Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues will perform Jan. 13 as part of Northeastern Illinois University’s Jewel Box Series. The performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Auditorium on the Main Campus, 3701 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.
Few can claim to have forged an entirely original genre of music. In 1966, Corky Siegel did just that with the help of world-renowned classical music Maestro Seiji Ozawa, who came into a famed Chicago blues club, discovered the blues harmonica virtuoso and suggested they collaborate. These days, the harmonica virtuoso and composer is continent-hopping with Indian percussion and string quartet in Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues, continuing to bring classical and blues fans shoulder-to-shoulder, and obliterating musical categorization in the process.
Chamber Blues is celebrating more than 30 years of performances that have brought this original genre to great success, all with returns, at the prestigious Aspen Music Festival, Canada’s Banff Centre, and the Montreal International Jazz Festival, France’s premier Blues Festival, Blues Sur Seine, the Grand Teton Music Festival, tours throughout Mexico, the Hawaiian, U.S. and British Virgin Islands, and the great concert halls throughout the United States including Chicago’s Symphony Center.
Along the way, Corky Siegel has enjoyed receiving honors such as the French Government’s Grand Prix du Disque, a Chicago Music Lifetime Achievement Award, and Meet The Composer, one of the most prestigious National Endowment for the Arts awards for classical composition, whose recipients, such as Phillip Glass, John Cage, Robert Reich and Meredith Monk, are considered among the top composers of our day.
Chamber Blues has completed their fourth CD, "Different Voices,” scheduled for release in February. They continue to bring their infectious, joyful, original celebration of Chicago blues with a quartet of supreme classical virtuosos in concert with one of its most beloved bluesmen, Corky Siegel.
This performance is a part of the Jewel Box Series, an eight-concert professional performing arts series presented by Northeastern’s Office of Cultural Events. Tickets are $25, $17.50 and $5 and can be purchased online or by calling (773) 442-4636. Parking permits are required.
