The Music Institute of Chicago is grateful to the following sponsors, whose generous support helps us to entertain, inspire, and educate through live music performed by both new emerging artists and the most established artists of our time.
program is partially funded by the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Sponsorship opportunities range from concerts and performances, to the annual Gala, special capital projects, and community engagement initiatives.
contact the Development Office to learn more: 847.448.8323.
DEAR FRIENDS,
Welcome! The 2022-23 season is one of spectacular diversity including chamber music, a Gospel tribute, romantic era piano repertoire, a family concert, MLK celebration, elegant jazz, and dynamic alumni performers – truly something for everyone.
There is no better place to hear a concert than Nichols Concert Hall. The pristine acoustics, Greek revival architecture, and welcoming hospitality, create an intimate and thoroughly satisfying listening experience.
I encourage you to share your Nichols Concert Hall experience with friends and colleagues. The Music Institute of Chicago regularly presents world-class musicians in a beautiful and conveniently located performance space, for a fraction of the cost of events in downtown Chicago. Nichols Concert Hall is a tremendous value.
The concert series is only one part of our mission, which is to lead people toward a lifelong engagement with music. The Music Institute of Chicago is a top-tier community music school, offering lessons and classes to thousands of students of all ages and levels. The Music Institute is also deeply committed to making music and music education accessible to people and communities who might not otherwise have access.
You can learn more about MIC’s many activities, register for lessons, and purchase tickets by visiting www.musicinst.org. I look forward to seeing you and your friends throughout the year at Nichols Concert Hall!
Mark George President and CEO Music Institute of Chicago
Named the Chicago Tribune’s 2020 Person of the Year in Jazz, Tammy McCann has a powerful, sultry, and emotionally charged voice that paints pictures and tells stories by merging classical vocal technique and gospel esthetic with jazz to create a sound that is completely her own. She has performed with such luminaries as Chicago’s own Ramsey Lewis and NEA Jazz Master Von Freeman, John Clayton, Branford Marsalis, Joe Locke, Charles McPherson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Carmen Bradford, and she toured as a “Raelette” with the great Ray Charles. McCann has thrilled audiences in festivals and clubs worldwide, from Thailand to Greece, as well as the nation’s premier concert and jazz venues, including Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, The Blue Note, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, and Chicago's Jazz Showcase.
YES, MAHALIA!
Mahalia Jackson’s connection to Chicago is historic, through her link to Thomas Dorsey and his creation of the modern gospel sound. Yes, Mahalia!, which McCann created with arranger Eyal Vilner and premiered in Israel in 2019, is a fresh and soulful reimagining of Jackson’s music that captures the synergy of her unique sound and pairs it with the sonic power of big-band jazz. The show celebrates not only Jackson’s music, but her life experiences and her contribution to the world community.
Since 1996, McCann has traveled the world with her gospel group Tammy McCann and The Voices of Glory celebrating the music and legacy of Mahalia Jackson. “I always saw my jazz and gospel worlds as separate until a friend suggested I explore synergies between the two genres, and Yes, Mahalia! was born,” she shared. “I love this quote about Mahalia’s performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, which said she was ‘able to take a sacred moment into the secular, thus making all moments before, after and around ring out with reverence and reverie.’ My mission is for her music and legacy to ‘ring out’ for future generations.”
THE BAND VOCALS
Tammy McCann
DIRECTOR
Marques Carroll
BACKING VOCALS
J'lyn Hope, Laquisha Burries, Ken Davis, and Noah Brown
SAXOPHONE
Rajiv Halim, alto/flute, Marquel Jordan, tenor, and Leni McKinney, baritone
TRUMPET
Marques Carroll and Ryan Nyther
TROMBONE
Norman Palm and Joe Mende
RHYTHM
Tom Vaitsas, piano, John Sutton, bass and Sam Jewell, drums
MARQUES CARROLL
A bold performer and passionate educator, Chicago-based trumpeter Marques Carroll has worked and shared the stage with jazz powerhouses like Carmen Bradford, Dee Dee Bridgewater (Count Basie Band), Etienne Charles, Christian McBride, Jon Faddis, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Randy Weston (Chicago Jazz Ensemble).
In addition to his prolific performing career, Marques is an accomplished educator. He currently teaches Jazz Trumpet at the University in Chicago and regularly holds clinics and master classes around the country. Marques is the leader of his own self-titled quintet, the Trumpet Summit and co-leader of the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective, and also a permanent sub-member of The Count Basie Orchestra. His solo debut record, The Ancestors’ Call, and his sequel to his debut record, Foundations, are now available everywhere.
Born in New Orleans in 1911, Mahalia Jackson grew up in a shotgun home shared by 13 people. Surrounded by difficult economic circumstances, she found solace and inspiration singing at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church.
At 16 Jackson moved to Chicago, a part of the Great Migration that led many African Americans northward in prusuit of better economic opportunities. She joined the Greater Salem Baptist Church and began touring with the Johnson Brothers, Chicago's first professional gospel group.
By 1937, Jackson had made her first set of recordings with Decca Records. Gospel music was becoming popular in Chicago churches, and Jackson was building a community of gospel musicians that included Thomas Dorsey, with whom she would usher in the Golden Age of Gospel.
In 1948, Mahalia Jackson recorded "Move On Up a Little Higher" for Apollo Records, selling one million copies in the United States. Two years later, she was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall as the headlining act at the First Negro Gospel Music Festival, a monumental event in the history of gospel music.
Jackson found mainstream success in the late '50s, touring worldwide, recording, and performing at monumental events. In 1958, Jackson collaborated with popular orchestral arranger Percy Faith to record the hit album The Power and the Glory, and contributed vocals to Duke Ellington's suite, Black, Brown, and Beige. By 1960, Jackson was an international star. Her congregational calland-response style, combined with her soulful, voluminous voice, made gospel music popular all over the world.
Mahalia Jackson's struggle with racism had urged her to get involved in the Civil Rights movement and by the early 1960s, gospel music and spirituals had become the inseparable soundtrack to the Civil Rights movement. At the second March on Washington in 1963, the largest demonstration in the history of the nation, Jackson opened her set with "I've Been 'Buked," at Dr. Martin Luther King's request. When it was King's turn to speak, some witnesses say, Jackson leaned forward and whispered, "Tell them about the dream, Martin," urging him to deliver the most famous speech of the Civil Rights movement. Throughout the era, Jackson sang at monumental events such as President John F. Kennedy's inauguration and funeral. She also sang at King's funeral in
1968, and recorded an album of his favorite songs, The Best Loved Hymns of Dr. M. L. King.
Mahalia Jackson died of heart failure in January 1972, at the age of 60. Hundreds of musicians and politicians attended Jackson's two funerals gathering to honor the greatest gospel singer of all time, a woman who had conquered poverty, racism, and hardship to win fans and friends all over the world.
Excertped from: www.mahaliajackson.us
