5HE Press Kit updated 2014-07-01

Transcription

"conviction, authority, and finesse”
Steve Smith, New York Times
"they brought spontaneity and hair-trigger responsiveness to the music”
Wynne Delacoma, Chicago Sun-Times
"With Black Violet, Chicago's Fifth House Ensemble (5HE) reimagines the
graphic novel in an original way."
Time Out Chicago
www.fifth-house.com
332 N Michigan Ave, Ste 1032-F501
Chicago IL 60604
About Fifth House
The Chicago-based Fifth House Ensemble is a versatile and dynamic group praised by the New York Times
for its “conviction, authority, and finesse.” Having pioneered the art of narrative chamber music with its
signature series Black Violet, The Weaver’s Tales, and In Transit, Fifth House’s innovative programs engage
audiences through their connective programming and unexpected performance venues.
5HE is defined by its limitless imagination and energy, and an insatiable desire to bring chamber music to
audiences of all types. 5HE harnesses the collaborative spirit of chamber music to create transformative
cross-media performance experiences that bring together elements as diverse as storytelling, physical
theatre, graphic novels, and fashion design. With humor and joy, 5HE breathes life into repertoire both
established and emerging, equally at home on the most prestigious stages and unexpected venues
including aquariums, train stations, and bars.
As part of its 2014-2015 season, Fifth House Ensemble (5HE) presents four landmark events: following 20132014's footsteps, the long-awaited return of Black Violet: The Great Exodus of the Tamed, written and
illustrated by Ezra Claytan Daniels; Broken Text, a collaboration with Raven Theatre and DJ Ryan Searchl1te
that tells the stories of young people at the Cook County Temporary Juvenile Detention Center; Verklärte
Nacht, a program including the title piece with corresponding video art; and Nedudim, a musical journey in
collaboration with the Israeli-Spanish music group Baladino.
On tour, 5HE presents performances of Black Violet: The Great Exodus of the Tamed at the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra, the University of Northern Iowa, and the Civic Music Association. Other performances
include the Manchester Symphony Society, Concordia University of Ann Arbor, Carthage College, and
three world premieres at Illinois Wesleyan University as part of their Sesquicentennial celebration's
Symposium of Contemporary Music. 5HE also returns to DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana for their
second year as Ensemble in Residence.
Having established itself as a regular on the Chicago chamber music scene, Fifth House has performed on
some of the city’s most well-regarded series and venues including Ravinia, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial
Concerts, Mostly Music Series, Waukegan Chamber Music Society, Pritzker Pavilion, Byron Colby Barn,
PianoForte Chicago, Live from the Morse/WFMT, WFMT Impromptu, Sunday Salon Series at the Chicago
Cultural Center and Rush Hour Concerts at St. James. In addition to public performances, Fifth House
Ensemble reaches out to those unable to make it to the concert stage through its MusiCare series,
presenting concerts at the Self Help Center and Children’s Memorial Hospital.
Bringing its signature connective programming from the stage to the classroom, 5HE develops young
audiences through curriculum-integrated interactive concerts and residencies for students grades K-12. A
member of the Illinois Arts Council’s Arts-in-Education Roster, 5HE has presented performances and
residencies at Chicago public schools and the Chicago Cultural Center in partnership with the
International Music Foundation, the Chicago Teachers’ Center, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education,
and Ravinia’s Reach*Teach*Play program. Programs are customized to the curriculum of each school, with
the goals of promoting active listening skills and connecting music to a wide variety of subjects. This
season’s residency sites include Chicago’s Lowell and Stowe Elementary schools, among others, and
explore music and storytelling.
Currently Ensemble in Residence at Carthage College, Fifth House also frequently performs for college
audiences, including workshops, residencies, and performances at Yale College, Eastman School of Music,
New England Conservatory, Northwestern University, the Miller Theater at Columbia University, DePaul
University, and the Colburn School. In 2012, 5HE launched fresh inc, a one of a kind chamber music festival
that brings together composers and instrumentalists for side-by-side performances, receiving creative
presentation and entrepreneurship training.
Members of Fifth House Ensemble are also active as orchestral musicians, having performed with
ensembles including the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Peninsula Music Festival, Wisconsin Chamber
Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Also active as educators, members of Fifth House serve
on the faculties of Carthage College, the Merit School of Music, Trinity University, and DePaul University.
phone: 224.715.6455
email: info@fifth-house.com
website: www.fifth-house.com
Chicago IL 60604
Mission
Fifth House Ensemble taps the collaborative spirit of chamber music to create engaging performances and
interactive educational programs, forging meaningful partnerships with unexpected venues, artists of other
disciplines, educational institutions, and audiences of every type.
Fifth House Ensemble accomplishes its mission and nurtures new and established audiences through a
commitment to the following core values:
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Performing at the highest artistic level through connective programming, dramatic interpretation
and creative energy.
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Innovating through collaboration, using cultural partnerships to develop artistic experiences
greater than the sum of their parts.
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Interacting with our audience, allowing each performance to connect in unexpected, thoughtprovoking and deeply personal ways.
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Upholding and revitalizing the chamber music repertoire through the performance of honored
classics, undiscovered works and new music from both renowned and emerging living composers.
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Fostering diversity in learning through customized arts integrated educational programs that
support curricular goals and individual development.
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Promoting musical invention and entrepreneurship through higher-education training programs for
the next generation of performers.
Fifth House Ensemble is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit public charity.
Why Chamber Music?
Portable:
Due their compact size, chamber music ensembles are able to perform in a wider variety of venues than
the traditional symphony orchestra. This enables musicians to meet audiences where they are; in parks,
theaters, wineries, corporate atria and even in the home.
Interactive:
Experiencing music in these types of locations creates a more casual and interactive environment, in which
audiences can truly feel a part of the music making process. Smaller audiences create a forum for
discussion and interplay between artist and listener. Also, the chamber music medium enables audiences
to experience the captivating interaction between the musicians themselves, as close communication is
vital without the aid of a conductor.
Adventurous:
In addition to being able to perform in venues not normally associated with chamber music, Fifth House is
able to create connections between its music and other art forms, highlighting the various ways that both
can be enhanced by these relationships. Fifth House’s unique instrumentation also offers a multitude of
possibilities for varying combinations of sound on the same program. Unlike members of the traditional
string quartet and wind quintet, Fifth House musicians can perform in any combination of musicians from 2
to 9, allowing the group to accommodate an enormous variety of performance possibilities. Audiences
experience how different combinations of instruments create unique moods and colors on the concert
stage.
