pathways | reflection

Saturday October 24, 2026 | 7:30PM CST

The 2026-2027 season is sponsored by the Katherine L. Griem and Anthony G. Montag Charitable Fund.

Details

Highlighting the personality and uniqueness of new American orchestral music through the captivating works of Aaron Israel Levin, Nina Shekhar, Alissa Voth, and the world premiere of Fabian Leung’s new clarinet concerto featuring Zachary Good.

Don't miss before the downbeat, CCO's free pre-concert talk, at 6:45pm! Enjoy complimentary wine & snacks, meet the composers and learn about the pieces before you experience them.

Fabian Leung

Fabian Leung (b. 2005) is a composer from Texas, now based in Baltimore, Maryland. His recent work within Western classical tradition engages with themes of nostalgia, analysis on cultural icons, climate change, and the relationship between humanity and the natural world. His music emphasizes organic processes and textural/harmonic detail, seeking an immediacy of expression that reframes personal experiences.

Leung has collaborated with ensembles and musicians including the Norfolk New Music Ensemble, Lorelei Ensemble, TAK Ensemble, Trio Kanon, the Rhythm Method Quartet, the Orlando Philharmonic, and Zachary Good.

He is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Music Composition and Music Education at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where he studies with Kevin Puts, Felipe Lara and Michael Hersch.

Nina Shekhar

Nina Shekhar is a composer, producer, songwriter, and multimedia artist who explores the intersection of identity, vulnerability, love, and laughter to create bold and intensely personal works.

Shekhar is one of the most widely performed composers of her generation. Described as “tart and compelling” (New York Times), “vivid” (Washington Post), an “orchestral supernova” (LA Times), and a "rare composer who opens our ears a little wider each time" (Chicago Tribune), her music has been commissioned and performed by leading artists including the New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Albany Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Eighth Blackbird, International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, New York Youth Symphony, Alarm Will Sound, The Crossing, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, ETHEL, violinist Jennifer Koh, saxophonist Timothy McAllister, Ensemble Échappé, Music from Copland House, soprano Tony Arnold, Third Angle New Music, The New York Virtuoso Singers, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Lyris Quartet, Ray-Kallay Duo, and New Music Detroit. Her work has been featured by the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Library of Congress, Walt Disney Concert Hall, National Gallery of Art, National Sawdust, I Care If You Listen, ScoreFollower, and WNYC/New Sounds (New York), WFMT (Chicago), and KUSC and KPFK (Los Angeles) radio.

Recent events include China and Germany tours with the New York Philharmonic, her Hollywood Bowl debut with the LA Philharmonic, and international performances by the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony, and Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. Current projects include a new film & orchestral work for LA Phil in collaboration with director Alejandro González Iñárritu, a commission for the New York Philharmonic, a new accordion concerto for a consortium of orchestras led by St. Louis Symphony, a concerto for MIDI keyboard and choir for The Crossing, featured performances by San Francisco Symphony, and a children's interactive piece co-commissioned by Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA), The People's Music School, and Play on Philly (sponsored by LA Phil and New Music USA). Shekhar is the recipient of the 2021 Rudolf Nissim Prize and the 2018 ASCAP Foundation Leonard Bernstein Award, funded by the Bernstein family. The New York Philharmonic recently added Shekhar's piece Lumina to their list of required excerpts for auditioning musicians, the only piece by a living composer with this distinction.

Alissa Voth

Alissa Voth is a Chicago based composer and paper artist whose artistic practices focus on materiality, interwoven forms, and nostalgia. She holds a PhD in music composition and technology from the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University and a master’s degree in music composition from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee; she returns to both institutions as, respectively, adjunct faculty in undergraduate core studies and as composition faculty at Berklee’s High School Composition Intensive. She has worked with Chicago based ensembles such as Stare at the Sun, Mycelium New Music, and the Constellation Men’s Ensemble. Outside of Chicago, she has worked with ensembles such as Ensemble Mise-En, Contemporaneous Ensemble, and the Unheard-Of Ensemble. Alissa’s paper weaving art has been featured as a solo exhibition, “My First House Was Red” at Yes Project Space and in group exhibitions curated by the Chicago Collage Community.

