Current Season
With Fulcrum Point, you're among cultural adventurers, exploring the pulse of music today, sharing endless surprises for each of your senses.
Experience music that can't quite be captured–pieces that embrace chance, silence, improvisation and technology. Fulcrum Point has its finger on the pulse of it all. With composer-in-residence Randall Woolf on hand at every performance, you're in good company.
In three thrilling programs–including 11 works never before performed in Chicago–you'll share the discoveries that have earned Fulcrum Point an international reputation as a leader in new music. Each concert lasts around 75 minutes–intensely powerful bites of culture. Afterward, hang out in the Harris lobby for a post-concert reception and chat with the artists. Each concert becomes a hands-on socio-cultural event. The best new music is in your grasp. Grab the Fulcrum Point experience.
To request a free season brochure e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Season at Harris Theater for Music and Dance:
2010 concerts:
2009 past concerts:
Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 East Randolph Drive
$30 general admission / $15 students & seniors – Buy Tickets or call (312) 334 7777
The Chicago Fluxus Ensemble, led by original Fluxus artist Simon Anderson will stage performance pieces throughout the building before the concert; arrive early for a jolt of the unexpected!
Tomi Räisänen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elevator Music on Mars (2003) – American Premiere
Christopher Burns . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frabrication (2000), Sawtooth (2009) – Chicago Premieres
Luciano Chessa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cinque Quadri da una cittá fantasma (2003) – Midwest Premiere
George Brecht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For a drummer (Fluxversions 2, 4, 6, 7) (1966)
Randall Woolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blues for Black Hoodies (2008) – Midwest Premiere
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Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago
(Related events of Art Institute Chicago exhibit Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917)
The spirit of Matisse's striking paper cutouts is captured in music by French composers Poulenc, Ibert, and Tomasi.
Performed by musicians of Fulcrum Point New Music Project led by Stephen Burns.
Click here for more info.
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$30 general admission / $15 students & seniors – Buy Tickets or call (312) 334 7777
Myths grow stronger–and more meaningful–as cultures overlap, cross borders, dance together. Each of these pieces evokes the ancient power of storytelling through new, surprising juxtapositions. Indegenous Mexican tales are set in motion anew as Luna Negra Dance Theater debuts Misplaced Flowers to Paredes' score. The spellbinding power of myths–the layers, the loss, the loves–provides the common bond for four rappers' reinvention of urban myths transformed in Woolf's multi-media world premiere.
Evan Ziporyn (Tabla score: K. Pathak) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sulvasutra (2006) – Midwest Premiere
David Dzubay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wintu Dream Song (2008), Kukulkan (2008)
Hilda Paredes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Óox p'eel ikil t'aan (2007) – American Premiere
Randall Woolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Urban Legends – World Premiere, commissioned by Music Alive
Featured Artists: Stephen Burns (trumpet), Luna Negra Dance Theater
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From Chicago’s Fulcrum Point New Music Project:
Stephen Burns (trumpet), Collins Trier (bass), and percussionists Jeff Handley and Brandon Podjasek
Guest Artists from the Netherlands:
free Jazz bassist Wilbert de Joode, with painters Tali Farchi and Royce Deans
BOOM! SPLASH! BANG! SQUISH!
Live painting with live music mixes artistic disciplines in a way that is unpredictable and always a challenge, when it is done on stage in front of a live audience anything can happen and usually does. But if the participants are world-class artists the likes of bassist, Wilbert de Joode and painters, Tali Farchi and Royce Deans; you can be sure that you are in the hands of skilled professionals that not only know just what they are doing, but they will take you on a most amazing journey, using raw creativity as the vehicle. And they will provide you with a perfect take off and landing guaranteed.
Live painting with live music is improvisation at it’s highest level. Artwork is created in front of the audience to spontaneously composed music that is driven as much by the brushstrokes of the painter as the paint is inspired by the notes and the rhythms of the musicians.
Performances of Art Wtihout Boundaries are completely based in improvisation. This way of working live exposes the artists and their creative process so completely open and uncovered as to make them “naked.” It is a dialogue between the music, paint, movement and sound. It is giving and taking, listening and reacting, painting and playing. Live painting with live music is all about being in the moment. Chances are you have never seen anything like this before, and it is for certain that you never will see it quite like this ever again.
We would like to thank the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Chicago for their support in making possible the Dutch artists' residency in Chicago.
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Presented by Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office, New York
in partnership with Fulcrum Point New Music Project
Thursday, February 25, 2010, 7:30 p.m. – FREE CONCERT (ONE NIGHT ONLY)
Thorne Auditorium of Northwestern University
375 E Chicago Ave, Chicago
A multi-media Hong Kong fanfare featuring the American Debut of the Windpipe Chinese Ensemble, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, with short movie of Manga comic Artist, Lee Chi-ching and his tiger painting.
