AN EVENING OF STRAVINSKY
The resident artists have received rent-free apartments and other emoluments that freed them from financial stress and allowed them to hone their art. In return, they have arranged programs for the apartment complex’s residents and have planned one large program in conjunction with the University of Chicago’s Summer Nights Festival in Hutchinson Court.
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This year’s resident artist is clarinetist Janice Murphy. For her festival program, she planned an all-Stravinsky program that would contrast his 1923 octet for wind instruments with his 1918 L’histoire du soldat (The Soldier’s Tale), a “narrative ballet” that he based on an old Russian folktale. The performance of this theatrical ballet on Saturday–coordinated by Murphy, conducted by Michael Morgan, the assistant conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and choreographed by Ron DeJesus, the 1985-86 artist in residence at Regents Park–deserves the highest praise.
But it is DeJesus, whose choreographic talents were also on display last Friday night at the Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble’s New Dances program, who is the real find, for he is a major choreographic talent. He is intensely sensitive to music, and his understanding of the complex Stravinsky score was extraordinary–especially considering that he has little if any background in classical music.
