The Cliff Dwellers

Music Lifts the Soul: A celebration of Augusta Read Thomas & Bernard Rands
2023-10-19 17:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
The respective work of major music artists Augusta Read Thomas and Bernard Rands is legendary. We are delighted to celebrate, in one grand event, each of these highly distinguished composers as Honorary members of the Club.
A composer featured on a Grammy winning CD by Chanticleer, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and University of Chicago University Professor of Composition, Augusta Read Thomas’ impressive body of works “embodies unbridled passion and fierce poetry” (American Academy of Arts and Letters)
Through more than a hundred published works and many recordings, Bernard Rands is established as a major figure in contemporary music. Among other things, his works have won the Pulitzer Prize in Music (1984) and the 1986 Kennedy Center Friedheim Award (1986.)
At this event, music will fill the room. A performance by John Corkill (percussion) will bring to life ENCHANTED INVOCATION by Augusta Read Thomas. And, just as enthralling, Phil Pierick (saxophone) will perform Memo 6 by Bernard Rands.
But, there’s more. Bernard Rands will charm us with a talk on “Contemporary Virtuosity.” And Augusta Read Thomas will passionately speak on “Gestalt Webs.”
We will enjoy a fine dinner and wine will be poured for a special “Zivio” greeting and toast. There will be a few surprises too!

Members and guests are welcome.
5pm – Cash bar opens
6pm – Dinner ($60 pp)
Reservations are required:
reservations@cliff-chicago.org or call 312-922-8080
Reservations are requested by October 17.

The Society of Midland Authors: Short Stories About Small Towns
2023-10-17 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
Local authors Janice Deal, “Strange Attractors,” Christina Morracco, “Addio, Love Monster,” and Ryan Elliott Smit, “Fly Over This” will discuss their new short story collections, all of which take place in small towns in Northern Illinois.
The authors will each talk about how they established a sense of place, and the appeal of the short form, as opposed to the novel.
6:30pm — FREE program
(followed by Q&A and book sales)

Cliff Dwellers Annual Meeting
2023-10-16 16:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago)
The evening will begin at 4:30pm when the bar opens. Dinner with wine will be served at 6pm with the program to follow. Zivio will be sung to close out the evening, so warm up your vocal chords! We will also be voting on new Board members as well updating you on The Club’s business and activities during 2023.
Dinner is $50 per person.
Reservations can be made via email reservations@cliff-chicago.org or by calling 312-922-8080.
Please RSVP by 2 pm on Friday, October 13.
Notice of Nominees for Director on The Cliff Dwellers Board
Pursuant to Article VIII of the By-Laws of The Cliff Dwellers, the Nominating Committee proposes three candidates to fill the open positions of Director of the Club, to be elected at the annual meeting scheduled for October 16:
Ben Johnson, CD ’13: Ben is currently serving his first term as President of The Cliff Dwellers and was born and raised on the Near North Side of Chicago. Ben spent much of his younger life as a guest of his father Walker Johnson, CD ’84, a past president of the Club, in the Kiva above Orchestra Hall where Ben and his wife Jennifer celebrated their wedding reception. As a Director at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture in Chicago, Ben crafts high-rise tower projects around the globe, though he owes his core skills to his first phase career as a Midwest preservation architect. In his ample spare time, Ben races small sailing scows on summer weekends in Wisconsin and skis the death-defying winter back country of Utah where his two children reside.
Edward E. Gordon, CD ’00: Edward E. Gordon is the president of Imperial Consulting Corporation and an economist, historian, speaker, researcher, and author. He has been a member of the Club since 2000, served two terms as Club Treasurer from 2019-2023, and is the Co-Chair of the 21st Century Fund. He seeks to secure the Club’s future through increasing its membership and encouraging members to support the Club through volunteering and monetary contributions.
Diane Chandler-Marshall, CD ’17: Diane has spent 25 years as an administrator and arts advocate, working with local and national government, public and private organizations and non-profit arts agencies. Diane served as Education and Artist Development Director for the Jazz Institute of Chicago for 15 years. She was also the Director of the Bureau of Cultural Arts in the Central Office of the Chicago Public Schools and worked at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Diane has been cochairing the Artist in Residence Committee at Cliff Dwellers, supporting young artists at the Club. She has also organized performances of young jazz artists in programs at the Club.

