Singer, songwriter and composer Cody Fry never forgot his roots in the Chicago area

CHICAGO (CBS) — A local leaves his mark on the music world without forgetting where he comes from.

Cody Fry grew up in the northern suburbs and now lives in Nashville, but recently returned to Chicago for a memorable one-night performance at the Chicago Symphony Center.

It was a dream homecoming for the 33-year-old Chicago-area artist, as Fry shared the stage with none other than the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

He said it was an incredible thrill to return to Chicago to perform with one of the greatest orchestras in the world.

“It’s surreal. This is the orchestra I used to come and see perform,” Cody said. “This is kind of my mission right now. I just want to be part of the revival of the orchestra, and I just love orchestras so much.”

Revitalizing the orchestra is a tall order, but Cody’s ambition is matched by his tremendous talent. The singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist delights audiences while crossing multiple musical genres.

How did he do all this?

“I just get bored very quickly. I don’t like doing one thing for too long and I love so many different kinds of music,” he said.

Music was central to Cody’s life at home in the suburbs of Northfield. His father, Gary, was a successful composer and arranger, writing music for commercials and films, and this rubbed off on Cody.

“Even as a kid, I knew my dad made music for a living, but it looked like he was partying all the time,” Cody said. “It just looked so fun that I thought, ‘If that’s a job, I want to do it.'”

Gary said Cody had been a good singer since he was a child.

“His sisters all sang very well. We turned the children into a little family singing group,” said Gary.

It was fun, but for Cody it was also serious business. After graduating from New Trier High School, he went on to study music at Belmont University in Nashville. His big break came when he made it to the 14th season of American Idol.

Cody said it helped him grow.

“Now I can go into any performance environment and just feel pretty comfortable because I passed the acid test of American Idol,” Cody said with a laugh.

These are challenging times for young musicians. Streaming music services are not at all lucrative for artists and there is so much content competing for our attention.

Cody said he had to be creative from a business perspective to get his music out there. And he was creative: He produced music videos and concerts and used social media aggressively to share his music with the world on his own terms.

“My most popular song is I hear a symphony,” Cody said, “I think if I had taken this song into a room full of record executives and played it for them and said this song was going to be a gold record, they would have laughed me out of the room.”

I hear a symphonyThe enormous popularity of “The 4000” on TikTok helped make it a huge hit around the world. Today, Cody plays at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington and, of course, the Chicago Symphony Center, among other venues. A happy and triumphant homecoming indeed.

“I am not only proud of his musical abilities and his great ability to reach people with his music, but also that he was able to forge his own path in today’s music business. That is not easy,” said his father.

What does Cody expect for himself in 30 years?

“What more could I ask for? I just feel like the luckiest person,” he said.

Cody is celebrating another success, his biggest: he and his wife Haley have had a little girl named Ruby.

To hear more of Cody’s music, visit codyfry.com.