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60604
Artist Roster
Clark Carruth, viola
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BM University of Georgia, MM Northwestern University
Former member, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, South Bend Symphony Orchestra
Section Viola, Northwest Indiana Symphony
Faculty, Carthage College
Herine Coetzee Koschak, cello
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BM, MM Indiana University
Soloist, Indiana University, Nittany Valley Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra
Former member, Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Faculty, Carthage College
Former Faculty, Merit School of Music
Eric Heidbreder, bassoon
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BM Ball State University, MM DePaul University
Former member, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Muncie Symphony Orchestra, Laporte County
Symphony Orchestra
Performances, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, MusicNOW, Aspen Music Festival, Pacific Music
Festival
Charlene Kluegel
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BA Cornell University; MM, PD Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University; DMA in progress
Indiana University
Performances, Banff Centre, Kennedy Center, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Carmel
Symphony Orchestra, Terre Haute Symphony, Evansville Philharmonic
Faculty, Indiana University String Academy, Fairview Project; Coda Academy
Pablo Moreno, oboe
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BM Javeriana University, Bogotá, Colombia; Artist Diploma Modern and Baroque Oboe Oberlin
Conservatory of Music; MM in progress DePaul University
2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition semi-finalist
Performances, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Boston Early Music Festival, Youth Orchestra of
the Americas, International Cartagena Music Festival, Ensemble Sinsonte, Alas de Prueba
Jani Parsons, piano
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BM Vancouver Academy of Music, MM University of Michigan, DMA University of Michigan
Performer's certificate, Royal Conservatory of Music
Semi-finalist, Eckhardt-Grammatté Contemporary Music Competition
Performances, Chan Centre for the Arts, Banff Centre for the Arts, Ravinia Festival
Faculty, University of Michigan, Interlochen Summer Arts Camp
Music Director, Advent Episcopal Church
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60604
Eric Snoza, double bass
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BM, MM Eastman School of Music
Performances, OSSIA, Musica Nova, Ensemble X
Faculty, Merit School of Music, Carthage College, Music Institute of Chicago
Melissa Ngan Snoza, flute
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BM Eastman School of Music, MM Northwestern University
Prizewinner, NU Concerto Competition, NFA Orchestral Audition Competition
Flute/piccolo, Peninsula Music Festival
Former member, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Faculty, DePaul University
Former faculty, Carthage College
Valerie Whitney, french horn
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BM Wheaton College, MM Northwestern University, DMA candidate Northwestern University
Semi-finalist, International Horn Competition of America
John P. Paynter Endowed Fellowship, Northwestern University
Performances, Florida Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony
Faculty, Lake Forest College, John Hersey High School, Lincoln Park High School
Jennifer Woodrum, clarinet
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BM, MM Northwestern University
Prizewinner, Evanston Music Club, Chicago Musicians Club of Women, Union League Civic and
Arts Foundation, American Opera Society Competitions
Former member, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Rockford Symphony
Performances, South Bend Symphony, Grant Park Symphony, Elgin Symphony
Faculty, Carthage College, Trinity College
Dan Visconti, Composer
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BM, MM, additional studies at Cleveland Institute of Music and Yale School of Music
Recipient, Rome Prize, Berlin Prize, Naumburg Award, citations from the American Academy of Arts
and Letters
Commissions/Premieres, Kronos Quartet, Minnesota Orchestra, eighth blackbird, Scharoun
Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic
Performances, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Barbican Theatre (London), Sydney Opera House
2014 TED Fellow
2013-2014 Season
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60604
PUBLIC PERFORMANCES
Perpetual Spark
Loops and Variations, Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago IL
78 E. Washington Street
Sunday 10/6/13, 3pm
Exotic Americas and Beyond
Park Ridge Public Library, Park Ridge IL
20 S. Prospect Street
Thursday 10/10/13, 7pm
Music on Madison, The Musical Offerings, Evanston IL
743 Custer Avenue
Friday 10/18/13, 7:30pm
DePauw University, Greencastle IN
Tuesday 11/5/13-Wednesday 11/6/13
Waukegan Chamber Music Society
The Family Piano Co., Waukegan IL
114 S. Genesee Street
Sunday 3/9/14, 7:30pm
Exotic Americas and Beyond
Piedmont College, Demorest GA
Friday 3/14/14
Oklahoma State University
Monday 4/21/14-Tuesday 4/22/14
SE Oklahoma State University
Wednesday 4/23/14-Friday 4/25/14
Friday 5/9/14-Sunday 5/11/14
Art + Science Fundraiser
Park West, Chicago IL
322 W. Armitage Avenue
Friday 11/8/13, 8pm
Black Violet Act I: The Leagues of Despair
Humboldt Park, Chicago IL
Friday 11/15/13, 6:30pm
Constellation Chicago, Chicago IL
3111 N. Western Avenue
Sunday 11/17/13, 8:30pm
Shaken and Stirred: Celebrate the Holidays with 5HE
Sunday 12/15/13, 8:30pm
Indiana University, Bloomington IN
Project Jumpstart Residency
Black Violet Act I: The Leagues of Despair
Saturday 1/25/14
Morton Arboretum
Arbor Room, Thornhill Education Center, Lisle IL
4100 Illinois Route 53
Sunday 2/2/14, 2:15pm
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL
Entrepreneurship Residency
Monday 2/3/14-Tuesday 2/4/14
Invoking the Muse
University of Illinois-Springfield, Springfield IL
Friday 2/14/14-Sunday 2/16/14
Siebert Chapel, Carthage College, Kenosha WI
2001 Alford Park Drive
Friday 2/21/14, 7:30pm
Grace United Methodist Church, Naperville IL
300 E. Gartner Road
Saturday 2/22/14, 7pm
Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago IL
Sunday 2/23/14, 3pm
Sunday 3/2/14, 8:30pm
phone: 224.715.6455
Tuesday 3/4/14-Wednesday 3/5/13
Luna de Cuernos
Grace United Methodist Church, Naperville IL
300 E. Gartner Road
Sunday 5/18/14, 8:30pm
Stowe Elementary School, Chicago IL
3444 W. Wabansia Avenue
Friday 5/23/14 6:30pm
Sounds of the South Loop
Second Presbyterian Church, Chicago IL
1936 S. Michigan Avenue
Wednesday 5/28/14, 6pm
Art Institute of Chicago
Saturday 6/7/14, 11:30am & 1pm
fresh inc festival, Kenosha WI
June 9-22, 2014
EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCES
Arts-Integrated Residencies
Lowell Elementary School, Chicago IL
2 performances, 10 classroom visits
DePreist Elementary School, Chicago IL
1 performance, 4 classroom visits
New Field Elementary School, Chicago IL
In collaboration with Ravinia’s Reach*Teach*Play
Arts-Integrated One-Shot! Performances
Young Composers Workshop, The Big Draw Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL
Music Can Tell A Story
Hauser Junior High School, Riverside IL
Thursday 1/30/14
International Music Foundation Live Music Now!
Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago IL
Thursday 3/20/14, 10:30am & 12pm
Chicago IL 60604
2014-2015 Season
PUBLIC PERFORMANCES
My PI Premiere
In colalboration with Kenosha Community Foundation
Harbor Park, Kenosha WI
Saturday 9/13/14, 11am
Black Violet Act II: The Great Exodus of the Tamed
Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Detroit MI
3711 Woodward Avenue
Constellation, Chicago IL
Sunday 10/5/2014, 8:30pm
Mayne Stage, Chicago IL
1328 W. Morse Avenue
Tuesday 10/7/2014, 7pm
University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls IA
1227 W. 27th Street
Friday 10/17/14, 8pm
Civic Music Association, Des Moines IA
1620 Pleasant Street
Luna de Cuernos
Carthage College, Kenosha WI
2001 Alford Park Drive
Wednesday 11/19/14, 7:30pm
One-Shot! Outreach Concerts
Manchester Symphony Society, North Manchester IN
109 N. Market Street
Friday 11/21/14
Broken Text
Dixon Stein Strings, Chicago IL
401 S. Michigan Avenue #801
Sunday 12/14/14, 3pm
Raven Theatre, Chicago IL
6157 N. Clark Street
Tuesday 5/19/15, 6:30pm
Raven Theatre, Chicago IL
6157 N. Clark Street
Wednesday, 5/20/15, 6:30pm
Verklärte Nacht
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL
220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60611
Tuesday, 2/24/15, 6pm
Sounds of the South Loop
Second Presbyterian Church, Chicago IL
Sunday, 3/8/15, 6pm
Adler After Dark
Adler Planetarium, Chicago, IL
1300 S. Lake Shore Drive
Thursday 11/20/14, 7pm
Our Favorite Things: A Holiday Party with 5HE
Dances Through Time
PianoForte Salon Series
PianoForte, Chicago IL
Sunday 1/25/15, 3pm
Tuesday’s @ 1
University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
1040 W. Harrison Street.
Tuesday, 3/10/15, 1pm
Lake Forest Lyrica
Lake Forest College, Lake Forest IL
555 N. Sheridan Road
Sunday 3/29/15, 3pm
Nineteenth Century Club
Oak Park, IL
178 Forest Avenue
Monday 4/13/15, 1:15pm
Sesquicentennial Celebration
Symposium of Contemporary Music
Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington IL
1312 Park Street
Friday 3/20/15, 7:30pm
Nedudim
with Mediterranean folk band Baladino
Instituto Cervantes, Chicago IL
31 W. Ohio Street
Friday 4/17/15, 7pm
DePauw University, Greencastle, IN
605 S. College Avenue
Concordia University, Ann Arbor, MI
4090 Gesses Road
Sunday 4/26/15, 7pm
fresh inc festival, Kenosha WI
June 7-21 2015
Salon Concert
Side Street Studio Arts, Elgin IL
15 Ziegler Court
Sunday, 1/18/15, 3pm
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60604
EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCES
Arts-Integrated Residencies
Orr Academy High School, Chicago IL
In collaboration with Raven Theatre
Cook County Temporary Juvenille Detention Center, Chicago IL
In collaboration with Raven Theatre & Freewrite Jail Arts
Senn & Sullivan High Schools, Chicago IL
In collaboration with Raven Theatre
Composition Residencies
Arts-Integrated One-Shot! Performances
Musical Opposites, Chicago Cultural Center,
Chicago, IL
Friday 12/19/14
Musical Opposites, Garfield Park Conservatory,
Chicago, IL
100 N. Central Park Avenue
Saturday 12/20/14
Walnut Hill School of the Arts
12 Highland Street, Natick, MA 01760
Monnday 5/18/15-Tuesday 5/19/15
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60604
Curriculum-Integrated Residencies
Musical Ocean Ecosystems at Burley Elementary
In small groups, students researched one of four water ecosystems: the Florida Keys, Louisiana
(swamps/levees), Alaska’s coastline, and the Great Barrier Reef. They were responsible for presenting two
topics on their ecosystem, selected from the following: an overview of the ecosystem (including plant and
animal life, location, unique attributes of that ecosystem), background on a problem facing that
ecosystem (what is the problem, how is it measured, and what are related problems), possible reasons for
the problem (factors and supporting data), or previous efforts to lessen the problem and those outcomes
(newest research, suggestions for improving the problem). Simultaneously, students worked with Fifth House,
learning about the components of chamber music, musical vocabulary, and different periods of classical
music (and how to identify those periods). Using this new musical knowledge, students selected pieces of
chamber music (from recordings provided by FH) that represented their assigned ecosystem. They chose
several pieces to represent the ecosystem, the conflict/problems it faces, how the ecosystem functions
(how the parts interact), and how the problem is being resolved. Students were responsible for presenting
(through a “pre-concert talk,” a slide presentation, a narrative skit, or a podcast) their rationale for
choosing various pieces, and how the pieces related to their ecosystem.
The final performance consisted of members of Fifth House ensemble playing the students’ chosen
compositions with the students’ presentations. The performance was be open to the entire school
community, including students, teachers, administrators, and families.
Music and Poetry at Perez Elementary
Over the course of six weeks, students worked with members of Fifth House Ensemble to explore the links
between poetry and chamber music. Students participated in active, guided listening and in writing
activities that supported their listening. Students learned music vocabulary to better describe what in the
music led them to draw their conclusions when listening to each example. In small groups of 2-3, students
wrote a poem on a subject of their choice in a style/form of their choosing (based on the types of poetry
they had been studying over the course of the poetry unit). Students had several musical examples to
choose from, and either paired their poem with a piece of music that they felt represented it well, or used a
selected piece of chamber music as inspiration to write their poem.
For the final performance, students set their poem to their chosen musical composition by creatively
breaking up the poem and the music. Students then presented their poem (with musical accompaniment)
in an all-school performance in a Poetry Slam. As a preface to the poetry readings, students also
presented a short oral report/rationale on the process of choosing the music and writing the poems, and
how they put the two art forms together.
Multicultural Influences in Western Music at Mather High School
Fifth House Ensemble partnered with the advanced band and orchestra classes and music directors at
Mather High School for a six-week, ten-visit residency that centered around world music. In groups of 3-6,
students selected a country whose music they wanted to research. They then dissected parts of the music
(including form, scale and melodic content, and instruments unique to that music) in order to compose
their own piece of music for their instruments. In classroom visits, members of Fifth House reviewed parts of
a composition though several daily lessons and exercises. Students had specific assignments to acquaint
them with each part of the music to provide a starting point for their compositional process. After the
group lessons, students divided into their groups and began by researching their chosen music. After
deciding on one or two examples to use as models, students began taking apart the music and isolating its
building blocks (ostinato rhythms, whether the music was in a specific form, if it used different types of
scales or tonality, and if there were ethnic instrumental sounds that they could re-create on their own
instruments). Then, students composed simple melodies, rhythms, and accompaniments, and rehearsed
their compositions with members of Fifth House and their teachers.
The residency culminated in a final all-school performance in the auditorium where students both
performed their original compositions and spoke about the culture they chose to represent, the music of
the culture, and their compositional process.
