January 26, 2015
By Gerald Fisher, critic
Through fifty years of good times and lean the University of Chicago’s new music collective Contempo has faithfully presented challenging programs and fostered the careers of impressive composers and performers. Saturday night at the Logan Center for the Arts the ensemble celebrated their achievements in the first of two programs, “Contempo at 50: Now and Then,” which included three world premieres.
January 25, 2015
By Alan G. Artner
Contempo, the University of Chicago’s new music collective, began its 50th anniversary season Saturday night at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, with a characteristically prickly program superlatively played.
As in time past, when the organization was called the Contemporary Chamber Players (CCP), premieres sat alongside recent and older pieces that continue to sound questing, challenging and uncompromisingly “modern.”
January 23, 2015
Award-winning composer Marta Ptaszynska will succeed Shulamit Ran as the artistic director of Contempo, the University of Chicago’s renowned contemporary music collective.
Ran, the Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor of Composition and a Pulitzer Prize winning composer, will retire in June after more than 40 years of service to the University and 12 years as artistic director of Contempo.
Click here to read more: ptaszynska-contempo-director
January 21, 2015
By Kyle MacMillan, critic
While nearly every major city in the United States has some kind of a contemporary music ensemble or society, few can equal the longevity of the University of Chicago’s Contempo, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a series of concerts beginning Jan. 24.
January 20, 2015
By Dennis Polkow
November 14, 2014
By Evangeline Reid, critic
This year UChicago Arts is celebrating an Artennial, a year of anniversaries in the arts that involves a number of important groups on campus. It’s time to take stock of where this University and the arts are standing.