Triple threat: CINCO, world premiere, and Keiskamma Altarpiece

Last week, an excited crowd experienced the CINCO Brass Quintet performing some of the more contemporary music heard this season at Rush Hour Concerts, including the world premiere of "Kiln," by Chicago composer Drew Baker. They performed alongside the magnificent Keiskamma Altarpiece, a beautiful artwork created by 120 women in South Africa as a sign of hope for those who have struggled with the devastation that AIDS has wrought in their lives. The Altarpiece is on display at St. James Cathedral through September 20, and we encourage you to come witness it first-hand. There no better time to do it than this week's upcoming season finale, on Tuesday, August 29!


Janet and Bob have been coming to Rush Hour for several years. We hope they continue to come for several more!


Adin (left), who is friends with members of CINCO, poses with her fiancée Craig.


Some of Rush Hour’s youngest fans, Caitlin, age 6 (left), and Ryan, age 2, came with their grandparents Dorothy and Marty. At Rush Hour, we like to get our audience involved as early in their lives as possible!


Composer Drew Baker chats with friends during the pre-concert reception. Clockwise from bottom left: Marcos, Jason, Drew, and Jessica.


The CINCO Brass Quintet performing "Kiln" with Drew Baker. From the left: composer/pianist Drew Baker, trumpeter Mike Sapienza, trombonist Brian Risinger (partially hidden), tubist Jared Bulmer, hornist Anna Mayne, and trumpeter Ryan Barwise. Note the opened Keiskamma Alterpiece.


Drew Baker performing "Kiln" with the magnificent Keiskamma Altarpiece (here it is closed) in the background.

Spotlight on Kristin Lunardini, Marketing Guru

Kristin has been attending and promoting Rush Hour since 2002. She works for DickinsonGroup, which has provided public relations and marketing counsel for Rush Hour Concerts since its inception, and has managed the account for three years. Her hobbies include reading (and rereading old favorites!), baking (recently mastered banana butterscotch cupcakes), rooting for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and traveling—she just returned from Costa Rica and travels to Europe at least once a year.

A firm believer in volunteering, Kristin is getting ready for another year of tutoring with the Cabrini Green Tutoring Program. She enjoys working with Rush Hour staff as part of her job, and believes in the mission. “To appreciate classical music—and the series—all you need is an open mind. To me, it’s about checking any pre-conceived notions at the door and ‘letting go’ to the experience.”

Spotlight on Davide, Utility Infielder

A native of Switzerland, Davide has been involved with Rush Hour Concerts for the last two seasons. He first met Managing Director Julie Hutchison in college, and she later brought him on board with Rush Hour Founder and Artistic Director Deborah Sobol. An all-around handyman, Davide can usually be found assisting with food setup and ushering during the reception before each week's concert.

He graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts with a double major in Bass Performance and Contemporary Writing and Production. Davide currently teaches electric bass and also performs in multiple rock and jazz ensembles.

He believes that Chicago needs events like Rush Hour to maintain and increase its cultural appeal. “Making chamber music accessible to everyone is a great idea that needs all the support it can get!”

Spotlight on Anstiss Krueck, Board Member

A member and neighbor of St. James Cathedral, Anstiss Krueck (pictured here with her son, Board President, Mason Drake) has been involved with Rush Hour Concerts since 2002. Her involvement has grown from providing our Artistic Director, Deborah Sobol, with personal feedback about the program, to participating on the advisory committee, to her current membership on our Board of Directors.

Anstiss is passionate about other artistic organizations around Chicago—she is both a Trustee and member of the Women’s Board of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is also a Board Member of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. She is excited about the growth of our audience, the series’ vision, and the success of the concerts—when sitting in the audience listening to musicians of the highest caliber, Anstiss truly believes that “Life does not get any better than this!”