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60604
Educational Performances (K-12)
The Heartbeat of Music
Fifth House Ensemble uses a variety of instruments and musical styles to introduce active listening and
interdisciplinary connections. In this interactive performance, Fifth House explores how music has a pulse,
or “heartbeat,” and how that heartbeat pumps life into each piece of music. Students learn to relate
elements of music to parts of the circulatory system and see how a chamber music group works together
to perform, just as their hearts and lungs works to keep their bodies moving.
Terms to include:
Pulse, tempo, accelerando/ritardando, ostinato, rhythm, musical instruments (including flute, oboe,
clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, piano), melody, accompaniment, heart, pulse,
breathing/respiration, blood cell, oxygen.
Music Can Tell a Story
Fifth House demonstrates the ways in which music can tell a story through sound, and how composers use
a variety of instruments, tempo markings, and other techniques to create character, setting, and plot. The
ensemble pairs chamber music and text, and leads students through a series of small and large group
activities. The audience participates in a “choose your own adventure” project at the end of the
performance, culminating in a presentation of their original storyline inspired by music.
Terms to include:
clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, piano), melody, accompaniment, character, plot, setting,
dialogue.
Music in Motion: The Physics of Music
This program features a combination of musicians from Fifth House ensemble (winds, strings, piano, and
horn) playing a variety of chamber music styles and periods to demonstrate links between universal physics
and math concepts and instrumental music. Students learn how to graph speed and acceleration as they
hear it in music, explore whether music has it’s own momentum, and attempt to defy music’s natural
“gravity.”
Terms to include:
clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, piano), melody, accompaniment, momentum, laws of motion,
acceleration, gravity.
A Well-Balanced Musical Diet
Come one, come all, to the most nutritious show in Chicago! Laugh and sing, dance to the beat, learn to
tell healthy food from a treat. This 45-minute interactive performance will have students clamoring to eat
well as they walk away with nutrition on their mind. In addition to exploring a wide spectrum of chamber
music, this program will cover food diversity, healthy choices within food groups and equating an active
body with a healthy body. Let Fifth House lead the way in this nutritious musical adventure!
Terms to include:
clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, piano), melody, accompaniment, calories, health, balanced
diet, immune system, cardiovascular, ostinato, chamber music, cause/effect, scale.
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60604
Selected Performance History: K-8 Educational Programming
Grades 4-8 – Music and Animation Residency
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12-week residency, class of 33 8th graders
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2 performances, 600 students each
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Walt Disney Magnet School, Chicago IL
Grade 4-8 – Poetry and Music
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6-week residency, two classes of 28 8th graders
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10 classroom visits, plus opening and closing performances, 200 students each
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Perez School, Chicago, IL
Grades K-3 – Music and Body Systems
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6-week residency, class of 25 3rd graders (including hearing-impaired special ed class)
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10 classroom visits, plus opening and closing performances, 300 students each
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Carpenter School, Chicago, IL
Grades K-8 – Music Can Tell a Story
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8 performances, 3000 students grades K-8
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Bridge, Waters and Hibbard Schools, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago IL
Project Educational Consultants
Literacy Specialist, Dominican University: Dr. Penny Silvers
Literacy Specialist, Author: Dr. Donna E. Norton
Professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Music: Caen Thomason - Redus
Educational Outreach, Eastman School of Music Arts Leadership Program: Dave Mancini
Organizational Partnerships
The International Music Foundation – educational programming, curriculum design and mentoring
Metropolis Performing Arts Center – chamber music institute, master classes, ensemble-in-residence
Ravinia Reach*Teach*Play Program – 5HE serves as the only chamber ensemble on Ravinia’s teaching artist
roster, curriculum design and classroom visits
Chicago Teachers’ Center – curriculum design and classroom visits
UW-Milwaukee – educational outreach training for music students
Endorsements
“This residency was just the twist that my poetry unit needed. Students engaged in creative, integrated
lessons that had clear purpose, and steadily built students’ knowledge and confidence to the the point
that they were ready to read, recite, and explain the choices they made when writing and what inspired
that writing. It was amazing!”
Dan Reinholdt, 8th grade teacher, Perez School
“I was really proud of what I did with my group for this animation I really understand what people have to
go through when they make a cartoon and have put the music or words [to] it. I am glad that I had a
chance to do this project because I got to listen to music that I really don’t listen to in my everyday life.”
8th-Grade Student, Walt Disney Magnet School
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60604
Higher Education Residencies/Workshops
As part of its mission, Fifth House Ensemble offers higher-education residencies to colleges and universities
with the following goals:
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Promoting the performance of classical chamber music at the highest possible artistic level
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Training students in chamber music rehearsal techniques, score reading and dramatic analysis
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Providing tools for students to transition from student to professional life
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Encouraging musical innovation and entrepreneurship
We encourage schools to partner with us in creating a residency that serves its students and community at
large. In addition to concert performances, the following are examples of events that can be part of a Fifth
House residency. We are also happy to create new programs to suit the needs of your institution.
In addition to on-campus events, many Fifth House residencies include community programs at area
schools and non-traditional venues, allowing the residency to have community-wide impact and allowing
students to see every aspect of our process in action.
Masterclasses: Ensemble musicians are available to teach individual applied instrument and chamber
ensemble masterclasses. We will focus on interpretation, forming a unified sound, rehearsal and practice
techniques.
Open Rehearsal: This lecture/demonstration provides students with an inside look into the rehearsal process.
Watch the ensemble work together to interpret the score, troubleshoot technical issues and refine
interpretation as a group.
Roundtable Discussion: Transitioning from College to Career: In this roundtable discussion, ensemble
members share their experiences making the transition from students to professionals in the music field.
Topics include finding freelance and teaching opportunities, building a full career from multiple income
streams, the orchestral audition process, networking and self-promotion.
Arts Start-Up: For those students who are interested in starting their own ventures, this discussion provides
tools and ideas for getting started. We discuss the steps we took in forming Fifth House Ensemble, a not-forprofit charitable organization, and our sister company, Amarante Ensembles, LLC, a for-profit entertainment
business. After an interactive exercise designed to help participants find their artistic voice, we share our
philosophy of arts as service, and ways to create business and funding structures that support your artistic
vision. Topics include selecting a business structure, networking, marketing via the web and other sources,
the art/business work balance and resources for continued learning.
Putting Your Audience Center Stage: As classical musicians, much of what we focus on has to do with
crafting programs. Mostly Mozart? Basically Beethoven? Russian Night? Symphony…Fantastic! We know
how to create thematic connections between musical works, but is that what it takes to engage new
audiences in our art? This workshop teaches the basics of psychographic audience analysis through handson, interactive activities and case studies. Understanding audiences allows artists put the public at the
center of not only their marketing efforts, but their program design itself.
