Chandler Hall "Chan" Poling (born October 3, 1957) is an American musician and composer. [1]
Chandler Hall Poling was born in 1957 in Evanston, Illinois. He moved to Minnesota with his family in 1961. He studied composition at MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and, after graduating from The Blake School, went on to study composition and performance at the California Institute of the Arts from 1975 to 1977 under the tutelage of his mentor the composer Harold Budd.
Chan Poling has written and performed music in a variety of musical genres, including dance, theater, film, and rock. He founded, and continues to perform in the band The Suburbs. He has been influenced by jazz, music for the theater, punk and new wave pop music, film music, Harold Budd, musician, director and composer Meredith Monk, and composers such as Terry Riley and Philip Glass.
After returning to Minneapolis after attending CalArts, Poling consulted with his friend Chris Osgood of The Suicide Commandos and started the band The Suburbs with his friend Beej Chaney and new acquaintances Bruce Allen, Michael Halliday and Hugo Klaers. The Suburbs got their first recording contract with Twin/Tone Records and went on to record music for PolyGram Records, A&M Records, Universal Music, Restless Records. [2] The Suburbs were voted among the "100 Most Influential Minnesota Musical Entities of the Twentieth Century" by The Minneapolis Star Tribune.
In the 1990s Poling made two solo albums: one a record of his score for Theatre de la Jeune Lune's Children Of Paradise, and the other a record of off-kilter pop songs; "Calling All Stars" for Manifesto Records. In 2005 he formed The New Standards [3] with John Munson of Semisonic and Trip Shakespeare and released a CD, "The New Standards," which is composed of interpretations of a diverse collection of songwriters with Poling on grand piano, Munson on stand-up bass, and Steve Roehm on vibraphone.
Mr. Poling's contributions to musical theater include several scores and songs for the Theatre de la Jeune Lune. He has also contributed songs to the musical "Heaven", created with Joe Chvala and continues to develop new works with Mr. Hatcher.
In the spring of 2013 Poling initiated a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new Suburbs album. The campaign was fervently supported by The Suburbs fan base. On November 19, 2013, the band’s first album in 27 years, Si Sauvage, was released. It featured founding members Poling, Klaers, and Chaney, plus new bandmates Steve Brantseg and Steve Price, and guest vocalists like Janey Winterbauer and Aby Wolf.
Poling's music credits include works for television, film and theater. His theater pieces include award-winning work for the Tony Award-winning French/American troupe Theatre de la Jeune Lune. Kevin McCollum commissioned Poling to write music for a new work "Heaven" developed under the aegis of The Ordway Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota. [4] as well as "A Night In Olympus" book by Jeffrey Hatcher and Bill Corbett, and "Lord Gordon Gordon" both also written with Hatcher.
In 2015, the musical Glensheen (about the 1977 murders of Elisabeth Congdon and her nurse at the eponymous mansion in Duluth, Minnesota), opened at the History Theatre in St Paul. [5] "Glensheen" was winner of an Ivey Award for Overall Excellence and continues to play to sold-out houses. There are hopes for a tour or a transfer to Off Broadway. [6]
His score for the Twin Cities Public Television documentary Iron Range: A People's History (1994) won an Emmy Award, the TPT-produced documentary on his musical "Glensheen" also garnered a regional Emmy. In 2008, he also composed the score to Fritz: The Walter Mondale Story , a documentary film about the life of his father-in-law Walter Mondale.
Poling has a book from the University of Minnesota Press called Jack & the Ghost illustrated by Lucy Michell. [7]
Poling had three children with ex-wife Terri Paul.[ citation needed ]
In 2005, he married Eleanor Mondale, [3] daughter of former United States Vice President Walter Mondale. Until her death on September 17, 2011, they lived in Minnesota on a small farm where they raised miniature horses. [8] [9]
He resides now in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his partner Patty Radford-Henderson.
The Suburbs are an alternative punk rock/funk/new wave band from Minneapolis, Minnesota that was popular in the late 1970s and 1980s. The band frequently headlined at Minneapolis's most influential music clubs, including Jay's Longhorn Bar and First Avenue.
