The year’s cultural season wraps up this month and goes on summer holiday. Except for glorious music under the stars at Ravinia and the Grant Park Music Festival, June means the Blues Festival, a boatload of street and art fairs, along with the irresistible allure of rooftop bars and al fresco dining. After a long winter (spring got cancelled this year) Chicagoans have endured. Let the summer festivities begin! Below are five must-see cultural events, large and small, to lend the month some special fizz.
Mahler died of heart disease exactly 100 years ago in Vienna at age 50. This symphony, a sublime and introspective work, is a joyous affirmation of life and the spectre of death. It's a masterwork of 20th Century music. If you miss conductor Bernard Haitink's performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this weekend, you will miss an unforgettable musical treat.
Some folks will be heading to Hyde Park this weekend for the 57th Street Art Fair but you can find me poking around the book stalls between Congress and Polk St., catching the literary Lollapalooza that is the Midwest's largest literary event. Such supernovas as Richard Ford, Colm Toibin, Garry Wills, and Pete Hamill along with a hundred other writiers will read and be interviewed. The LitFest runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.
This fine museum complex, named the “Best Suburban Art Museum” by Chicago Magazine, includes one of only three homes that Mies van der Rohe designed in America, is hosting two shows with strong Chicago roots. One show features works on paper from the Elmhurst College Collection that includes such Imagist and abstract artists as Ed Paschke, Gladys Nilsson, Karl Wirsum, Ellen Lanyon, Roger Brown, and Jim Nutt. The second noteworthy show, “The Unsentimental Journey of Seymour Rosofsky,” honors an artist whose work has grown in appreciation in the 30 years since his death. Definitely worth a visit.
This jazz series is a summer mainstay at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The series will pay tribute in June to saxophonist, Fred Anderson, who died last year, and featured artists who performed at his Southside club, The Velvet Lounge. The season begins June 7 with bassist Junius Paul. Other June artists include bassist Tatsu Aoki (6/14) and vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz (6/28). Bring a blanket to sit on the lawn or else reserve a table featuring a dinner buffet for $23.
Jack Zimmerman had a South Side childhood and an Irish mother, so he comes by his gift as a storyteller naturally. Before joining the staff at Lyric Opera, he enjoyed a checkered career as a parking lot attendant, college instructor, piano tuner, trombonist, and newspaper columnist to name just five stops on his life journey. He will share some delightful yarns from his new CD at the Cliff Dwellers Club, 200 S. Michigan Avenue. Admission is free but reservations are required. Call Jack at 312-498-2945 and get acquainted with a real Chicago original.
