In the late 1990’s I enjoyed watching Chicago’s 3rd Coast String Quartet, of which a friend was a member, play at a local club, after which I became the proud owner of their eponymous album, from which, apropos of the current World Cup, one can listen online to their take on the jazz classic Spain, along with the rest of the album’s songs.
Fast forward to July 8, 2026, when the Grammy award-winning Third Coast Percussion performed, with their usual aplomb, with the orchestra at the Grant Park Music Festival and, thanks to a different friend, I was able to attend a post-concert reception with the group.
Regular-speed forward to July 16, when a third friend invited me to attend, at Depaul’s Holtschneider Performance Center, Third Coast Music’s Scoring for Chicago Summer Benefit, which included a raft of performances (my favorite, of course, being Marianne Parker’s deft piano work on Pictures at an Exhibition), coordinated nicely with a variety of videos, to drive home the drive to raise money to “build the Midwest’s first scoring stage; anchoring an audio post-production center, educational facility, and community event space,” which would be about an eight-mile drive from the Center, straight down Halsted Street.
If nothing else, I now know what a scoring stage is, as does the event’s engaging emcee Lisa Parker (no relation to Marianne), who joked about her initial misunderstanding (and fear) of what it might mean. And I heard a good story — about John Wiliams recording, with the CSO, the score to the movie Lincoln with the aid of sound-dampening acoustic trucks and baffles outside Orchestra Hall — used as evidence of Chicago’s need for a scoring stage and the possibilities it might bring.