Poetry and Bach

Some of Chicago's most respected poets were on hand to read original works inspired by JS Bach's Two Part Inventions at last week's Rush Hour Concert. You've already had a chance to read about Dan Beachy-Quick, Reginald Gibbons, Christina Pugh, Emily Warn, and Anne Winters, but that's not all that went on! As always, audience members showed up early to enjoy our fabulous spread of refreshments. Performers gathered before the event and socialized afterwards as well. Everyone left with copies of Poetry Magazine, compliments of our co-sponsor The Poetry Foundation. As we're heading into the home stretch of our season, everyone continues to have a wonderful time.


Sandie (center) and Drew found out about the concert event on Ed Lifson's "Three to See" segment on WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight last Thursday, August 10. They brought their son Alex, age five and a half, to enjoy the concert.


Clockwise from bottom left: Becca, Katie, Jeannie, and Eric are all interns with Poetry Magazine this summer. Hooray for interns!


Bruce (right) found out about Rush Hour recently on Metromix, came to a concert and picked up a brochure, and then convinced his wife Marina to come along. There are just a couple more weeks to enjoy the music!


A concert attendee enjoys the poetry display at the rear of the Cathedral. Attendees also received a printed copy of the poems after the concert to take home.


The performers, from left to right: poets Reginald Gibbons, Anne Winters, pianists Kay Kim, Diana Schmuck, Deborah Sobol, poets Dan Beachy-Quick, Emily Warn, and Christina Pugh.


The administrators bask in the success of the concert, from left: Rush Hour Managing Director Julie Hutchison, The Poetry Foundation's Stephen Young, Rush Hour Artistic Director Deborah Sobol.

Spotlight on Chuck, Head Usher

Every Tuesday afternoon, as audience members stream into St. James Cathedral to enjoy refreshments and the concert, Chuck is waiting on the steps with a smile and handshake, a kind word and a twinkle in his eye. He has been active in the church for almost 40 years, and is a former Warden of the Cathedral. He initially heard about Rush Hour Concerts through the church, started attending four years ago, and has served as our head usher for several seasons.

A graduate of Lake Forest College, Chuck is retired from the American Veterinary Medical Association, where he worked in development for many years. He currently consults for the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society headquatered in San Antonio, TX, making the world just a bit safer for animals and pets. He enjoys the attention and awareness that Rush Hour brings to the church, and is pleased with the result of all hard work from the staffs and artists to increase our visibility and community involvement. Next time Chuck welcomes you, thank him for all his hard work!

Poet Spotlight: Anne Winters

August 15th's Rush Hour Concert features poems inspired by Bach's Two-Part Inventions. As a special treat, we are posting some of the poems that will be read during the concert. For insight into the process that led to this groundbreaking concert in partnership with The Poetry Foundation, please read our Artistic Director's earlier post.

Anne Winters is on the faculty at UIC. Her books include The Displaced of Capital, The Key to City, which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Prize, and Salamander: Selected Poetry of Robert Marteau, winner of Poetry magazine’s Jacob Glatstein Translation Award. She has received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as an Ingram Merrill Foundation grant, Wellesley College’s Poetry Award, and a National Endowment of the Arts grant, among others, and has been a Fellow of the Carmargo and Karolyi Foundations in southern France.

Invention 11

Like Eleven (the double of one, yet not two),
Two caterpillars are marching, the one
precisely beneath the other, toe-tip to toe-tip,
close-clinging, rising and falling and mirrored:

One looks down and locks the other's horns,
or its own; the two could be said to be linked
like the locked yet endlessly out-spiraling
sindled ribbons of DNA. Yet there's something

scary, like Cicero's dizzying concept
of momentum animi, hurtling mind unstoppably inventing.
figures on figures, yet with no vanishing point,
like a world of ladders or stairwells

where space keeps revolving, welling up into space
endless, unfree, unfolding like stairs in a case.

Poet Spotlight: Emily Warn

August 15th's Rush Hour Concert features poems inspired by Bach's Two-Part Inventions. As a special treat, we are posting some of the poems that will be read during the concert. For insight into the process that led to this groundbreaking concert in partnership with The Poetry Foundation, please read our Artistic Director's earlier post.

