Project Trio Brings Bach ‘Outside-the-Box’ Music-Making to Students

By Emily Walker

Classical chamber music, rock and roll, and hip-hop might seem as separate as oil and water, but for Project Trio, these are the ingredients to an ever-evolving, high-energy setlist that keeps their audiences perpetually on the edge of their seats.

On Saturday, November 9, innovative chamber group Project Trio will bring their genre-bending music to Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall—but their first Ravinia performances have been sharing their passion for improvisation and composition with hundreds of students across Chicagoland. This past week, the trio conducted three workshops and two in-school performances in collaboration with Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play education programs, showing students that improvisation and classical music can go hand-in-hand.

Growing up with a diverse set of musical influences, Project Trio bassist Peter Seymour says it was a mutual interest in playing a variety of styles outside of traditional classical repertoire that brought him and flutist Greg Pattillo together while studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The fact that arrangements for their combination of instruments were few and far between only encouraged them to think outside the box.

“Our instrumentation is bass, saxophone, and flute, so there’s not really that much repertoire for that instrumentation over the last, you know, several centuries of music making,” Seymour quipped. For Project Trio, the answer was to arrange their own.

“We started out making our own arrangements of classical hits for the early days of YouTube,” Seymour said. After a positive reception from their audience, they branched out into covers of everything from popular jazz tunes to rock and roll and more. “We thought, why don’t we start writing some music that, you know, really speaks to us? So, in our concert, we write and arrange everything that’s on the show, and I think it really brings a unique voice to it.”

This composition-centered approach to chamber music is something the group has been excited to share with not only concert-hall audiences around the country, but also with students. Wherever they travel, the trio prioritizes visiting schools and working with music students, hosting workshops and performances exclusively for young people. To date, they have played for over 700,000 students.

“It’s always been a part of our ensemble,” Seymour said. “Wherever we go, not only do we do evening performances, but we are out in the schools.”

The trio’s education goals are twofold. They host high-energy assembly performances to give young kids early access to live music experiences and hold workshops centered around improvisation and composition, which Seymour says is missing in most classical music education.

“Most classical musicians are not taught improvisation anymore, even though our history is truly all about improvisation,” Seymour said. “I mean, all of the greats that you hear about—from Bach to Beethoven and Brahms and Mozart—these are incredible improvisers of epic proportions.”

With the many modes of composition at the heart of the trio, Seymour hopes that their performances and workshops can not only inspire kids to continue with music making but also to take time to put the sheet music down and get creative.

“It’s important to do the fundamentals with your teacher, to learn the right [techniques of playing music],” Seymour said. “But then there is also the really important thing of putting that music away and playing music that’s outside of the box, playing music that you are feeling, and that’s a great way for students to grow.”

While in Chicago before their Ravinia concert, the trio performed two assemblies, at Irving and McNair Elementary Schools, as part of Reach Teach Play’s Guest Artists in the Classroom program in addition to hosting three of their improvisation workshops for students in Sistema Ravinia–Lake County and the Highwood-based Midwest Young Artists Conservatory. The group’s ties to the area only made their time here more rewarding. The trio’s saxophone player, Daniel Berkey, is a Chicago native and looks forward to having his family at their Bennett Gordon Hall performance.

Project Trio’s visit to Chicago will conclude with their Saturday, November 9, performance at Ravinia, where, Seymour says, the audience can expect to hear “everything from Mozart to Charlie Parker to The Beatles to the Jethro Tull,” in addition to the “flute beatboxing” that has made Pattillo an internet sensation.

One thing the audience shouldn’t expect? “You won’t have been bored,” said Seymour. “We prioritize fun. We think about the audience as we’re molding our arrangements, to keep people on their toes, keep people guessing. People can expect a super high-energy show like they haven’t seen before.” ◼