Chicago's Premier Magazine for Culture & the Performing Arts

Clef Notes Chicagoland Journal of the Arts serves as the city's premier magazine for Chicago performing arts coverage with feature stories on music, art, theater and dance.  We provide departments that cover a wide range of the creative muse for Chicago arts lovers. Clef Notes examines innovations in culture, while at the same time, looks back to the history of art, theater, dance and the performing arts to inform on what they mean to us today.  Our magazine brings news, interviews with renowned concert artists and editorials, essays and analysis on a wide variety of subjects all touching art, the artisan and the muse.  In addition, we provide a comprehensive digest of cultural offerings within the Chicago area in the pages of our popular Cultural Almanac, which features previews, reviews for current running performances and comparative listings of arts events throughout the Chicagoland calendar.

After the kind of spring we’ve had, I think it’s pretty safe to say that there aren’t a great many things Chicagoans are looking forward to now more than the thrill of one of the Windy City’s famous summers. And, yes, the change in temperatures is a welcome one, but even more than that, Chicago summers have a way of awakening the explorers in all of us. Cabin fever has a peculiar way of doing that. And so we begin the task of planning the great escape of 2013. After all, few things can invigorate like world class travel. And spoiled with the level of arts performances we see here in Chicago, where we travel, there must also be great culture.

That’s why for our fourth anniversary issue, we decided to get out with the rest of the city and explore some of the fantastic culturally-rich travel the world has to offer.

Of course, with the level of talent that comes through our own doors each year, the bar is set pretty high. But Emily Disher lets us in on the sweet spot for cultural travel this summer with a feature on a place the New York Times calls “the dance center of the nation,” western Massachusetts’ bucolic summer retreat, Jacob’s Pillow. With the world’s most remarkable dance companies making the rounds amid their outdoor performance space and its magnificent Berkshire Hills backdrop, National Medal of Arts recipient  Jacob’s Pillow represents just the kind of arts-based travel Chicagoans crave every year, matchless opportunity for artistic bliss wrapped seamlessly in serene,



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world class hospitality. Dan Scurek also sets the stage nicely for an arts-infused trip to New York City in pursuit of Broadway's finest. Likewise, our travel and culture section features a number of tempting  arts-based summer travel awaiting restless Chicagoans, this year.

Of course, all it really takes is a short jaunt along our amazing north shore to the sprawling lawns of the Ravinia Festival to see why so many people from around the globe make their way here each year to enjoy Chicago's summer fare. And this year, guests get a chance to hear the incomparable chart-topping singer/songwriter, Jewel, in her Festival debut—undoubtedly one of the hottest concerts this season. We had a chance to sit down with Jewel this spring and got a candid reflection on what has kept the artist so grounded over the last 20 years of multi-genred success, and how she embraced the process of her burgeoning career while avoiding the pitfalls of celebrity so many others don't. We enjoyed learning just what drives the artist and her work, as will you.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for this anniversary issue, just the beginning of what awaits in a fantastic summer season of exploration.

Before you indulge, however, be warned: if you're not too careful, you just may find yourself on a flight somewhere gorgeous to absorb some of the global culture the coming months have in store.

Enjoy,

D. Webb

Publisher