Aaron Israel Levin

Aaron Israel Levin is an American composer whose music explores the emotional dynamism of storytelling and drama. Praised for its “rich orchestration” and “visceral extremes” (I Care If You Listen), he creates music that is at once somber and playful, tender and volatile, lyrical and gestural.

His music has been performed and commissioned by American Composers Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Chelsea Symphony, confluss, Historical Keyboard Society of North America, Iowa Composers Forum, loadbang, loop38, Music Teachers National Association, New European Ensemble, Onix Ensamble, and Sputter Box. Aaron’s work has been presented at Amare (The Hague), Carnegie Hall, the Centro Nacional de las Artes (Mexico City), Constellation (Chicago), the DiMenna Center (NYC), the Schubert Club (Saint Paul, MN), and Spectrum (NYC).

Aaron’s first opera, Trusted, received its concert premiere in 2026 from Chicago Opera Theater, where he served as the 2024-26 Vanguard Composer-in-Residence. Written with librettist Marella Martin Koch, Trusted tells the story of a financial scandal that fractures a family.

He is the winner of the Charles Ives Scholarship (American Academy of Arts & Letters), the Druckman Prize (Aspen Music Festival), the Audience Choice Award (Earshot New Music Readings), the New England Philharmonic Call for Scores Competition, the Aliènor Composition Competition, and the Cortona Prize. His work has also been supported by residencies at MacDowell, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo.

Originally from Saint Paul, Minnesota, Aaron holds degrees from Grinnell College and the Yale School of Music, where he is pursuing his DMA. With support from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund, he undertook additional studies at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in the Netherlands.

Zachary Good

Zachary Good is a clarinetist and composer based in Chicago. He navigates Classical, historically-informed, and contemporary performance practices in chamber music, solo, orchestral, experimental, and collaborative spaces.

Zachary is the clarinetist of the sextet Eighth Blackbird, a member of Ensemble Dal Niente, and a founding member of the performance collective Mocrep. He is a frequent guest with Music of the Baroque Chicago, Present Music Milwaukee, International Contemporary Ensemble, and the puppet company Manual Cinema. As an improviser, he performs and records with the trio ZRL and the quintet Honestly Same. His discography includes releases on Cedille Records, Moon Glyph Records, American Dreams Records, Carrier Records, No Index, Homeroom, Parlour Tapes+, ears&eyes, and his own record label Add Dye Editions.

As a composer, Zachary explores contrapuntal possibilities on the soprano clarinet with small–interval multiphonics (“close dyads” or double stops), creating the illusion of multiple clarinetists playing simultaneously. His music is quietly virtuosic, inspired by the intricacies of the clarinet and a love for Baroque nuance and form.

Zachary is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Clarinet at NIU, the Instructor of Clarinet at Harper College, and a chamber music coach with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. Previously, he was a dedicated middle school band director at the Chicago Waldorf School and a Visiting Instructor at the University of Richmond. Zachary is a graduate of Northwestern University (DMA), Oberlin Conservatory, and DePaul University. He is the recipient of the 2021 Luminarts Classical Winds Fellowship. Zachary has participated in fellowships with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Aspen Contemporary Music program. Zachary is a D’Addario Woodwinds Artist.

Tickets

Fast track your concert experience and buy your tickets in advance online. Student tickets start at just $15 and General Admission tickets start at $35!

Tickets will also be sold at the door.

TICKETS

Location

Concerts are held at Roosevelt University's historic & spacious Ganz Hall located at 430 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60605 on the 7th floor. Conveniently located at Congress & Michigan Ave and easily accessible by a multitude of CTA bus & train lines. Main entrance is located on Michigan Ave.

Ganz Hall is ADA compliant and its accessible entrance is located on Michigan Ave.

Program

Aaron Israel Levin - 10 Remarks on a City (2022-23)

Fabian Leung - Coastal Winds Descending featuring soloist Zachary Good, clarinet (world premiere*)

Nina Shekhar - Above the Fray (2021)

Alissa Voth - Desire Paths (2025)