Starting April 20th The Peppermint Patties will perform at Rogers Park Social every third Thursday of the month from 8:00 to 10:00 PM.
Their sets feature close harmony arrangements of classic songs like Shoo Shoo Baby, Bei mir bist du schein, and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy as well as jazz standards, retro hits, a cappella numbers, and musical theatre favorites. 

The Patties are thrilled to return to Rogers Park for a monthly show after performing a Valentine’s program there in February. 

Patties member Anna Caldwell explains how the bar is a key part of the group’s origin story: 

“In 2018, we walked into Rogers Park Social as three friends, and walked out as The Peppermint Patties! Over drinks that night we talked about our singing careers and it seemed that each of us was yearning for a little something extra in our artistic lives that season. The idea to put on a concert together came first, and the next thing I knew we had a name and a brand and we’ve never looked back! I’m not sure if it was the cocktails or good vibes but Rogers Park Social will always be a very special place for us.” - Anna Caldwell

Group members, Caldwell, Daina Fischer, and Laura Smalley are graduates of DePaul University where they studied Opera. They perform all genres of music and pack their shows with nostalgia, comedy, and plenty of heart.

Rogers Park Social is a unique and inviting neighborhood bar that reflects the soul of the community. The bar offers a unique and inviting atmosphere featuring craft beers and freshly prepared cocktails. Founded and operated by neighborhood residents, they strive to “mindfully infuse the spirit of community, diversity, and service in all that we offer.”

Rogers Park Social is located at 6920 N Glenwood Ave, Chicago, IL 60626. There is no cover but cash tips for the artist are always appreciated. Seating is first come first serve.

In celebration of the role of Christmas in our origin story as The Peppermint Patties and our fondness for how food brings us together and anchors us in family tradition, we created this ebook featuring our favorite holiday treats!

Our Origin Story

The Peppermint Patties began in September of 2018 at Roger's Park Social when members Daina Fischer, Laura Smalley, and Anna Caldwell (that’s me!) met for drinks at a favorite local bar. The conversation quickly turned to shop talk about recent and upcoming gigs.

• Having just returned from a teaching tour in Italy, Anna was working as a freelance marketing consultant and website designer for a local theatre company and was rehearsing the role Amalia (She Loves Me) for the Janus Concert Series inaugural Triple Bill. 
• Daina was working for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's marketing department and growing her voice studio which she would later name Prism.
• Laura, having recently completed the 2018 Hart Institute for Women Opera Administrators, a professional development program at The Dallas Opera, was working for Chicago Opera Theater and Chicago Fringe Opera. 

Exploring Other Genres

​Before becoming The Peppermint Patties, we met and became friends while studying Opera at DePaul University. This shared experience has had a profound impact on how we view music-making.

For better and worse, music school is a demanding environment that often forces young musicians to set aside certain interests and aspirations to fully focus on academic demands. As "vocal performance" majors, the study of Opera takes precedence over other musical interests and abilities. 

To be fair, no one at DePaul told us not to sing musical theatre or jazz, but the reality is, there simply wasn't much time for it, nor were there opportunities for these genres in the academic setting.

As Opera singers, we were taught to be a part of a large creative machine. That often involves surrendering control to the leaders in our industry. Operas can be so grand and complex that you must focus solely on your role while others do theirs.

While that process is satisfying in its own way, we yearned for the ability to express ourselves completely on our own terms. Becoming The Peppermint Patties has allowed us to make music without answering to gatekeepers in our industry.

To no small degree, our vocal trio was born of our desire to explore these styles and ​perform music that we loved under our own creative direction.

​The "Feminist" Andrews Sisters

The Andrews Sisters have been a steady source of inspiration for our group. We love their close harmonies, sense of humor, and vintage style. However, we are keenly aware that the Andrews Sisters existed in a time and place where women did not have the same freedom of expression enjoyed by men. 

In reality, the Andrews Sisters were symbols of traditional values. Some of their work is focused on military morale-building, playing up the theme of lonely ladies who stayed behind while their men went to war. A deep dive into their catalog of songs also reveals pieces that have a cheerful, patronizing racism. Likewise, none of their songs question the subordinate role of the female in American society, which is something that we do in our real lives every day.

As The Patties, we are committed to contextualizing this history and being careful about how we borrow music from the past. Like the Andrews Sisters, we want our music to be morale-building. We want people to feel good and optimistic when they listen to us. However, we also want our audience to know that our values are inclusive. We may sometimes rock vintage vibes but do not espouse vintage values.

Producing Our Own Projects

​​When we became The Peppermint Patties, we also became producers and entrepreneurs. This forced us to wear many hats. Luckily, we already had many skills necessary to operate and market an arts organization. 

Leaning heavily on our shared experiences in arts administration, marketing, content creation, and production management, the Patties produced two live shows and booked numerous private gigs before the pandemic began.

Over the past 18 months, we have grown an online audience through free virtual song releases and a pay-what-you-can fully digital holiday concert. This direction is not something we could have predicted, but we are proud of how we have evolved.

Before the pandemic, we rehearsed a few times a month or more if we had a gig lined up. However, we often took time off to focus on other projects. To some extent, the pandemic changed that. 

In the Fall of 2020, it was evident that COVID-19 wouldn’t be going away anytime soon, so we decided to put on a digital holiday concert. The level of organization, focus, and commitment required to make that happen (including quarantining and precautionary COVID-19 tests) upped our game. We began meeting weekly by video call and have continued to do so since. 

Fortunately, the digital concert was a great success. The Peppermint Patties: Home for the Holidays was attended digitally by 176 screens and has since been viewed over 700 times on YouTube.

We quickly realized that the reach of our digital concert was far greater than the capacity of any venue where we sing in Chicago. Additionally, the experience of creating it was both highly challenging and very rewarding. The path was bumpy, but we took the momentum from the online concert and ran with it. In 2021 we recorded seven virtual song releases (one per month) as well as two solo video series.

The Value of Our Work 

Everything that we create is made by us, along with help from a small group of collaborators. From the beginning, we committed to paying the artists we collaborate with, and this quickly evolved into the realization that we also need to pay ourselves. As three professionally trained artists, we owe it ourselves to acknowledge that our work has value and that we should be compensated for it. 

Over the past year, we worked to find the balance between making our music freely accessible to everyone in our audience while also finding ways to be profitable so we can grow for the future. 

For the time being, we encourage our fans to support us by “sending tips” via our Kofi page.

What the Future Holds

We are incredibly eager to return to live performance safely. It is one of the reasons that we were so excited when every member of our group received the COVID-19 vaccine. Many Chicago companies have begun resuming live performances. We are learning from their experiences and are proud to announce that we will be presenting a Holiday Concert this December with both a live and digital option, date TBA!

The past year has taught us that many of our loyal followers are not based in Chicago and are grateful for opportunities to watch us perform digitally. While we hope to focus on live performing in 2022, we intend to continue sharing content online via our social media platforms and offering digital options whenever possible. 

To help us know that our online content continues to make an impact, make sure that you subscribe to our YouTube page and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.