Philippe Quint

Chamber Music Immersive – A Holiday Special: Celebration with Vivaldi and Bach – Chicago History Museum – Dec. 16, 2025

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Violinist Philippe Quint was at it again. Accompanied by the Magellan Chamber Orchestra, the program included J. S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, featuring a duet with 14-year-old prodigy Katherine Schaufenbuel, who lived up to the hype about her, and not just one or two, but all four of Vivaldi’s Seasons.

Vivaldi, himself, made an appearance to read the sonnets he had written to introduce the concertos. He might have fooled me, given his costume, wig and Italian accent, but he read the pieces in English, so I deduced that it was an actor, and a rather hammy one at that, which helped explain why, despite Quint’s urging, there were no questions for Antonio from the audience.

The evening also included an exhibit of rare, priceless instruments (actually I heard the figure 15 million dollars bandied about, though any security measures were subtle) by Chicago’s Stradivari Society.  Later, a few instruments formed the basis for Quint’s “violin tasting” (his words), wherein he successively, and successfully, played the same passage on one after the other. I couldn’t tell the difference and Quint didn’t rate them for the attendees, so I’m not sure what the point was. A wine tasting would have been more pleasing.

Chamber Music Immersive: Charlie Chaplin’s Smile with Philippe Quint – Chicago History Museum – Nov. 18, 2025

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When I saw Philippe Quint at the Chicago History Museum in May, I mentioned what a terrific musician he is. I now would like to add, based on this latest event, that he also is creative, knowledgeable, a good storyteller, funny and joyful. Too much?

The word immersive is thrown about rather casually these days as a buzz word in describing various types of entertainment. In the sense of being interactive, or in the middle of the action (like the Production of Making Marilyn Miller I previously wrote about), this concert was not. Audience members were not part of The Matrix. They neither played instruments nor mingled with the performers while they played.

The show was, however, multimedia in nature and terrific in execution. There were photos, and some video from The Great Dictator, Limelight, The Kid, A King in New York, Monsieur Verdoux, City Lights, The Vagabond and Charlie’s New Job. Quint provided numerous Chaplin anecdotes and he and pianist Jun Cho played selections from the Chaplin movies and other pieces that related to Chaplin’s interests and friendships, for examples, music by Stravinsky and Gershwin.

As to the latter, Chosen Mitchell, a musical theater major at the Chicago College of the Performing Arts, demonstrated a wide range while singing Summertime and I Got Rhythm.

The highlight of the evening was Quint and Cho collaborating, to play live, replacing the movie’s recorded score, Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5 from the barbershop scene in The Great Dictator, perfectly synched with the film. Quint, charming as always, suggested that you shouldn’t try this at home.

Chamber Music Immersive – Chicago History Museum – May 12, 2025

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This was the first of what the Chicago History Museum hopes will be a series of regular events in the future. I hope they are successful in putting it together. It was wonderful, though there really shouldn’t have been any nuts on top of the chocolate brownies, even though they were easily scraped off.

Violinist Philippe Quint put the program together and took the role of master of ceremonies, along with his featured role as a terrific musician. Christopher Guzman provided flawless work of the piano and the excellent cellist was either Calum Smith or Calum Cook, depending on whether you believe the program listing or his bio as principal cellist at the Lyric Opera.

Clarice Assad appeared to perform her composition of The Last Song (for voice and piano), which allowed me to hear Brazilian scat for the first time. I want more.

On the down side, in an attempt to tie the concert into the museum’s current exhibit Dressed in History: A Costume Collection Retrospective, Quint brought in five members of The Joffrey Ballet to act as “super models” (his term) for various garments. Most of the outfits were, at best, meh, and it was a terrific waste of talent, though mercifully short in duration. I had been hoping for actual dance. Quint might as well have used people from cousin Jeffrey’s ballet.