Andrew Bird will finally take the stage with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this Friday and Saturday, a long-awaited hometown debut built around the 20th anniversary of his breakthrough 2005 album, “The Mysterious Production of Eggs.” The concerts, set for Nov. 13-14 at 7:30 p.m. at Chicago Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., will feature the full album performed with orchestra followed by a suite of songs pulled from across his catalog, with tickets priced at $109.
A Debut Two Decades in the Making
The performances mark Bird’s first time working with the CSO, conducted by Jacomo Bairos, according to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The program will present the complete “Eggs” record arranged for full orchestra before moving into fan-favorite tunes spanning Bird’s career, per the same CSO account. Bird has said the orchestral format finally lets the record breathe the way he always imagined it. “With 50 musicians onstage, you can finally do all those intricate parts,” he said, per the organization’s report.
Bird was born in Lake Forest, Illinois, and has longstanding ties to Chicago: he lived in Uptown, played gigs at the Green Mill and the Hideout, taught at the Old Town School of Folk Music, and performed with the Squirrel Nut Zippers before forming Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire. He began violin studies at age four and later played with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. Bird has said the CSO performance carries personal weight, according to WBEZ Chicago.
What Bird’s Youth Orchestra Record Shows
The Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras’ noteworthy alumni page lists Bird as a singer/songwriter, confirming his connection to the organization. The listing establishes his alumni status but does not detail his participation or the orchestra’s broader role in Chicago’s youth music scene.
The Album That Almost Never Happened
“The Mysterious Production of Eggs” was released Feb. 8, 2005, but getting there was anything but smooth. Bird has said the record’s genesis dates back to 2000 and that it was attempted and abandoned three separate times, according to a release from Shore Fire Media. A Pitchfork review of the new anniversary edition describes the making of the album as a three-year-long process. WBEZ’s reporting fills in more of that stretch: the record took five years and three distinct stops and starts to develop, during which Bird, then 29, built a recording studio inside his family’s 1890s barn in Elizabeth, in northern Illinois. He has said working out there turned out to be more isolating than he expected, per WBEZ’s account. The album was eventually completed in Los Angeles with producer Tony Berg and engineer David Boucher, following Bird’s 2003 release “Weather Systems.”
The album helped establish Bird’s whistling and solo looping style, and WBEZ reports that it shaped much of his subsequent work. The anniversary concerts revisit that record in a new orchestral setting.
New Arrangements, New Textures
For the anniversary shows, Bird reworked the album’s songs into full orchestral arrangements with Minneapolis-based composer Nathan Thatcher, adding woodwinds including bassoon and using flutes to augment the sound, per WBEZ’s reporting. It’s a similar approach to one Bird took earlier this year in California, where he worked with arranger Nate Thatcher to reimagine the same songs as orchestral works for a performance with the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall on Aug. 1, as RIFF reported.
Chicago is one stop on a broader anniversary run, with Bird celebrating the milestone alongside symphony orchestras in multiple cities, according to Pollstar. Pollstar reported that a second round of dates kicked off April 2 in Waterbury, Connecticut, with the Waterbury Symphony, and wrapped with two nights in North Bethesda, Maryland, with the National Philharmonic on June 3 and 4. Bird plans to keep performing the album with symphonies around the country, WBEZ notes.
A Reissue With Rarities and New Artwork
The milestone also comes with an expanded reissue of the original record. Pitchfork reported the new edition is out February 27 and will include the original album alongside live recordings, demos and alternate versions, packaged as a 3xLP box set featuring new cover artwork by Jay Ryan — who created the album’s original cartoonish artwork — along with a 54-page book. Shore Fire Media’s release similarly describes a 3LP collection pairing an album’s worth of unearthed rarities with a selection of highlights rearranged and performed live alongside the orchestra of Nu Deco Ensemble. WBEZ adds that an interactive website tied to the release explores the work behind the album and the payoff of finally finishing it.
Amid the celebration, Bird is also adjusting his usual holiday schedule: he will skip his annual Gezelligheid holiday concerts at Fourth Presbyterian Church this year, with the series set to return in 2027, according to WBEZ. The pause comes during a banner stretch for Bird, who won an Emmy for his work on “The Pitt” in September. For now, though, the focus is on Chicago Symphony Center, where a record born out of false starts in a barn north of the city finally gets the full-orchestra treatment Bird has long imagined for it.
