Lecture, discussion & lunch with Gerard McBurney,  artistic programming advisor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Free and open to the public.  RSVP appreciated:  Mike Schuh, Program Coordinator

Britten, Prokofiev and Shostakovich embody one of the most colorful and accessible threads in mid-20th century music. Each used his music – both on concert stages and in tandem with emerging media such as radio and film – to connect swiftly with worldwide audiences and to engage young ears with the powers of classical composition. This populist approach to writing music drew on their belief in art’s power to enliven the spirit of any listener, even in dark periods of history, and at a time when many contemporaries were pioneering more densely complex forms of composition. The Chicago Symphony is celebrating this important current in classical music from the last century with a three-week festival. Join us as CSO artistic programming advisor  Gerard McBurney presents a talk and Q&A on these composers’ music, inspirations, outlooks, and lasting influence.

A native of England, Gerard McBurney studied in Cambridge and at the Moscow Conservatory before returning to London, where he worked for many years as a composer, arranger, broadcaster, teacher and writer. He is artistic programming advisor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and creative director of Beyond the Score.

His original compositions include orchestral works, a ballet, a chamber opera, songs and chamber music as well as many theater scores.  He also is well known for his reconstructions of various lost and forgotten works by Dmitri Shostakovich, including the operatic fragment “Orango” which received its world premiere at the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen in 2011.

As a scholar, McBurney has published mostly in the field of Russian and Soviet music. His journalistic work includes articles on many different musical subjects. For 20 years, he created and presented hundreds of programs on BBC Radio 3 (the classical music station of the British Broadcasting Corporation) as well as occasional programs for other radio stations in the U.K., Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Gerard McBurney has written, researched and presented more than two dozen documentary television films for British and German television channels. For many years he lectured and taught, first at the London College of Music and then for more than 10 years at the Royal Academy of Music. He also has acted as advisor and collaborated with many orchestras and presenters, including Lincoln Center, the Emerson String Quartet and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. McBurney joined the staff of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in September 2006.