Loops And Variations Kicks Off Millennium Park Residency

By Staff in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 3, 2014 3:00PM

Chicago-based Q Ensemble

The Loops and Variations summer concert series kicked off Thursday evening at Millennium Park. The series pairs contemporary classical groups with electronic-based artists from the pop end of the music spectrum. In this case, German pianist Hauschka and Chicago's own Q Ensemble were featured along with Los Angeles-based conceptual pop band YACHT.

Hauschka performed a two-part set that began with selections from his album Foreign Landscapes. The German musician is known for preparing the piano (placing various foreign objects such as bottle caps, metal screws, and small musical instruments inside the piano to generate percussive effects). A giant video screen projected live shots of the inside of the piano. This was a nice way to combat the immensity of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and offer a close-up look at the events on stage.

Historically, prepared piano dates back to American composers Henry Cowell and John Cage. Hauschka's easy-listening modal melodies and light percussive piano accompaniments stand in stark contrast, offering only a cosmetic relationship to the works of the aforementioned masters.

The Q Ensemble did the bulk of the heavy lifting during this portion of the set. It is great to see the string trio, known for their bold and multi-disciplinary programming, featured on a prominent summer series. For this concert, the Q Ensemble was joined by violinist Eric Pidluski and cellist Richard Evans.

The second half of Hauschka's set was comprised of solo piano works with electronic accompaniment from his latest album The Abandoned City.

YACHT took the stage shortly thereafter and offered a high-energy dose of their catalog including songs such as "Party at the NSA" and "Psychic City." The band did an admirable job in coaxing around 200 people to move from the well-populated lawn to the nearly-empty seating bowl, offering a more intimate feel to the proceedings.

While the publicized connection of Hauschka's "electronic sounding tones" with YACHT's electro-pop was tenuous at best, the series should nonetheless be applauded for attempting to bring together divergent aesthetics in a beautiful, public setting.

All Loops and Variations concerts are free. Upcoming series highlights include Third Coast Percussion and Ghost Beach on June 12, and Eighth Blackbird on June 19.

By: Drew Baker