $27 million project is scheduled to begin in 1998, with completion due in late 1999. Major funding remains to be announced.
– Another architect has been placed in a position of leadership in Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration. James Law, who has headed the Cultural Planning Division of the Department of Cultural Affairs since 1990 and previously was a partner in the Chicago architectural firm of Lubotsky Metter Worthington and Law, has been named Director of Tourism and Cultural Planning.
The office is a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs. Architect Jeff Boyle heads the Department of Planning and Development.
– Blair Kamin
THEATER
The second annual Fringe and Buskers Festival will present a series of national and international acts June 6-23 at the Organic Theater, 3319 N. Clark St.
Like last year’s fest, the new one will also feature a free outdoor celebration from noon to 10 p.m. during the first two weekends of the enterprise. Jugglers, street performers, musicians and magicians perform outdoors, where a cafe will be set up for food and drink.
Indoors, where performances run from 6 p.m. to midnight weekdays and noon to midnight on weekends, acts include Magical Mystical Michael, a Moscow juggling troupe called the Cranks, a bicycling comedian named Tom Snyders and Jewish cantor Ronald Graner. For more information: 312-327-5588.
– “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding” celebrates its 1,000th performance Wednesday at Piper’s Alley, 230 W. North Ave. The environmental drama pits audience members in the midst of an imploding Italian wedding. Producers report some returning fans have created their own characters and come dressed for the occasion, even bearing gifts. Go figure. For tickets: 312-664-8844.
– Sid Smith
ART
Editor and lecturer Thomas West will give an artistic “Slice of Life in 1879” by tracing the activities of Mary Cassatt, Gustave Caillebotte, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot and others at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Alliance Francaise of Chicago, 810 N. Dearborn Pkwy. A reception will follow. Admission is $15. For reservations, call 312-337-1070.
– The fifth annual Vintage Poster Fair will be held from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday in Hillenbrand Auditorium, 211 E. Chicago Ave. Friday’s preview admission is $20; two-day admission, $15; general admission, $10.
– “The Exile in America–Loss Acculturation and Questions of Identity,” a two-day international symposium, will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, 1967 South Campus Dr., Evanston. Admission is $30, students free with identification. The event is in conjunction with an exhibition of art by Austrian exiles, which opens Friday and continues at the gallery through June 16.
– Curator Robert L. Herbert will give a free lecture on “The Myths of Primitivism” at 4 p.m. Saturday in the auditorium of Kersten Physics Laboratory, 5720 S. Ellis Ave. The event precedes the opening reception of “Peasants and Primitivism: French Prints from Millet to Gauguin,” an exhibition at the Alfred and David Smart Gallery, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave., which will continue through June 9.
– Alan G. Artner
