Here is some more interesting information regarding the Sting with Chicago Symphony Orchestra event on May 19, 2009. Thanks so much to Marcy Manley with WPI Event Partners for discussing this special event with me and providing more background information. Marcy works for WPI Event Partners , and she and her company were responsible for procuring Sting for the event. According to Marcy, this event has been in the works since last May 2008, and Sting took several months to agree to commit. He finally did so after the encouragement of Elvis Costello, a mutual friend of Sting and Marcy, who had done a similar gig with the CSO several years before.

Several arrangers, including David Hartley (conductor for the evening), picked the songs with Sting to be played and two worked on the arrangements collectively. The musicians, including Sting’s band and the members of the CSO, received their music in January of 2009 to begin practicing individually. Then Sting, his band and the CSO met for only two practices all together the day prior to and the day of the event, each practice session lasted three hours for a total of six hours total before the performance. I find that absolutely incredible based on what I witnessed, and it just shows the talent of the musicians involved.

The organizers weren’t sure how well the sponsorships for this private corporate event would sell due to the current economic climate and originally considered allotting tickets to Sting’s fan club so that fan club members would be able to attend. But the event was so well received and the tickets sold out, so fan club tickets could not be distributed in the end.

Apparently “Roxanne” was to be performed that night, but Sting did not like the way it sounded during rehearsals and dropped it at the last minute before the show. Marcy said the performance will never be released in any form unfortunately, CD or DVD, and I am so sad to hear that because I would really like to have this one to keep the memory of this special night intact.

Marcy spent a great deal of time with Sting in the week prior to the performance and passed along that he was a really wonderful, down-to-earth and friendly person and the consummate professional. Sting told her afterwards that his performance with the CSO would be one of the highlights of his career and he was extremely pleased with the outcome. So was I!

Photos here are courtesy of Marcy and WPI Event Partners, click on thumbnails to enlarge.