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Blue Man Group, Youth Symphony to Team Up Again for Free Outdoor Show

 The Blue Man Group with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra at last year's Millennium Park show.
The Blue Man Group with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra at last year's Millennium Park show.
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Ed Spinelli

MILLENNIUM PARK — The Blue Man Group is teaming up once again with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra for a free performance in Millennium Park.

The concert, part of the Grant Park Music Festival, will begin at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Jay Pritzker Pavilion, 201 E. Randolph St. The program will include the youth orchestra playing a medley of classical favorites, the Blue Man Group playing its own songs, and the two groups performing together.

Wednesday will mark the second time the groups have collaborated after "such a success last year," Blue Man performer Gareth Hinsley said. 

"Blue Man as a company is always keen to find new ways to connect with people and artistically express themselves," he said after a rehearsal Tuesday. "It was too good an opportunity to miss. A room full of gifted young musicians is inspiring to us."

Hinsley said the "very entertaining, very funny" show would appeal to even the most casual of classical music fans, Hinsley said. The Blue Men Group will play their usual PVC pipes during the show with some "surprises" planned. 

The youth orchestra, which normally plays at Orchestra Hall on Michigan Avenue, has been practicing for six hours a day for more than a week leading up to Wednesday's show. Ayden Hensley, an 18-year-old flutist in the orchestra who is attending Carnegie Mellon University in the fall, said the Blue Man Group show last year brought a "whole new crowd."

"There's a lot more energy in the audience than we usually experience," said fellow orchestra player Alyson Kanne, an 18-year-old harpist who will study music this fall at Indiana University. 

The groups learned a lot about each other while rehearsing together, starting with the students learning that the "Blue Men" actually have hair and look pretty normal in real life. And Hinsley said Tuesday that he found "no distinction" between the quality of the youth orchestra and their adult counterparts.

"Hopefully we'll be able to collaborate more," he said. 

Visit the orchestra's website for more information. 

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