The Chicago Philharmonic's chamber series cp2, also known as the Chicago Philharmonic Chamber Players, features a wide range of innovative chamber ensembles created by the talented members of the Chicago Philharmonic family.
When chamber concert coordinator Lynn LaPlante Allaway was organizing this year's chamber series, she thought "We have all these versatile musicians, let's break out of the box." In seasons past, the series was held in Chicago area churches. But, as Allaway told me, "We thought we would try something new and show the versatility of the CP musicians in different venues and different settings."
One of these venues is the Chicago Jazz Showcase, where cp2 will display their jazz talents on Monday evening, Nov. 3 at 8:00 p.m. Their sets, featuring jazz, third stream, classical and pop music, will include music of Jim Gailloreto, Jimmy Rowles, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.
cp2 will also present two more concerts at the City Winery, where they will play at noon on November 9 and December 7. In a program reminiscent of the famous Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues, cp2 chamber groups will present a varied musical feast for patrons who are also enjoying Sunday brunch, complete with mimosas and bloody marys.
For classical musicians, playing at the Jazz Showcase on Nov. 3 may seem like a stretch, but Allaway doesn't see it that way.
"I don't think people realize the absolute variety and wide talent that a lot of classical musicians possess," Allaway said.
In addition to playing violin and viola with the Chicago Philharmonic, Allaway is the principal violist of the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, led by noted jazz trumpeter and educator Orbert Davis.
The featured jazz vocalist on the cp2 program, Cheryl Wilson, also plays viola with the Chicago Philharmonic. In addition to her talents as a string player, Wilson enjoyed a busy career singing commercial jingles in Chicago up until the 1990s. An international pop presence, she subsequently had several #1 dance hits on the Billboard charts in the United Kingdom.
"I think the average concertgoer in a strictly classical concert hall setting would be really surprised to find out the depth and breadth of the musicians' knowledge and interest [in other genres]," Allaway said.
Allaway also said that literally dozens of chamber groups formed by the musicians of the Chicago Philharmonic applied to play on the cp2 concerts: "We had 41 different chamber groups... proposing programs of alternate genres, to be performed in an alternative setting.
"So that shows you: as they would say in sports,... we have a deep, deep bench," she concluded.
Much like the Vienna Philharmonic in Austria, the Chicago Philharmonic has a pool of some of the best musicians in Chicago to choose from.
A complete schedule of cp2 concerts is available at chicagophilharmonic.org.
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