Early June at Charlie's, Evanston Review, March 23, 2006, by Jennifer Olvera
June Shellene has always been interested in the way people deal with life. While her sociology degree from Indiana University in Bloomington might not have been utilized in the traditional sense, what she learned in college has everything to do with who she is as a musician today.
Now a singer-songwriter and Evanston resident, Shellene will appear Friday evening at Charlie's Coffee House in Wilmette to perform jazz-infused compositions that reflect her inner soul and peer into the hearts and minds of those who inspire her.
"I started playing piano at the age of nine," Shellene said. "By the time I was 14, I was really good at playing classical music, so I moved on to folk music."
As she grew older and her love of music never waned, Shellene began performing in trios and eventually formed Roscoe, a band that performed in the 1970s along Lincoln Avenue.
"After the band broke up, I soloed and studied jazz with local masters," she said. "Then I decided to expand a bit and started directing musical theater."
Shellene began playing piano for The Second City Touring Company and went on to work with Northlight Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre and the Goodman Theatre.
"I mostly did musical arranging, directing and producing," she said. "I also wrote a musical for Organic Theater Company, called 'Dr. Rat.' It was an adaptation of the book by William Kotzwinkle."
Eventually, Shellene married and had a family, but she continued to take on occasional theater gigs in her free time. After divorcing, she dove back into the scene head-first.
"I continued to do musical directing and also started teaching piano and voice at The Old Town School of Folk Music," she said.
In 1997, Shellene cut a CD, "The Lost Art of Love" (Waterhole Music), which was produced by Chicago Civic Orchestra Conductor Cliff Colnot.
"But it was quite produced," Shellene admitted. "It was an eclectic mix of ballads, funky, bluesy, jazzy stuff and folk music."
Currently, Shellene continues to teach piano and voice out of her home and is at work on her second CD, a self-produced project, which she hopes to complete sometime next year.
"I'm inspired by a lot of things, from news stories to how people behave individually and as a group," she said.
During her upcoming performance, Shellene will appear alongside Chicago jazz master Dennis Luxion on piano. She'll belt out tunes like "Goldie," a country-meets-Elvis-Costello number about how older actresses in Hollywood are ignored, and "Wait 'Til Midnight Ends," a jazz ballad about finding your divine context through meditation.
"My hope is that, when I perform, I'll touch people's hearts," Shellene said. "It's easy to get hardened in this world, so I also try to amuse with a little bit of humor."