Click here to reserve tickets for Chicago Folklore Ensemble’s upcoming performance on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, at 8:30PM as part of Old Town School of Folk Music’s World Music Wednesday series!

Chicago Folklore Ensemble will present Tagore’s Gitanjali: Our Song Offerings, a show that takes audiences on a spiritual journey via the music and poetry of legendary Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore. Vocals by Subhajit Sengupta and Swarnali Banerjee will be accompanied by sweeping strings , accordion harmonies, and a variety of traditional instruments, interweaving Hindustani ragas, jazz, and Western classical arrangements with Tagore’s original compositions. Chicago Folklore Ensemble is preparing to release Praner Alap, an album of songs from Tagore’s poetry collection Gitanjali, accompanied by a booklet of paintings and original translations of Rabindranath Tagore’s Bengali lyrics.

Chicago Folklore Ensemble will perform Our Gitanjali: Song Offerings of Rabindranath Tagore on May 16th, 7:00pm, at the Assembly Hall in the International House at University of Chicago, 1414 E 59th St. Chicago.

Our Gitanjali presents English translations of several poems from Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali paired with the songs sung in the original Bengali and improvisations in the songs’ corresponding ragas, intertwining Tagore’s exquisite verses with the music that brings the poetry its full emotional resonance. In this show, vocals and narration by Subhajit Sengupta and Swarnali Banerjee, both originally from Kolkata, India, are accompanied by sweeping strings and accordion harmonies. Over the course of the show, the performers share stories and personal experiences that illustrate the enduring power and relevance of Tagore’s creation.

Our Gitanjali is a two-hour show that takes audiences on a spiritual journey via the music and poetry of legendary Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore. In 1912, Tagore published a book of devotional poems called Gitanjali, and the work was so impactful in Europe that he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. However, Western readers of Tagore don’t always know that many of the poems in Gitanjali were originally lyrics of songs that Tagore composed, songs which are still known and beloved in Bengal today.

Our Gitanjali presents English translations of several poems from Gitanjali paired with the songs sung in the original Bengali and improvisations in the songs’ corresponding ragas, intertwining Tagore’s exquisite verses with the music that brings the poetry its full emotional resonance. In this show, vocals and narration by Subhajit Sengupta and Swarnali Banerjee, both originally from Kolkata, India, are accompanied by sweeping strings and accordion harmonies. Over the course of the show, the performers share stories and personal experiences that illustrate the enduring power and relevance of Tagore’s creation.

Along the banks of a river, people wash clothes, sing songs, and tell stories. Spices, fabrics, and melodies are carried downstream, and villages are woven together by the current. The Shatt Al-Arab, the Nile, and the Jordan converge at Lake Michigan as Chicago Folklore Ensembles explores the music and stories of master musicians from Iraq, Egypt, and Palestine.

Chicago Folklore Ensemble will perform Where Rivers Meet on Sunday, April 28, 2:00-4:15pm in Preston Bradley Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center in downtown Chicago. This show presents music and stories of master musicians who immigrated to Chicago from the Middle East, and features Amro Helmy from Cairo, Egypt; Mary Hazboun from Bethlehem, Palestine; Edward Hanna, from Basra, Iraq; and Baha’a Abu-Taha, from Jaffa, Palestine.

This show is free and open to the public, made possible by generous donations from numerous supporters after the show’s premiere last year. Thank you very much to everyone who contributed.

This is the final performance of Where Rivers Meet currently scheduled, so it’s not a performance you want to miss!

Chicago Folklore Ensemble will be performing The World in Chicago as part of Old Town School of Folk Music’s World Music Wednesday Series.

Join us Wednesday, June 28, 2017, at 8:30 PM.
4544 N Lincoln Ave · Gary and Laura Maurer Concert Hall

Click to reserve tickets!

Chicago Folklore Ensemble will have the honor to perform excerpts from The World in Chicago at TEDxUChicago on Saturday, May 6, 2017. The event starts at 10:00 AM and Chicago Folklore Ensemble will perform at 2:30 PM. Buy tickets here.

