Lane Alexander
Forget the bombastic 1812 Overture, familiarly played on the Fourth of July, in which actual cannon shots supersize the percussion section of the orchestra. This year, the Grant Park Orchestra is starting a new, more refined patriotic tradition by playing Morton Gould’s 1952 Tap Dance Concerto in a free concert at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion at 1:30pm.
The indefatigable Lane Alexander, founder of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, will perform the tap dance part of the Concerto. “I’m going to dance two movements of the Concerto, the Tocatta and the Rondo,” he tells me. “Gould notated the rhythms, but he didn’t choreograph it. So every dancer who has performed had created their own steps that fit the rhythms.”
Visit GrantParkMusicFestival.com for details.
The TOC Blog is for both our writers and readers to talk about what's going on in Chicago. We hope you'll take the opportunity to comment on posts here, with the following caveats:
If you have any questions about this policy, please e-mail John Dugan, our Web Editor, at jdugan@timeoutchicago.com.