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The Chicago Bar Association
presents
"LAWYER and MUSICIAN"
The E-Newsletter of
The Chicago Bar Association
Symphony Orchestra & the CBA Chorus
*The 2024-25 Orchestra & Chorus Season Begins November 9th!
*The book "Wonderful Counsellor" goes on sale November 1st!
*The Barristers Big Band performs October 19th!
Vol IV. No 16, October 2024
Maestro David (Volosin) Katz, editor
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The 2024-25 season of The Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra and CBA Chorus begins with a combined concert on Saturday, November 9, 2024 at 7:30 pm in St James Cathedral,
Wabash @ Huron.
The CBASO's new music director, JENNIFER HUANG, leads the orchestra in Dvorak's sunny and tuneful SYMPHONY NO. 8, and CBA Chorus director STEPHEN BLACKWELDER conducts the combined forces of orchestra and chorus, plus professional soloists,
in Nunes Garcia's Mozart-inspired REQUIEM.
Reduced priced TICKETS in advance by following this link: https://cbanov.eventbrite.com
Rediscover Chicago's unique ensembles of legal professionals
and join us for great music all year long!
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About NUNES GARCIA and his Requiem
program note by Stephen Blackwelder
José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767-1830) was the first notable Brazilian composer of the nineteenth century and is today considered the “father of classical music” in Brazil. He was the son of a lieutenant, Apolinário Nunes Garcia, and a black woman descended from Ghanaian slaves, Victoria Maria da Cruz. His father died when the boy was only 6, and he was subsequently raised by his mother and aunt. Recognizing his musical talent at a young age, his mother sent him to a music class and enrolled him in lessons of history, geography, languages, and moral philosophy.
In 1783 he studied music with the chapel master of the Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro and began studying for the priesthood, which would provide him with a stable income. In 1784 he helped found the Brotherhood of St. Cecilia, one of the most important musical organizations of the time. He was ordained a priest in March, 1792 and in July, 1798 was appointed the chapel master of the Rio de Janeiro Cathedral. Duties of this position included acting as organist, conductor, composer and music teacher, as well as appointing musicians. He also had begun a free music course open to the public, which went on for 28 years, teaching some of the best-known musicians of the time.
The arrival (from Portugal) of Dom João VI in Rio de Janeiro in 1808 had a decisive influence on the professional career of Padre José Maurício. A member of the Bragança family, which had a remarkable history of musical patronage, Dom João was soon informed of José Maurício's talents and appointed him on 15 June 1808 mestre de capela of the royal chapel, where his official duties included acting as organist, conductor, and professor of music. He also composed music for numerous official occasions, thirty-nine musical works in 1809, a year in which Dom João decorated him with the Order of Christ.
His musical style reflects his classical-era training; one of his early biographers referred to him as the “Brazilian Mozart.” Almost all of his musical output is sacred, consisting of many masses, short liturgical pieces, and his best-known work, a Requiem composed in 1816 to commemorate the death of the queen of Portugal. The composer’s own mother died on the same day as the queen, which gave extra poignance to its composition. The Requiem shows the influence of Mozart’s own Requiem, which Nunes Garcia premiered in Brazil in 1819.
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Jennifer Huang, newly appointed music director of the CBASO, is a Taiwanese-American conductor currently serving as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Northwestern Medical Orchestra. Her most recent engagements include Music Director of the Merit School of Music Chamber Orchestra, Music Director of Thompson Street Opera Co., and Associate Conductor of the Chicago City-Wide Symphony Orchestra.
Before moving to Chicago in 2021, Huang worked with several ensembles in the Bay Area, serving as Resident Conductor of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony Aspirante Youth Orchestra, Music Director of the UCB Summer and Chamber Orchestras, and Assistant Conductor and Chorus Director of West Edge Opera.
