The tapping, banging and pounding was incessant.
Logan Fox may have only been 6-years-old, but he remembers that even at a young age he loved drumming. He’d tap out a beat on any surface he could and begged his parents for a drum.
So his parents made him a deal. They bought him a practice pad — a rubber mat that simulates the feel of a drum without the noise — and a pair of drumsticks. If he practiced for 30 minutes every day for a year, they would buy him a real drum set.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“I was so excited, because I finally had something to play,” he said. “I practiced every day, and after a year, I had my drum set.”
Fox hasn’t stopped since, and his passion for percussion has led to recognition by one of the top music conservatories in the country. He was named the Aeolian Classics Emerging Artist in early March, a distinction given annually to an exciting performer at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts.
The Greenwood Community High School graduate already has performed a pair of solo recitals at venues throughout Chicago, and will have the opportunity to do more for the next year. He also will record a professional album later this year.
“I told the judges to choose someone who really had the most developed artistic voice, regardless of instrument. This year, Logan had the most developed voice,” Adam Neiman, who is CEO of the Aeolian Classics record label as well as a professor of piano at the college’s music conservatory.
The Aeolian Classics Emerging Artist competition was created in 2017 to elevate the concert careers of Chicago College of Performing Arts students, Neiman said.
“When I joined the school, one of the projects I really believed in was a way to celebrate the extraordinary talent that I was seeing at the school,” he said. “There was talent within the school to be harnessed.”
Students at the Chicago College of Performing Arts had to apply for the competition. Those accepted went through an initial round of judging, before five finalists performed a public recital to determine a winner.
Fox was immediately intrigued by the potential to not only record an album of his work, but to gain exposure headlining recitals throughout the Chicago area.
As he is working towards his master’s degree in percussion performance, this was an opportunity Fox could not pass up.
“I like knowing that I’m making an effort to leave a lasting mark at the university I’m at. I want to make the most of my time in school, since that’s when you have the most cushion to do things like this,” he said. “Why not try something like this?”
Fox already has completed a pair of recitals, playing hour-long shows on a variety of instruments such as xylophone, marimba and timpani. After performing at Pianoforte Chicago in downtown Chicago and Steinway Piano Gallery in nearby Hinsdale, Fox will do recitals at Roosevelt’s Ganz Hall and the Chicago Cultural Center.
On stage, Fox is a whirlwind, moving between a multitude of instruments, creating thundering booms and more nuanced rhythm with both mallets, sticks and sometimes his hands.
His performances were live-streamed on Facebook, and video of the shows was provided by the venues.
“They say that our campus is the city of Chicago, and that’s 100 percent coming through. I get to do all of these recitals around Chicago, just because the faculty feels strongly about getting their students out there,” he said. “That’s humbling and gratifying to know that they want that for me as an artist.”
Once the main push of recitals is finished, the serious work of planning and recording an album will begin.
Since Fox was announced as the winner, he and Neiman have been in regular contact coordinating the album recording. They have discussed musical pieces and order, to create a story that unfolds in listening to the album.
During the summer, Fox will go into the studio for two 12-hour days to lay down the tracks.
“It’ll be a lot of fun,” he said. “Their exact words were, ‘It’ll show you what you’re made of.’”
They expect the album to be released in the second half of 2018, and it will be available through distributors such as Apple and Amazon.
“A recording reaches out to a global audience in a way that a performance cannot,” Neiman said.
Since his foray into percussion as a 6-year-old, Fox has continued his evolution as an artist. He performed with Greenwood Community Middle School and later the high school, winning medals for competitions. He was a state champion with the Greenwood marching band, so performing in major competitions became commonplace.
After graduating from high school in 2013, he attended the University of Indianapolis to earn his bachelor’s degree in music. He graduated in 2017 before being accepted at Roosevelt.
Though the Chicago College of Performing Arts is noteworthy for training orchestra musicians, Fox has a more expansive view of his post-college career.
“I’m more of the type where I’ll do whatever I can get. It’s hard to get the orchestra jobs, but I’m eyeballing the premier military bands,” he said. “That lines up more with what I want to do as a career.”
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<strong>Logan Fox</strong>
Age: 23
Parents: Scott and Deidre Fox
Hometown: Greenwood
Current residence: Chicago
<strong>Education</strong>
<ul>
<li>2013 Greenwood Community High School graduate</li>
<li>Earned bachelor’s degrees in music performance and percussion from the University of Indianapolis</li>
<li>Working towards his master’s degree in percussion performance at the Chicago College for Performing Arts at Roosevelt University</li>
</ul>
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