Curriculum-Integration on Stage and in the Classroom: 5HE demonstrates live examples of the ensemble’s
curriculum-integrated programming. Feel like a kid again as you participate in small and large-group
activities, presented in the same way as they have been in classrooms and assemblies throughout the
Chicago area and nationwide. We share our philosophy as teaching artists, techniques for engaging
students with limited musical backgrounds in composition activities, and practical examples of how to
design lessons that create connections between musical concepts and core curricular subjects.
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60604
What Others are Saying about Fifth House Ensemble
“…conviction, authority, and finesse…” - New York Times
"You have to admire the sheer imaginative chutzpah these young performers bring to their envelopepushing enterprise." - John Von Rhein, Chicago Tribune
"Young chamber groups devoted to shaking up the traditional concert experience are blossoming in
Chicago, and one of the best is the Fifth House Ensemble... They are a talented crew, and they brought
spontaneity and hair-trigger responsiveness to the music of Black Violet." - Wynne Delacoma, Musical
America
"In Fifth House, students had a prime example of young musicians teaming to create careers for
themselves; they had relevant personal stories to share as well as talent to exhibit, a potent package. The
musicians (five string players, five winds, and a pianist) performed like the talented young pros they are,
with enthusiasm and high quality cohesion. I must admit that when the story came to a halt, I yearned for
more. I wanted to find out what happens to Violet. "
- Peter Jacobi, Bloomington Herald-Times
"5HE’s performance of Luna this past Sunday at Constellation demonstrated the possibilities – and success –
of combining music and visual elements into a singular performance. As a quintet, 5HE performed flawlessly
and with palpable energy in (Mario) Lavista’s Cinco Danzas Brevas. Blending interdisciplinary art forms can
be a treacherous undertaking, but Chicago’s Fifth House Ensemble seems to have a knack for combining
music with visual narrative. Becan and 5HE succeeded in creating a cohesive artistic product and
transformative concert experience." - Elliot Mandel, ChicagoMusic.org
"Whether it's screening cartoons of a rat braving the plague-ravaged streets of London or performing
Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time against astral projections in Adler Planetarium, 5HE goes all in with
kooky, multisensory programs. Now the local chamber troupe turns to a more zeitgeisty add-on: social
media." - Mia Clarke, Time Out Chicago
"the superb local classical music group Fifth House Ensemble launches another of its beguilling conceptual,
multi-media excursions, which function as subversive means to get people to hear classical music too often
ignored outside of high ticket venues." - Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader
“Tone production was generally beguiling, and the single movement played in unison had precision with
the right amount of edge.” - Chicago Tribune
“Fifth House Ensemble’s gorgeously controlled account of Brahms’s Clarinet Trio imbued the late work with
the quietly compelling voices and guarded pathos of which performances so often deprive it.” – TimeOut
Chicago
“The quartet played an excellent and difficult piece quite wonderfully--with a fine sense of ensemble and a
unity of expression that I found quite compelling. Beyond that, I thought the group played with a lovely
resonance built both upon healthy individual techniques but also upon a very welcome sensitivity to very
highly-developed sensitivity to pitch across the octaves.” - Donald Casey, Dean, DePaul University School
of Music
“In an era where we risk accountability driving out creativity, it is wonderful to have a program that allows
students to learn content at high levels within a fine arts framework. 5HE has demonstrated excellence in
using music to do what music does best - reaching minds and hearts.” - Barbara Kent, Principal, Burley
School
"…constantly moving in unexpected and fantastic directions..." - Elliot Mandel, Gapers Block
phone: 224.715.6455
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November 10, 2009
MUSIC REVIEW | FIFTH HOUSE ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO
Uncompromising Iconoclast in All Her Forceful Glory
By STEVE SMITH
The dogged originality and eruptive energy encountered in the music of Galina Ustvolskaya, a Soviet-era
Russian composer, are undeniable. Factor in the eccentricity and ego of her public pronouncements, as well
as the spiritual streak that runs through her slender output, and you have the stuff of a formidable cult
following. But so severe and uncompromising are the products of Ustvolskaya’s mature style that the Miller
Theater, where the music of Iannis Xenakis and Elliott Carter draws capacity crowds, appeared to be just
over half full for a Composer Portraits concert presented by the admirable Fifth House Ensemble of Chicago
on Saturday night.
What we know of Ustvolskaya, who died in 2006, amounts to relatively little. She studied briefly with
Shostakovich, who claimed to have learned more from her than he taught her. (Their relationship evidently
soured after she rejected his marriage proposal.) Ustvolskaya’s style came closest to that of her mentor in
her 1949 Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano. Shostakovich, who quoted the trio in two of his works, adopted
its melancholy sparseness in full years later.
In the Octet (1949-50) and the Piano Sonata No. 4 (1957), you hear affinities with works by Stravinsky and
Messiaen, though Ustvolskaya insisted that her music bore no trace of external influence. Hints of things to
come were evident in the octet’s unorthodox scoring (two oboes, four violins, piano and timpani) and its
technical demands (at one point the timpanist uses four mallets to whack dull thumps on four drums
simultaneously).
The rest of the program drew from the radical works Ustvolskaya produced from the 1970s on. Adam
Marks, an excellent pianist who provided a center of gravity throughout the concert, mustered titanic force
for the crashing cluster chords of the Piano Sonata No. 6 (1988).
If religious subtitles conditioned expectations toward two remaining works, stark themes and obsessive
rhythms dispelled any notion of conventional piety. In the Composition No. 3, “Benedictus Qui Venit”
(1974-75), a flute quartet plays gaseous disharmonies against the plodding advance of piano and four
galumphing bassoons. Hearing it, you could imagine a ghoulish pantomime involving free spirits ground
down under remorseless boot heels.
Composition No. 2, “Dies Irae” (1972-73), is equally bleak: eight double basses extend or rebut caustic
ruminations on piano, as a percussionist hammers on a hollow wooden cube as if enacting the blows of an
angry god.
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As you contemplate works awash in such sustained brutality, the idea of appeal seems alien. But the Fifth
House performers, augmented by players from the Yale School of Music, played with enough conviction,
authority and finesse to bring out the defiant dignity and nobility in Ustvolskaya’s truculent creations.
The next Composer Portraits concert, devoted to Ralph Shapey, is next Tuesday at the Miller Theater,
Broadway at 116th Street, Morningside Heights; (212) 854-7799, millertheatre.com.
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Bloomington Herald-Times
January 28, 2014
Concert by Fifth House Ensemble fascinating, well worth experience
Peter Jacobi
For students in the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Saturday evening’s performance in Auer Hall by the Chicagobased Fifth House Ensemble was part of a weekend of musical education, the performance capping a series of workshops
and classes having to do with the critical move that musicians face when they leave campus for the professional world.
For most of the rest of us in the audience, the presentation by the ensemble’s eleven members of “Black Violet Act 1: The
Leagues of Despair,” was a stand-alone concert event, one, in this writer’s opinion, both fascinating and well worth having
experienced.
