Fourth Coast’s Shores of Song Festival is the quartet's 10th Anniversary celebration of the city that has nurtured its art making for a decade, taking place May 7-14, 2024. Spearheaded by Festival Director Mark Bilyeu (Co-Founder, Source Song Festival, Minneapolis) in partnership with the ensemble, this week long event encompasses four concerts, each focused on a different component of vocal chamber music: song, poetry, piano, and composition.
The festival kicks off on Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at the KOVAL Tasting Room in Ravenswood with From Schumann to Chicago, a program that marries Robert Schumann's quintessential song cycle for four voices, Minnespiel, with a curated second half of all Chicago composers. The program is followed by an opening night reception in the space where attendees will receive a drink ticket for one craft cocktail at the bar.
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The festivities continue Friday, May 10, 2024 at Curtiss Hall in the Fine Arts Building withWordSong Chicago, where Chicagoan Christina Ramirez's poem "benediction" will be performed in four different musical settings, including a performance from Grammy nominated soprano Laura Strickling, and the audience will be guided in a public conversation by Festival Director Mark Bilyeu. Audience members are invited to join a post-concert Liederstube led by Eugenia Cheng in her Fine Arts Building studio.
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On Sunday, May 12, 2024 the festival moves to Ganz Hall at Roosevelt University for Off the Bench: Songs from the Pianist Perspective, where four Chicago pianists each partner with a vocalist from Fourth Coast Ensemble to perform 20 minutes of songs that are meaningful, important, or interesting to them. The pianists will then join a discussion hosted by Oliver Camacho (WFMT) in why they selected the music they did.
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The Shores of Song Festival culminates on Tuesday, May 14, 2024 at The Promontory in Hyde Park with the Fifth Annual songSLAM Chicago competition, co-presented with Sparks & Wiry Cries. Ten composer/performer teams premiere new art songs live for the voting audience who will award $2,000 in cash prizes to their favorite teams. This year's competition will again be emcee'd by beloved Chicago composer Stacy Garrop.
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festival director
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Described as “superb partner,” (schubert.org) pianist Mark Bilyeu passionately engages in music as a committed performer, inspiring teacher and enterprising curator. He was the only American finalist in the 2015 Das Lied Song Competition, and maintains an active performing schedule. Bilyeu has performed at such venues as the Grand Théâtre de Tours (France), the Schubert Club of St. Paul, the Everson Museum (New York), PianoForte Foundation, and the Belle Sylvester Recital Series of New York. He has been heard via live radio broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio with soprano Lori Phillips, and on WFMT via the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series. He holds degrees from the Chicago College of Performing Arts and the University of Minnesota, studying with Timothy Lovelace and Chicago Symphony Orchestra pianist Mary Sauer. He has studied at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, Britten-Pears Institute, Vancouver International Song Institute, l’Academie Françis Poulenc and was named a 2018 Crear Scholar, which took him to Scotland to study with Malcolm Martineau. Additional studies with Roger Vignoles and Susan Manoff.
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