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Despite the decimation of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs—a story well-covered in this blog—the much-loved Downtown Sound: New Music Mondays series will return for its third summer at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park starting on May 23 and running through July 25, with performers including Iron and Wine, Blonde Redhead, Low, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Ted Leo, Seefeel, and more.
By no means was this a given when the majority of Cultural Affairs employees were laid off late last year, and sources say the future of the program remains uncertain beyond 2011. Some though by no means all of the Cutural Affairs employees were shifted to new jobs with the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture, including Mike Orlove, who previously ran New Music Mondays for the city and now serves as the tourism office’s director of music programming.
Orlove co-curated this year’s programming with the tourism office’s Jack McLarnan and Mike Reed, the Chicago independent promoter behind the Pitchfork Music Festival and some of New Music Monday’s biggest coups in the past two years.
