Classical music will waft through the air during the first of four Sunday concerts in Wicker Park

Classical music will fill the air this Sunday, June 10, in Wicker Park’s Schiller Grove located near the corner of Schiller and Damen. Symphony Sounds String Quartet and Wicker Park Choral Singers will perform a concert free of charge from 11a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The concert will be followed at 1 p.m. by a tour of the Park’s award winning gardens, Charles Wicker sculpture, Gurgoyle Fountain, and the Children’s Garden Mural located in the playground. The Symphony Sounds String Quartet performed in Wicker Park during the 2006 and 2008 classical music series. The Wicker Park Choral Singers have presented numerous concerts at the Wicker Park Lutheran Church and in the Park during the 2008 Music Series. Concert patrons are encouraged to bring a picnic lunch, blanket, and enjoy the excellent performances in The Schiller Grove. 

Sunday’s performance is part of the Wicker Park Advisory Council’s four-month-long classical music, education and performance initiative, designed and managed by Doug Wood, WPAC Events Coordinator. The series runs from June through September.

On the first Sunday’s of the each month, children learn about classical music from the Magic Boat Puppet Theater and collaborators: Easel Art, Evolve Dance, and The Culture Lady. In these performances selected classical music works are viewed in the context of Wicker Park’s history, the visual arts, and dance. On second Sundays, the children, their parents, and other Park patrons are offered performances by professional musicians of the music they studied the first week of each month. At the Magic Boat Collaborative performances, the children create banners depicting a musical score; these banners serve as a backdrop for the second week’s live performance (See photo banner).

This Sunday, Symphony Sounds String Quartet will perform Antonio Vivaldi’s Spring and Summer Concertos from The Four Seasons (1723), Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet in C minor Opus 18.no 4 (1798 - 1800), Claude Debussy’s Golliwog's Cakewalk (1908), and Carlos Gardel’s Por Una Cabeza (1935).

Sarah Marsh, director of Symphony Sounds, designed the programs for this summer’s four-month series to be both familiar to patrons of all ages, but also challenging to the most avid classical music enthusiast. In the June program, Vivaldi's work is familiar and loved by all, while the Beethoven String Quartet in C minor Opus 18. no 4 will be less familiar, challenging and transcending to both the audience and the players. You will find the Beethoven work to be sublime and thought provoking.

Claude Debussy’s Golliwog's Cakewalk is one movement of his work entitled Children’s Corner. In 1908 Golliwogs were very popular due to Florence Kate Upton’s novels. They were stuffed black dolls with red pants, red bow ties, and wild hair. The music is a ragtime that features syncopation and banjo like qualities. The cakewalk was a dance where the dancer with the most steps won a cake. Carolos Gardel’s work is an Argentine tango that will be familiar to many as part of the musical scores heard in Planet 51, Schindler’s List, Scent of a Woman, Delicatessen, True Lies, All the King’s Men, etc.  Gardel is considered the most prominent figure in the history of tango and was also well known as a singer, songwriter, and actor.  “My heart is Argentinean, but my soul is Uruguayan, because that is where I was born.” (Caretas magazine)

The Symphony Sounds String quartet includes Matthew Cataldi, (Violin I), Rachelle Elizabeth Puccini (Violin 2), Ryan Loeckel (Viola), and Sarah Marsh (cello). Symphony Sounds is represented by a small, elite group of Chicago’s best chamber musicians who perform in the region’s finest ensembles: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Elgin Symphony Orchestra.

Symphony Sound’s musicians are full-time, professional performers and teachers. For example, Matthew Cataldi (Violin 1) has been actively performing for over 23 years.  His playing has been described as having "clarity and strength" (Chicago Classical Music) while at other times as being "especially sensitive" and "well-judged" (Cross Palms). With degrees from Indiana and Northwestern Universities, he has made solo, chamber, and orchestra performing appearances in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Denmark and Holland. A recipient of numerous solo awards, Mr. Cataldi performs regularly with the Elmhurst, Rockford and Green Bay Symphony Orchestras and has also performed with the Lancaster Festival, Columbus, Springfield, Westerville, Richmond, and Mansfield Symphony Orchestras. 

At intermission, Mark Tomasino will conduct the Wicker Park Choral Singers in a performance of works excerpted from their upcoming performance: 60 Degrees North – Music of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Russia & Canada on June 23 at 8 p.m. in St. Vincent de Paul Church at 1010 W. Webster Ave.

On Sunday they will sing excerpts from their full length program: Ola Gjeilo’s Prelude, Edvard Grieg’s Ave Maris Stella, Hildor Lundvik’s Flowering Almond Tree from Nocturnes, Wilhelm Stenhammar’s If I Had from Three Choral Ballads, Alfred Schnittke’s Three Sacred Hymns - I. Moderato, Stephen Chatman’s Minke Whale from Due East, Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Malaguena from ‘Suite' de Lorca.  

Mark Tomasino is the founder and artistic director of Wicker Park Choral Singers. He is quickly emerging as an exciting young artist within the choral music community. Known both for his sensitive musicianship and original programming, he is passionate about creating a unique, enriching experience for every ensemble and audience member. Tomasino earned a B.A. in Music Composition from Illinois Wesleyan University, where he sang in three national choir tours, an international tour through Eastern Europe, and studied a semester at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Upcoming schedule, credits and sponsors:

SCHEDULE: WICKER PARK MUSIC – Design & Management, Promotions, Fundraising – Doug Wood, Tim Kolecke, Lauren Krebs. For information, .                  

EDUCATION – 1ST SUNDAYS from 11 a.m. to 12 – July 1, Aug. 5, Sept. 2 in the Wicker Park Playground
Learn about music performed second Sundays from The Magic Boat Puppet Theater, Easel Art, Evolve Dance, and the Culture Lady. Learn about music and learn to translate it into art and dance.   Children will learn about these composers: July – Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini (Classical Period); August – Antonin Dvorak (Romantic Period); September – Philip Glass (Modern Minimalism)                                                                                  

PERFORMANCE – 2nd SUNDAYS from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Schiller Grove on July 8, Aug. 12, Sept. 9 with Symphony Sounds String Quartet Performs. Wicker Park Choral Singers Return Aug. 12.

COLLABORATING ARTISTS: Education: Magic Boat Puppet Theater, Easel Art, Evolve Dance, The Culture Lady Performance: Symphony Sounds String Quartet, Wicker Park Choral Singers

SPONSORS: WPB SSA#33, WPB Chamber of Commerce, Cat & Mouse Game Store, Chicago Park District, Friends of the Parks, CCI-Greenheart, Wicker Park Apartments, Friends of Bloomingdale Trail, The Trust for Public Land, Littlerock Construction, Mosaic Church, Urban Encounter, Wicker Park Advisory Council, Wicker Park Garden Club, Our Urban Times and Pipeline