Lincolnwood orchestra celebrates Schubert

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Phillip Simmons, artistic director of the Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra

Updated: January 24, 2012 9:01PM

It’s going to be all-Schubert all the time at the Fine Arts Building on Saturday. Titled Schubertiade Chicago, this musical marathon is presented in anticipation of the anniversary of Schubert’s birth date, Jan. 31.

This is PianoForte’s eighth annual Schubertiade Chicago, and for the first time the Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Philip Simmons, will be among the more than 40 performers taking part in this European-style tradition.

Simmons was a long-time resident of the North Shore, who moved to the Big Island of Hawaii in 2009, where he conducts the Orchestra of the Hawaiian Islands. However, his 22-member Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra, LCO, remains a high priority for American Music Festivals, the organization Simmons created to produce his many musical projects.

“Performing at the Schubertiade is a natural fit for us,” Simmons declared. “I’ve always been impressed with PianoForte’s concerts and artistic vision.

“Plus, American Music Festivals had been looking to bring LCO downtown this year,” he continued, adding that the musicians will just fit on stage of Curtis Hall in the Fine Arts Building.

Simmons will conduct the orchestra in Schubert’s Symphony No. 5, which is orchestrated for a small ensemble. “That is a natural for this program,” he said. But he also wanted to present somethings from the composer’s prodigious output for the human voice.

So, in collaboration with friend and colleague bass-baritone Andrew Schultze, the program will also include five arias from three of the composer’s many, but little-known operas “Die Freunde von Salamanka, “Des Teufels Lustschloss,” and “Die Burgschaft.”

Schultze, a faculty member at Columbia College Chicago, is artistic director of the Chicago Syntagma Musicum, an ensemble specializing in early vocal chamber music.

“Phil and I have collaborated on musical projects for about a dozen years,” he said, noting that in addition to the Schubertiade Saturday, they will present an all-Bach program at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance Oct. 14.

Franz Schubert was born in Austria in late January, 1797, and the contemporary music world often honors this prolific composer with special performances of his music during this time of year. The name Schubertiade refers to small musical gatherings in private homes, with the composer at the piano playing his music for friends.