Learn and Experience the Noble Art of Sabrage: “Where Sword Meets Champagne”
2023-10-12 17:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
(Sabrage Experience registration deadline September 28!)
INDIVIDUAL SABRAGE EXPERIENCE tickets
($175, member tickets and up to two guest tickets)
1. With coaching, open a bottle of champagne using a saber.
2. Receive a personalized certificate that celebrates your first successful Sabrage!
3. Receive a cloth bag with the cork and severed bottle neck from your Sabrage experience.
OR, watch the fun as a SPECTATOR
($60, member & guest tickets)
1. Join in the fun with an event seat beside your fellow Cliff Dwellers, without performing Sabrage yourself
2. Learn about Sabrage, and the Confrerie du Sabre d’Or
Reservations are required:
reservations@cliff-chicago.org or call 312-922-8080
NOTE:
– Sabrage experience tickets are limited to members and up to two guests
– Sabrage Experience ticket reservations must be made (or cancelled) via email by September 28th, otherwise you will be charged the full amount. This is to allow time for your certificate to be created in advance of the event.

The Continuing Saga of Nazi Art Theft
2023-10-11 17:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
Presented by Historian Ed Gordon
Dr. Ed Gordon will provide a lively account of how the Nazi government engineered the greatest art theft in history before and during World War II. Efforts to return these treasures to their rightful owners began with the Monuments Men and continues to the present day. Learn about the many surprising obstacles that bedevil those seeking restitution of valued art.
5:00pm — Bar opens
5:30pm — Dinner ($40)
6:30pm — program
Reservations are required:
Reserve by email
or call 312-922-8080

Rembrandt Chamber Musicians: An die Musik (To Music)
2023-10-10 17:30 - 21:00 (America/Chicago)
A program of poignantly beautiful songs and beguiling instrumental works, An die Musik includes Franz Schubert’s beloved song of the same name and the soprano showpiece “The Shepherd on the Rock”. The Rembrandt Chamber Players opens their season with a program filled with music’s power to evoke “warm love” in one’s heart and transport the listener “to a better world.”
Performing artists include Jennifer Haworth, soprano; Jonathan Gunn, clarinet; John Macfarlane, violin; Carol Cook, viola and Calum Cook, cello; Henry Kramer, piano.
Program:
SCHUBERT: “Der Hirt auf dem Felsen” (The Shepherd on the Rock), D. 965
BRUCH: Selections from Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano
SCHUBERT: “An die Musik” (To Music), D. 547
SCHUBERT: Trio in B-flat Major for Violin, Cello, and Piano, D. 898
Music program tickets must be purchased online from the performers’ website prior to the event!
Cliff Dwellers Discount Code: CLIFF2023 (valid for 10% off)
Reservations or dinner at the club required:
reservations@cliff-chicago.org or call 312-922-8080
5:30pm – Cash bar opens
6pm — 3 course dinner ($42)
7pm — Music Program94455

Live Jazz on the Cliff
2023-10-06 17:30 - 22:30 UTC
The Club’s first all Women Jazz Group will perform for Jazz Night!
$12 Cover charge to support the artists
Cash Bar
$35 Buffet Dinner (optional)
To have dinner, please call ahead and reserve with Cliff Dwellers By Oct. 4th.
Reservations are required:
reservations@cliff-chicago.org or call 312-922-8080
For additional questions or comments, contact: Lindsay Hugé, lchuge@aol.com / 773-972-1110
___
Jazz night will also feature a sound installation!
“ThyssenKrupp – 153-1-MRL” is a work by AIR Takashi Shallow and long-time collaborator Andrew Dorkin. The piece is an ambient audio installation that will take place in the Cliff Dwellers elevator on the evening of 10/6. With no clear beginning or end, subtle sounds, foreign yet vaguely familiar to the elevator, will fill its space. Shallow is a professor of sound and art at the University of Chicago, and Dorkin holds a doctorate in poetics.

Indiana Jones and The Missing Spanish Church
2023-10-04 16:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
Presented by Ben Thomas, Executive Director SAH
Ben Thomas will present the story about the intersection of Hollywood, archaeology, and the search for a Colonial-era Spanish church in Belize.
Over a period of six years, a group of intrepid archaeologists braved heat, humidity, wild animals and lots of bugs along the Sibun River to look for ancient Maya settlements, chocolate and a 16th century Spanish church said to have been destroyed by a local Maya group during a rebellion against their Spanish overseers.
4:30pm — Cash bar opens
5:15pm — Dinner ($42)
6:15pm — Program
Reservations required:
reservations@cliff-chicago.org
or call 312-922-8080 Text Link

Club closed after lunch
2023-09-22 14:00 - 22:00, 2023-09-15 14:00 - 22:00, 2023-09-12 14:00 - 22:00, 2023-09-07 14:00 - 22:00, 2023-08-31 14:00 - 22:00, 2023-07-07 14:00 - 22:00 UTC
Club closed after lunch due to an exclusive event

