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ADVOCACY Bill Jastrow, Chairperson


When It Comes To Music, Don’t Lose Sight of 20th Century Skills.


Wait . . . 19th Century Skills. No . . . 18th Century. 4th Century B.C.?


If you want to know why Verdi’s operas remain both popular and daunting to perform, listen to the care Muti brings to the overture to La forza del destino. A story is told, characters are introduced, themes are laid out, resolutions are achieved, all in the course of eight or nine minutes.


Tom Cruze Chicago Sun-Times Music Review, 09/20/2010


Sunday, September 19 was a great day in Chicago; a day that will be long remem- bered in the musical history of the city. An estimated 30,000 people gathered in and around Michigan Avenue’s Millennium Park to hear a free concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of newly appointed Music Director, Maestro Ricardo Muti. “Festa Muti” was intended as both a gift to the city from the orchestra and a “Benvenuto Grandioso” from the city to the 10th


Music Director in the


history of the CSO. By 11:00 a.m. people, including myself, were placing lawn chairs in strategically advantageous positions in anticipation of the evening performance.


By the time Verdi’s foreboding introduc- tion to La forza del destino echoed across the park, every pavilion seat, every inch of lawn space, and every standing-room/ listening-only vantage point was occu- pied. Scanning the audience it was easy to spot the dignitaries, probable season ticket holders, and the Ravinia crowd. Tere were also families, middle school, high school, and college age students, city dwellers, suburbanites, and out-of- towners. Undoubtedly, there were also many people, young and old, white and blue collar, who for whatever reasons


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have probably never stepped inside Symphony Centre, but were drawn to stand anywhere they could within hear- ing distance of the orchestra in order to have what they expected would be a memorable experience with music, in this case the music of Verdi, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and Respighi.


What brought so many people to Millennium Park for Festa Muti? It is fair to assume that a number of people, probably a large number of people, came partially out of curiosity. After all this was the long awaited 2011 Muti-CSO premier; the first regular season concert under the baton of the dynamic and demanding Italian maestro. I certainly was curious and eager to hear what these two renowned musical forces could combine to create. Surely others were there just to take part in the opening social event of the fall calendar.But I am guessing that most were there to experi- ence and enjoy live music, great music, performed at a world class level for free. FREE GREAT MUSIC. Just come, listen, and be swept away by the beauty of the art. Tat is why I was there; to be “WOW-ED” by sound. I wanted to re- experience music that I know well, that I


have performed, and that for intangible reasons touches my human spirit every time. I and thousands of other people were willing to sit several hours (Brat & Beverage: $8.00. Car Fare: $12.00. Parking Garage: $25.00.) in anticipation of that experience. (Music–Priceless!)


In 2000, MENC published Vision 2020, a long range outlook for music education in the 21st


century. Te introductory essay by


Bennett Reimer poses the question “Why Do Humans Value Music?” At the outset, Reimer reminds us that music exists only when humans choose to create it. Since antiquity, in the best of times and in the absolute worst of times, wherever humans have existed, music has also existed. “Music makes human experience ‘special.’ It aims to achieve a level of experience different from the commonplace. Music creates an alternative to the reality of the everyday; an alternative to the ordinary way of being.” Music exists because of its unique nature and profound capacity to stir our spirits and enrich our lives. As with anything else, understanding and enjoyment are enhanced through knowl- edge and experience. “Music education exists to make musical values more widely and deeply shared.”


Illinois Music Educator | Volume 71 Number 2


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