Program information for New Music at the Green Mill 5/3/26

Find all the information for the May 3, 2026 concert below.

New Music at the Green Mill

Sunday, May 3, 2026

4:00 pm

4802 N. Broadway, Chicago

$10 cover at the door

info here

Program

Ravenswood Winds Quantum Entanglement* (2026) Airan Wright

Lily Floeter, Flute

Laura Perkett, Oboe

Dan Williams, Clarinet

Anna Jacobson, Horn

Airan Wright, Bassoon

Ravenswood Winds Five Songs after Rumi (2000) Amy Wurtz

Mo Ryan, Soprano         1. Who Says Words with my Mouth?

        interlude

        5. Quietness

Wurtz-Berger Duo Pavanne (A Love Dance)(2022) Janika Vandervelde

Alyson Berger, cello

Amy Wurtz, piano

Mo Ryan, soprano Lake Superior Songs (2021) Linda Kachelmeier

Amy Wurtz, piano          1. The Lake

        4. Driftwood

Amy Wurtz, piano Scattered Light (2024) Mary Ellen Childs

PAUSE

William Jason Raynovich, cello was (2026) William Jason Raynovich

Frank Abbinanti, piano Pieces of Night (excerpt) George Flynn

Tricia Park, violin Textures (2023) Tricia Park

A Sonic Arc (2022) Tricia Park

Character Studies, No. 1 DRAMATIS PERSONAE (2016) Anthony Cheung

Shi-An Costello, piano Alloy Beats (selections) (2026) Shi-An Costello

Amos Gillespie Quartet Song of Survival (2025) Amy Wurtz

Eric Leise, flute Soul Food (2025) Amos Gillespie

Richard Zili, Clarinet

Amos Gillespie, saxophone

David Keller, cello

* World Premiere

Notes

Airan Wright: Quantum Entanglement

Quantum Entanglement is a musical experiment that asks us to reimagine the scientific conundrum of whether light is a particle or a wave by substituting these two states with the musical properties melody and harmony. Composed by starting with randomized tone clusters, the piece seeks to find a melody within that chaos and then shares it across instruments, allowing for harmony to exist within the tonal conflict as an afterthought. Or perhaps it was always there first and any sense of melody was an afterthought? Who can say for certain.

Amy Wurtz: Five Songs after Rumi

Rumi was a 13th century poet who expressed his intense attraction to the divine in the language of love poetry.  I wrote these pieces in 2000 while completing my Master’s Degree and they haven’t been heard since!  

Poetry by Jalaleddin Rumi

Translated by Coleman Barks

I. Who says words with my mouth?

All day I think about it, then at night I say it.

Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?

I have no idea.

My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that,

and I intend to end up there.

This drunkenness began in some other tavern.

When I get back around to that place,

I'll be completely sober. Meanwhile,

I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.

The day is coming when I fly off,

but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?

Who says words with my mouth?

Who looks out with my eyes: What is the soul?

I cannot stop asking.

If I could taste one sip of an answer,

I could break out of htis prison for drunks.

I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.

Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.

This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say.

I don't plan it.

When I'm outside the saying of it,

I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.

interlude

Don't let your throat tighten with fear.

Take sips of breath all day, and night,

before death closes your mouth.

V. Quietness

Inside this new love, die.

Your way begins on the other side.

Become the sky.

Take an axe to the prison wall.

Escape.

Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.

Do it now.

You're covered with thick cloud.

Slide out the side. Die,

and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign

that you've died.

Your old life was a frantic running

from silence.

The speechless full moon

comes out now.

Linda Kachelmeier: Lake Superior Songs

This approachable song cycle is an homage to Lake Superior through the eyes of the celebrated Duluth poet, Louis Jenkins. Often the piano plays the part of the lake–shimmering, brooding, or tempestuous, depending on its mood. The singer deftly shifts from story teller, philosopher, and comedian, all while delighting in the abundant gifts of the natural world.

Poetry by Louis Jenkins

1. The Lake

Streets run straight downhill to the water.

The lake brings the city to an end.

It is there, always, changing the direction of my walks.

Sometimes I go for days without coming near,

catching only a glimpse through the trees:

A sail, a white speck runing on the dark blue.

Perhaps someone very old touched the back of my wrist,

lightly, for only the briefest moment, or

you said something to me. What was it?

4. Driftwood

Driftwood on the beach, dry and bleached white,

white as a bone you might say, or white as snow.

