AN EAR ALONE

Tonight, 7:30pm at the Jennifer Norback Gallery: Ensemble Vulpine Lupin presents En japonais.  In addition to a few of the performers, this group was also founded by two local composers who I’d highly recommend: Pablo Chin and Edward Hamel.  This will be my first time seeing the ensemble; I think this might only be there second concert ever! Ensemble Vulpine Lupin is so new, in fact, that they don’t even have a website yet, so keep an eye on them via facebook for the time being.  It’s always exciting to have another new music group added to Chicago’s roster.  We’re on the verge of something, I can feel it.

I’m especially intrigued by the title of this event: did they choose French because it sounds so much cooler than English, or is there perhaps a French quality in the music of these Japanese composers? I might make that case with Takemitsu.  I’ll have to find out about the others tonight.

Tonight, 8pm at Wentz Concert Hall: The Bang on a Can All-Stars celebrate their 25th anniversary with a tour that stops in…  Naperville.  But without a doubt, I assure you, this concert will be action packed.  They’ll be playing a lot of pieces from their recently released Big Beautiful Dark and Scary, an album I have been listening to nonstop since February.  I could jam to this one all damn day:

So yes, over an hour’s worth of travel is worth hearing less than 10 minutes of Dave Longstreth.