Loops & Variations: Marcos Balter Celebration

It is near-impossible to think of a more galvanizing character in the Chicago new-music community than composer Marcos Balter. An artist as in-demand as mustache wax in Logan Square, Balter is an omnipresent fixture at contemporary classical shows regardless of whether or not his charts are on the program, and for that reason among many, DCASE’s Loops & Variations series is throwing him a 40th-birthday bash. Playing some of the composer’s most gripping solo and small-ensemble numbers are Ryan Muncy (saxophone), Claire Chase (flute), Nadia Sirota (viola), and Rebekah Heller (bassoon). That the birthday boy is writing a new work for the quartet is icing on the proverbial cake.