If an artist (wearing a sweatshirt, blue jeans

and tennis shoes without socks)

came walking along they might, seeing the possibilities,

pick up this piece of driftwood and take it home.

Not me. I fling it back in the water.

Janika Vandervelde: Pavane (A Love Dance)

Pavane (A Love Dance) was commissioned by Linda Hoeschler in honor of her husband, Jack, who at the time was terminally ill with prostate cancer. It is a tribute to the deep love they shared for each other and was premiered at his memorial service in 2022. 

Mary Ellen Childs: Scattered Light

Light scattering is the way light behaves when it interacts with a medium that contains particles or the boundary between different mediums where defects or structures are present. I came across the phrase in this quote from Rebecca Solnit:

“The world is blue at its edges and in its depths. This blue is the light that got lost. Light at the blue end of the spectrum does not travel the whole distance from the sun to us. It disperses among the molecules of the air, it scatters in water. Water is colorless, shallow water appears to be the color of whatever lies underneath it, but deep water is full of this scattered light, the purer the water the deeper the blue. The sky is blue for the same reason…”

Scattered Light was commissioned by and written for Russell Hirschfield. 

William Jason Raynovich: was

was for cello and electronics emerges as a counterpart to now, a work that began in 2016, though its origins reach back several years earlier to experiments for cello and looping system. Over time, now became an open, legacy work, performed over 300 times, centered on the act of inhabiting the present. was follows as a necessary extension and complementary work. Where now attends to presence, was turns toward absence, memory, and the transformation of experience over time. The work functions as a memorial space, shaped by reflection rather than immediacy.

The piece began as a remembrance of Mary Kuhn Raynovich. This performance, while not designated as a formal world premiere, marks its first public presentation and is offered in her memory. You will hear a shortened version of the full work featuring "Mary's Lament."

Tricia Park: Textures

Tricia Park: A Sonic Arc

Following an ABA, ternary form, the piece begins rather hesitantly, as if searching for its footing. The A section’s main motive is a falling third, between c-sharp and a-sharp, and explores a single line, falling and rising as it turns on itself, finding direction. As this first section arrives at a kind of cadence point, it enters into new territory: the propulsive B section, with continuous arpeggios that are energetic, rhythmic and offer harmonic progression and tension. After a point of climax, the A section returns, but is subtly transformed, with a falling third that is a half-step lower: now, a c natural and an a natural. Throughout, I utilize a variety of other violinistic techniques, like left-hand pizzicato and harmonics, to add texture and layers. The piece ends in a sigh: with the falling third, but this time, repeated three times, as it ascends higher and higher octaves, evaporating into nothing.

Anthony Cheung: Character Studies, No. 1, Dramatis Personae

Character Studies comprises two movements for solo violin, written in 2016, for Jennifer Koh and Yuki Numata Resnick, respectively. In Dramatis Personae, the linear writing introduces a revolving door of alternating personalities, impatiently waiting their turns to interject. The swiftly contrasting and unprepared shifts in character take inspiration from the “bianlian” (face-changing) tradition in Sichuan Opera, in which an actor changes masks and characters so rapidly that it resembles a magic trick... -- Anthony Cheung

George Flynn: Pieces of Night

Pieces of Night is three “American Nocturnes.”  It is derived from my mixed piano quartet American Rest.  The first piece is turmoil.

Shi-An Costello: Alloy Beats

Alloy Beats, a subproject of the Alloy Prepared Piano Project, attempts to apply the art of beatmaking to solo, acoustic prepared piano. The most interesting challenge to me is in re-translating a visceral, physically kinetic performance (from original samples and/or from the playing of a drum machine), out from the digital form of a looped beat, and back into live music making. In this performance, I will demonstrate some of these current experiments. -SC

Amy Wurtz: Song of Survival

Commissioned by Access Contemporary Music in honor of the Grand Opening of The Checkout, Chicago’s newest chamber music venue in Uptown. This piece was inspired by the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, especially as represented in the graphic novel My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris, and by the photography of Bob Rehak. Although the neighborhood has transformed over the years, the people have proven to be the same resilient, multi-faceted, colorful community as always. The title for the piece comes from the struggles we all face in doing the projects that we love (such as opening a new music venue, or writing a piece of new music, or just living our lives) and not letting setbacks get in the way of our dreams. The piece features melodies formed primarily around 4ths and 6ths in honor of the venue, which sits at 4116 N. Clark St., Chicago, 60640.

