Join us for our annual Gala Benefit May 15th

Ars Viva will hold its Benefit Gala Tuesday, May 15th at the Hilton Orrington Hotel in Evanston with entertainment by the Ars Viva Orchestra performing music of Johann Strauss, Jr.. The event will include presentation of the 2012 Award for Excellence to Mark George, President and CEO of the Music Institute of Chicago.

Click here to read more

Concert 1

David Taylor

Richard Hirschl

Sunday, September 23 • 3:00 p.m.

Our first concert opens with music that will engage audience members of all ages: from Khachaturian’s famous waltz through his swirling Mazurka to the concluding gallop, you will be off and running with our great new season. We will continue with the powerful “Double Concerto” of Brahms featuring Ars Viva concertmaster, David Taylor, and his brilliant CSO colleague, Richard Hirschl, before presenting the Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 8, one of the most unusual and engaging works in the repertoire with its separate movements for strings and winds alone. Don’t miss it!

Concert 2

Sunday, November 4 • 3:00 p.m.

After opening with Brahms’ “thank-you note” for his honorary doctorate from Breslau, we bring the next installment in our highly successful traversal of the complete Sibelius symphonies. Completing this dazzling program of orchestral masterpieces is one of the sunniest and flashiest of Shostakovich’s symphonies, sure to provide endless moments of pure delight.

Concert 3

Gerard Sundberg

Sunday, January 13 • 3:00 p.m.

No more contrasting works can be imagined than Vaughan Williams’ vividly picturesque portrayal of an insect and Mahler’s heart-searching examination of Rückert’s poems, written within 5 years of each other but from widely differing aesthetics and perspectives. Continuing with Mahler, we hear the evocative and plaintive “Blumine” movement originally attached to his first symphony, followed by the first symphony of the young but spectacularly gifted Beethoven. Didn’t someone say that variety is the spice of life? (it was actually William Cowper, 1731-1800.)

Concert 4

Sunday, March 3 • 3:00 p.m.

Every few years Ars Viva makes a foray into the sound world of the string orchestra, usually combining some of the best-loved works with others that are less frequently heard. You may not even know that Mahler wrote an expanded version of Schubert’s extraordinary string quartet, but you will be awed by the confluence of these two astonishingly brilliant masters. Don’t worry: behind the grim subtitle of Schubert’s work lies a generally sunny and exciting work that fares exceptionally well in this seldom-heard transcription.

Concert 5

Sunday, April 28 • 3:00 p.m.

With our performance of the hands-down audience favorite Sibelius symphony, Ars Viva completes its several-season cycle of these inspired works. The entire symphony is an irrepressible statement of nationalistic pride. So, in its own way, is John Corigliano’s nod to the iconic symbol of American parks and town squares, the ubiquitous gazebo. These Coplandesque dances will provide an engaging prelude to our annual presentation of a competition-winning young star whose career is on a sharply upward trajectory.

Eastern European Romanticism

Sunday, March 11 • 3:00 p.m.

Join us as we travel throughout Eastern Europe, sampling some of their finest works. Our journey begins with the greatest of Russia’s nationalistic operas and the Overture from Prince Igor by Borodin. Next, we will join the boatmen along the Volga in Glazunov’s Stenka Razin. The final stop on our sojourn will be Dvorák’s beloved Symphony no. 7, infused with Czechoslovakian dances.