The Chicago Artists Workshop Presents:

Karim Sulayman, tenor

Lebanese-American tenor Karim Sulayman has garnered international attention as a sophisticated and versatile artist, consistently praised for his sensitive and intelligent musicianship, riveting stage presence, and beautiful voice. A 2019 GRAMMY® Award-winner, he regularly performs on the world’s stages in orchestral concerts and opera, as well as in recital and chamber music.

His diverse performing career has included roles with the Drottningholms Slottsteater in Stockholm, Houston Grand Opera, Florentine Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Chicago Opera Theater and New York City Opera; orchestral appearances with the Chicago, Pittsburgh, and National Symphony Orchestras and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra; and engagements at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, International Bach Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Aldeburgh Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival.

His growing discography includes his debut solo album, Songs of Orpheus, which was released in April
2018 to international acclaim on the AVIE label. Named “Critic’s Choice” by Opera News, and praised for his “lucid, velvety tenor and pop-star charisma” by BBC Music Magazine, the album debuted at number 5 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart and number 3 on the iTunes Classical Chart, and was honored with the GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in 2019. His sophomore solo recording project, an album of Schubert songs with fortepianist Yi-heng Yang, Where Only Stars Can Hear Us, will be released in March 2020, also on the AVIE label. He is also featured in the ARTE documentary Leonard Bernstein – A Genius Divided, which premiered throughout Europe in the summer of 2018 and was subsequently released on DVD. His performance of Bernstein’s Mass with the CSO was recorded live and is slated for national broadcast on PBS Great Performances in 2020.

Additionally, Karim created a social experiment/performance art piece called I Trust You, designed to build bridges in a divided political climate. A video version of this experiment went “viral” on the internet, and was honored as a prizewinner in the My Hero Film Festival. He has been invited to give talks and hold open forums with student and adult groups about inclusion, empathy, healing from racism, and activism through the arts.

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PROGRAM

Nous Voulons un Petit Soeur (1934) – Poulenc
Lune d’Avril (1960) – Poulenc
Lost and Lookin’ – Sam Cooke
Bleuet (1939) – Poulenc
Suéltate las cintas (2004)- Gustavo Santaolalla
C. (1943) – Poulenc
Fêtes Galantes (1943) – Poulenc
Li Beirut (1984) – Fairouz
My Dearest Ruth (2013) – Stacy Garrop
Piano Piece #4 (1977) – Frederic Rzewksi
Tomorrow’s Gonna Be A Better Day (2013) – Billy Bragg

Program repertoire is subject to change.

Click here for program notes, texts, and translations.

The Chicago Artists Workshop Presents:

Rebecca Rego featuring Leah Casey – Songs for Cleaning Women

Rebecca Rego has been a Midwest singer-songwriter, recording artist, and producer for over 15 years. She has written and recorded eight albums and toured the country many times over, solo and with her Chicago-based band The Trainmen.

In 2014, a mysterious package arrived on her doorstep.In it was Lucia Berlin’s short story collection, “A Manual For Cleaning Women.” The note simply said: “I think you’ll love this.” As Rego began picking through the dark, witty, romantic prose, the stories slowly began to seep into her consciousness and affect her songwriting. After a few years, she realized she had created a unique set of songs based on Berlin’s book.

In the fall of 2019, Rego traveled to Northern California, where a handful of Berlin’s stories take place, and recorded six of these songs at Panoramic Studio in Stinson Beach with engineer Beau Sorenson (Death Cab For Cutie, tUnE-yArDs,) backed by multi-instrumentalist J. Tom Hnatow (Horse Feathers, Ringo Starr,) and Alysia Kraft, Staci Foster, and Tobias Bank of Fort Collins, CO based band Whippoorwill. The resulting album “Songs For Cleaning Women Pt. 1” will be released November 11, 2020. The release will be celebrated with a livestreaming performance during Grammy Award-winning music ensemble Eighth Blackbird’s “Chicago Artists Workshop” series.

As an independent female artist, Rego is influenced by the unflinching, raw honesty found in Berlin’s art. Many of Berlin’s stories are semi-autobiographical accounts of her time working blue-collar jobs, raising four children as a single mother, and dealing with her own alcoholism. Berlin died in 2004, never receiving critical acclaim in her own lifetime. Rego’s goal with this release is to pay homage to Berlin’s stories and introduce new audiences to her work.