Amos Gillespie:  Soul Food

This piece was premiered for the opening festival of the Checkout, a new music venue in Uptown. The program was called, Remembering Uptown, and consisted of new works written for the Gillespie Quartet that were inspired by the 1970's photography of Bob Rehak. This piece was inspired by a photo of a sign that read, "We Serve Soul Food", the music aims to capture the feeling of enjoying soul food or comfort food.

Performer/Composer bios

Janika Vandervelde is a composer, educator, and advocate for the transformative power of music. She believes that music is not just an art form, but a pathway to personal and collective healing. 

With a career spanning over four decades, her work explores the intersection of sound, emotion, and consciousness. Her deep interest in sonic exploration and the architecture of sound informs her unique approach to composition, where she crafts auditory experiences that engage listeners on multiple sensory levels. 

As an educator, Vandervelde inspires students to discover their own musical voice through deep listening, creative expression, and an understanding of music as a living, breathing structure."

Mary Ellen Childs is a composer and multi-sensory artist based in Minneapolis. She writes for a variety of musical ensembles: vocal groups, string quartet, solo accordion, opera, and chamber groups of every ilk. Her "visual percussion" pieces embody the concept of music in motion. Childs creates distinctive sound worlds, and often writes for specific architecture or gallery installations. Her immersive installation NORTH is based on her time in the Arctic and it is currently on view at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (until August 2026). She has a body of work that combines music and scent, including her installation Aromusic, created for Proyecto ‘ace in Buenos Aires. Childs held artist residencies at Bellagio Center (Italy), Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), and Nawat Fes (Morocco). She is a United States Artist Fellow, and has received grants/commissions from Opera America, Kronos Quartet, Walker Art Center, Fromm Foundation, MAP Fund, Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, and Creative Capital. 

Linda Kachelmeier is a composer, conductor, and professional singer with a special passion for choral music and art song for their capacity for conveying emotion through the human voice. Her music has been described as having “luscious counterpoint, deliberate dissonances, and assertive vocal interaction.” She has received numerous grants including the prestigious McKnight Fellowship for Composition. Linda’s music has been performed by professional ensembles such as Cantus and The Rose Ensemble, as well as many school and church choirs across the United States and Europe. In 2024 she released “Harsh Things to Beauty”, an album of her collection of songs sung by a wide range of accomplished singers. Her vast experience as a singer and conductor has helped make her a uniquely sensitive and gifted composer when writing for the voice, from children’s choirs to professional singers and all levels in between. 

Hailed by The Reader as "precise, engaged, welcoming" and by Philippe Leroux as "finds the depth in every note", pianist Shi-An Costello has trailblazed a path truly unique, with repertoire that spans the aesthetic sensibilities of four centuries, from J.S. Bach to Franz Schubert, from Chopin to Brian Ferneyhough, to include "speaking pianist" repertoire, and the most current of musical styles. As a collaborative pianist, Shi-An works as staff pianist for DePaul University, Chicago Symphony's Musical Pathways Initiative, and is a session pianist for IFC Films, IMAX Films, and independent Chicagoland productions. In his youth, Shi-An was a piano and theory student under Vladimir Leyetchkiss, one of the last pupils of the Heinrich Neuhaus, and a trombone student under Richard Schmitt, former principal of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His current arts initiative is Alloy, a scrappy project dedicated to the art and craft of “prepared piano.” More info at shiancostello.com

Tricia Park is a violinist and writer. She’s performed on five continents and won an Avery Fisher Career and Fulbright Grant. A Juilliard graduate with an MFA from SAIC, Tricia is pursuing her PhD at UIC’s Program for Writers.

George Flynn  has performed and organized concerts of new music in a variety of New York City and Chicago venues.  He has composed works in all media, from solos to orchestral works,  and has recorded for Turnabout, ATCO, Finnadar, Titanic, Wounded Bird and Southport labels.  LP recordings include his own music as well as works by John Cage, Charles Ives, Olivier Messiaen and Jan Akkerman (a member of the Dutch group Focus), and CD recordings include many works of his own.   Flynn received his academic degrees from Columbia University, New York City, and taught at Columbia and Lehmann College (CUNY) as well DePaul University (Chicago).  As a pianist Flynn has performed and recorded new music for many years in the US and Europe.

