amarcordPerformsLuther and Music in Recognition of the
500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE –10/16/2017
PHOTOS
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PRESS CONTACT
Daniel Meyers
Marketing Coordinator
University of Chicago Presents
773.702.8068
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CHICAGO – On Friday, November 17, 2017, at 7:30 PM, inRockefeller Chapel,Leipzig vocal ensemble amarcord comes to the University of Chicago to recognize the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a German Catholic priest, posted 95 grievances against the Catholic Church to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, sparking a revolution in religious life in Europe. Music was fundamental to the Reformation and to the Catholic Counter-Reformation, and the two religious movements fundamentally impacted the trajectory of religious and secular music. Martin Luther’s own music became a staple of the growing Lutheran Church, and many of our most beloved composers wrote music based on his hymns, which are still sung by congregations today.
amarcord celebrates this history in its program,Luther and Music, presenting works by Martin Luther, Johann Walter, Josquin des Prez, and Johann Sebastian Bach. The concert takes place in Rockefeller Chapel, a beautiful architectural monument to scholarship and the arts on the campus of the University of Chicago. Professor of Music Robert Kendrick, a scholar of music of the 15th-18th centuries, will deliver a pre-concert lecture.
FRIDAY / NOVEMBER 17 / 7:30 PM / ROCKEFELLER CHAPEL
6:30 pm / Pre-concert lecture with Robert Kendrick
amarcord
Luther and Music
CONCERT LOCATION
Rockefeller Chapel, 5850 S Woodlawn Ave, Chicago, IL 60637
TICKETS
$38 / $30 UCID / $20 under 35 / $10 students
Call773.702.ARTS (773.702.2787) or visit tickets.uchicago.edu
BOX OFFICE
UChicago Arts Box Office, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street
Regular hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 12 pm – 6 pm and through concert intermission;
1 – 4 pm on concert Sundays.
Concert information online atchicagopresents.uchicago.edu
ABOUT AMARCORD
Founded in 1992 by erstwhile members of St Thomas’s Boys Choir in Leipzig, amarcord has since become one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles. amarcord’s hallmarks include a unique tone, breathtaking homogeneity, musical authenticity, and a good dose of charm and humour. amarcord performs a vast and highly diverse repertoire of music, from medieval plainsong to madrigals and Renaissance masses, compositions and cycles of works of the European Romantic period and the 20th century, a cappella folksong arrangements collected from all over the world, all the way to rock, pop, soul and jazz charts.
Open to new currents in vocal music, the singers attach great importance to New Music. Works dedicated to the ensemble include those by Bernd Franke, Steffen Schleiermacher, Ivan Moody, James MacMillan, Sidney M. Boquiren, Siegfried Thiele and Dimitri Terzakis. Even though their concert programming is strongly focused on a cappella works, amarcord also regularly performs in concert with ensembles and artists such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the LauttenCompagney, Cappella Sagittariana, the Leipzig String Quartet, the KlazzBrothers, concert pianist RagnaSchirmer, the bandoneon virtuoso Per Arne Glorvigen, and the brilliant violinist Daniel Hope.
amarcord has won prizes at many international competitions, such as Tolosa in Spain, Tampere in Finland and Pohlheim in Germany, as well as the 1st Choir Olympiad in the Austrian city of Linz. In 2002, the ensemble won the German Music Competition, having joined the ranks of the BA KJK (the cream of young musicians singled out by the German Music Council for special support) two years beforehand. In 2004, amarcord became the first group of singers to be awarded the Ensemble Prize at the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Festival. Attending master classes with the King’s Singers and the Hilliard Ensemble has given amarcord valuable stimulus over the years.
Alongside the Gewandhaus Orchestra and St Thomas’s Boys Choir, amarcord is now one of the leading representatives of Leipzig’s music scene in Germany and abroad. amarcord regularly appears at important music festivals, and its frequent concert tours have taken the group not only all over Europe but also to North America (where it was enthusiastically received in cities like San Francisco, Washington, New York, Atlanta, Houston,and Salt Lake City), Central America, Australia, Japan, Israel, The Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
Founded by amarcord in 1997 and under the artistic direction of the group, the International Festival of Vocal Music “a cappella” ( has established itself as one of the most important festivals of its kind. Held in Leipzig each spring, premier vocal formations such as The Real Group, The King’s Singers, Take 6, and the Hilliard Ensemble can be heard at the festival.
Numerous CD recordings impressively document the many facets of amarcord’s repertoire. Released in 2009, the CD “RastloseLiebe” (“Restless Love”) received the ECHO Klassik Award, the Luxembourgian Supersonic Award, and was nominated for the MIDEM Classical Award, the most important prize of the European CD market. In addition, this CD won the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award, the "a-cappella-Oscar". In February 2010,amarcord released its first CD production with an orchestral work: the reconstructed version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Mark Passion, performed together with Dominique Horwitz and the KölnerAkademie.
ABOUT UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESENTS
Now in its 74th year of bringing the world's best artists to Chicago, The University of Chicago Presents offers 25 unique performances in six distinct series in the 2017/18 season, from early music to classical, contemporary, and jazz. This season celebrates the richness that music has to offer with unrivaled musical experiences that bring passion and virtuosity to the stage.
We are grateful to all of our supporters and partners, including:
Presenting Partners:
Promotional and In-Kind
UChicago Partnerships
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