Picosa chamber concert focuses on motion of music
In a concert focused on the theme of motion, Picosa chamber ensemble plans to help audiences feel physical movement represented as sound and experience the motion of life through song.
Picosa performs "Locus of Movement" at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 11, at Mayslake Peabody Estate, 1717 W. 31st St., Oak Brook. General admission tickets for the concert and dessert reception - $25 with discounts for seniors and students - are available at picosamusic.com.
The program opens with the dance-inspired "Divertimento opus 100, No. 1," by Franz Joseph Haydn. Three miniature works by Augusta Read Thomas - "D(i)agon(als)" for solo clarinet, "Euterpe's Caprice" for solo flute, and "Capricci" for flute and clarinet - capture movement and motion in their mercurial and spinning musical lines.
Sprinkled throughout the program are three contrasting works representing the motion through life itself, from childhood to the twilight years. Marc Mellits' "Mara's Lullaby" for flute, cello and piano captures a melody the composer sang to his infant daughter at bedtime, and Asha Srinivasan's "Dviraag" for flute and cello references the Carnatic singing of the composer's youth. Claude Debussy's "Violin Sonata" was written late in the composers' life, and seems particularly appropriate this year for honoring the 100th anniversary of Debussy's passing.
Picosa will present Arnold Schoenberg's romantic yet revolutionary "Kammersymphonie No. 1," transcribed by Anton Webern. The music of "the Second Viennese School", which included composer Schoenberg and his pupils Webern and Alban Berg, created a seismic shift in the western tradition of classical music, moving away from diatonicism and toward heterodox terrain in tonality and form. Works including Schoenberg's "Kammersymphonie" ultimately paved the way between the romantic music of composers like Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler and the new modernist language and expression of contemporary music.
Picosa will be joined by visual artist Lewis Achenbach, who will be live painting the entire event at Mayslake. His works of art will be for sale after the concert.
Following the concert, audience members are invited to stay for the Meet the Musicians Gourmet Dessert Reception and chat with all the performers.
Tickets are $25, $23 for seniors and $10 for college students. High school students and younger are free, and accompanying parents receive a discounted ticket of $10. Tickets are available online at eventbright.com. Information about the concert, the venue and parking is available at picosamusic.com.
Picosa is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations support Picosa's efforts to bring music to underserved communities through its collaboration with Hesed House and nurturing rising amateur and young musicians through its Interludes Chamber Ensembles program. Donations may be made at picosamusic.com/donate.