• The Chicago Choro Club Classes at The Musical Offering

    Evanston, Ill. — September 13, 2015 will be the launch of the Chicago Choro Club at the Musical Offering, a community music school in Evanston.

    The Chicago Choro Club will feature weekly group classes divided by instrument and/or role in a typical choro ensemble, a "regional." The CCC will also host "Rodas de Choro" (Choro jam sessions) for students as well as community members.

    Classes will be lead by local musicians with a wealth of experience in Choro. Flutist/Choro researcher Julie Koidin, the founder and director of the project, will teach a solo instrument class open to woodwind and brass players. Don Stiernberg will teach mandolin, John Beard cavaquinho and guitar, and Heitor Garcia and Geraldo de Oliveira will teach pandeiro/Brazilian percussion

    The Chicago Choro Club is part of a larger, choro focused project that Koidin is initiating in 2015. This project includes a dedicated concert series called "The Brazilian Beat Concert Series," also to be based at the Musical Offering and a nationally and internationally syndicated choro radio program. This program is set to air during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and will be produced with the WFMT Radio Network, one of the world's largest syndicators of music.

    The choro program will join other internationally syndicated shows on the network including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Edinburgh Festival and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

    The programs above are not yet fully funded. Koidin has set up a webpage for tax-deductible donations towards the "choro cause." Those interested in contributing to this large scale Choro project may receive "thank you" gifts such as Koidin's Choro tome, Choro Conversations, a compilation of 52 interviews with choro's top musicians including a large number of Mandolinists such as Joel Nascimento, Rodrigo Lessa, Ronaldo do Bandolim, Reco do Bandolim. Marco de Pinna, and Jorge Cardoso to name a few.

    Additional information

    Comments 1 Comment
    1. Gary Leonard's Avatar
      Gary Leonard -
      Anyone signing up for this? I registered for the classes, that was a feat in and of itself on the Musical Offering website!