Emily Warn is the author of The Leaf Path, The Novice Insomniac, and the forthcoming 22 Kits of Creation, all from Copper Canyon Press, and two chapbooks The Book of Esther and Highway Suite. Her poems, essays, and reviews have appeared widely, including in The Kenyon Review, Poetry East, Mississippi Mud, The Bloomsbury Review, The Seattle Times, Parabola, and the Seattle Weekly. She is currently the Editor of PoetryFoundation.org.

Invention 3

This chat
between piano and two hands,
this minute
and thirteen-second invention,
is no
polite high tea banter,
no back
and forth with studied pause.
This is
constant finger-jabbing
interruptions
of flow that becomes the flow
just as
two buses leapfrog and lurch
to stop
at Huron, careening to be
the lucky one
who skips past Dearborn
to Lake Shore
where they can speed down a single lane,
in unison
while we stare off,
mirrors to
the measureless horizon line
between lake and sky

Poet Spotlight: Christina Pugh

August 15th's Rush Hour Concert features poems inspired by Bach's Two-Part Inventions. As a special treat, we are posting some of the poems that will be read during the concert. For insight into the process that led to this groundbreaking concert in partnership with The Poetry Foundation, please read our Artistic Director's earlier post.

Christina Pugh won the Word Press First Book Prize for Rotary (2004). Her poems have recently appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, and Harvard Review. Pugh’s criticism has appeared in Poetry, Verse, Boston Review, and Herspace: Women, Writing, Solitude. She is the recipient of the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly Fellowship, the Grolier Poetry Prize, the Associated Writing Programs’ Intro Journals Award in Poetry, a Whiting Fellowship for the Humanities, and a residency fellowship from the Ucross Foundation. A professor at UIC, she is currently completing a volume of poems entitled Restoration.

Arc Away, for Invention 7

Love is bad
brio: why
do you stoke
its adrenaline
engine, its humming-

bird emblem
all microscopic
motor, dusty
blues dispersing
in a whirl: do you see

how hysteria
trumps hue?
How the heart
has sublimed
the wings,

eaten every instinct
for solitary
distances? A bird
should arc
away, not

hover here
ex machina,
plum above
the runoff, creature
evaporate and still:

do you hear
his motor humming
like a stone?
Are you
sand-blind?

What ails you?
The vanishing
point’s there,
beckoning
and blue.

Poet Spotlight: Reginald Gibbons

August 15th's Rush Hour Concert features poems inspired by Bach's Two-Part Inventions. As a special treat, we are posting some of the poems that will be read during the concert. For insight into the process that led to this groundbreaking concert in partnership with The Poetry Foundation, please read our Artistic Director's earlier post.

Reginald Gibbons served as the editor of TriQuarterly magazine from 1981 to 1997; during that time he published special issues of writing from South Africa, Spain, Poland and Mexico. He also co-founded and edited TriQuarterly Books. His latest publications are two chapbooks, In the Warhouse and Fern-Texts. He has published seven poetry collections, most recently Sparrow: New and Selected Poems, Homage to Longshot O’Leary, and It’s Time; a collection of short fiction, Five Pears or Peaches; a novel Sweetbitter; and other works. He has held Guggenheim and NEA fellowships in poetry, and has won the Anisfield Wolf Book Award, the Carl Sandburg Prize, the Folger Shakespeare Library’s 2004 O. B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize, and other honors. A columnist for American Poetry Review, he teaches at Northwestern and in the Warren Wilson MFA program.

Piano Man, for Invention 5

In an old cabinet I found
something fine and long forgotten--
small carved chess pieces inside a
dark wood box, they belonged to my
uncle Witaly Jakob--but
in America called "V. J."
for Vitale Jacques, also "Vit"--
who lived fast: the first child, born just
before his parents quit Russian
Poland on their wandering way
here. His ear heard American,
raced his piano through silent-film
houses and white-jass bands, he made
recordings, rebelled against both
his TB and his doctors, in
1929 he died, his
Gershwin, his New Orleans club life
and two-hand speed ended, and this

wood box, once in his orbit, now's
among the many live objects
arrayed around me (as around
every lucky remembering
person) like the rock lumps and ice
chunks trailing the wide-orbiting
head of a fast-moving comet.