Program:
PARKING: Paid parking available nearby at the MCA (220 E Chicago Ave) or Erie Ontario Self Park (321 E Ontario St.)
For more information: 312-726-3846
An evening with Stephen Burns and Friends
Conducted by Fulcrum Point Artistic Director, Stephen Burns
Sunday, December 6, 2009, 2:30 PM
FREE ADMISSION. FREE PARKING.
The Harold Washington Cultural Center
4701 Martin Luther King Drive, Chicago, IL 60653
More info: www.colum.edu/sherwood
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Poetry Off the Shelf: Reginald Gibbons
Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 East Randolph Drive
$30 general admission / $15 students & seniors
Download press release
The lights dim–film and music take center stage–cinematic highlights illuminate the way masterful composers can tease out inner torments. Muhly (who has worked with Björk) imbues The Reader with tortured angst. Jacob TV (aka Jacob ter Veldhuis) obsessively works motifs exploring gambling, addiction and incarceration. Woolf's documentary score is rippled with sympathy for the trials of Tibetan refugees. And Bartok's vibrant classic animates Spike Jonze' surreal identity crisis.
Nico Muhly . . . . . . . . Music from The Reader (2008) – Midwest Premiere
Jacob TV . . . . . . . . . . Grab It! (1997) – American Premiere of new Video with bass & drum accompaniments
Randall Woolf . . . . . . Holding Fast (2008) – Midwest Premiere
Béla Bartók . . . . . . . . Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta from Being John Malkovich (1999)
Featured Artists: Rika Seko (violin), and Jeremy Ruthrauff (saxophone)
NOTICE TO AUDIENCE: CERTAIN EXCERPTS FROM THE FILMS CONTAIN STRONG ADULT LANGUAGE (INCLUDING PROFANITY), NUDITY AND ADULT SITUATIONS.
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Claudia Cassidy Theatre, Chicago Cultural Center
77 East Washington Street, Chicago
Before Dr. Frankenstein there was The Golem!-- an ancient Jewish morality story about politics, power, magic, and survival. This classic silent film (1920) by Paul Wegener is brought to life by Betti Olivero's score performed live by Fulcrum Point New Music Project.
Performed by: Wagner Campos (clarinet), Katherine Brauer (violin), Guillaume Combet (violin), Claudia Lasareff-Mironoff (viola), Mark Brandfonbrener (cello); Stephen Burns, conductor
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 7:30 p.m.
Evanston SPACE
1245 Chicago Avenue, Evanston
$20 (general admission, plus cash bar)
$100 (four tickets and four beverages)
Jacob TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lipstick (1998)
Karlheinz Stockhausen . . Aries (1977)
Randall Woolf . . . . . . . . . Sneak peek at Holding Fast (2008)
Jacob TV . . . . . . . . . . . . Sneak peek at Grab It! (1997)
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Experience music that can't quite be captured–pieces that embrace chance, silence, improvisation and technology. Fulcrum Point has its finger on the pulse of it all. With composer-in-residence Randall Woolf on hand at every performance, you're in good company.
In three thrilling programs–including 11 works never before performed in Chicago–you'll share the discoveries that have earned Fulcrum Point an international reputation as a leader in new music. Each concert lasts around 75 minutes–intensely powerful bites of culture. Afterward, hang out in the Harris lobby for a post-concert reception and chat with the artists. Each concert becomes a hands-on socio-cultural event. The best new music is in your grasp. Grab the Fulcrum Point experience.
To request a free season brochure e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Season at Harris Theater for Music and Dance:
- May 19, 2010 – Computers Come Alive!
- March 23, 2010 – Heroes and Demons: Legends of Urban, Latin and Native America
- November 12, 2009 – Inner Torments – past event
2010 concerts:
- April 15, 2010 – Music for Matisse
- March 10, 2010 – Art Without Boundaries
- February 25, 2010 – Hong Kong at the Fulcrum Point Celebrates the Year of the Tiger! – past event
2009 past concerts:
- October 28, 2009 – Fulcrum Point Plugged In
- November 6, 2009 – The Golem
- December 3, 2009 - Poetry Off the Shelf: Reginald Gibbons
- December 6, 2009 - Winter Concert by Columbia Community Music Collective
- Monday, December 14, 2009 - Live from WFMT
Computers Come Alive!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 7:30 p.m.Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 East Randolph Drive
$30 general admission / $15 students & seniors – Buy Tickets or call (312) 334 7777
The Chicago Fluxus Ensemble, led by original Fluxus artist Simon Anderson will stage performance pieces throughout the building before the concert; arrive early for a jolt of the unexpected!