Fifth House came down to Bloomington at the invitation of Project Jumpstart, a new program designed to provide Jacobs
School students with career development and entrepreneurship counsel. In Fifth House, students had a prime example of
young musicians teaming to create careers for themselves; they had relevant personal stories to share as well as talent to
exhibit, a potent package.
That talent involved the creation of an opera consisting of existent music and a new story that unfolds like a graphic novel. For
this effort, Fifth House engaged writer/illustrator Ezra Claytan Daniels, who previously authored and drew “The Changers,” a
praised and successful series of science fiction graphic novels. He supplied the hundreds of drawings and the words for “Black
Violet,” all of which were projected on a screen above the Auer stage.
I’m told the whole of the three-act musical/visual tale exists, but we were gifted with only one act. It clocked in at close to 90
minutes. Sitting through the whole would probably be a stretch. But I must admit that when the story came to a halt, I yearned
for more. I wanted to find out what happens to Violet.
She’s a cat, a pampered housecat living in 17th century London. This is the London of the Black Plague, its final outbreak of
scope. At the time, cats and other domestic animals were considered likely carriers of the disease, rather than rats who
actually were. When Violet’s keeper goes off to help the afflicted, she, before long, is forced out of the house to face an
alien and dangerous world. There, while searching for her human protector, Violet meets adventure, benevolence and
malevolence. At that point, the story pauses, the act and music end.
The music, from the start, was carefully fitted to the visuals. Someone behind the scenes controlled the flow. Timing was
flawless.
To play the music, the ensemble broke itself into various combinations: nine for Walter Piston’s Divertimento; three for Brahms’
Horn Trio in E-Flat Major; five for Jonathan Keren’s “Hungary Is Far Away,” winner off Fifth House’s 2009 Young Composers
Competition; two for “Bachianas Brasileiras Number 6” by Heitor Villa-Lobos, and five for selections from Greg Simon’s Piano
Quintet Number 1, “Scenes from Childhood,” an honorable mention in that competition. Movements from the Piston and
Brahms were split to atmospherically fit the story. The musicians (five string players, five winds, and a pianist) performed like the
talented young pros they are, with enthusiasm and high quality cohesion.
Now, whether I want to have my music in this format very often remains a question. I tend to close my eyes from time to time
while listening. When I did so during “Black Violet,” I missed steps in the ongoing story line. But, admittedly, the combination of
music and cartoons proved effective and undoubtedly has the potential of enticing new audiences into the concert hall.
And for young musicians to prosper, new audiences will be needed. Perhaps the Fifth House Ensemble has come up with a
means.
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60645
WFIU, Indiana Public Media
May 9, 2014
Fifth House Ensemble Merges Town And Gown In Putnam County
Annie Corrigan and Heidi Siberz
LIKE MINDS
When Eric Snoza was studying double bass at the Eastman School of Music, he had big dreams for his career. He thought
music could be a catalyst for social change.
He connected with a group of musicians in 2006 who also wanted to change the world one string quartet at a time — they
are the Chicago-based Fifth House Ensemble.
First order of business for the group was to expand the reach of classical music by collaborating with poets, dancers and
illustrators. Then, they wanted to grow their audience.
“We loved the aspect of being able to take music out into the community and play it for people that wouldn’t normally get
to hear it,” said Snoza. “And we discovered very early on that it’s not that people don’t like classical music, it’s just that they
don’t know about it yet.” They’ve performed in stores, schools and on farms, connecting with new audience members.
Mark McCoy, dean of the school of music at Depauw University, says what strikes him the most about the Fifth House
Ensemble is their fearlessness.
“I think they’re very interested in developing audiences and they’re unafraid of what they may take on. So, what I’ve asked
them to do here at Depauw is crazy and unusual and they’ve run at it with arms open and have done great work in that
way.”
MUSICAL STORYTELLING
McCoy invited Fifth House to spend a year in residency at Depauw University. His goal was to get conversations going
between the university and the Putnam County community.
The musicians set out to meet people and record their stories. The interviews would play an integral part in a concert at the
end of the residency called Harvest. McCoy was especially interested in bringing in voices from the agricultural community, so
one of the musicians’ first gigs was on the back of a hay wagon at the local farmers market.
He was keenly aware that bridging the divide between the community and the university was what would make or break this
project.
“The town and gown relationship in any university in America is always challenged, because you’re trying to make a
collegiate enterprise happen in a community that to some extent is going to embrace that and some extent is not going to
understand it.”
TELL US YOUR STORIES
Fifth House musicians recognized they were coming into this project as outsiders, so they asked a lot questions and then they
listened.
“We had cards with us, where people were able to write down what they thought the most beautiful place in Putnam County
was,” said Anna Duncan, Program Director of Fifth House. “We used that as a conversation starter… and also to get their
stories about living in Putnam County.”
She says they discovered that students, educators, business owners and farmers all had similar interests and concerns — they
just didn’t know it.
Farmer Ron Sutherlin, for instance, told them he would love to host concerts by Depauw music students on his farm. Snoza said
Fifth House members then went to campus to speak to students. ”We asked them what some of their concerns were, and
they say, ‘Well, we’re here playing our instruments but we just got nowhere to play. We would like to get out in the community
and play, but we just don’t have an opportunity.’ To which I thought to myself, ‘Have you guys talked? If you’ve spoken to
each other, you want the exact same thing.’”
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60645
FOLK INSPIRATION
When it came to the music for Harvest, all the selections they programmed had elements of folk music — including works by
Aaron Copland, contemporary composers Stacy Garrop and Steve Snowden, and Fifth House’s resident composer Dan
Visconti.
They also tapped into the local music scene.
“Greencastle is pretty vibrant when it comes to the musical scene, there’s a lot of different things going on,” said Mike Van
Rensselaer, member of the local band Fret Set. Fifth House arranged his tune Putnam County to include some of their
musicians.
“I used play just with banjo and guitar. It’s pretty simple, bouncy, joyful kind of tune. But now with the Fret Set, plus the Fifth
House people… it’s almost like an orchestra!”
This particular portion of the concert is especially representative of the sorts of connections the Fifth House residency was
trying to cultivate. Fret Set and members of Fifth House will perform together as Van Rensselaer quotes from the poem What
Grows Here, written by DePauw professor Joe Heithaus. That text is painted on a barn a couple miles outside of town. The end
of the poem describes why people come to Putnam County and why they stay — a theme also found in Van Rensselaer’s
song.
The concert will conclude with a performance of Aaron Copland’s Tenderland, utilizing the combined forces of the Depauw
orchestra and choir and local church and school choirs.
“Everyone will be onstage together with Fifth House and the rest of the orchestra and it will be a way for us to go out kind-of
showing what the power of a community really can bring,” said Duncan.
