BY KYLE MACMILLAN | FOR SUN-TIMES MEDIA
Some cultural arts events worth checking out this week:
Opera
Of course, it’s always rewarding to see and hear Renee Fleming on the Lyric Opera of Chicago stage. But Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, is offering a way to experience the famed soprano in a different, more up-close way. The four-time Grammy Award winner is leading a public masterclass for four voice and opera students at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 27 in Northwestern’s Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive, in Evanston. Tickets, $10. (847) 467-4000; pickstaiger.org.
Symphonic music
Established in 2010, the Beijing-based National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra is quickly becoming one of China’s most recognized symphonic ensembles. It will make an appearance at 3 p.m. Sunday in Orchestra Hall, 220 S. Michigan, to begin its first North American tour, a seven-city itinerary that will take chief conductor Lü Jia and the orchestra to such prominent venues as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada. For its Chicago appearance, the ensemble will be joined by Yuja Wang, a 27-year-old Chinese pianist who has soared to the top ranks of the classical scene in the past decade. She will be featured as soloist in Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major. Also on the program will be Qigang Chen’s “Wu Xing (The Five Elements),” Suite for Orchestra, and Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8. Tickets, $25-$85. (312) 294‑3000; cso.org.
Poetry
Poet and author Eileen Myles won the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Prize in 2010 and was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship two years later. As part of the Chicago Humanities Foundation, the well-respected New York poet will present a talk at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Poetry Foundation, 61 W. Superior. She will discussing “Afterglow,” a new fantasy and dog memoir about her longtime companion Rosie. The foundation describes her appearances as a “mix of stand-up, Zen talk and poetry.” Admission, $12. (312) 494-9509; chicagohumanities.org.
Visual art
More than 80 top examples of old-master Italian draftsmanship will go on view Saturday at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan, as part of an exhibition titled, “Strokes of Genius: Italian Drawings from the Goldman Collection.” It features about 60 works from the Chicago collection of Jean and Steven Goldman and 20 related selections from the museum’s prints and drawings collection. Included will be examples by such artists as Baccio Bandinelli, Pietro da Cortona, Salvator Rosa and Francesco Salviati. The show will run through Feb. 1. Free with regular museum admission. (312) 443-3600; artic.edu.
Frightful music
To celebrate Halloween, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony Center Presents series offers a screening of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” at 8 p.m. Friday, with Cameron Carpenter providing live accompaniment on the Casavant Freres pipe organ in Orchestra Hall, 220 S. Michigan. The stereotype-busting concert organist will perform his original score for the 1920 silent thriller, which critic Roger Ebert described as the “first true horror film.” Carpenter premiered his spooky score in 2012 and has since performed it alongside the movie in such cities as New York, London and San Francisco. Tickets, $30-$80. (312) 294‑3000; cso.org.
Kyle MacMillan is a local freelance writer.