And even though I see on the
inside of the lid of the knife-
wrought wooden chess set Witaly’s
initials inscribed by his hand
with a twentieth-century
pencil that newly sharpened gave
off that still unchanged dry scent of
baked wood and graphite as Vit held
it--I see it, I see you, Vit--
and even though my gravity

keeps him with me, holds close the things
I write on when I write them on-
to pieces of paper with a
pencil, yet his chess set is one
more item that some day no one
will identify or care to
keep, an object the meaning of
which will evaporate when we
do or burn with unheard flame at
the end of our revolutions.

Poet Spotlight: Dan Beachy-Quick

August 15th's Rush Hour Concert features poems inspired by Bach's Two-Part Inventions. As a special treat, we are posting some of the poems that will be read during the concert. For insight into the process that led to this groundbreaking concert in partnership with The Poetry Foundation, please read our Artistic Director's earlier post.

Dan Beachy-Quick received his MFA at the University of Iowa, and currently teaches in the Writing Program at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the author of two books, North True South Bright, named one of Fence magazine’s Best Books by Emerging Writers in the fall, 2003; and Spell, a book-length reverie on Moby-Dick. His poems and essays have appeared in such periodicals as Poetry, Ploughshares, and Parnassus. He made his literary debut at 20 in The Paris Review.

Cello Suite, for Invention 4

The wasp in series the wasp
In cello notes the wasp wing
Nerved in echo with the drone
How late the light prisms
To lull and lend a bare slant
Curves the bowstring on the wall

On the wall the star divides white
In rainbow now the night will curl
Home into the wasp’s dark flight
My headache shallow in silver bowl
Rings the wasp inside my ear
Curls the cello into our home

A red tone lashed to white is white
The bow must bend rosin so rose
Flowers in the silver bowl
Unpetal my ear in wasp’s drone
To sing deny the cello sings
As light divides when prism sleeps

And dusk informs what glow to go
Low my headache rings Low
A last note stings below the nerve
Other times there is no pain in series
The wasp in tune the wasp allowed
The cello string stops at evening’s gasp

Mozart Trio

What better way to follow our Bon Appetit encore and our appearance on WTTW's Chicago Tonight than with Mozart's Trio in G Major for violin, cello, and piano! Four hundred audience members can't be wrong, as our musicians performed an inspired concert to a packed house. This season just keeps getting bigger and bigger!


LaVonne (left) started coming to RH last year, but this is the first time she’s been during the current season. She thinks it’s a great way to unwind. Mary Ann saw the ArtBeat segment on Rush Hour on WTTW and decided to come to Tuesday’s concert event. We hope you come back!


Siblings Laura (left) and Seth are friends of RH volunteer Sarah (not to be confused with RH staffer Sarah).


Lisa (left) found out about RH through her sister-in-law and has come twice. This week, she's enjoying our pre-concert reception with her children Connie and Andrew.


Kenya is a classical music fan who found out about RH from a friend.


The Mozart trio, from the left: violinist Jasmine Lin, pianist Deborah Sobol, and cellist Kenneth Olsen.

Spotlight on Henry, St. James Cathedral Sexton

Henry has been with Rush Hour Concerts since the beginning. As Sexton of St. James Cathedral, he has been maintaining the grounds and buildings of the Cathedral and the Chicago Diocesan Center for 13 years. For RH, Henry prepares the stage for the artists, sets up the tables for the reception, helps clean up afterwards, monitors the crowd for security purposes during the reception, and makes sure that the Cathedral is clean and in good running order. He remembers that when RH first started, it was only scheduled for one month. The reaction was so great that the following summer RH expanded to two months, and by the third season RH was taking place every week from June through August. Henry would definitely still attend the concerts even he did not work for the Cathedral -- he enjoys the music, the atmosphere, and the attention that RH brings to the church.