Rebecca will be joined by Leah Casey, a Chicago-based actress, writer, and dancer with a love for fictional podcasts.

Some of her previous credits include Frankenstein with Manual Cinema, For Colored Girls at Court Theatre, and Romeo and Juliet with Teatro Vista. When not onstage, she can be found behind the mic as Rebecca Neil, a reporter for The Onion’s daily news podcast, The Topical, or working with the cast of Project STELLAR, a science fiction podcast about a group of crazy kids who have close encounters of the awesome kind.

The Chicago Artists Workshop Presents:

Justin Roberts and Anna Steinhoff

For nearly 20 years, Justin Roberts has been creating the soundtrack to families’ lives, helping kids navigate the joys and sorrows of growing up while allowing parents to remember their own childhoods. Along with his band, The Not Ready for Naptime Players, Justin has travelled the globe from Hong Kong to New York, and Miami to Seattle, performing at venues and festivals such as LEGO land, Ravinia, Lollapolooza and Austin City Limits festival. Justin has performed in front of millions of people on The Today Show, he’s been featured on Nick Jr. TV, and has received three GRAMMY nominations for his work.

On the other end of the musical spectrum, Anna Steinhoff specializes in baroque cello and viola da gamba, in addition to the modern cello. She is principal cellist of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, and is a member of the Haymarket Opera Company, Third Coast Baroque, Wayward Sisters and Second City Musick.

Justin’s latest album, Wild Life, is his 14th album for families and his most personal project yet. Inspired by the birth of their first child, Justin wrote cello parts for Anna into almost every track. They were joined by an eclectic group of instrumentalists including pianist Lisa Kaplan (Eighth Blackbird), percussionist Gerald Dowd (Robbie Fulks), and vocalist Nora O’Connor (Flat Five, the Decemberists). Wild Life includes songs about anticipation, uncertainty, unconditional love and advice for a life well-lived, and aims to evoke the wonder of what poet Mary Oliver called this “one wild and precious life.”

The Chicago Artists Workshop Presents:

Xuan

Xuan is a new media artist, filmmaker, and pianist working at the intersection of music, visual art, and technology.

Her work focuses on the distinct interconnectivity between sound and image, and encompasses experimental animation, narrative documentary shorts, music videos, abstract scenography, interactive installations and real time audio-visual programming. With a background as a contemporary classical pianist, she actively develops innovative, cross-disciplinary projects that broaden the immersive scope of new music through technology.

She has collaborated with artists such as Glenn Kotche, Pierre Jodlowski, Michael Burritt, Gemma Peacocke, Annika Socolofsky, Third Coast Percussion, Nois Quartet, Parhelion Trio, Rubiks Collective, and Ensemble Garage, which have led to performances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the MCA Chicago, the Smithsonian Institution, University of South Carolina, Carnegie Mellon University, Constellation, SF Jazz, Le Poisson Rouge, and the Indie Grits Film Festival. Recent projects in interactive design have been exhibited at the ErsterErster Gallery in Berlin, DE, the ibug Urban Art Festival in Reinchenbach, DE, and Design Biennale 2019 in Zürich, CH.

Xuan is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and has studied Media Spaces at the BTK University of Art and Design in Berlin.

The Chicago Artists Workshop Presents:

J. Ivy

J. Ivy is an Award Winning Performance Poet, Recording Artist, Song Writer, Author and Actor. Over the years his work has earned him a Peabody, Clio, Telly, and NAACP Image Award and he is widely known for being the “Poet” featured on Kanye West’s Grammy Winning Album, “The College Dropout,” on the classic song “Never Let Me Down,” along with Hip-Hop icon Jay-Z.

Early in his career Ivy was featured on three seasons of HBO’s Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry. From there his work has been featured everywhere from commercials to classrooms. From hosting and performing at conferences for Deepak Chopra to penning and performing a poem for the NBA Hall of Fame Legend Michael Jordan, J. Ivy has used his unique style of poetry to navigate the art form to arenas of all facets. He has poetically narrated, acted, and starred in two B.E.T. documentaries, “Muhammad Ali: The People’s Champ” and “Martin: The Legacy of a King,” which paid homage to two of the world’s most iconic voices. He has done voice-over work for dozens of commercials, starred as the spokesperson in AARP’s national ad, and can be heard on Coca-Cola’s new History Shakers commercial. The author of three books, his latest being “Dear Father: Breaking the Cycle of Pain,” has inspired many to pick up the pen and write their own Dear Father Letter in hopes to promote the Power of Forgiveness. After the world shut down due to Covid-19, in July of 2020, J. Ivy wrote and narrated Beyoncé’s Black Is King promo for the Return of the NBA.

