David Weathersby is a filmmaker and founder of video production company City Vanguard, which focuses on documentaries about underrepresented communities of color. In 2018, he received a Black Excellence Award for The Color of Art from the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago, and in 2019, his documentary Thee Debauchery Ball won the audience award […]
Category: Chicagoans of Note
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Making music immortal
“There’s a satisfaction in knowing that our work will survive us by generations. That’s something that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.” Pipe organ conservator Jeff Weiler, 62, founded what became JL Weiler, Inc. in 1983. The company’s workshop near 18th and Canal employs ten people, who work to restore, […]
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Jessie Montgomery, CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence
In April, violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery was named the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s new Mead Composer-in-Residence. Montgomery will split her time between New York and Chicago throughout her residency, which started July 1 and runs through June 30, 2024. She gave this interview while in town to prepare for the first concert of the CSO’s […]
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Julia Dratel, music curator and visual artist
Julia Dratel, 30, is an events producer, curator, radio DJ, activist, and visual artist. She’s taken photos for album artwork by Circuit des Yeux and Devouring the Guilt and created music videos for Health & Beauty, Mind Over Mirrors, and Spirits Having Fun. She’s also curated night two of the Elastro A/V Fall Festival at […]
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Dana Hall, jazz drummer and educator
“Being in the room and feeling the heartbeat of the people that you’re with, that’s really a large part of what makes the music what it is.”
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Sasha Daltonn, jazz singer and founder of the Chicago Gospel Music Festival
“We weren’t only honoring Professor Dorsey—this was a major event introduced by the first Black mayor of the city, and it needed to be outstanding.”
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Justice Hill, producer, keyboardist, and songwriter
“Once I started playing piano . . . I felt like I had complete control over something for once, and it allowed me to be a more confident version of myself.”
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Sacha Mullin, singer-songwriter and backup vocalist extraordinaire
“I want to assemble things as if I’m storyboarding in my head. In a way, I feel like a casting director for sound.”
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Hali Palombo, composer and shortwave radio enthusiast
“A lot of the most fascinating audio that I’ve found has been things that most people would just skip over.”
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Alison Chesley, cellist and composer, aka Helen Money
“A year without music venues, without audiences, without seeing other people play has really made me realize how important that is for me.”
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Christopher Santoso, aka DJ and producer Please and Issa Party label founder
“I try and make the music for the dancers—like Teklife, Beatdown House, everybody in the footwork community. It’s all for them.”
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Beau O’Reilly, cofounder of Maestro Subgum & the Whole and Curious Theatre Branch
“I’ve always written more than people can keep up with. I write a lot of plays and I write a lot of lyrics. I just write all the time.”
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Jennifer Phạm, cofounder of Haibayô and Celebrate Argyle
“For so long, people didn’t know anything about Asian Americans. Showing who we are and being proud of who we are, it’s really important during this time.”
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Annie Saunders, veterinarian and founder of Punk House Chicago
“The focus is not as much on the bands as it is on communal life and the weird things you get up to when you’re making minimum wage and you’re bored.”
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Monique Golding, vocalist for Mosaic Soul and the Black Monument Ensemble
“A music community is a group of individuals that create music because they love doing it, and I think that’s the most important thing for me.”