Lady Chops: Reading with a rhythm

Percussionist Elizabeth Vidos, also known as Lady Chops, is taking her passion for drumming on the road one library at a time throughout the state. She plans to visit 80 libraries in 17 parishes this summer.

Vidos is in St. Mary Parish June 27-30. It’s the 10th parish stop on her library tour.

Her presentation is reminiscent of a one-woman show. It’s entertaining, yet the message is clear about one thing. A person’s passion for something can take you to unimaginable places.

Vidos walks into a room full of children 3 to 10, one teenager, and parents. She sits at a table hiding behind a book standing up on its end.

On two occasions, she has a different book, which she raises and then lowers. And Vidos is making noise — rhythmic sounds and beats. And it’s loud. The audience is quiet.

The librarian reminds her she is in a library and must keep quiet. Later, Vidos gets permission to make noise for this special occasion. The kids burst into laughter.

In Vidos’ entertaining way, clapping her hands together and making beats with her chest, she begins telling the story of how it all began.

Vidos grew up in a home with music. In her parents’ home, a trumpet, harmonica, recorder, and a little pair of bongos could be found. Her father, Jared Vidos, played trumpet in LSU’s marching band.

“It was always a positive memory for me to play musical instruments and see my dad playing them,” Vidos said. “And we would dance around the house. He was playing jazz music and blues music in the house.

“And so, I always tell parents, it starts in your house. Because of the positive memories, of course it was only natural that I was going to play a musical instrument. There’s no choice here. It was like the gradual thing to do.”

Vidos played trumpet in the fourth grade at Sumpter Williams Elementary when it was a magnet school.

“It was fantastic,” Vidos said.

At the end of the school year, she heard that Job Cannon was offering drum lessons over the summer.

“When I heard drum lessons, I said to myself, ‘I want to learn how to play the drums,”’ Vidos said. “I didn’t know I was going to be good. So, I was like, ‘please, can I get drum lessons?’

“Mom could have easily said no. I mean, she could have said ‘Elizabeth, you already have a trumpet. You are good at that trumpet. There’s no reason to switch instruments now.’”

“And then my mom said, ‘it’s OK,”’ Vidos said.

Vidos does not recall other girls playing drums while in school.

“There were zero girls playing drums in the eighties,” Vidos said. “None. And so I just kept walking into it. Literally, every time I walked into a band room it was very intimidating.

“Sometimes, I would hear adults say, ‘What is she doing back there?’ It didn’t make sense to a lot of people. But it was really natural for me to play. I ended up getting the first chair often.”

Vidos attended E.D. White Catholic School in Thibodaux because of its excellent music program. With the support of her parents, she commuted for four years.

Vidos received a music scholarship to the University of Louisiana at Monroe, formerly Northeast Louisiana University. And she has a degree in psychology.

Vidos never quit.

“It was my senior year in college that I remember seeing a commercial for the HBO special ‘Stomp Out Loud,’” Vidos said. “It was going to premiere on HBO my senior year. All I knew … it was a drumming show. No clue.”

The show finally aired on HBO.

“I remember sitting in my dorm apartment watching it by myself,” Vidos said. “And I’m telling you, by the end of the 45 minutes, I was banging on everything around me. It was just this whole new concept of everyday objects being instruments.

“So, I just started grabbing stuff. I mean, it was unbelievable.”

Vidos had to see the show live and traveled to Mississippi. Then she traveled to see it a second time in New Orleans. Convinced about her own abilities to perform in “STOMP,” she asked a merchandiser about the number of people who audition for the show. The merchandiser’s response was “oh, hundreds, hundreds.”

Vidos shut down.

In the summer of 1998, Vidos worked with groups of teenagers on goal-setting.

“I’m sitting here working with these kids, but I continue to shut my own goals down,” Vidos said. “Because that’s what we do, we are our own worst enemy.”

During one of the camps, she showcased her drumming skills. The kids asked Vidos if she had seen the show “STOMP” and said she should be on it.

“It made me start thinking, like it really isn’t fair,” Vidos said. “I’m going to have to turn this thing around.”

Returning to Morgan City, once the camp ended in August, Vidos decided to call a number listed on the “STOMP” website. She left her contact information on an answering machine. Two months later, the casting company for “STOMP” called her.

Two weeks later, Vidos was in New York auditioning for the show. She was called back three times to audition.

Afterward, Vidos returned to Morgan City and awaited the results. A week later, Richard Frankel productions called and told Vidos to be in New York for rehearsals the following week.

Vidos toured the first five years internationally with the production. The next five years were spent performing “STOMP” in New York.

“We were kind of in shock for a while, kind of surprised that she, at her age, when out on her own did everything on her own …,” her father said. “We didn’t push it. We didn’t help her along.

“She did all of that on her own, which was amazing at that time. I was very proud, naturally. I mean, how else could you be? We were all surprised but you know she did it.”

Her parents were and still are supportive of her career choice.

“If she wanted to move that route I was going to get behind her 100 percent,” Jared Vidos said . “Surprisingly so, playing the drums have paid off.”

“I just wanted her to be happy,” her mother Natalie Vidos said.

Vidos will be at the following libraries in St. Mary Parish:

—June 29 at 2 p.m. in Patterson.

—June 30 at 10 a.m. in Baldwin.

—June 30 at 2 p.m. in Morgan City.