Not only has he collaborated with countless musical artist, J.Ivy has recently released his 4th studio album, “Catching Dreams,” which is a beautiful blend of poetry and music. He also recently finished co-writing and co-producing, singer-song-writer, Tarrey Torae’s upcoming album, “Thanks for the Love,” and co-wrote the new song, “Freedom Ride” with Grammy Nominated House Music Legend, DJ Terry Hunter, which is also by Ms. Torae. He is the Poet Laureate for the famed visual artist Ernie Barnes’ Foundation.

A fun fact for many, is J. Ivy is the man who gave Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, and Tony Award-Winning singer, songwriter, actor, and activist John Stephens the stage name John Legend, as told by John himself on Oprah’s Next Chapter. In 2019 J. Ivy became the first Spoken Word Artist to hold a Chapter President’s seat (Chicago Chapter) in the history of the Recording Academy.

Please join us on Sunday, May 2nd, at 5pm CT/6pm ET/3pm PT for a virtual evening of music, guest composers, an auction, and a signature cocktail you can make at home.

General admission to (r)Evolution is free and open to everyone.

A $75 VIP ticket will get you entry to a post-gala Zoom chat with members of the ensemble and guest composers. We’ll also have a pre-show Zoom mingle that’s open to everyone!

RSVP using the form below. You will receive an email with a link to the stream.

Don’t forget to check out our Auction and Raffle!

Chicago Artists Workshop Presents

Half Gringa

Half Gringa (Isabel Olive) is joined by her guitarist Sam Cantor for duo arrangements of songs from her most recent release, Force to Reckon, as well as new, unreleased material.

Emerging from Chicago’s flourishing indie music scene, Half Gringa blends contemporary indie-rock and Latinx pop with midwestern folk. “When you grew up in the Midwest really into alternative rock, but heard a lot of country music in the supermarket,” offers Isabel Olive, the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist at the core of Half Gringa, when asked to place her music in a specific genre. “Or when your mom loved Bruce Springsteen and Maná and sometimes your brain starts playing them at the same time.” The name Half Gringa is both a tribute to and study of her legacy, stemming from a childhood term of endearment as “la Gringa” in her Venezuelan family and her bicultural experience growing up in the United States. Olive’s work seeks to narrate her tireless pursuit as a pupil of both her origins and her experiences.

Force to Reckon is the Chicago-based artist’s second full-length album, following her locally acclaimed debut, Gruñona, which landed on Chicago Magazine’s “10 Best Chicago Albums of 2017” and Chicago Reader’s “Best Chicago Albums of the Decade.” On the self-produced 9-song set, Olive is joined by her full-time band members — Nathan Bojko (drums), Sam Cantor (guitar), Andres Fonseca (bass), Lucy Little (violin) — as well as Ivan Pyzow on trumpet, with occasional harmonies and piano from fellow Chicago singer/songwriter Gia Margaret. But Force to Reckon has the intimacy of a solo project, and engaged listening feels like a glimpse into Olive’s journals of the last three years.

“I’m very goal-oriented, but I’m also a very anxious person,” she says. “And I always need to have a plan or a process and try to predict every outcome so I’m prepared with my next move. When I started writing these songs I was feeling emotionally upended, a bunch of things came at me that I did not predict, and instead of feeling and responding in the moment, I swallowed all of it. These songs feel like little eruptions as a result, they’re all trying to reach a point of catharsis, but you can’t force catharsis.”

Vocally forward and instrumentally full, the songs on Force to Reckon have a quality that feels personal, yet meant to be shared. Olive’s poetry background is prominently displayed, with carefully selected words used to craft narratives grounded in various different textures, and each part feels intentional and precise. It’s meticulously composed but not cautious. “I was trying to figure out how to express my own vulnerability, my love towards other people, in a way that felt like I was giving myself permission to do so, while accepting that loss and estrangement are inevitable,” she goes on to say.

