ESO Family Fun Series Starts This Weekend!

I can't believe it's finally here! All of the time, thought and work everyone has put into making this series happen from the beginning is finally paying off. I hope it all goes as smoothly as we plan. My office is currently exploding with everything we'll be using for the activities - instruments for the petting zoo, goodie bags, and programs for example.

Ticket sales for the first concert are better than we expected - I believe we are close to selling out the main floor. This is thanks in large part to everyone on our Education Committee and Marketing staff for getting the word out about the concert. We've taken brochures everywhere we could think of taking them and it really seems to be paying off.

If you haven't gotten your tickets already make sure you don't miss out! Even if you can't make it to the activities beforehand the concert is sure to be exciting for all ages - who doesn't love Peter and the Wolf, especially narrated by Peter Sagal???

Michael Daugherty attending ESO's Saturday night performance

I think we don't stress often enough the calibur of artists we bring into the Elgin Symphony Organization - at all levels. From the contracted musicians, the the subs, to the conductors and guest artists we have some of the top people in Chicago and beyond performing on the stage at Hemmens.

For example, this weekend not only do we have our usual fantastic orchestra performing with baritone Robert Orth, but we also have composer Michael Daugherty coming to make some remarks about his piece Letters from Lincoln at the Saturday night performance. This is pretty exciting, and I've gotten the impression that not too many people know about it.

Well, now you know!

ESO at the Gail Borden Library

The Gail Borden Public Library District in Elgin has just put up their display of resources for the upcoming Family Fun Series! I dropped by to check it out today and it is really cool - there are some great pictures of Russia and several books, CDs and movies that relate to our first Family Concert theme, Russian Fairytales. If you have a chance you should check it out. It is located on the first floor next to the AV section.

The Library has also posted a list of resources for parents on their website. We've also got our Family Fun Series group up on facebook.

ESO on WFMT tonight at 8pm!

The ESO's concert from May 2008 will be broadcast on WFMT tonight at 8:00pm as part of WFMT's Music in Chicago program. Hear Maestro Robert Hanson lead the Elgin Symphony Orchestra in their performance of Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, and Gershwin's An American in Paris. The concert features pianist Pascal Roge.

Click here to listen

Enjoy the performance!

The 2009-2010 In-School Music Program has begun!

This week we had our first In-School ensemble chamber music program of the season. The "Magic of Music" trio - Michael Folker and George Blanchet on percussion and Daniela Folker on violin - performed at Sycamore Trails Elementary School in Bartlett. It was a wonderful, engaging show filled with magic and music, and the students and teachers alike all seemed to enjoy themselves.

For those of you who don't know, the In-School Ensembles are small groups of ESO musicians who present 45 minute programs to elementary students. The musicians create their own programming for each of their unique shows. In addition to the "Magic of Rhythm", the ESO has a Double Bass Duo, Percussion Ensemble, String Quartet, and Woodwind and Brass Quintets. Information about each of the programs can be found on the Elgin Symphony Orchestra website.

Looking Back...from the Chicago Tribune 1963

Music Bands Members in Elgin

By Glen Elsasser


A highly unlikely group meets in the band rehearsal room of Elgin High School - youngsters, oldsters, and persons from varied professions. But they share one common interest - their music.

In fact, music has kept this group together since 1950. Known as the Elgin Civic Symphony orchestra, it would have flopped at the start if it hadn't been for the fun performers get out of the music, said Douglas Steensland, conductor.

Steensland remembered the first night as a cold, snowy Thursday in December. "It was a real blizzard, but somehow 25 players showed up and we played a Haydn symphony in its entirety." he said.

The orchestra now has 65 members - 36 in the string section, 13 in the brass section, 10 in the woodwind section, and 6 in the percussion section. They will ring down the 13th season at 8:15p.m. May 11 in the Elgin High School auditorium.

Backgrounds Vary

A fourth of the orchestra's members are still in high school. The rest are adults who may be housewives, teachers, dentists, or doctors. All the instrumental music staff of the Elgin public schools play with the orchestra. Their music backgrounds, of course, vary widely.