An Ancient Dream, An Epic Poem, and Daring Searches by Intrepid Architects/Archaeologists, Unearth an Architectural Treasure And Solve a Centuries-Old Mystery: a Lecture by Margery al Chalabi
2023-09-13 17:00 - 20:30 UTC
Join us for an exciting lecture on architecture and archeology.
The story starts with a team of archaeologists from the British Museum returning to a site in Iraq eighty years after its initial excavation by the French.
Those earlier excavations led – eventually – to astonishing finds in both palatial structures and a major library of the world’s first written language – Sumerian – on 100,000 shards of clay.
This latter find precipitated a search for the region’s history and ancient structures – the latter, a search for several temples called The Eninnu.
The search required the archaeologists learn to read a language that had been dead – or altered/modified by generations of conquests and world-wide population movements – over millennia. And, as an unintended consequence, discovered the world’s oldest, most-known, most-revered, most-translated piece of literature – The Epic of Gilgamesh.
5:00 pm – Bar opens; 6:30 pm – Dinner ($40); 7:30 pm – Program
RSVP by June 5

Rhythm and Blues Sparks the Night!
2023-09-08 17:00 - 20:00 UTC
Artist-in-Residence Allie Chantel will thrill us with her vocal performance that gives nod to her favorite music genre–R&B!
Come for dinner beforehand or enjoy an appetizer plate during the show.
5pm — Cash Bar opens
6pm — Dinner ($40)
7pm — Music ($10 program only)
Appetizer platter served at 6:45pm ($20)

Club closed for Lollapalooza
2023-08-04 14:00 - 2023-08-06 22:00 UTC
Club closed after lunch on Friday and reopens for lunch on Tuesday

Cliff Dwellers Book Club: The World of Juliette Kinzie: Chicago Before The Fire- Ann Durkin Keating
2023-07-29 11:00 UTC
The Book Club will discuss Ann Durkin Keating’s The World of Juliette Kinzie: Chicago Before The Fire.
Please reserve at reservations@cliff-chicago.org or by phone at 312-922-8080 if you will be joining us for lunch at the club

Live Jazz on the Cliff
2023-07-14 17:00 - 22:00 UTC
Join us for another exciting edition of Live Jazz on the Cliff!
Details to follow!

Club open for NASCAR race
2023-07-02 14:30 UTC
Please stay tuned for updated information and member events surrounding the race. We will have more information as we get closer to the event.

NASCAR brunch & pre-qualifying race viewing
2023-07-01 10:30 UTC
We are currently working on a Brunch for our membership on Saturday July 1st for pre-qualifying race viewing.
Please stay tuned for updated information and member events surrounding the race. We will have more information as we get closer to the event.

Cliff Dwellers Book Club: Herzog by Saul Bellow
2023-06-24 11:00 UTC
The Book Club will discuss Saul Bellow’s Herzog.
Please reserve at reservations@cliff-chicago.org or by phone at 312-922-8080 if you will be joining us for lunch at the club

Breaking the Illusion of Consensus: American Esoterica, Microsocieties, & Outsider Literature (An "Artist-in-Residence" program)
2023-06-23 17:00 - 20:30 UTC
Join us on Friday evening, June 23rd, for a program presented by Artist-in-Residence Logan Berry.
“It’s hard to be an atheist in such an age, so why not make up your own religion?” asks poet Kathleen Rooney in her thought-provoking new poetry collection Where Are the Snows. Three prolific writers will engage in a roundtable discussion about Rooney’s question via the spiritual dimensions of their books and writing practices, as well as how they relate (or don’t) to our time of fractured consensus reality. At this program, presented by AIR and writer Logan Berry, we’ll welcome Chicago-based authors Maryse Meijer (Heartbreaker, Rag, The Seventh Mansion) and Kathleen Rooney (Where Are the Snows, Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, Lilian Boxfish Takes a Walk), together with NYC-based author David Leo Rice (The New House, Drifters, A Room in Dodge City). The program features select readings, authors-interviewing-authors, and spirited conversation. We’ll easily join in the conversation and mingle with the authors at a book signing afterwards.
5:00 p.m. Bar opens
6:00 p.m. Dinner: $40
7:00 p.m. Program
Program-only seating: $5
RSVP by June 21

Bloomsday 2023 at The Cliff Dwellers
2023-06-16 17:00 - 20:30 UTC
Join us on Friday evening, June 16th, as the Cliff Dwellers once again celebrate Bloomsday, honoring Irish author James Joyce and his novel Ulysses.
This is always a joyful event with food, drink, song, and readings from the great book.
5:00 PM- Reception
6:00 PM- Irish Dinner ($40)
7:00 PM-Program
RSVP by Wednesday June 14