Tomi Räisänen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elevator Music on Mars (2003) – American Premiere
Christopher Burns . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frabrication (2000), Sawtooth (2009) – Chicago Premieres
Luciano Chessa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cinque Quadri da una cittá fantasma (2003) – Midwest Premiere
George Brecht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For a drummer (Fluxversions 2, 4, 6, 7) (1966)
Randall Woolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blues for Black Hoodies (2008) – Midwest Premiere
Back to top
Music for Matisse
Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 6:00 p.m., FREE!Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago
(Related events of Art Institute Chicago exhibit Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917)
The spirit of Matisse's striking paper cutouts is captured in music by French composers Poulenc, Ibert, and Tomasi.
Performed by musicians of Fulcrum Point New Music Project led by Stephen Burns.
Click here for more info.
Back to top
Heroes and Demons: Legends of Urban, Latin and Native America
Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 7:30 p.m.
$30 general admission / $15 students & seniors – Buy Tickets or call (312) 334 7777
Myths grow stronger–and more meaningful–as cultures overlap, cross borders, dance together. Each of these pieces evokes the ancient power of storytelling through new, surprising juxtapositions. Indegenous Mexican tales are set in motion anew as Luna Negra Dance Theater debuts Misplaced Flowers to Paredes' score. The spellbinding power of myths–the layers, the loss, the loves–provides the common bond for four rappers' reinvention of urban myths transformed in Woolf's multi-media world premiere.
Evan Ziporyn (Tabla score: K. Pathak) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sulvasutra (2006) – Midwest Premiere
David Dzubay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wintu Dream Song (2008), Kukulkan (2008)
Hilda Paredes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Óox p'eel ikil t'aan (2007) – American Premiere
Randall Woolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Urban Legends – World Premiere, commissioned by Music Alive
Featured Artists: Stephen Burns (trumpet), Luna Negra Dance Theater
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Fulcrum Point presents... Art Without Boundaries
Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 7:30 p.m.
Evanston SPACE | 1245 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, IL | 847.492.8860
$15 General Admission/ $7.50 seniors & students – Buy online here
From Chicago’s Fulcrum Point New Music Project: Stephen Burns (trumpet), Collins Trier (bass), and percussionists Jeff Handley and Brandon Podjasek
Guest Artists from the Netherlands:
free Jazz bassist Wilbert de Joode, with painters Tali Farchi and Royce Deans
BOOM! SPLASH! BANG! SQUISH!
Live painting with live music mixes artistic disciplines in a way that is unpredictable and always a challenge, when it is done on stage in front of a live audience anything can happen and usually does. But if the participants are world-class artists the likes of bassist, Wilbert de Joode and painters, Tali Farchi and Royce Deans; you can be sure that you are in the hands of skilled professionals that not only know just what they are doing, but they will take you on a most amazing journey, using raw creativity as the vehicle. And they will provide you with a perfect take off and landing guaranteed.
Live painting with live music is improvisation at it’s highest level. Artwork is created in front of the audience to spontaneously composed music that is driven as much by the brushstrokes of the painter as the paint is inspired by the notes and the rhythms of the musicians.
Performances of Art Wtihout Boundaries are completely based in improvisation. This way of working live exposes the artists and their creative process so completely open and uncovered as to make them “naked.” It is a dialogue between the music, paint, movement and sound. It is giving and taking, listening and reacting, painting and playing. Live painting with live music is all about being in the moment. Chances are you have never seen anything like this before, and it is for certain that you never will see it quite like this ever again.
We would like to thank the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Chicago for their support in making possible the Dutch artists' residency in Chicago.
Back to top
Hong Kong at the Fulcrum Point Celebrates the Year of the Tiger!
Presented by Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office, New York in partnership with Fulcrum Point New Music Project
Thursday, February 25, 2010, 7:30 p.m. – FREE CONCERT (ONE NIGHT ONLY)
Thorne Auditorium of Northwestern University
375 E Chicago Ave, Chicago
A multi-media Hong Kong fanfare featuring the American Debut of the Windpipe Chinese Ensemble, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, with short movie of Manga comic Artist, Lee Chi-ching and his tiger painting.Program:
- Tiger Sketch by Ng Cheuk-yin – World Premiere
- Drumming Ridge by Li Cheong – World Premiere
- Cat & Rat - Legend of the Chinese Zodiac (Commissioned by the Chicago Children's Humanities Festival and premiered Nov 2, 2003 at the Chicago Humanities Festival) based on the illustrated book by Caldecott Award winner Ed Young; performed with video and reader Nesita Kwan, Emmy-winning anchor and reporter at NBC 5.
- Plus modern works that blend the traditional with the contemporary
PARKING: Paid parking available nearby at the MCA (220 E Chicago Ave) or Erie Ontario Self Park (321 E Ontario St.)