Jeffrey Hatcher is a much-produced American playwright and screenwriter. He wrote the stage play Compleat Female Stage Beauty, which he later adapted into a screenplay, shortened to just Stage Beauty (2004). He also co-wrote the stage adaptation of Tuesdays with Morrie with author Mitch Albom, and Three Viewings, a comedy consisting of three monologues - each of which takes place in a funeral home. He wrote the screenplay Casanova for director Lasse Hallström, as well as the screenplay for The Duchess (2008). He has also written for the Peter Falk TV series Columbo and E! Entertainment Television.
John Munson is an American musician who is best known as the bass player for Semisonic. He was also a member of Trip Shakespeare during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The Flops were a collaboration of John Munson and Matt Wilson . They played several shows, mostly in Minneapolis, between 2001 and 2005. They covered material from the Trip Shakespeare days, Matt's solo efforts and some new material.
Glensheen, the Historic Congdon Estate is a 20,000 square foot mansion in Duluth, Minnesota, United States, operated by the University of Minnesota Duluth as a historic house museum. Glensheen sits on 12 acres of waterfront property on Lake Superior, has 39 rooms and is built in the Jacobean architectural tradition, inspired by the Beaux-Arts styles of the era. The mansion was constructed as the family home of Chester Adgate Congdon. The building was designed by Minnesota architect Clarence H. Johnston Sr., with interiors designed by William A. French Co. and the formal terraced garden and English style landscape designed by the Charles Wellford Leavitt firm out of New York. Construction began in 1905 and was completed in 1908. The home cost a total of $854,000, equivalent to more than $22 million in 2017. The home is a crowning example of design and craftmanship of the Midwestern United States in the early 20th century.
The New Standards is a minimalist jazz trio formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2005 and composed of Chan Poling, John Munson and Steve Roehm. With Poling on piano, Munson on bass and Roehm on vibraphone, the band reinterprets songs from a wide variety of genres, from classics like Rodgers and Hammerstein's My Favorite Things to London Calling by The Clash.
The Theatre de la Jeune Lune was a celebrated theater company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The company, in operation from 1978 to 2008, was known for its visually rich, highly physical style of theatre, derived from clown, mime, dance and opera. The theatre's reputation also stemmed from their reinvented classics and their productions of highly ambitious original work.
The Theatre of the Relatively Talentless (TORT) is a student theatrical company that puts on musicals and other performances written, produced, directed and performed by law students of the University of Minnesota Law School. TORT is a campus life program through the University of Minnesota Student Activities Office and operates under the purview of the Law School. Formed in 2002, it "provides law students and faculty with a desperately needed creative outlet."
In Combo is the debut album released by the American New wave band The Suburbs, released in 1980.
Credit in Heaven is an album released by the American New wave band The Suburbs, released in 1981.
Dream Hog EP is an EP released by the band The Suburbs. Initially released by Twin/Tone Records, it was later reissued on the Mercury label, making it the band's first major label release.
Love Is the Law is an album by the American New wave band The Suburbs, released in 1984.
Suburbs is an album by the American new wave band The Suburbs, released in 1986. It was their first and only release on A&M Records. The album has never been released on compact disc. It was produced by former Revolution drummer Bobby Z..
Si Sauvage is an album released on both 12" vinyl and CD by the American New wave band The Suburbs, released in 2013. It was recorded 27 years after their last studio release.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Suburbs Have Left the Building is a compilation album by the American New wave band The Suburbs that focuses on their releases from 1978 through 1984. The album does not contain any songs from their 1986 self-titled release. It was released by Twin/Tone Records in 1992.
Little Man's Gonna Fall is a single by the band The Suburbs. It was released by Buy Record's in 1987.
Viva! Suburbs! Live at First Avenue is a live album by the American New wave band The Suburbs that was recorded "mostly" on April 24, 1993 at First Avenue, a music venue in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Viva! Suburbs! Live at First Avenue was released by Twin/Tone in 1994.
High Fidelity Boys - Live 1979 is a full-length live album by the band The Suburbs recorded between March and October 1979 at Jay's Longhorn in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was released by Terry Katzman's Garage D'or Records in 2006.
Chemistry Set: Songs of the Suburbs 1977–1987 is a compilation album by the American New wave band The Suburbs, released in 2003. The two-disc package contains selected studio tracks and a DVD featuring 37 minutes of live footage of a series of 2002 reunion shows at the Minneapolis club First Avenue. It also include the band's last single, "Don't Do Me Any Favors".