While the majority of her work focuses on standard orchestral repertoire, Huang is also an active opera conductor and a strong advocate for new music performance, working closely with composers from around the world. An accomplished violinist, pianist, and vocalist, Huang has performed under the baton of world-class artists such as Riccardo Muti, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, and David Robertson. She holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of California Berkeley in Molecular Cell Biology and Music, as well as a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Northwestern Bienen School of Music.
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Stephen Blackwelder is currently Director of the DePaul Community Chorus (since 2005), Director of the Chicago Bar Association Chorus (since 2017) and Music Director of North Shore Unitarian Church in Deerfield (since 2016). Previous positions include Music Director of the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra (2000-2018) and Music Director of the Hinsdale Chamber Orchestra (1983-94), plus numerous civic/educational orchestral, opera, and choral ensembles in the greater Chicago area.
As a professional singer, he performed frequently under conductors Sir Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado, James Levine, Robert Shaw and Margaret Hillis while a member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Aspen Chamber Choir.
Over a number of decades, he served on the conducting staff of Chicago Opera Theater, Opera da Corneto, Opera Illinois, Hinsdale Opera Theater (IL) and Harford Opera Theater of Baltimore.
Academic and teaching positions include East Carolina University, Northern Illinois University, Lake Forest College and (currently) DePaul University’s Community Music Division.
Blackwelder holds a BM from the University of North Carolina (1978) and a MM from Northwestern University (1979). Professional study included four seasons with the Aspen Music Festival and conducting master classes with Sir Georg Solti, Max Rudolf and Erich Leinsdorf.
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Wonderful Counsellor
David Katz’s much-anticipated
Personal, Pictorial History of
The Chicago Bar Association’s Musical Miracles
goes on advanced sale
November 1, 2024
Purchase by November 22th to receive in time for Holiday Giving!
Look for purchase information in the special November 1st issue
of “Lawyer & Musician”
Wonderful Counsellor
was created to commemorate the 150th Birthday of
The Chicago Bar Association
and will be available in
A DELUXE CELEBRATION SIGNED, NUMBERED, LIMITED EDITION
of just 150 copies.
- 101 FULL COLOR PAGES, 8.5 x 11 inches
- Nearly 350 captioned photos and graphics
- Special sections about the CBA Symphony, CBA Chorus and Barristers Big Band, from the first CBASO rehearsal in November 1986 through the CBA’s 150th Birthday Concert welcoming Jennifer Huang in June 2024.
- The three Symphony Center Concerts, Beethoven's 9th at Navy Pier, and the Barristers Big Band Benefit Ball are highlighted, as well as Law Day, Trial By Jury, CBA Chorus run-out performances, the Lincoln Bicentennial, and more.
Look for purchase information in the special November 1st issue
of “Lawyer & Musician”
Wonderful Counsellor
is presented in two volumes:
Volume I—ready for 2024 Holiday giving, features stories,
photographs and documents
Volume II—to be published winter 2025 and sent separately,
includes concerts and repertoire, names of chorus, orchestra and big band personnel, as well as reminiscences from
longtime members, and from Maestro Katz.
Purchase both volumes for one price, tax included,
with free shipping and available personalization.
Each purchase includes a donation to The Chicago Bar Association in support of its music programs.
Look for purchase information in the special November 1st issue
of “Lawyer & Musician”
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"My dear friends,
Since COVID, I have been working on
WONDERFUL COUNSELLOR
and very soon it will be available, but in limited quantities.
"Is it an important story—ensembles of lawyers-musicians in Chicago?
If there is little record, the decision has already been made for us: when we are gone what we did will be important to hardly anyone.
But if the history is written down, it will exist at least in some form—deserving of its own tiny place on the shelf of music history in our beloved city—to be cherished now by some,
to be discovered later by others…
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…My favorite Mahler tempo indication is just one German word: “Vorwärts!”
It means “Onward!,” and that is where I pray these special, enduring musical ensembles of legal professionals will always go."
—from David Katz’s “Overture” in Wonderful Counsellor
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