When he's not busy at work or helping out at RH, Henry enjoys spending time with his family. He has five kids: three daughters, all of whom attend college, and two sons aged 12 and 14. He enjoys video games (like Medal of Honor) and also spends a lot of time writing poetry -- just a few months ago, he was preparing a portfolio with all of his work to send to a publisher, but unfortunately his bag was stolen and he lost it all. He's kept writing, however, and has even been featured on poetry.com. His poems typically focus on social issues and faith for perseverance. Next time you see Henry (pictured above from Bon Appetit), say "Hi" and thank him for all his hard work over the years!

Bon Appetit!

After a rousing RH premiere of Bon Appetit during last year's season, who could have predicted the encore would have been as successful? The anticipation was great, but with our faithful crew and wonderful performers, the mini-opera inspired by Julia Child was once again a hit!


Our chocolate cake for the reception was so rich and fresh, no one guessed that it came from the local supermarket!


New RH volunteer Liana poses in her apron and chef's hat with plates of cake and fresh strawberries. She had such a good time serving our audience that she can't wait to come back and help again!


Ji (right) works for the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China. After picking up her daughter, Grace, they stopped by RH before heading home.


Kristie (right) and daughter Mackenzie were visiting downtown Chicago from Milwaukee when they asked someone to take their picture on the corner near St. James Cathedral. The photographer (whom we applaud!) told the women about the concert, and they decided to attend. Perhaps another Tuesday trip to Chicago is in order?


Carl (left) attended the Fireworks for Organ concert with an organist friend and picked up a brochure, where he found out about Bon Appetit! He brought his friend Dave today.


Freddie (left) found out about RH on Metromix and brought Gina to the concert event as a date. We wish them well!


From left to right: Mark Craig, Karen Brunssen (as Julia Child), and Andrew Foster during the performance. Watch out for the flour!


Mark and Andrew serve pieces of cake to eager audience members after the performance.


From left to right: RH staffer Lia, Managing Director Julie, Mark, Andrew, Artistic Director Deborah Sobol, staffer Sarah, staffer Andrew, and St. James Cathedral Sexton Henry (more on him soon!).

Rush Hour on WTTW

Breaking news: we are all excited about RH's appearance on WTTW's Chicago Tonight! Tune in to channel 11 at 7pm on Monday night for a segment on our July 25 Folk Music of China concert event. The segment will feature the performance by violinist Yuan-Qing Yu and pianist Deborah Sobol, the pre-concert reception, and interviews with attendees. We are excited about the segment, as it is both a great way to share our success with all of those who have done so much for RH from the beginning and to introduce new people to the Rush Hour experience. If you're home and watch the segment, comment below and let us know what you think!

Rush Hour at the Dragon Boat Races

Chinatown's Chamber of Commerce and ComEd sponsored the annual Dragon Boat Races for Literacy in Chicago's Ping Tom Memorial Park on Saturday, July 22. Although we didn't field a crew (maybe next year!), the Rush Hour staff was on hand to spread the word about our series and to promote the Folk Music of China event! In addition to our own memories below, check out some wonderful photographs provided by the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.


RH staffer Lia (left -- also known as reception/concert photographer extraordinaire) and Managing Director Julie enjoy a nice afternoon in the shade of the tent.


Unfortunately, we couldn't convince this guy to take a brochure for the series. But he did pose for a picture!


RH Artistic Director Deborah Sobol hands out brochures and flyers to the crowd while enjoying the friendly competition (background).