Each song reaches a climactic peak in its own way and even slower tracks on the album capture something that feels expansive, both sonically and emotionally. “I don’t know your feelings by their first name,” Olive sings emphatically on “Afraid of Horses,” an apology punctuated by a pizzicato violin echo and soft harmonies from Gia Margaret. And although the record is steeped in heavy-hearted themes, Olive often dissects those subjects using tongue-in-cheek humor: “1991 was good to you and I,” the 28-year-old deadpans at the start of upbeat opener “1990,” which traces the anxieties of adulthood back to oft-forgotten childhood memories.

Elsewhere, on “Transitive Property,” Olive explores grief and loss, over a bed of bittersweet fingerpicked guitar, by expertly placing the abstract concepts into the context of everyday change rather than mortality. “I’ve realized that bereavement is about more than a person dying,” she explains. “It’s an absence that you can’t control.” After her grandmother passed away while Olive was on tour, she tried to bury her grief in productivity but eventually realized she needed to set aside time to process. On “Forty,” the album’s string-heavy closer, she finally allows herself long-overdue space to mourn.

Force to Reckon is, as the title suggests, an album with a powerful presence. Though deeply personal, Olive leaves listeners space to relate and experience their own catharsis. “None of the songs on this record resolve, really,” she explains. “Many end in the middle of a thought, because this record is about how much I’m still in the middle of my grieving process. Lines like ‘Time will tell if nothing else’ and ‘I will mourn you in advance, but I never really get the chance’ sound like hindsight, but they were more like predictions when I wrote them. I spend a lot of time looking away from things I don’t want to deal with, but I know they’re still there. And my eyes are getting tired, I guess.”

Chicago Artists Workshop Presents

Molly Joyce

Molly Joyce’s music has been described as “serene power” (New York Times), written to “superb effect” (The Wire), and “impassioned” (The Washington Post). Her work is primarily concerned with disability as a creative source. She has an impaired left hand from a previous car accident, and the primary vehicle in her pursuit is her electric vintage toy organ, an instrument she bought on eBay which suits her body and engages her disability on a compositional and performative level. Her creative projects have been presented at TEDxMidAtlantic, Bang on a Can Marathon, Danspace Project, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, National Gallery of Art, Classical:NEXT, National Sawdust, and featured in outlets such as Pitchfork, Red Bull Radio, and WNYC’s New Sounds. Molly is a graduate of The Juilliard School, Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Yale School of Music, alumnus of the YoungArts Foundation, and currently serves on the composition faculty at New York University Steinhardt.

Chicago Artists Workshop Presents

Matthew Burtner composer portrait, feat. Jocelyn Zelasko, soprano

Program Info TBD

Matthew Burtner (http://www.matthewburtner.com) is an Alaskan-born composer, sound artist and eco-acoustician whose music and research explores embodiment, ecology, polytemporality and noise. First Prize Winner of the Musica Nova International Electroacoustic Music Competition (Czech Republic), a 2011 IDEA Award Winner, and a recipient of the Howard Brown Foundation Fellowship, Burtner’s music has also received honors and awards from Bourges (France), Gaudeamus (Netherlands), Darmstadt (Germany) and The Russolo (Italy) international competitions. He is the Eleanor Shea Chaired Professor of Music in Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT) at the University of Virginia where he Co-Directs the Coastal Futures Conservatory. He is also Director of the Alaskan-based environmental arts non-profit organization, EcoSono (www.ecosono.org).

Burtner’s works have been performed in festivals and venues throughout the world, and commissioned by ensembles such as NOISE (USA), Integrales (Germany), Peak FreQuency (USA), MiN (Norway), Musikene (Spain), Spiza (Greece), CrossSound (Alaska), and others. His work has been supported by major grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Science Foundation, and he created ecoacoustic music for a number of organizations including President Obama’s US State Department. His research in ecoacoustics has been featured by NASA’s Goddard Space Center, the American Geophysical Union, The Atlantic, Earther and the Center for Energy Studies in the Humanities (CENHS) at Rice University.

