Quick on the Draw: Steve Slaske Sketches the Orchestra

Minnesota Orchestra concertgoers are accustomed to instructions that photos and videos are not permitted during performances—but earlier this season, one audience member used his artistry to capture the action in another form: through sketching the Orchestra by hand during the concert.

Chicago-based artist Steve Slaske brought his sketchbook to Orchestra Hall when attending an Orchestra concert last September, commemorating the performance in a new work created live during the performance, an approach he has used with ensembles such as the Chicago Symphony. He had given the Orchestra a heads-up in advance that he’d be in town, and recalls being welcomed warmly by staff and “happy for their enthusiastic response to my visit and offer of tickets to attend and draw a performance.”

Inspired by the music and visuals—including Principal Cello Anthony Ross as soloist in Steve Heitzeg’s EcoSaga and Leonard Bernstein’s Three Meditations from Mass—Slaske drew as he listened, but the conditions proved challenging. “The music was amazing—the sound incredible—but I admit drawing was a challenge,” he said. “It was much darker than I’d anticipated, and I really had to strain to finish as I figured out the space once again after all these years, in the dark!”

Despite the difficulty, Slaske completed the drawing during the concert, but later returned to it to add color. “I knew that this would be an effort that would be totally enhanced by the addition of color later on,” he said. “I didn’t remember the dramatic lighting of the back of the stage, which beautifully added to the finished product.” The artwork is now in the personal collection of Orchestra Board Chair William Miller. 

Following the concert, Slaske was welcomed backstage to meet Orchestra musicians, including Anthony Ross—capping the first Minnesota Orchestra concert he had attended in many years. It was all part of a trip sparked by a friend’s visit to Minneapolis to see the college football game between Rutgers and Minnesota. “I checked the schedule and was happy that the Orchestra was performing some works I was very eager to hear,” Slaske recalled. “I especially love the cello!” He relished the chance to revisit the Hall, which he first experienced as an architecture student in the late 1970s. “I was so impressed by it then—it was a hall built specifically for orchestra, and I remember the acoustics being incredible and the building itself so ‘state of the art,’” he said.

Slaske’s Minnesota visit also included stops at Minneapolis landmarks. “A lot of the architecture I’d last seen in the early 2000s, when I created my Minneapolis skyline artwork, still impressed me as current, attesting to the essence of good and lasting design,” he said. “I loved some other buildings and areas I hadn't experienced before—the Mill District and the Guthrie Theater, which I got to tour. I also got to revisit the Walker Art Center, which I now think amazingly is where I first saw a sculpture by architect Frank Gehry, who passed away late last year, in an exhibition there.”

Known for his detailed urban drawings and watercolors, Slaske holds a degree in architecture from the University of Wisconsin. His work—collected by major institutions and corporations and exhibited across the U.S. and internationally, and profiled in a PBS interview—often reflects an appreciation for structure, space and design. His artwork does not always connect with music, but his roots in the medium extend to childhood. “My only musical background was playing the organ as a kid—never performing for an audience,” he says. “But I've long been a fan of classical music, first hearing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago.” Visit skylinecityprints.com to learn more about the artist.