SMALL TOWN, BIG CHANGE
The Putnam County community has rallied around the Depauw music program. McCoy says they’ve doubled the size of their
audiences over the past few years. That’s a testament to the expanding town-and-gown relationship, which he hopes to
continue to cultivate by welcoming Fifth House for another year-long residency.
Duncan says trying to affect change through music in a big city like Chicago can be discouraging. That’s one of the benefits
of setting up shop in a smaller community.
“Being able to work in Greencastle and being able to watch some small changes happen over the time that we’ve been
there has been a real means of re-energizing us to do the civic practice — the community outreach work that we’ve always
loved doing — in a whole new way”
Bassist Eric Snoza called this the most fulfilling experience of his professional life, and he’s ready to continue the conversation.
“We never had any doubt that classical music was going anywhere. It’s going to be around for a long time.”
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60645
LA Splash
March 10, 2013
The Fifth House Ensemble at MCA Review-A Leap Into the Unknown, Together
Adam Dahlgren
The Chicago-based chamber group Fifth House Ensemble gave a performance at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary
Art on March 9, which showcased three unique, relatively contemporary pieces, including the debut of a brand-new piece.
The first composition performed was a short pieced, composed just in 2012 for the group, The Temptation of St. Anthony by
New York-based composer John Zorn. The piece is supposed to depict the hard life and temptations faced by St. Anthony in
the desert, and it is difficult music for the uninitiated to encounter. It is harsh, discordant, arrhythmic, and atonal, but what
impressed me upon listening was the group's cohesion and the sheer virtuosity that is required to play such an unusual work. It
is reminiscent of the music of Bartok or Ligeti, and while it possessed many qualities which are generally thought counterintuitive to music, it was a fascinating listen. Particularly featured in the piece was the group's pianist, Jani Parsons, who
described her shock at having to perform something that demanded things from her that she had never encountered.
Nevertheless, she and her cohorts performed the work admirably.
The second piece pared the group down to its strings for a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 9, written
in 1964. The piece was altered for the group's members, with the viola taking the part of the second violin and the bass taking
the part of the cello. The piece is a tight, sometimes terrifying work, written during a period of great depression, paranoia, and
exhaustion for the composer. As someone familiar with Shostakovich's symphonies, but having avoided the string quartets, I
was amazed at how taut this work was compared to some of the symphonies, which contain much that, in my opinion, would
be better excised. Another unique feature of this performance was that the music was accompanied by a series of
animations by Chicago-based artist Adam Fotos, which depicts a faceless Shostakovich (though one whose eyes hide behind
his trademark glasses) being chased through the depths of hell by white rats meant to represent the Soviet authorities, finally
reaching a spaceship and being able to break away using the power of his music. It was an unexpected, unorthodox, but
highly enjoyable addition to the program (and appropriate, I think, for a performance given at the Museum of Contemporary
Art).
Finally, the ensemble gave the premiere of another piece by a New York-based composer who commissioned his work for the
group, Caleb Burhans, who was on hand to witness the debut of Excelsior, a work inspired by the 1960 skydive of Joseph
Kittinger, a little-known feat that took place almost 20 miles above the ground and set several world records at the time. As
with the Shostakovich quartet, the piece was accompanied by visual material, in this case film of Kittinger's jump. It is a
haunting, minimalist work, that can be a bit repetitive at times, especially in the play of the strings, but the reverse side of the
coin is that it has a haunting, hypnotic quality. The piece also featured a vocal part for soprano, performed by the composer's
wife, Martha Culver, for whom the piece was specifically written. It was a quite beautiful, dramatic composition, and it subtly
captured the emotional highs and the anxieties produced by the audacious feat that inspired it. It was highly complex music,
which the group's clarinetist, Jennifer Woodrum, insisted was “as difficult to play as Mozart” because of the precision it
required.
Following the performance, the group returned to the stage, along with Burhans and Fotos, to discuss their work. Many of their
insights are mentioned above, and I am especially grateful that they shared them with the audience. Their enthusiasm and
affinity for one another no doubt explains the group's cohesion and their fine execution of these difficult works.
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60645
Skokie Review
June 20, 2013
Fifth House Ensemble Showcases New Composers
Dorothy Andries
A free evening of contemporary music awaits the audience at Nichols Concert Hall Saturday night, June 22.
The music to be presented has been rehearsed and polished under the direction of the innovative Chicago-based Fifth House
Ensemble.
The program begins with a work by Stacy Garrop, Cedille recording artist and member of the music faculty at Roosevelt
University, and concludes with a piece by Jake Heggie, composer of the opera “Dead Man Walking.”
“The concert at the Music Institute in Evanston will have 10 new pieces of music that have been rehearsed over the last two
weeks,” said Melissa Snoza, executive director of Fifth House Ensemble or 5HE, who also plays flute in the ensemble.
The concert is the culmination of an intensive two week workshop for 38 musicians conducted by members of the Fifth House
Ensemble, who gathered in Kenosha earlier this month at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. The workshop, titled Fresh Inc, is
about composing and performing, but also about the business of marketing both newly composed music and newly minted
musical ensembles. Thus “inc” rather than “ink.”
Fifth House is an innovative group of 10 young chamber musicians who have been vigorously creating their own opportunities
in the challenging world of classical music since 2005. Based in Chicago, they are also Ensemble in Residence at Carthage
College in Kenosha during the academic year.
“In Fresh Inc we talk about what all of us learned in school, but these professional workshops also include sharing our own
experiences and information from others who have been out there a while and know what musicians face,” Snoza continued.
“We talk about start-ups, we talk about getting your music heard, getting your group heard, whether you play music
composed by others or music composed by one your members.”
The festival schedule is laced with concerts, starting June 11 at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and continuing through the month
at the Racine Art Music, Preston Bradley Hall in the Chicago Cultural Center, a Rush Hour Concert at St. James Cathedral in
Chicago from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, and the MIC concert in Evanston at 7 p.m. Saturday. The festival concludes with a
concert Sunday afternoon at University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha.
The concert features works that break from the usual quartet or trio format.”Frammenti” by Garrop; “Sextet” by Tomas
Gueglio; “Puzzle Lunch Tulips Cheezborger” by John Dorhauer; “Trio” by Danielle Rabinowitz; “The Jabberwok” by Jabez Co;
“Rhapsody” by Patrick O’Malley; “Apricity” by Alexander Cooke; “Come and Go” by Rene Orth, and “Statuesque” by Jake
Heggie.
“All the composers are either faculty or participants in the festival, except Jake Heggie,” Snoza explained. “We want to
create an audience-centric concert, so we have asked the composers to pick a piece they really want people to hear.”
Ensembles may be as small as three musicians or as many of 10. The composers not only coach the groups playing their works,
they will be asked to talk to the audience before the performance of their own composition.
“Musicians can be just a little awkward about speaking in public,” Snoza said. “Hopefully, by the end of the two week
workshop the young composers will be confident enough to make a great case for their music to an audience.”