For more information: 312-726-3846
An evening with Stephen Burns and Friends
Live From WFMT, hosted by Kerry Frumkin
Monday, December 14, 2009, 8 pm - 10 pm
Featuring: Kuang-Hao Huang (piano), Genevieve F. Thiers (Soprano Opera Moda), Jessica Striano (trumpet), Rob Mettesi (trumpet)
Works by: Britten, Menotti, Ravel, Schchedrin and Jacob TV
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Winter Concert presented by Sherwood Community Music School at
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago
Conducted by Fulcrum Point Artistic Director, Stephen Burns
Sunday, December 6, 2009, 2:30 PM
FREE ADMISSION. FREE PARKING.
The Harold Washington Cultural Center
4701 Martin Luther King Drive, Chicago, IL 60653
More info: www.colum.edu/sherwood
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Poetry Off the Shelf: Reginald Gibbons
Oidipous Tyrannos: Oedipus the King
National Hellenic Museum
801 West Adams Street, 4th Floor
Free admission
Thursday, December 3, 2009, 6:00 p.m.
Incidental music provided by Fulcrum Point New Music Project led by Stephen Burns.
Reginald Gibbons retells the story of Oedipus, reading the five odes from Oedipus the King, which capture the apprehension, fear, beliefs, and hope of the townspeople of Thebes as the story of Oedipus unfolds in their midst. Filled with sparkling language, intense and surprisingly modern feeling, and myth, the five odes are among the most beautiful poems of antiquity.
Reginald Gibbons’s most recent book of poems is Creatures of a Day (2008), a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award. His new translations of Sophocles, Selected Poems: Odes and Fragments (2008), won the Soeurette Diehl Fraser translation award from the Texas Institute of Letters. With the late Charles Segal, Gibbons translated two Greek tragedies, Bakkhai and Antigone (2001 and 2003). His new book, Slow Trains Overhead: Chicago Poems and Stories, will be published in 2010. His novel Sweetbitter (2003) won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. He teaches at Northwestern University.
Presented by the Poetry Foundation in Chicago.
Co-sponsored with the National Hellenic Museum
More info: www.poetryfoundation.org
Inner Torments
Thursday, November 12, 2009, 7:30 p.m.Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 East Randolph Drive
$30 general admission / $15 students & seniors
Download press release
The lights dim–film and music take center stage–cinematic highlights illuminate the way masterful composers can tease out inner torments. Muhly (who has worked with Björk) imbues The Reader with tortured angst. Jacob TV (aka Jacob ter Veldhuis) obsessively works motifs exploring gambling, addiction and incarceration. Woolf's documentary score is rippled with sympathy for the trials of Tibetan refugees. And Bartok's vibrant classic animates Spike Jonze' surreal identity crisis.
Nico Muhly . . . . . . . . Music from The Reader (2008) – Midwest Premiere
Jacob TV . . . . . . . . . . Grab It! (1997) – American Premiere of new Video with bass & drum accompaniments
Randall Woolf . . . . . . Holding Fast (2008) – Midwest Premiere
Béla Bartók . . . . . . . . Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta from Being John Malkovich (1999)
Featured Artists: Rika Seko (violin), and Jeremy Ruthrauff (saxophone)
NOTICE TO AUDIENCE: CERTAIN EXCERPTS FROM THE FILMS CONTAIN STRONG ADULT LANGUAGE (INCLUDING PROFANITY), NUDITY AND ADULT SITUATIONS.
Back to top
The Golem
Friday, November 6, 2009, 7:00 p.m. – Free concert!Claudia Cassidy Theatre, Chicago Cultural Center
77 East Washington Street, Chicago
Before Dr. Frankenstein there was The Golem!-- an ancient Jewish morality story about politics, power, magic, and survival. This classic silent film (1920) by Paul Wegener is brought to life by Betti Olivero's score performed live by Fulcrum Point New Music Project.
Performed by: Wagner Campos (clarinet), Katherine Brauer (violin), Guillaume Combet (violin), Claudia Lasareff-Mironoff (viola), Mark Brandfonbrener (cello); Stephen Burns, conductor
Back to top
Fulcrum Point Plugged In
An intimate show of rarely performed new music influenced by cosmic astrology, Tibetan tantra, and Jerry Springer!Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 7:30 p.m.
Evanston SPACE
1245 Chicago Avenue, Evanston
$20 (general admission, plus cash bar)
$100 (four tickets and four beverages)
Jacob TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lipstick (1998)
Karlheinz Stockhausen . . Aries (1977)
Randall Woolf . . . . . . . . . Sneak peek at Holding Fast (2008)
Jacob TV . . . . . . . . . . . . Sneak peek at Grab It! (1997)
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