HCL invites listeners to explore the role of sound through a variety of creative interventions.

Featuring Lional “Brother El” Freeman, Regina Martinez, Allen Moore, Corey Smith, and Juliann Wang

On Saturday, September 9, the Harris Theater for Music and Dance hosts Harris Fest: Music + Dance in the Park, an all-day event spotlighting the dozens of Resident Companies, including High Concept Labs.

The celebratory kick-off to the Harris’ 20th anniversary season will feature performances spanning ballet, jazz, and contemporary dance, as well as classical music, opera, and interactive workshops hosted by participating artists.

Daytime programming will include pop-up performances near Millennium Park’s iconic Cloud Gate sculpture and on the Great Lawn, along with masterclasses, workshops, and other activities for visitors of all ages. In the evening, the Harris will present fully staged performances at the Pritzker Pavilion.

Participating Resident Companies, Community Partners, and Guest Collaborators:

Ballet Chicago
Ballet 5:8
Chicago Dancemakers Forum
Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus
Chicago Human Rhythm Project
Chicago Latin Orchestra
Chicago Opera Theater
Chicago Philharmonic
Fulcrum Point New Music Project
Giordano Dance Chicago
High Concept Labs
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Lucky Plush Productions
Muntu Dance Theatre
Music of the Baroque
Music Institute of Chicago
Sleeping At Last
South Chicago Dance Theatre
Uniting Voices Chicago

Harris Fest programming will run from 10am to 9pm, is family friendly, and free to the public.
Learn More about Harris Fest

11:00am: Music on the Great Lawn

HCL presents a collaborative track featuring Lional “Brother El” Freeman, Regina Martinez, Allen Moore, Corey Smith, and Juliann Wang. Each artist invites listeners to further explore the role of sound through a variety of creative interventions.

Accompanying the soundtrack, Corey Smith contributes a new performance work in response to the architectural legacy of Chicago. This performance offers a musical and choreographic dialogue with the skyscrapers on the prairie, and includes an installation by the visual artist Abigail Buzbee.

12:00pm

Regina Martinez and Allen Moore present a collaborative soundscape in the Chase Promenade North Activation Tent. Following this performance, Allen will share built-your-own cardboard record player kits for people for people to make together on site or to take home.

12:30pm

Brother El’s Live PA electronic music performance embodies his innovative spirit and explores sound and emotion through crafting immersive sonic experiences where tradition meets innovation.

2:30pm

Juliann Wang performs a musical set with her trio.

About the Artists

Lional “Brother El” Freeman, a composer, multidisciplinary creative, and educator from Chicago’s Oakland neighborhood, is the visionary founder of The Beat Bank label. For the Great Lawn, Brother El skillfully merges sequencers, synthesizers, drum machines, and samplers to weave a dynamic sonic tapestry. This fusion incorporates Chicago’s energy, hip hop’s essence, club culture’s heartbeat, and the South Side’s roots. For Cloud Gate, Brother El’s Live PA electronic music performance embodies his innovative spirit and explores sound and emotion through crafting immersive sonic experiences where tradition meets innovation.

Corey Smith is a classically trained composer and Michigan native. Their work sits between performance, architecture, and music — a form of “sculpting image, sound, and emotion through time.” For the Great Lawn speakers, they contribute a new performance work in response to the architectural legacy of Chicago, a musical and choreographic dialogue with the skyscrapers on the prairie. Accompanying the performance is an installation by the visual artist Abigail Buzbee.

Regina Martinez is a sound centered artist based in Chicago. Her current experiments draw from an archive of infinitely personal recordings she relates to as soundmarks: her father’s hands cleaning dried beans, drumline rehearsal after school, the creak of the front gate to home, the flap of our clothes outside on the line. Each recorded moment becomes its own instrument, its own layer of composition, and a washing and wringing out of memory meant to be overheard like a poem again and again. For the Great Lawn speakers, she contributes a new signature sound collage. For the Chase Promenade Tent, she presents a collaborative soundscape with Allen Moore. All ages welcome.

Allen Moore was born in the historic village of Robbins, Illinois. He emphasizes the importance of nurturing the Black Imagination with social representation through his practice in experimental visual art, music, and makerspace/DIY teaching. His artmaking includes hand-cast records, paintings, and sculptures from organic matter overlayed with sounds from the records, voice recordings, and Black music samples. For the Chase Promenade Tent, he presents a collaborative soundscape with Regina Martinez. All ages welcome.

Juliann Wang is an interdisciplinary artist and product of an upbringing with a mother famous in Chinese Opera, suffusing music recordings, paintings, and performance with elements from nature and the built environment, from prairie plantings and migratory bird paths to “the hustle and bustle of people taking a moment of pause to wonder at the beauty, skyline, and juxtaposition of it all”. On the Great Lawn speakers she contributes selections from her new album. For Cloud Gate, she performs one 30 minute set with her trio.
Access Services

This event is held offsite at Millennium Park. For accessibility information, please review Millennium Park’s Accessibility webpage.

For any other questions or requests regarding accessibility, please please review our access information or contact Angee Lennard, HCL’s Accessibility Coordinator, at angee@highconceptlabs.org or 312-374-1117.

Official Website

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Tags: Abigail Buzbee, Allen Moore, Angee Lennard, Chicago, Corey Smith, Harris Fest: Music + Dance in the Park, High Concept Labs, Juliann Wang, Lional “Brother El” Freeman, Loop, Millenium Park, Regina Martinez