Plein Air Concert Series: Isabelle Olivier and Nathalie Colas

Our Plein Air Concerts return to our jewel-box courtyard! Enjoy an hour of music with your friends while sipping rosé wine in an intimate setting. We cover the range from jazz to chanson, and classic songbook to mélodie française. Featuring renowned Chicago entertainer Greta Pope; the French jazz woman, harpist and composer Isabelle Olivier; and Nathalie Colas, the silky soprano and music advocate born in Strasbourg.

Tonight’s program: Carte Blanche

Join us for a delightful evening dans la cour with two outstanding French musicians working together for the first time!

The unique program they share with you features music from Baroque and French impressionist mélodies to chansons by Joséphine Baker and Kurt Weil, intertwined with new and original compositions by Isabelle Olivier.

Door opens at 6:00 p.m. Live music starts at 6:30 p.m. Please enter via 810 N. Dearborn. Each table of four includes one bottle of Rosé de Provence and salted nuts. Reserve early! Seating is limited in our intimate courtyard. Weather permitting otherwise event moves indoors in our salon.

Upcoming programs:

July 12: Isabelle Olivier with jazz percussionist Ernie Adams in Smile

July 19: Greta Pope with guitarist Curtis Robinson in Ooh La La…Le Jazz Américain!

August 9: Greta Pope with pianist Paul Coscino Ada “Bricktop” Smith and Cole Porter… Une Amitié Spéciale

September 20: Nathalie Colas & Eugenia Cheng, Femmes Compositrices, leurs Voix dans la Mélodie Française

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About Nathalie Colas:

Hailed for her “floating, silky" “luminous soprano” and deemed “a standout in acting and voice” as well as “hypnotic (Chicago Classical Review), Soprano Nathalie Colas is a versatile and curious musician, artist, producer and music advocate.

She is a current soloist and founder of Third Coast Baroque, Liederstube, and new music ensemble Fonema Consort. She has sung with Haymarket Opera, the St Louis Bach Society and Aestas Consort in recent seasons. Nathalie is an active chorister singing with the Chicago Symphony Chorus, the Grant Park Chorus, and Music of the Baroque.

As a concert soloist, Nathalie was recently heard in Mahler 4th Symphony with the Symphony of Oak Park & River Forest, in Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Valparaiso, and in the title role of Rita by G. Donizetti in Switzerland. An avid recitalist, Nathalie studied art song with the late German baritone Udo Reinemann and regularly performs such repertoire (Symphony Center, Pianoforte Foundation, Chicago Arts Club, Driehaus Museum).

Ms. Colas is a passionate educator who teaches voice at Triton College and Concordia University Chicago. A graduate of DePaul University School of Music and of the Brussels Royal Conservatory, she completed her opera training at the Swiss Opera Studio/Hochschule der Kunst Bern, Switzerland. Nathalie was born and raised in Strasbourg, France.

About Isabelle Olivier:

Isabelle Olivier is a jazzwoman, harpist, and recording artist offering a fresh and distinctive style to the international artistic world with her surprising and unique instrument. A composer working in several genres, such as jazz, Celtic and contemporary music, she also composed the soundtracks for films by Agnes Varda and Abdellatif Kechiche.

Eight years ago, Isabelle Olivier came to Chicago to develop a Franco-American project. The jazz opera Don’t worry, be haRpy is an adaptation of the novel Le Baron Perché by Italo Calvino bringing together American singers and French musicians. In 2017, the Art Institute of Chicago asked her to compose a one hour-long show linked with the exhibition Gauguin : Artist as Alchemist (July 2017).

Isabelle Olivier won the Prix de la Villa Le Nôtre of Versailles in 2015 and was the first composer to benefit from a residency at the Potager du Roi. She is currently the worldwide ambassador of the new electro-acoustic harp Salvi ‘Rainbow.’

She was lucky enough to work with outstanding artists such as Peter Erskine, Didier Lockwood, Ernie Adams, Mitch Haupers, Paul Wertico, enabling her to build a wonderful artistic path as a musician, and to realize the potential of orchestral alchemy and interdisciplinary encounters.

Since 2018, she is a composer associated with the Théâtre de Guyancourt : this residency is supported by the French Ministry of Culture and the SACEM. She has created seven shows and is going to continue her creative and diffusion work, as well as her cultural actions there for two years.

Isabelle 11th CD, “Smile”, recorded at Piano Forte in Chicago, just came out in 2022.