She admits it will not be easy. “They say that fear of speaking in public is stronger than the fear of death,” she said, “so we
have our work cut out for us.”
phone: 224.715.6455
Chicago IL 60645
Chicago Classical Review
November 17, 2010
A strange, compelling musical tale weaved by Fifth House Ensemble
Wynne Delacoma
One of the most memorable productions of last year’s music season was Fifth House Ensemble’s Black Violet. A set of three
concerts that mixed emotionally charged chamber music with elegantly austere graphic novel images, it told the tale of a
pampered house cat trying to survive in London during the 17th century’s catastrophic Black Plague.
The young, gifted musicians of Fifth House are back this week with something equally unusual, the first installment of another
three-part project, The Weaver’s Tale. The first segment, titled The Weaver’s Tale: of the Fearless Boy and the Loveless
Girl, was performed Tuesday at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Preston Bradley Hall.
The basic format is the same as that of Black Violet, but this time the action involved four live actors rather than projected
images. Throughout the evening the musicians came and go as quintets and quartets to perform single movements of
chamber works by various composers as background music for the actors who spoke no lines. The score included selected
movements from David Maslanka’s Wind Quintet No. 2 and Mark Fish’s Pictures of Miro as well as the complete Red River, a
quartet by Mason Bates, and the C Minor Piano Quintet by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Co-written and directed by Rebekah Scallet and Lindsey Marks, the evening mixed two fairy tales–the beloved Russian story
about a beautiful snow maiden who eventually melts, breaking the heart of her beloved, and the Grimm fairy tale about a
boy who must learn fear.
This could have been unbearably precious, an attempt to liven up a static chamber music performance with some mimed
story-telling. But the result was a seamless, oddly compelling drama. As the Weaver, the spider who spins the tale, Lindsey
Marks darted and lunged, a witty figure whose long, skinny limbs folded and reached like the black widow’s hinged legs.
Bethany Hedden was sweetly curious as the Loveless Girl, and Stephen Ochsner had the acrobatic grace and guileless smile
of a tall, lanky schoolboy. Gilliam Weston was powerful as the stern figure who kept the young lovers apart.
The musicians, who also offered short spoken narration as the story unfolded, played with a fervor that seemed to sweep the
actors along. They relaxed easily into the romantic lyricism of Williams’ Piano Quintet but bristled with high-voltage color and
drive in the short, repeated phrases of Maslanka’s quintet.
The concert opened with a short video by Steve Emmons and Kerry Yang. It depicted the snow maiden in a short, strapless
white dress made of the kind of long balloons that clowns twist into animal shapes at children’s birthday parties. It didn’t
seem to serve much purpose beyond getting some use out of the large video screens that the ensemble later used to
announce the title of each musical selection.
phone: 224.715.6455
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Traditional Rep, A-Traditional Context
By Wynne Delacoma
MusicalAmerica.com
April 8, 2010
CHICAGO -- Young chamber groups devoted to shaking up the traditional concert experience are
blossoming in Chicago, and one of the best is the five-year-old Fifth House Ensemble. Fifth House
has large-scale ambitions. This week the 11-member ensemble wraps up a season-long project
titled “Black Violet” that blends live music with the compelling visual imagery and storytelling of a
good graphic novel. The April 5 performance of “Black Violet,” Act III, was mesmerizing, a kind of
old-fashioned silent movie experience for hip 21st century audiences staged in the Chicago
Cultural Center’s 294-seat theater .
Chicago illustrator and writer Ezra Claytan Daniels came up with the story line about Violet, a
pampered house cat who finds herself roaming chaotic London streets during the Black Plague of
1665. While Daniel’s meticulously crafted black-and-white drawings are projected on a large
screen behind them, ensemble members accompany each chapter of the story with a movement
from a chamber work. For “Black Violet,” Act III, the composers range from Wagner to Andre
Previn.
(The program will be repeated tonight in the relaxed confines of S.P.A.C.E., a performance venue in
north suburban Evanston. Located behind a popular pizza restaurant, it has the atmosphere—not to
mention the bar and chance for table-seating—of a club, unlike this iteration’s more traditional
setting.)
There is something grave and portentous about Daniels’ drawings and dialogue. Human beings loom
above the cats, dogs and rats who are the story’s main characters, but we never see a human face.
All we see are massive buckled boots, a dangerous pointed finger, the huge but aristocratic hands of
Barbara, Violet’s tender-hearted mistress.
Daniels etches his pictures with delicate, fastidious lines, but his animals are full-bodied, sometimes
burly. Violet wears a proper, 17th-century lace collar, but she is strong-limbed, and her teeth,
showing through her worried, downturned mouth, are extremely sharp. At times Daniels relieves the
black and white with unexpected splashes of color. Tibia, a treacherous rat who befriends Violet,
carries a purple sack bulging with treasure. The flames that engulf London homes are a watery
yellow-green.
Elegantly performed chamber music is an ideal partner for these large, still images and the formal,
sometime archaic, speech the animals used to tell their stories. (“My tail doth quiver with glee,’’ Violet
says as she nears a long-sought reunion with her mistress as the plague abates.)
At this performance, the Fifth House musicians were shadowy figures, outlined by the glow of the
screen and the dim lights on their music stands. At the end of each chapter, they quietly reconfigured
themselves depending on the piece. Repertoire included all five movements of Sibelius’ evocative D
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minor String Quartet (“Voces Intimae’’), the three movements of Previn’s jaunty Trio for Piano, Oboe
and Bassoon and single movements from Prokofiev’s Quintet, Op. 39, and Ludwig Thuille’s Sextet
for Winds and Piano. Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll’’ accompanied the final chapter. A work by
contemporary French jazz pianist Alain Goraguer, “Les Fusées” from “Le Planète Sauvage,”
arranged by Craig Marks rounded out the live soundtrack.
Several of the Fifth House musicians met while playing with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s training ensemble. They are a talented crew, and they brought
spontaneity and hair-trigger responsiveness to the music of “Black Violet.’’ Obviously, each musical
movement was chosen to fit the action of a chapter in the story. But nothing seemed calculated or
predictable as the visuals and music unfolded.
As Violet fought a pair of murderous rats, the urgent, rushing strings of the Sibelius string quartet’s
final movement added to the suspense. In the final chapter, Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll’’ surged lushly
as Violet, guilty at having abandoned Tibia, sought out her dying friend. Thanks to the sensitive
musicians and the austere dignity of Daniels’ drawings, what could have come off like a movie-music
cliché carried real emotional heft.
“Black Violet’’ is a massive endeavor; each of the three acts runs two hours including intermission.
Whether Fifth House could present it in a single concert or as a one-day cycle remains to be seen.
But it is an exceptional piece of music theater, one I hope we will be able to hear again.
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5HE Press Kit updated 2014-07-01

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