When Chicago Sinfonietta kicks off this season’s cultural offerings in Oak Park and River Forest, sticks and brushes will be on stage front and center. Always bending toward the iconoclastic edge of standard concert repertoire, the Sinfonietta is a stand-out in our vibrant local arts scene, which this year runs the gamut from Baroque recorders with the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest to new compositions for the lovely voices of Chicago a cappella.
Led by its founder Paul Freeman, Chicago Sinfonietta offers a concerto, not for a violinist or pianist, but, true to Freeman’s out-of-the-box tastes, for a timpanist. Composer Russell Peck of Greensboro, N.C. hopes to be on hand to hear his “Harmonic Rhythm” in its Chicago premiere.
The percussionist, Robert Everson of Oak Park, has been hitting things-kindly, though sometimes vigorously-since he was a toddler. At age four, he begged to play the drums, but was handed a piano instead. Finally in fifth grade, Everson got the chance of a lifetime: drumming in the school band at Ogden School in Chicago. At 6-foot-6, Everson surely could have excelled at basketball, but a lifetime love of keeping time with the music blossomed into a professional career as a timpanist. He regularly plays with four orchestras in the Chicago area, including frequent gigs with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Everson, in the back row, usually towers over most other orchestra musicians who play seated. Solo passages for timpani can be found aplenty in the orchestral repertoire-just play back the opening music for 2001: A Space Odyssey and the timpani is what it’s all about. But unlike violinists and pianists, Everson can count on one hand the number of solo works out there for his instrument: a set of 3-5 kettledrums. (Philip Glass and Darius Milhaud have both tried their hands at featuring the timpani in concertos.)
For the Sinfonietta performance, Everson will stand next to the conductor in front of the five timpani required to execute Peck’s “Harmonic Rhythm.” Instead of just keeping the beat or thundering along, he will handle 12 different sets of mallets, some brushes, and even maraca mallets to play melodies on the drums, while the orchestra backs him up. Facing up to such a challenge for 22 minutes straight doesn’t seem to faze Everson, who notes in a polished and even-keeled voice, “No one expects the timpani to be played in this way.”
Everson’s solo feats might be hard to beat, but Freeman has uncovered some close contenders by American jazz legend Duke Ellington. The Chicago Jazz Ensemble will join Freeman’s orchestra in Ellington’s “Harlem” and an Ellington twist on Grieg’s war horse The Peer Gynt Suite. For his part, Everson, will sneak back to his usual turf on the last row to keep time with the music.
A few more hits should score on area stages in September. Village Players Theatre has gone all the way to Paris to find Chicago native Lisa Zane (formerly seen on L.A. Law and sister of actor Billy Zane) and bring her home. Zane collaborates with pianist Andrew Chukerman in an original signature show: Bars … The Girl on the Piano. A regular at the Swan Bar jazz club in Montparnasse, Zane mixes up a world of musical experiences in a cabaret atmosphere.
Dominican University, meanwhile, opens their Traditions season with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. And you thought a banjo was just for Tom Sawyer! With a name like Béla, you have to be good, and the Flecktones hold several Grammy-award winning hits to prove it.
• Lisa Zane in “Bars … The Girl on the Piano,” Village Players Theater, Sept. 14-30; 8 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays; Wednesday matinee, Sept. 19 at 1 p.m. (Call 866/764-1010 or www.village-players.org)
• Chicago Sinfonietta with Chicago Jazz Ensemble and Robert Everson, “Salute to Sir Duke,” Sept. 16, 2:30 p.m., www.chicagosinfonietta.org
• Bela Fleck, banjo artist, Dominican University Performing Arts Center series, Sept. 22, 7:30 p.m., http://www.dom.edu/performing-arts/
• Bonnie Koloc, “Chicago’s Queen of Folk,” Unity Temple Restoration Foundation’s Art and Architecture series, Oct. 6, 7:30 p.m., http://www.unitytempleutrf.org/concert_series.html
• Chicago a cappella, 15th anniversary season, Oct. 13, 8 p.m., www.chicagoacappella.org
• America Opera Group, “Gala Night of Emerging Stars,” Oct. 13, 7:30 p.m., http://www.americanoperagroup.org/
• Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest, Jay Friedman, conductor, Oct. 21, 4 p.m., www.symphonyoprf.com
Wednesday Journal music reviewer Cathryn Wilkinson will be the featured performer in an organ recital, First United Church of Oak Park Saturday series, Sept.29, 7 p.m., www.firstunitedoakpark.com