By Jonathan Abarbanel
We're almost over the Holiday Hump with its cornucopia of candy canes and treacle, during which even serious music takes the shortest route to The Nutcracker, The Messiah and 800 years of Christmas carols rendered in heavyweight chorale and symphonic treatments. The problem is, it isn't over when it's over, with America's nearly endless Holiday Season extending to the February Super Bowl. The next holiday of note—the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.—may not be as festive as Christmas or the New Year, but it will be musically chronicled nonetheless. The official holiday is Monday, Jan. 16, but musical celebrations begin the Friday before.
The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University is first out of the gate with Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz-Gospel Messiah, performed Jan. 14-15, and featuring some 150 choristers and instrumentalists ( although the chorus and orchestra have no name ) under the baton of Suzanne Mallare Acton. The stars of the show are tenors Roderick Dixon and Victor Trent Cook ( two-thirds of Three Mo' Tenors ) and soprano Alfreda Burke. This really is a Christmas show, and originally was scheduled for December before being pushed back to January and presented in honor of Dr. King. As the title suggests, this is a version of the Baroque classic that will swing a different way. Call ( 312 ) 902-1500; $29-$59.
The Chicago Sinfonietta joins forces with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, the Chicago Children's Choir and the Elmhurst College Concert Choir for a multi-arts tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that's become a tradition for the Sinfonietta. Beginning with the Jan. 15-16 performances, the King Tribute will be an annual event ( previously, it's been every other year ) . The program, under the baton of Maestro Paul Freeman as always, will feature world premiere choreography by Kevin Iega Jeff to Three Dances for Orchestra by Brazilian composer Camargo Guarnieri, also Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Suite, Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, and renditions of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, the Battle Hymn of the Republic and We Shall Overcome. The Chicago Sinfonietta King Tribute concerts are at Lund Hall of Dominican University ( Sunday, Jan. 15 ) and downtown at Symphony Center ( Monday, Jan. 16 ) ; ( 312 ) 236-3681; $25-$38 at Lund Hall; $25-$90 at Symphony Center.
There also are a few musical events that have nothing to do with any holidays whatsoever. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra ( CSO ) continues its regular concert schedule at Symphony Center beginning Wednesday, Jan. 11 with one of its new ( this season ) Afterwork Masterworks concerts. These innovative presentations are 90-minute, no-intermission concerts that begin at 6:30 p.m. ( thus, just after work ) on weekdays. Following the concert, the audience is invited to stay for an informal Q & A session with the guest artists and CSO musicians in the Grainger Ballroom of Symphony Center. The Jan. 11 program should be particularly good, featuring Dvorak's Symphony No. 7 and old queen Aaron Copland's delightful Old American Songs ( with bass Kevin Deas as soloist ) . Call ( 800 ) 223-7114; $24-$69.
Symphony Center programming throughout January is exceptionally varied as the hall welcomes several distinguished guest conductors and ensembles. Sir John Eliot Gardner appears Jan. 18 with the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique in an all-Mozart program; superstar Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the CSO in five concerts, Jan. 19-23 ( at the Harris Theater on Jan. 23 ) ; and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis fronts the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in programs Jan. 27 and 28 ( a Jazz for Young People matinee at 11AM on Jan. 28 ) . Ticket prices for these programs vary; call ( 800 ) 223-7114.
By the way, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has selected Osvaldo Golijov and Mark-Anthony Turnage as its Mead Composers-in-Residence for 2006-2008. The two not only will compose works for performance by the CSO, but will actively engage with orchestra personnel and audiences as advocates for contemporary music. Golijov, 45, is by birth an Argentinean of Jewish heritage, cultural affinities that appear as themes in his works. He's now based in the United States. Turnage, also 45, is British.
Finally, it's not all heavy orchestra stuff this wintry month. The Museum of Contemporary Art presents rocker Jon Langford in a multi-media program, Jan. 20-21, that incorporates American roots music, punk rock, video and spoken word in a cycle of songs on the themes of music ( autobiographical ) , murder ( presumably not autobiographical ) , and capital punishment ( a Langford cause ) . The program is titled The Executioner's Last Songs. Call ( 312 ) 397-4010; $22 ( a bargain ) .
