Elyse (Liz) Ilku has been a familiar figure to Detroit audiences where she occupied the position of Principal Harp for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for thirty years. Other orchestral experiences include the New Orleans Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra's Robinhood Dell series for one summer. Upon retirement she became associated with both the Oklahoma Philharmonic and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
She is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she studied with Carlos Salzedo. While still a student at Curtis she joined a harp quintet known as The Angelaires and toured extensively under Columbia Artist's Management, appearing on the national TV shows
of Ed Sullivan, Frank Sinatra, and Paul Whiteman. She was a guest artist at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont under the direction of Rudolph Serkin and the Moyse Family and performed Mozart's Concerto for Harp and Flute with Louis Moyse.
In the '60s while playing with the DSO she spent many hours between 12am and 3am recording for Motown Records for such artists as The Supremes, Smoky Robinson, Marvin Gay, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas. Liz was the harpist on all of the DSO recordings from 1958 to 1988. During her orchestral career she worked with such celebrated conductors as Leopold Stokowski, Sir Thomas Beecham, Paul Paray, Charles Munch, Pierre Monteux, Antol Dorati, Eric Leinsdorf, and Seiji Ozawa. Her teaching experience includes the University of Michigan, Oakland University, Wayne State University, and the Salzedo Harp Colony of America. She currently lives in Hot Springs, Arkansas and still plays with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. She is a mentor for the annual Hot Springs Music Festival.
"In the fall of 1957 I signed a contract to work with the Halifax, Nova Scotia, Symphony and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. My radio work was mainly of a classical nature - recitals, chamber music, and accompanying vocal groups. Then, in the spring of 1958, a producer asked if I could play jazz. I said I never had, but I liked it. He handed me a stack of records and told me to listen and see what I could come up with and to include a new set of vibes the studio had just purchased.
What evolved was the Swing Easy Quintet - harp, vibes, bass, drums, and, occasionally, flute. It became a successful trans-Canada radio show every Saturday night. After a few short months, I was offered the Detroit Symphony job, which I had auditioned for the previous season. At that point I had to make a choice. I chose the Detroit Symphony and stayed there for thirty years.
Warren Chiasson, vibe player for the Swing Easy Quartet, continued to play jazz and performed with such jazz greats as the George Shearing Quintet, Chet Baker Quartet, and Tal Farlow Trio, as well as standing in for Lionel Hampton in the 50th anniversary of Benny Goodman's famed 1938 Concert at Carnegie Hall. He was featured on B.B. King's Blues 'n' Jazz album which won a Grammy. The New York Times referred to him as one of the six outstanding jazz vibraphonists of the last half-century. He has toured with Roberta Flack and has appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival (both in Rhode Island and NYC).
Dave Woods, our arranger in Halifax, went on to become an award winning arranger/conductor of hundreds of radio and television shows out of Toronto, Canada, with the CBC. Even in retirement I have remained a symphony player. But one night about a year ago I had a call from a young harpist in New York City who was aspiring to a career in jazz and had been in a conversation with Warren Chiasson, who mentioned my name. She found me and as a result I found Warren and Dave Woods and became inspired to play jazz again.
Warren agreed to record with me and Dave sent some new arrangements. I completed the quartet with Joe Vick, who has played with the Arkansas Symphony for many years and is a great jazz bassist, and Brian Brown, who came to me highly recommended as a sensitive player who could blend with my style of playing. It was pure joy to have worked with these
three musicians who made swinging easy."
- Liz Ilku
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