Spotlight on Jackie Lee, Volunteer Bartender

Jackie Lee has been volunteering behind the drink table at Rush Hour Concerts for the past five years, serving wine with a laugh and a smile. He works full-time in commercial real estate, and also freelances as a stage manager and a music writer, where he profiles musicians and reviews concerts. His musical tastes are very diverse—when asked what his two favorite groups are, he replied “Skinny Puppy and Amy Grant.” In addition to 1980’s industrial and early-90’s contemporary Christian pop, Jackie Lee’s into many diverse genres of heavy metal, gospel, and Latin music—and of course, classical chamber music. Although he stresses that he has no piercings or tattoos, Jackie Lee’s love for music and his commitment to making sure the Rush Hour receptions run smoothly are as visible in his demeanor as any body modification.

It was his work as a stage manager for the annual Humanities Festival that initially brought Jackie Lee to St. James Cathedral. After getting involved in various events at the church, he started working at Rush Hour during the summer. Initially, he was attracted to helping out at the musical events, but he’s stayed with Rush Hour for so long because of the presence of the crowd and the need to participate in diverse activities. He had worked as a catering supervisor and as a union stagehand in college, and still enjoys the busyness and anticipation of the crowd.

Bittersweet Chocolate Cake

As an encore to yesterday's performance of "Bon Appetit," enjoy the actual recipe for Julia Child's bittersweet chocolate cake.

Gâteau au chocolat; l’Éminence Brune
Bittersweet Chocolate Cake
By Julia Child

The Chocolate:
2 tsp. instant espresso coffee
1/4 cup boiling water
7 ounces semisweet baking chocolate
2 ounces unsweetened (bitter) chocolate

The Cake Pans:
Two 8 x 1 1/2 inch round one-piece cake pans (4 cup capacity)
2 tsp. soft butter
2 rounds of wax paper cut to fit bottom of pans
1/4 cup flour

The Batter:
4 large eggs (if chilled, set in tepid water for 5 minutes)
2/3 cup sugar (extra fine granulated, if possible)
4 ounces (1 stick) soft unsalted butter
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar and a pinch of salt
2 Tbsp. additional sugar
3/4 cup cornstarch (to measure, sift directly into dry measure cups and sweep off excess)

For the Chocolate and Butter Glaze:
1 tsp. instant espresso coffee
2 Tbsp. boiling water
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
2 ounces (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and set rack in lower-middle level.

The Chocolate— Blend the coffee and water in a 6-cup saucepan and set it in a larger pan of simmering water. Remove from heat. Break up the chocolate, stir it into the coffee, cover, and set aside to melt slowly until you are ready to use.

The Cake Pans— Smear butter inside both cake pans, covering them completely. Place wax paper in bottom of each, butter it, then roll flour around in first pan to coat inside completely. Knock flour out into the second pan, coat it, and knock out excess flour.

The Batter— Separate the eggs, dropping the whites into a clean, dry beating bowl, and the yolks into a 3-4 quart mixing bowl. With a portable electric beater, start beating the egg yolks, gradually adding the sugar, and continue beating until yolks are thick, pale yellow, and, when a bit is lifted in blades of beater, it drops off in a thick ribbon that slowly dissolves on the surface of the mixture— about 3 minutes of beating.

Finishing the Chocolate— It should now be soft. If not, remove pan and re-heat water; remove from heat, set chocolate pan in again, and beat the chocolate with the portable mixer until perfectly smooth. Beat in the butter, 2 tablespoons at a time, then gradually beat the chocolate and butter into the egg-yolk mixture.

The Egg Whites— Immediately change beater blades and proceed to the egg whites. Start beating at moderately low speed for a minute or so, until foaming, and beat in cream of tartar and salt. Gradually increase speed to fast, and continue beating until egg whites hold their shape in soft peaks; gradually beat in the 2 tablespoons extra sugar, and continue beating until egg whites form stiff shining peaks; they are now ready to be folded into cake batter.

