Clef Notes

Legendary music producer, composer, and arranger Quincy Jones passed away on Sunday, November 3 at the age of 91. His prodigious musical talent, indefatigable work ethic, and ability to build relationships with top musicians across genres propelled his long and varied career. Most people will be familiar with his work as producer of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the best-selling album of all time. But did you know Quincy Jones had extensive classical training with Nadia Boulanger, one of the most renowned composition teachers of the twentieth century? Read on to learn more about Jones’s classical training and how it influenced his career, and be sure to tune into WILL-TV on Tuesday, December 31 at 10:30 pm for Quincy Jones: A Musical Celebration in Paris.

Hailed by The New Yorker as “an ensemble of eloquent intensity [that] has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene,” the Jupiter Quartet returns to the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on November 12 with a program of quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven, Kati Agócs, and Franz Schubert. We sat down with two members of the University of Illinois’ Quartet-in-Residence to discuss their upcoming season. In particular, we preview Singing Land, a work for chamber choir and string quartet by composer Su Lian Tan with words by botanist/writer Robin Wall Kimmerer. Singing Land is the latest in a series of Jupiter Quartet-commissioned works celebrating the environment.

On Thursday, November 7, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra returns to the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts—its downstate home away from home. Led by Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti, the CSO will play music from Muti’s native Italy alongside selections by Falla and Chabrier. Excitingly, the program will also include the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Megalopolis Suite from his score to Francis Ford Coppola’s latest film, Megalopolis. Read on to learn more about the CSO’s history at Krannert and the November 7 program.

We are pleased to announce the addition of a new show to our weekday programming. Starting Monday, October 7, we will be carrying Anytime Classical with host John Nasukaluk Clare. Airing weekdays from noon to 1 p.m. on FM 90.9, the program comes to us from our partners at Classical Music Indianapolis. The show will feature classical favorites, new music, and occasional interviews with composers and artists performing in cities across the Midwest. Read on to learn more about Clare and how he approaches programming for Anytime Classical.

Max Ramirez, Classical FM 90.9's newly appointed manager, takes us through some changes coming to the programming on 90.9 and looks to the future of the station. Plus, let your voice be heard by taking the WILL Classical FM Listener Survey, which will help us get to know you and allow us to make informed programming decisions into the future. 

It’s not every day a famous composer drops new music, especially when that composer has been dead for over 230 years. But today we’re in luck! Researchers from the International Mozarteum Foundation of Salzburg recently uncovered what they believe to be a previously unknown string trio by none other than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Read on to learn more about this discovery and to hear the very first modern performance of the work.

We met with 26-year-old conductor Shelbie Rassler, who has just embarked on a 50+ city tour of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Live in Concert, which comes to the State Farm Center in Champaign on Wednesday, October 2. The show features live orchestral musicians, a DJ, and electronics, which accompany the film on the big screen. Read on to learn more about Rassler and the joys and challenges of this massive undertaking.

MASTERPIECE series Wolf Hall returns to WILL-TV this fall, airing Sundays at 9 p.m. beginning October 27. Adapted from Hilary Mantel’s historical novels, the award-winning miniseries charts Thomas Cromwell’s rise to political power within the court of King Henry VIII. Music plays an integral role in setting the mood of the show, be it through composer Debbie Wiseman’s contemporary score featuring Tudor instruments or the integration of authentic music from the era played by the Musicians of Shakespeare’s Globe, some of which was written by Henry VIII himself. While today Henry VIII is most remembered for his six wives and founding the Church of England, he was an accomplished musician and composer and prominent patron of the arts. In this article, we’ll examine Henry VIII’s musical contributions and attempt to separate fact from fiction.  

On September 2, Illinois Public Media is introducing a new daily show called BirdNote. Each two-minute episode illustrates the lives of birds with rich sounds and engaging stories, providing a moment of respite from the day’s news and deepening listeners’ connection with nature. The show will air weekdays at 5:58 am and 12:58 pm on WILL-FM 90.9. In anticipation of this new show, we're looking at composers who were inspired by the sounds of birds.

Most classical listeners do not listen exclusively to classical music, but the genre forms one part of their broader listening habits. If you’re anything like me, sometimes classical music can be too distracting or have too many emotional and dynamic peaks and valleys to be relegated to background music. So, we’ve highlighted four classical–crossover albums we think you might enjoy that either riff on old classics or forge their own path as models of “post-classical” music. While engaging in their own ways, they do lend themselves to various relaxed listening situations.