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Lakeshore Rush is an integral part of the Chicago community, the city they call home. Their priority is to present music by living composers as well as forgotten chamber music masterpieces. Over the past ten years, the ensemble has appeared at the Chicago Symphony Center, WFMT – Chicago’s classical radio station, Ear Taxi Festival, Chicago Cultural Center, the PianoForte Foundation, Fulton Street Collective, Garfield Park Conservatory, Constellation, and the Thirsty Ears Festival – Chicago’s only classical music street festival. Lakeshore Rush is an active member of New Music Chicago, and has commissioned several works by local established composers, including those by Beth Bradfish, Seth Boustead, Griffin Candey, Kyong Mee Choi, Amos Gillespie, Jonathan Hannau, Marc Mellits, Logan Rutledge, Laura Schwendinger, and Roger Zare. Lakeshore Rush maintains an ongoing relationship with the Merit School of Music by providing educational programming for audiences aged 5 – 14, and has presented workshops at the University of Illinois Chicago and Lawrence University.
Other career highlights include premiering their first feature length film score by composer Seth Boustead titled Dreaming Grand Avenue (2020), and premiering and recording Beth Bradfish’s Curved Silence (2022), which served as the catalyst for their commissioned cinematic music video by Alina Markina and Mario Bosca featuring the City of Chicago as a narrative element of the film. Their debut album, Lakeshore Rush: Moving Parts, was released on Albany Records in 2022 (TROY 1896). The ensemble was also featured on Lawrence Axelrod’s album 5X4: Quartets for Various Instruments (Ravello Records 2023). A review in Gramophone magazine described their performance as ‘exquisitely rendered’.
The ensemble is named after a previously endangered grass that has recently revitalized the shores of Lake Michigan, and commits itself to environmental stewardship in its programming. Past seasons included partnerships with the Honnold Foundation, a nonprofit working to advance solar energy access all over the world, and the Alliance for the Great Lakes, a nonprofit formed to conserve and restore the freshwater resources of the Great Lakes through public engagement and policy promotion. To celebrate their 10th Anniversary Season, “One Small World,” they went beyond environmental stewardship to tackle broader social issues through a partnership with UNICEF – donating a portion of all ticket sales at the end of the season.
Our programmatic theme for the 2025-2026 season is “You can dance if you want to,” which focuses on the lighter side of contemporary music and pieces inspired by dance and movement. We hope to see you at one of our upcoming performances!
Lakeshore Rush is:
Erin Kendall Murphy, flute
Laura McLaughlin Lingle, clarinet
Janice Lee, violin (guest artist)
Come join us!!!