May 10 | Arts
MEDIA CONTACT: Judy Moore at 847-491-4819 or jkm229@northwestern.edu
Northwestern Percussion Will Fill Millennium Park
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Picnic goers can enjoy a free Memorial Day Weekend percussion spectacular at Chicago's Millennium Park featuring 35 Northwestern University School of Music faculty, students and special guests performing music that will range from Tchaikovsky to Xenakis.
The outdoor Monster Percussion Concert will be held at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, May 27, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, located just east of Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Monroe streets, in downtown Chicago. The free concert is open to the public. Plan to arrive early and bring a blanket to enjoy a picnic on the lawn. Seating will be on a first-come, first-seated basis.
Featured artists will include Michael Burritt, a School of Music professor of percussion; Paul Wertico, a Grammy Award-winning drummer and Northwestern music faculty lecturer; Polish marimba virtuoso Marta Klimasara and the Northwestern University Percussion Ensemble and Marching Band Drumline.
The May 27 program at Millennium Park will include musical works performed during the 1933 “Century of Progress, Chicago World's Fair” by legendary marimba virtuoso Clair Musser's world famous 100-member marimba orchestra. Musser, a former Northwestern University music faculty member, headed the University's marimba department from the mid-1940s to early 1950s.
Burritt has presented recitals and master classes throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia. His recordings include a Carnegie Hall solo recital. He was a soloist with the Dallas Wind Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Chautauqua Festival Orchestra, Ju Percussion Group (Taiwan), Percussion Art Quartet (Germany), Amores Percussion Group (Spain), Peaux (Sweden) and Tempus Fugit Percussion Ensemble (Pittsburgh), as well as a featured artist at seven Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. Burritt is a composer of published works for marimba, solo percussion and percussion ensemble and a contributing editor to Percussive Notes magazine.
Wertico is a featured drummer who has appeared at international percussion and jazz conventions and festivals. He was a member of the Pat Metheny Group (1983 to 2001), which has recorded seven Grammy Award-winning albums. An active touring and studio musician, producer and jazz group leader, Wertico performs with numerous jazz artists and is active internationally as a clinician and teacher. His awards include Fusion Drummer of the Year, DRUM! magazine's 1997 readers poll. He was selected one of the top five electric jazz drummers by the Modern Drummer magazine's 1997 and 1998 readers' polls. He is a contributing editor to Modern Drumming, Drums & Drumming, Drum Tracks and DRUM! magazines. His recordings include “The Yin and the Yout, Don't Be Scared Anymore” and “Live in Warsaw!” He is the featured drummer on Grammy-nominated compact discs by Paul Winter and Kurt Elling.
Marta Klimasara is a renowned percussionist who has performed in France, Sweden, Japan and South Africa as well as in international competitions. Prior to winning the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Germany -- one of the most famed competitions in its field -- she received first prize in the 2nd World Marimba Competition in Japan in 1999, as well as the second prize in the 3rd Krystof Penderecki International Competition of Contemporary Music in Krakow, Poland. The young artist holds scholarships from the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe and the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
For more information about the May 27 Monster Percussion Concert contact, the Pick-Staiger concert office at (847) 491-5441 or visit <www.pickstaiger.com>.