The World in Chicago, an evening of story and song! 

Sunday, November 27. 4pm $25
The Alhambra Palace Restaurant, 1240 West Randolph Chicago, IL 60607
Tickets and information

Join Chicago Folklore Ensemble for a show of stories and music collected from master musicians from Serbia, Ghana, Jordan, Argentina, and Thailand! This show will celebrate the release of an illustrated book featuring the oral histories of master musicians.

From the Serbian mountains of blood and honey to the passionate coasts of Argentina, rattling buses tearing through Thai countryside and back to sweet home Chicago, embark on a journey around the world atop a carpet of music and story. String quartet and storyteller come together to narrate the sights, sounds, and emotions stored in the memories of Chicago immigrant musicians.

The Chicago Folklore Ensemble celebrates Chicago’s immigrant communities and helps to share and pass on their stories and music. The ensemble interviews musicians of many ethnic backgrounds, collects their traditional music and oral histories, and adapts them into dynamic arrangements for string quartet and storyteller.

We are pleased to announce Chicago Folklore Ensemble’s first ever solely musical performances! Please join us as we play string quartet arrangements of pieces from our show The World In Chicago – music from Jordan, Ghana, Argentina, Thailand, and Serbia. We will be joined by guest musicians from each country – Baha’a Abu-Taha, Abee Mensah, Alba Guerra, Phiwan Phonwiang, and Jovan Mihailović! They will be beautiful events celebrating the musical culture that immigrants bring to our sweet home Chicago.

Thursday, July 14th, 7pm – Lake Street Church, 607 Lake St, Evanston, IL.

Sunday, July 17th, 4:30pm – St. Philip Neri Church, 2132 E 72nd St, Chicago, IL.

Big news: Chicago Folklore Ensemble has recently been awarded a grant from the City of Chicago’s DCASE to produce an album/book of our work The World in Chicago! Save the date for our CD/book release party with stories, songs, and food from around the world! Sunday, October 2nd, 4pm at 2nd Unitarian Church, 656 W Barry Ave, Chicago, IL.

Here is a preview of the upcoming shows in July! We are joined by Jordanian singer and oud player Baha’a Abu-Taha.

May 21, 4:50pm – Skokie Festival of Cultures, Interactive Stage (Indoors), Oakton Park, 4701 Oakton St., Skokie, IL – performing pieces from The World In Chicago as a 3-piece ensemble.

June 2, 8:00pm – Pivot Arts Festival, Festival Launch at Ras Dashen Ethiopian Restaurant, 5846 N. Broadway St., Chicago – performing pieces from The World in Chicago, $35 ticket also includes an Ethiopian buffet, which begins at 7:30pm. The dinner is preceded by a wine tasting nearby at Independent Spirits, 5947 N. Broadway. Get tickets!

July 10, 10:30am – Lake Street Church, 607 Lake St., Evanston, IL – performing pieces from The World In Chicago during Sunday service.

July 17, 12:25pm – Evanston Ethnic Arts Festival, Dawes Park, Sheridan Rd. and Church St., Evanston, IL – performing Follow the Butterfly.

August 18, 6:00pm – Night Out In The Parks, Holstein Park, 2200 N Oakley Ave., Chicago, IL – performing The World In Chicago.

 

Chicago Folklore Ensemble will perform on June 2 as part of the upcoming Pivot Arts Festival in Chicago’s Uptown and Edgewater neighborhoods. We will be playing at the Festival Launch at Ras Dashen Ethiopian Restaurant. For $35, you can enjoy a wine tasting, an Ethiopian buffet, and our performance of pieces from our show The World In Chicago, songs and stories collected from Chicago immigrant musicians! Click here for tickets.

Pivot Arts Festival is organizing several events throughout Edgewater and Uptown from June 2-12, including a “Celebrate Community!” parade on June 4. Be sure to check out the many talented performers.