Sept. 22--Chicago jazz singer-pianist Patricia Barber and eminent classical soprano Renee Fleming will present the world premiere of a joint project Dec. 14 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park.
"Higher: Renee Fleming and Patricia Barber Perform the Music of Patricia Barber" will feature Fleming performing from Barber's ever-growing repertoire of art songs, in new arrangements commissioned for this occasion. In addition, the evening will feature Fleming and Barber together performing songs of the holiday season.
Last February, Barber first heard Fleming interpret one of her songs during a Fleming recital at the University of Illinois' Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Barber was struck by what she heard.
"She did beautiful repertoire of a Schumann song cycle, Rachmaninoff, and then for an encore she did 'Higher,'" recalls Barber of a song Barber first performed publicly last year. "I never heard it so beautifully realized. I had tears in my eyes.
"What she brings (to the music) is her own beautiful, sterling voice and her own artistic way of doing it, which is different from the way I do it. ... Hearing that instrument in my song was really quite something. It was like the realization of an ideal."
The Fleming-Barber concert will serve as the launch of a new series produced at the Harris with Fleming, in association with Lyric Unlimited, a community engagement initiative of Lyric Opera of Chicago (Fleming serves as Lyric's creative consultant). The series will feature Fleming in collaboration with various artists.
For more information, visit harristheaterchicago.org.
