Think of the best, most thoughtful holiday card you've ever given. Now prepare to feel bad about your feeble effort as we tell you about the card composer Augusta Read Thomas gave flutist Claire Chase in 2008 that contained "Euterpe's Caprice," a two-minute solo work dedicated to Chase. As of posting, we cannot determine whether the card also contained a tedious summary of the achievements and news of Thomas's family that year. Anyhow, you can hear "Euterpe's Caprice" and other works for free at a concert put on by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), one of our favorite new-music groups kinda-sorta based in town (they split their time between here and New York), at the Art Institute this Friday evening. more ›

Dan Peck, who mans the tuba for the new-music group International Contemporary Ensemble, feels that tuba players have been living a lie. Solo tuba music has only been around for a little over a half-century, and like other instrumentalists new to the solo world, there's a pervasive insecurity that comes from comparing the worth of your chosen voice to instruments like the violin or piano that have centuries' worth of repertoire written by history's greatest composers. Try as tuba players might by playing technically-demanding music, often music written for other, more virtuosic instruments, their efforts to be taken seriously only bring the ridiculousness of their endeavor into greater focus. Peck wants tuba players to come to terms with the gigantic maze of metal tubes they bear hug in their laps: the tuba is a bass instrument. In his solo performances, like the one he'll give this Friday night at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Peck digs in his heels and explores the tuba's neglected, extreme-low end range in all its muddled and often silly-sounding glory. more ›

There's a wide variety of classical music being written today. If you don't mind the use of the term "classical music" (which is more inaccurate but slightly less pretentious than the best alternative, "art music"), then you may also pardon the gross oversimplification that that music falls roughly into two camps: complicated, dissonant music from the 20th-century modernist tradition; and more minimalist work from the Steve Reich family tree branch. Composers of the latter group believe that music doesn't need to be harmonically or developmentally complicated, sensibilities that are aligned with other "simple" music. more ›

Pop quiz: What instrument sounds the first official note at an orchestra concert? more ›

Fans of sonic experimentation will want to clear their schedules November 19 for the return of the Chicago/NYC-based International Contemporary Ensemble to the MCA for a rare performance of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's work. Brad Lubman will conduct and Saariaho herself will supervise the group's rehearsals and make a guest appearance at the concert to field audience questions. more ›

Do you demand satisfaction? You'll be able to find it at either solo violin recital going on this weekend, as two accomplished musicians play works from opposite ends of the Western music spectrum. more ›

Alright, folks, I have to make this quick before my editors get back from their coffee run. Here's the deal: By now you probably know about our fifth anniversary party this Saturday night at The Whistler. I want to tell you about a great concert going on that night, but if my editors find out I plugged something other than our party, they'll make Gitmo look like a Mancow stunt. They are not fucking around on this one. more ›