Gabriel Weber
Staff writer
The combination of the truly legendary musician Elton John and Chautauqua’s very own symphony orchestra is like “taking these incredibly iconic songs and putting them on steroids,” said Grammy-nominated singer Michael Cavanaugh.
At 8:15 p.m. Saturday, Cavanaugh, the new voice of the American Rock & Roll Soundbook, comes to Chautauqua to once again perform alongside with beloved Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in the Amphitheater.
The audience can expect well-known music by Elton John, like “Bennie and the Jets,” “Rocket Man,” and “Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding,” along with some of his less-played music.
“When you have an artist or a composer who you love, you have to ask the question, ‘How will it work with a symphony orchestra?’ ” Chafetz said. “With Elton John’s music, it’s perfect; the way it’s arranged and the way it features the orchestra really fits quite like a glove between Elton John and the symphony.”
Cavanaugh is especially looking forward to “Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding” because “it starts sunny, very classical, and it gets pretty hard rock.” Plus, he said, it really shows off the orchestra.
Also an avid pianist, Cavanaugh will be playing piano while singing for the majority of the songs. Elton John and Billy Joel have been Cavanaugh’s heroes since he was about 7 years old, but he has also been influenced by musicians like The Beatles, the Eagles and John Mayer.
“I think as we come up, we go through our progression of learning things and absorbing things; they all kind of come into our brains, and we take a little bit of everything to make it our own style,” Cavanaugh said.
In his early 20s, Cavanaugh became friends with Billy Joel’s tour manager, Max, and ended up getting a call 15 minutes before his shift at a piano bar that the Piano Man himself was coming to hear him. Starting his set with Elton John’s “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting,” Cavanaugh was jumping on top of the piano — and Billy Joel was loving it, Cavanaugh said.
“He was like, fists in the air, really into it. And then the whole place wanted to hear ‘Piano Man’; I looked at him, and I’m like, ‘What do I do?’ He’s like, ‘Go ahead.’ After that, Max said, ‘Hey, do you want Billy to sit in?’ We played a Beatles song, and we played an Elvis song — it was unbelievable,” Cavanaugh said. “I had no idea, but that was just the beginning.”
Handpicked by Billy Joel and approved by Twyla Tharp to star in Broadway’s Movin’ Out, Cavanaugh also toured with The Music of Billy Joel and Elton John after the end of the musical in 2005.
“(Cavanaugh) is just such a success, and having worked with him all over the country, I know that this is the perfect fit and demographic for this wonderful audience,” Chafetz said. “They’re gonna absolutely love it.”
Cavanaugh estimates that he and his group have performed with somewhere between 100 and 200 symphonic orchestras, but he notes that a few really stick out. He finds that Chafetz is somebody who “loves it,” and while he is one of the orchestra, he is also “one of us,” Cavanaugh said, referring to himself and the other performers.
Cavanaugh grew up with three older brothers who were also musicians and would constantly want to listen in. He started performing professionally at night clubs at just 12 years old. By the time he was 13 or 14, he was performing about five nights a week.
“I was drawn to music as far back as I can remember. I would use my Lincoln Logs as drumsticks, I would use a wooden spoon as a microphone. It was just always such a natural thing inside of me,” Cavanaugh said. “When you’re 4 years old, it’s hard to know what you’re meant to do, but (music) was always what I was drawn to.”
As soon as the family got a piano, Cavanaugh was trying to play in Elton John’s “melodic” style, he said. According to him, he is still working on it.
“ ‘(Goodbye) Yellow Brick Road’ still blows my mind. We played it thousands of times, but I think it’s just incredible. I’ve been a fan for decades,” Cavanaugh said. “When Billy and Elton were touring together, that was just the coolest thing in the world — it was amazing.”
Keeping his voice at the high level it needs to be requires a great deal of discipline. Although Cavanaugh was on a family getaway when he conducted his interview with The Chautauquan Daily, his plan was to spend at least 45 minutes on vocal exercises after the call; often, he’ll rent a car just for that purpose, so the neighbors don’t want to kill him, Cavanaugh said.
With such a prolific career centered on similar music Saturday’s concert, Cavanaugh feels grateful that he’s not someone who gets tired of playing a song.
“If I’m playing ‘Crocodile Rock’ for the 5,000th time of my life, and the whole place is going crazy, I’m feeling the same energy they are. I’m just having a blast. It’s a big party, as far as I’m concerned,” Cavanaugh said. “Or a song like ‘Your Song,’ I can see in the audience that it’s taking them back to when they heard that song. I feel that too, and I’m glad I do because it hasn’t become robotic for me.”
