Immersive Chamber Music Series presents: Marianne Parker & Gregory Oakes 

Date: Sunday, February 26, 2023

Doors: 1PM 

Showtime: 2PM 

Tickets: $20 - General Admission 

‘Service charges apply to ALL ticket purchases (online and box office)’ - Credit card only at door

About: 

About Sgraffito: Sgraffito draws inspiration from the decorative technique of decoration produced by applying plaster in layers tinted in contrasting colors and then revealing the underlying layer through delicate scratching.   In this case, a delicate surface texture is scraped to reveal a substrate of explosive speed and complex interactions between instruments.

Pianist Marianne Parker’s playing has been described as “a cut above...her sympathetic fingers offering well-sculpted phrases and impassioned pealing” (Chicago Classical Review). Her debut album, Pages intimes, released in early 2019, features recently re-discovered works by Haitian composers. Marianne has curated an anthology of 21st century works for solo piano through NewMusicShelf. An active chamber musician, Marianne co-founded the marimba and piano new music ensemble L+M Duo in 2016 with marimbist Laurel Black. The duo is committed to commissioning new work for their instrumentation by today’s composers. They were featured in Chamber Music Magazine; performed at the Nief-Norf New Music Festival in Knoxville, TN; and produced a public concert in Chicago to celebrate the centennial of the iconic Wrigley Building. A fierce advocate of New Music, Parker is in demand as a collaborator for instrumentalists and vocalists alike. She serves as Vice President of the membership group New Music Chicago and coproduces the monthly series New Music Chicago Presents... at the Chicago Cultural Center. Marianne performs with many prominent chamber ensembles across the Midwest, including Milwaukee’s Present Music, and Chicago’s Access Contemporary Music, Fourth Coast Ensemble, Crossing Borders Music, and more. Marianne served as the principal pianist for the Chicago Civic Orchestra, and has performed under the batons of Riccardo Muti, Jaap Van Zweden, Michael Tilson Thomas, Ludovic Morlot, Carlos Miguel Prieto, and Michael Christy. Marianne’s work is driven by her passion to communicate the vibrancy and variety of classical music, especially to those who have yet to discover it.

Gregory Oakes is an exciting and energetic clarinetist performer and a passionate champion of the music of our time. From his Carnegie Hall debut with members of Ensemble Intercontemporain and Pierre Boulez to his performances as a member of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, he has been praised by critics for his “outstanding performance” (New York Times) and “jazzy flourishes” (Denver Post). He has appeared as a concerto soloist with such esteemed ensembles as the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the Denver Brass, played at Amsterdam’s new music hall, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, and been a featured soloist at the prestigious MaerzMusik festival in Berlin. He has been a featured artist at multiple International Clarinet Association ClarinetFests, the New Music Gathering, the International Computer Music Conference, the Karnatic Lab concert series (Amsterdam), the Crested Butte Chamber Music Festival, and Boulder’s Modern Music Festival. Greg has also toured Brazil, Thailand, and the Netherlands and been in residence at Princeton University, Harvard University, Dartmouth College, and the Aspen Music Festival. In the summer, he is on the faculty of The Cortona Sessions festival for new music in Tuscany, Italy. Greg’s recordings have been released on Bridge, Centaur, CRI, Gothic, Karnatic Lab Records, and Naxos and broadcast on National Public Radio. His CD Aesthetic Apparatus: Clarinet Chamber Music of Helmut Lachenmann appears on New Focus Recordings. Greg is on the faculty of Iowa State University and is principal clarinet of the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra. He is a Buffet Group USA and Vandoren Performing Artist.

Douglas Boyce