Amos Gillespie's music has been described as “well-crafted work in the vein of American Classical” by Chicago Classical Review and “upbeat and modern, with accessible accents” by Jazz Weekly. His music has been heard on WFMT and WDCB in Chicago, WQXR in New York City and on PBS. His work spans a wide range of genres including chamber and orchestra concert music, jazz, as well as music for film, theater and dance. His music has been commissioned and performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Black Oak Ensemble, Kaia String Quartet, Attacca Woodwind Quintet, Yarn/Wire, Lakeshore Rush, Barkada Saxophone Quartet, Access Contemporary Music (ACM) and the Chicago Composers Orchestra, among others. He was recently awarded a Fulbright Specialist grant to teach and perform at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary. During this visit he performed music from his recent album, “Unstructured Time”, along with other faculty originals and standards. Additionally, music he wrote that was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Emil Bach House is now included in the PBS series, Songs About Buildings and Moods. As a saxophonist he has performed with artists like Gustavo Cortinas, Angelo Hart, Joel Styzens and Taimur Sullivan, and has performed live on WFMT, WGN, the Pritzker Pavilion and the Green Mill among others. He has two minors in piano performance, a MM in composition and a BM in saxophone performance. He currently teaches at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

The Wurtz-Berger Duo, Alyson Berger and Amy Wurtz, have been part of Chicago's new music community for over a decade.  After years of crossing paths on various concerts they decided to combine their talents to perform the contemporary music of this classic duo of instruments. Their mission is to expand the repertoire for cello/piano and to support living composers through performing and recording their works. 

Mo Maceluch goes by many names and many genres. This vocalist is primarily a soprano  trained in the 20th century style, with a BA in Commercial Music, and an MA in Vocal Pedagogy as of May 16th this year, this musician has fallen for Chicago. Working closely with the NEIU opera department as well as teaching voice with the Chicago School of Bandura in the Ukrainian Village, Mo is busy in bands and ensembles throughout the city. You can see Mo perform at venues with the funk band Boomerangatang and/or the psychedelic rock band Mystic Mulberry this Summer.

Airan Wright is an accomplished woodwind doubler and visual artist based in Evanston, Illinois. He studied music at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, receiving performance degrees in both bassoon and saxophone, before moving to the Midwest with a rock band. He performs and records regularly with an eclectic range of groups including Mucca Pazza, Big Shoulders Brass Band, and Origin of Animal. His woodwind quintet Ravenswood Winds prominently displays his cross-genre approach to composition and performance in their show “Ravenswood Winds Play Radiohead” by fusing classical sensibilities with modern rock techniques. Outside of musician life, Airan is an illustrator, filmmaker, and sushi chef — his sushi is edible, not beautiful.

A fervent advocate for new music and the community that surrounds it, Amy Wurtz is a performer, composer, conductor and curator of new music based in Chicago. She was Curatorial Director of the 2025 Ear Taxi Festival, has been commissioned by Access Contemporary Music and the Chicago Composers’ Orchestra, among others, and has recorded three albums.  Amy has lived and worked in California, throughout the Midwest, South America and Europe. In addition to composing and curation, she is Associate Professor of Composition at Elmhurst University and in demand as a solo pianist, chamber and choral musician, conductor, teaching artist, and collaborative pianist. www.amywurtz.com

As a composer, Amy has won various prizes and commissions for her work, including the National Federation of Music Clubs, Illinois Arts Council Grant, and the American Music Project. Her works have been performed by Zeitgeist, the Chicago Composers’ Orchestra, and Access Contemporary Music. Amy has organized and curated many festivals of new music, including Ear Taxi Festival, Impromptu Fest and the Nevermore Chamber Music Festival.  Her concert series, for Women’s History Month, created in 2023, has been a huge success and engaged audiences across the globe. Amy also curates the New Music at the Green Mill series each Spring, where people gather in this iconic Chicago venue to hear new and experimental music.

With degrees from the University of Redlands and the University of Minnesota, Amy studied piano with Alexander Braginsky and Louanne Long and composition with Judith Lang Zaimont and Alexandra Pierce.  Her study of piano has taken her twice to Argentina, where she spent a year of intensive study with Inés Gómez-Carrillo.  In Chicago, she has studied piano with Chicago Symphony Orchestra pianist Mary Sauer.

Amy currently works in a variety of capacities, running an independent piano studio, serving as conductor and pianist for the Sounds Good! and Good Memories choirs, working as a collaborative pianist with various artists, and writing many commissions for organizations and individuals. www.amywurtz.com