Folding— Being sure chocolate and egg-yolk mixture is smooth and soft—stir over hot water if it has stiffened—sift on one quarter of the cornstarch, and scoop in one quarter of the egg whites; stir in with rubber spatula. Then scoop rest of egg whites on top, sift on one third of the remaining cornstarch, and begin to fold as follows: Plunge rubber spatula down from top center of egg whites to bottom of bowl, bring to edge of bowl, then turn it as you lift it back up to the surface, thus bringing a bit of the chocolate up over the egg whites. Rapidly repeat the movement several times, rotating the bowl as you do so. Sift on half the rest of the cornstarch, continue with several rapid scoops of the spatula, then sift on the last of the cornstarch, and continue folding until blended.

Into the Cake Pan— At once turn the batter into the pans, running it up the edge all around with your spatula to prevent cakes from humping in the middle as they bake. Pans will be about half full. Bang once on work surface to settle the batter, and place in oven, one near rear corner of rack, and the other diagonally across near front corner.

Baking— Set timer for 15 minutes. Cakes will rise to about top of pans, and are done when only the center shakes a little when moved gently. A cake tester should come out almost clean when inserted around the edges, but have a number of wet brown specks attached to it when plunged into the center 2 inches.

Cooling and Unmolding— Set pans on racks for air circulation, and let cool. Cakes will sink slightly, and will shrink from sides of pan. Because cake texture is very soft and delicate, you will find them easiest to unmold when chilled and firm; thus, when cool, wrap and refrigerate for an hour or so.

Filling, Icing, and Serving— Melt the chocolate with the coffee as before, then beat in the butter. If too liquid for easy spreading, beat over cold water until lightly thickened. Unmold one of the cakes directly onto serving plate, and stick pieces of wax paper underneath all around to catch icing dribbles. Spread top with a 1/8 inch layer of icing. With the help of a flexible-blade spatula, unmold second cake on top of first. Cover top and sides with icing. Peel out the wax paper strips from under cake. If you are serving soon, leave at room temperature. Otherwise, cover with an upside-down bowl and refrigerate (or freeze), and let come to room temperature for an hour or so before serving, to let the chocolate icing regain its bloom and the cake its texture.

© 1970-75 by Julia Child
This recipe can be found in From Julia’s Kitchen, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. The libretto of Bon Appétit! is a transcript of episode #228, first broadcast 3/4/71 of The French Chef starring Julia Child, produced by WGBH Boston

Folk Music of China in Pictures

Last week's concert featured violinist Shanghai native Yuan-Qing Yu and pianist Deborah Sobol (RH's Artistic Director) performing arrangements of the folk music of China. At the reception, concert-goers enjoyed Chinese desserts from Phoenix, at 2131 S. Archer in Chicago's Chinatown. While all of our pictures so far this season have been taken by RH staffer Lia, the last four pictures in this set were taken by photographer Nick Feder. Keep watching this blog for more photographs from this young artist!


Dietrich (left) and Kevin hadn't met before they sat for this picture! Dietrich walks dogs in the neighborhood of St. James Cathedral, and saw the signs. He comes to Rush Hour because he's a big fan of classical music. Kevin found out through a friend, and came to hear music and relax after a long day of work.


Steve (left) found out about RH through the Whole Foods bulletin and was drawn in by the food. Ron doesn't remember how he first found out about the concerts, he's been coming to RH since last year. He enjoys the great music.


Volunteer ushers Marion (left) and Sarah welcome visiters into the beautiful interior of St. James Cathedral. Both agree that this is a wonderful place to experience live chamber music.


Violinist Yuan-Qing Yu is passionate about translating her cultural heritage to new audiences.


As a performer, pianist Deborah Sobol enjoys exploring the music of other cultures.


Our partners involved in the production of this week's concert of the folk music of China included (from left to right): Xinjie Li, Cultual Consul; Anstiss Krueck, RH board member; Ying Tang, Deputy Consul General; Deborah Sobol, RH Artistic Director; Mr. Teng and Mrs. Teng (Mrs. Teng is the former president of the Chinese Fine Arts Society); Yuan-Qing Yu, violinist; Julie Hutchison, RH Managing Director; Renliang Wang, Consul.