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The hills were alive with the sound of music in April 2001 as the resounding harmonic strings of musicians John Whytock and Tara Chapman
rang from Big Bear to 29 Palms, and a Joshua Tree recording studio in between.
Whytock, creator of two of our murals in 29 Palms—#7 Dirty Sock Camp and #12 Desert Gold Mining Days—is already a well known artist, one of the most successful commercial mural artists in the West. From
his first art award in Laguna Beach to winning a 1986 San Juan Capistrano Mission mural competition, his art career advanced to the point where he now has a few hundred murals to his name, including 70 in Las Vegas
hotels from The Luxor to Mandalay Bay.
Recently, however, Whytock has been shifting his creative gears to encompass his other favorite lifetime art form. He has revived his passion for Music.
The multi-talented singer, guitarist, composer, artist, mural artist, and writer has been in Big Bear since the late 1980s.
A member of A.S.C.A.P. and a composer since his teenage years on the California coast, he was playing Bach cantatas at 14, composing concertos at 15, and transposing symphonic master scores to the guitar by age 16. From that point on, he began focusing on the art of composition.
Throughout his art career, he has never left his love for his guitar far behind ... entertaining crowds from concert stages to coffee houses, playing in a band for many years, appearing on TV music specials,
and even entertaining our local desert folks at The Finicky Coyote and at Friday night mural BBQs while painting his two murals here.
In public he has been the guy who could play anything from Christian inspirational music to humorous tunes to folks songs to rock and roll, while in private he continued to compose his serious original music.
Recently re-emerging into the music world and taking his musical composition to a new level now, he has moved into uncharted territory, creating a “neuvo classical” instrumental sound with original concertos
composed for guitar and violin.
Last year he teamed up with concert violinist Tara Chapman—who in her own right has been an accomplished musician since childhood, winning competitions, being awarded a scholarship to L.S.U., and serving her
time as soloist, concertmistress, conductor, and performer with symphony orchestras throughout the U.S. This talented and vivacious violinist, who can play anything from a classical bow to a foot-stompin’
country fiddle, has been performing and working as a private music instructor of voice, piano, and violin in the Big Bear area.
The sound they create together is rather like listening to a mini string symphony, and is nothing short of astounding.
Whytock’s genius for creating intricate melodic and harmonic pieces, which are then transformed to the performance level by the two innovative and talented stringed-instrument masters, has produced a true musical work of art. Between them, they represent nearly 75 years of combined experience.
In February 2001, they found themselves at the Song Farm Studio in Joshua Tree, working with master recording engineer Steve Lester
(a.k.a. Eric Neil, songwriter, performer, and founder of the J.T. Shakers band), recording their first promotional CD, “Avalon.”
Comprised of 10 intricately woven and freshly creative works (only a fraction of the composed works to date), the instrumentals on this first CD are a dazzling combination of violin strings and guitar strings in lyrical juxtaposition.
The pieces range in tempo from neuvo-classical concertos to a Baroque-style cantata, from a Ragtime influence to a Latin and South American beat.
This inspired, evocative music is truly from the heart and soul... suitable for all lovers of great music and reminiscent of the free-spirited Vivaldi, the genius Bach, the moody Dvorjak, the emotional Beethoven, the passionate Rachmaninoff, and the enlightened Segovia.
Beginning to perform their new music in public now, they were invited in March 2001 to play at Apples B&B in Big Bear for a press and promotional gathering for featured cast members of The Bold And The
Beautiful and Days of Our Lives soap operas. Three days later, on March 20, they performed for the first time locally at Roughley Manor in 29 Palms at a mural project dinner in honor of the visiting Baron of
Prestoungrange, Scotland. Desert locals in attendance that evening, who remember the humorous folk and rock Whytock music during the mural days, were amazed and enthralled at this new sound ... a
creative aspect of this artist they had never heard before. By the end of the evening, demand for their new CD (albeit still only a promotional CD) had created a waiting list for future copies, a feeling that
truly great music was “heard here first” in its budding stages, and a desire to hear much more of the wonderfully innovative sounds of John Whytock and Tara Chapman.
We’ll keep you informed of the continuing odyssey of this musical venture. Truly, this could be the start of something big. –VW
More information about the musicians or the availability of CDs can be obtained by contacting: The Sun Runner at (760)362-5257, or John Whytock at P.O. Box 964, Sugarloaf, CA 92386 (www.jwhytock.com)
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