John Cage’s Musicircus makes Chicago debut

This Sunday, The Chicago Composers Forum will be presenting the Chicago premiere of John Cage’s Musicircus. Musicircus--one of Cage's most emphatic statements regarding musical/artistic freedom and a milestone in his output--features simultaneous performances of music, poetry, theatre, dance and other arts in a single space. Integral to Cage's philosophy that art is life and to his desire for the creation of decentralized, non-hierarchical communities is his insistence that the performance be free to the general public and that no payment be made to the performers. First performed in 1967 in the Stock Pavilion at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, "Musicircus" has since been performed throughout the world but never before in Chicago. The Circus lasts from at 1-5pm and will take place simultaneously throughout the MCA, (in the lobbies, galleries and museum grounds) at 220 East Chicago. In all, there will be over 100 different ensembles, performance groups and individuals representing over 500 performers. The Chicago Composers Forum is inviting everyone to come and wander freely among the acts in accordance with Cage's philosophy of "art is life," to be experienced, just as life itself is, without any imposed sequence. Wikipedia: John Cage