Cliff Dwellers Book Club: A Boy Named Shel: The Life and Times of Silverstein– Lisa Rogak
2023-05-20 11:00 UTC
The Book Club will discuss Lisa Rogak’s A Boy Named Shel: The Life and Times of Silverstein.
Please reserve at reservations@cliff-chicago.org or by phone at 312-922-8080 if you will be joining us for lunch at the club

The Debussy/Second Viennese Axis
2023-05-03 17:00 - 20:00 UTC
Please join us for The Debussy/Second Viennese Axis, an exploration of music curated and performed by pianist Jacob Greenberg. This event will be the second in Mr. Greenberg’s free series of Close Range Concerts, sponsored by the Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation Board— with optional dinner/cocktails commencing at 5 PM and music beginning at 6, and a program length of approximately one hour.
Program: The Debussy/Second Viennese Axis
Claude Debussy was an inspiration for the composers known as the Second Viennese School: Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern. In an exciting hour-long program, pianist Jacob Greenberg draws unexplored comparisons between the master French sound colorist and these three brilliant Austrians who forged their own different, but equally revolutionary, path.
Alban Berg: Sonata, op. 1
Claude Debussy: Selections from Préludes, Études, and Images
Arnold Schoenberg: Piano Pieces, op. 23
Anton Webern: Variations, op. 27
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM Reception, Optional Prix Fixe Dinner ($37)
6:00 PM Program
To attend this free event, or to opt in for dinner, please RSVP by Monday, May 1 by phone at 312-922-8080, or by email at reservations@cliff-chicago.org

Live Jazz on the Cliff
2023-04-28 17:00 - 21:00 UTC
This edition of Live Jazz on the Cliff will feature a trio led by trumpeter Chad McCullough, including Paul Mutzabaugh on piano and Casey Nielsen on guitar.
Chad will emphasize the compositions of Terrence Blanchard and Miles Davis in his sets.
Cash bar opens at 5. The group will perform two sets, 6-7:15 pm and 7:45-9 pm. There will be a buffet dinner (served between 6 pm – 7:30 pm) available for $35.
There will be a $12 cover charge for this event to support the artists.
Please RSVP before April 26 by phone at 312-922-8080, or by email at reservations@cliff-chicago.org
For any questions or comments contact:
Lindsay Hugé, 773-972-1110 lchuge@aol.com

Society of Architectural Historians Lecture: Laurie Peterson AIA Chicago – AIA Guide Book
2023-04-26 16:30 - 20:30 UTC
Please join us for “Meet the New AIA Guide to Chicago”, a slide talk by Laurie McGovern Petersen, editor of the fourth edition of the AIA Guide to Chicago (published in June 2022, with contributions by Cynthia Weese FAIA, Perry R. Duis, the Chicago Architecture Center and Landmarks Illinois). She will show us new features such as added buildings and color illustrations in the updated guidebook, which is such an invaluable guide to the buildings and neighborhoods of Chicago. Chicago’s noted architecture attracts visitors from around the globe.
The fourth edition of the AIA Guide to Chicago is the best portable resource for exploring this most breathtaking and dynamic of cityscapes. The editors offer entries on new destinations like the Riverwalk, the St. Regis Chicago, and the 606, as well as updated descriptions of Willis Tower and other landmarks. Thirty-four maps and over 500 photos make it easy to find each of the almost 2000 featured sites. A special insert, new to this edition, showcases the variety of Chicago architecture with over 80 full-color images arranged chronologically. A comprehensive index organizes entries by name and architect. Sumptuously detailed and user friendly, the AIA Guide to Chicago encourages travelers and residents alike to explore the many diverse neighborhoods of one of the world’s great architectural destinations.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase.
4:30 Bar opens
5:15 Dinner ($40)
6:15 Program
Please RSVP by April 24 by phone at 312-922-8080, or by email at reservations@cliff-chicago.org

Cliff Dwellers Book Club: Death Before Life by John Gorman
2023-04-22 11:00 UTC
The Book Club will discuss John Gorman’s Death Before Life. The author will be joining our discussion. Lunch will be available after the meeting.
Please reserve at reservations@cliff-chicago.org or by phone at 312-922-8080 if you will be joining us for lunch at the club

Club closed after lunch for an exclusive event.
2023-04-21 14:00 UTC
Friday, April 21: Club closed after lunch for an exclusive event.