He is the composer of three evening-length intermedia environmental opera/theater works — Ukiuq Tulugaq (Winter Raven), Kuik, and Auksalaq, the first climate change opera. A 2010/2011 Provost Fellow at the Center for 21st Century Studies at UWM, Burtner has also conducted long-term residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), Phonos Foundation/Pompeu Fabra Universidad (Spain), Musikene (Spain), Cite des Arts (France), IRCAM/Centre Pompidou (France), and the University of Missouri Kansas City (USA). He studied composition, computer music, saxophone and philosophy at St. Johns College, Tulane University (BFA), Iannis Xenakis’s UPIC-Studios, the Peabody Institute/Johns Hopkins (MM), and Stanford University/CCRMA (DMA). Among published recordings for Parma/Ravello (US), DACO (Germany), The WIRE (UK), Innova (US), Summit (US) Centaur (US), EcoSono (US) and Euridice (Norway), his music is available on several solo albums: That which is bodiless is reflected in bodies, The Ceiling Floats Away, Glacier Music, NOISE plays Burtner, Auksalaq Live at the Philips Collection, MICE World Tour, Signal Ruins, Metasaxophone Colossus and Portals of Distortion.

Burtner’s creative musical work is closely intertwined with the sciences, particularly environmental science and engineering. He develops systems for human-computer-environment interaction featured in his music. He invented the NOMADS telematic system, the MICE human-computer ensemble and orchestra, the Metasaxophone augmented instrument, and a number of ecoacoustic approaches.

Detroit-based soprano, Jocelyn Zelasko, is a versatile musician who is celebrated as an insightful performer with a captivating stage presence. She has performed chamber music, opera, and art song in festivals and concerts throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and North America. She is the vocalist for Detroit’s premiere ensemble, New Music Detroit, and a founding member of ensembles Juxtatonal and Whoopknox. Her career began in the classical realm, but a passion for making complex vocal music accessible to audiences through character development and authentic storytelling led her to pursue new music.

She has performed with the GRAMMY award-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird, Eastman Broadband Ensemble, Matt Ulery Trio, and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. She has also sung with many outstanding performers including Tony Arnold (International Contemporary Ensemble), Vicky Chow (Bang on a Can All-Stars), and Miles Brown (Alarm Will Sound), among many others. She has performed at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival (GLCMF), held residencies at the Wholehearted Musician and the Millay Colony for the Arts, was a fellow at [R]evolution Resonant Bodies and Eighth Blackbird’s Creative Lab, and was a featured performer at soundSCAPE and the Summer Institute of Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP).

As an advocate for the creation of new works, Zelasko has commissioned a vast number of composers including Michelle McQuade Dewhirst, Marti Epstein, David Smooke, Daniel Felsenfeld, Leaha Maria Villarreal, Danny Clay, Griffin Candey, Emily Millard, and more. Her voice and cello duo, Juxtatonal (JUX), embarked on a large-scale commissioning project asking 14 composers for new works addressing relevance. The compositions deal with issues of vulnerability, self, privilege, gender, age, and culture, and include elements ranging from co-composition with 5th graders, new forms of musical notation, and choreography inspired by pop culture.

Additionally, she originated the title role of 100 year-old photographer, Pat Sturn, in the new-mixed media chamber opera, Pat & Emilia (Smallman/ Gervais/Sievers-Hunt) which toured extensively in Canada and the Great Lakes region from 2015 – 2018. Michigan Opera Theatre’s (MOT) principal cellist, Nadine Deleury, commissioned the opera and hand-selected the chamber ensemble utilizing talented colleagues of the MOT orchestra. Jeff Smallman composed the music specifically for Zelasko and Deleury’s chamber ensemble using lyrics by Windsor’s poet laureate, Marty Gervais, with Canadian-American writer, Tara Sievers-Hunt. While being interviewed for the Canadian Arts Productions documentary, Imagining Angels, Zelasko discussed her inspirations to play Pat Sturn feeling connected to Pat’s fierce independence, quest for perfection, and unwavering passion for art.

​Zelasko’s scholarly pursuits focus on fostering musical identity and embodying empathy through song. After her riveting lecture performance on Eleanor Smith’s social protest songs, she was invited to contribute a book chapter on her research, development, and embodiment of the social protestors in Smith’s Hull House Songs. The book and accompanied recordings were published in early 2019.

​Zelasko received bachelor’s degrees in vocal performance and economics from Oakland University where she was also a scholarship athlete. Furthering her education, she received a master’s degree in music from the University of Iowa. She studied with acclaimed voice professors Dr. Edith Diggory and Dr. John Muriello, and voice scientist Dr. Ingo Titze. In addition to her work as a performer, Zelasko is a grant-award panelist for New Music USA, conducts master classes, lectures, maintains a thriving private voice studio, and enjoys paddle boarding, surfing, and golfing.