Chicago’s Access Contemporary Music has opened a new venue for chamber music in a former 7-Eleven store. In photo, ACM Executive Director Seth Boustead at a recent concert. Photo by Lou Foglia for WBEZ.
In Tuesday’s (8/12) WBEZ (Chicago), Graham Meyer writes, “Not everyone looks at the long-vacant husk of a former convenience store and gets visions of string quartets and piano recitals. But that’s exactly how it happened for Seth Boustead, the head of Access Contemporary Music. In February 2023 … Boustead saw the familiar sight of the empty store at 4116 [North Clark Street], once a 7-Eleven, before that a White Hen Pantry. This time, the window had a ‘for rent’ sign…. ‘This would be an amazing chamber music venue,’ he remembers thinking, dreaming of what is now scheduled to open in mid-September as the CheckOut. Previews in the new space have already begun … ACM, now 21 years old, has always done many different things simultaneously. It gives music lessons, has a composer collective and presents concerts, such as the annual Sound of Silent Film Festival, where it commissions and live-performs scores for modern silent films. And once a year, it throws a classical music street festival called Thirsty Ears. The CheckOut … aims to put on two or three chamber concerts a week, mostly self-produced. There are incipient plans for a jazz night on Thursday and for cabaret shows.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source symphony.org ’
