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Published on 5/17/08
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Twenty-eight-year-old composer Evan Kuchar teaches piano and drums at the Maywood Fine Arts Association; in the summer, he supplements his income by leading bicycle tours through the city for Bobby’s Bike Hike. “I try to have a dramatic arc to it,” he tells us over coffee. His philosophy of injecting an entertaining twist into an academic pursuit carries over to his unconventional classical performances around town. Like more and more of his contemporaries, Kuchar seeks pop-friendly venues rather than schlepping across traditional classical circuits.
In February, Kuchar joined fellow local composer Amos Gillespie to form Anomie, a makeshift group of classically trained musicians that plays its modern works at Danny’s Tavern in Bucktown. Thanks to its adventurous manager, Kevin Stacy, the bar sets aside an early evening hour on Fridays for chamber music. Kuchar calls the setup ideal: the musicians tucked comfortably in the back room, with the bar upfront. The typical weekend crowd arrives midway through Anomie’s set, picking up their tipple before drifting to the couches and tables in the rear. On other nights, the hipster den spins rare soul, post-punk, electronica and the Smiths, drawing a young demographic more used to DJs than Dvorak.
“I want to appeal to a younger crowd, but I also want to challenge them,” Kuchar says. He adds that while he may lean toward a poppy sound, he isn’t writing fluff. With a master’s in composition from the University of Iowa, Kuchar’s got classical chops and cred, and he dutifully practices his Scriabin and Rachmaninoff on piano.
Kuchar strives to find a balance: “How do I let my formal influences come through and how do I keep them hidden? Because I don’t want my music to sound like academic nonsense,” he says. One of his works, “Enwrapt,” recalls moody Shostakovich-like strings colored by skittish, impressionist flute lines. “Someone Else” is of another breed, with twee vocals set to drum beats and woodwinds.
In the same way the denizens of Danny’s might find furniture, a roommate or a blind date, Kuchar seeks collaborators: through social-networking websites. “One girl I didn’t know randomly added me as her MySpace friend, so we got together and she became our flutist,” he says with a laugh. “[Another] flutist and cellist we found on Craigslist.” Similarly, we discovered the Wicker Park resident through Google, entering the keywords “myspace composers chicago” on a whim, and arrived at his homepage (myspace.com/evankuchar).
Even though the income from a Danny’s gig barely pays for a tank of gas, Kuchar soldiers on. When asked if he ever weighs other options, he says he’s never considered not composing. He hopes to inspire other budding composers with his progressive practices: “Work at the computer and in your imagination,” he says. “When you write with paper and pencil, you’re only going to get a particular type of music.”
In 2002, Harvard professor and composer Joshua Fineberg wrote a thoughtful but gloomy article on Salon.com regarding modern audiences’ lack of patience for “Great Art.” Kuchar presents an interesting counterpoint: He savors the challenge of making music palatable to both pop and classical audiences. And while he confesses that he’d like to be American minimalist John Adams or New Complexity avant-garder Brian Ferneyhough for just “a day or two,” he adds, “My dream is to be in a band like Radiohead.” With the Internet, Kuchar can do both: His sweeping re-creation of the Oxford rockers’ latest single, “Nude,” currently streams on his blog.
Anomie plays Danny’s Tavern May 9, 2008.
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