Steensland, former assistant director of bands at the University of Wisconsin, is now band director at Elgin High school. For 15 years he was first flutist of the Madison (Wis.) Civic symphony, and gave his future wife, Rachel, flute lessons. She is now a flutist with the orchestra; their son, Mark, is a violinist.

Miss Marios Laffey, associate conductor and concertmaster, played the violin in the Chicago Women's Symphony under such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Izler Solomon, and George Enesco. Hundreds of Elgin children have known her as the director of the Elgin High school orchestra.

Among the housewives is Mrs. Frank Brodsky who raised a daughter and two sons - one an engineer and another a nuclear physicist - and still found time to keep up with her music. She has been a violinist with various trios and quartets, the Elgin Musicians club, and a chamber music group.

Surgeon Is Clarinetist
Dr. Frederick Schurmeier, a surgeon, began playing clarinet in his first year in high school, and has never lost interest despite a busy schedule. He played with the Carleton College Symphony band, the University of Chicago Symphony orchestra, and the Elgin Little symphony.

Altho many members play only in their spare time, the orchestra maintains a regular schedule. On the average there are four concerts during the symphony's season which stretches from September thru May.

"We practice two hours on Thursday night," Steensland said, "but during the last two weeks before a concert we practice twice a week." There are at least 10 rehearsals for each concert, he added.

This summer the orchestra will present two concerts in the new bandshell in Elgin's Wing park. The orchestra, which is supported by Elgin Community college and the Elgin board of education, has never performed outside Elgin or on television.

Wide Repertoire
Its repertoire is as widely varied as its performers' backgrounds. A few years ago, for instance, the orchestra performed three unpublished Hasidic dances and an overture by Dr. Leon Stein, a Chicago composer.

In addition to the familiar music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Wagner, the orchestra has played such madoren composers as Samuel Barber, Gian-Carlo Menotti, Aaron Copland, and Benjamin Britten. "We make a point of playing at least one or two contemporary works a year," Steensland said.

Mancini and his Music

Next weekend the Elgin Symphony Orchestra will present their first pops concert of the new season, an all Henry Mancini program featuring a performers who actually played with Mancini. The program features all of the songs you might expect from a concert like this - Baby Elephant Walk, Moon River, the theme for Peter Gunn, and The Pink Panther of course! What you might not realize is the commitment Mancini and his family had to advocating music education.

Since Mancini's death in 1994 his family, friends and wife, Ginny, have continued to advocate for musicians and music education. In 1984 Mrs. Mancini established te Society of Singers, an organization that looks out for the health and welfare of professional singers. In 1996 the Mancini Institute, a summer program for young musicians to teach performance and music business skils, was founded. Most recently, the Henry Mancini Arts Academy was started up in Midland, Pennsylvania at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center. The Academy makes high quality training in the arts available, accessible and affordable in a safe, supportive and professional atmosphere for students at every level if interest, experience and ability.

The wonderful thing about all of these programs is that they are run at the highest possible artistic and educational levels. I know this because I was lucky enough to have been chosen as a participant for the Mancini Institute in 2003 on oboe. It was such a great learning experience because the institute focused on all of the things they don't teach you in music school - how to be a good colleague, what the musician's union is, how to network, etc. In addition, the guest artists throughout the month were AMAZING - Gunther Schuller, John Corigliano, Randy Newman, James Newton Howard, Jorge Calendrelli, Diana Krall, Christian McBride, and the musical group Oregon among others. (Not to mention at the finale concert I ran into Quincy Jones, Clint Eastwood, Craig Kilborne and Elvis Costello backstage!) To add to how wonderful this program was (I say was because the Institute ceased operations in December of 2007 due to fuding issues.) it was FREE to all participants, who were chosen by audition. This is a big deal - imagine the amount of fundraising that needs to be done to take on something of this magnitude!!!

So, you see, I gush about Mancini because of the wonderful experience I had. I actually did get the chance to meet the entire Mancini family during the institute, and they really do care about giving back to their communities and to the music that provided so much for them.

A Whole Lot of Brass

Last night I sat through about half of the ESO's rehearsal at Hemmens, and I have to say, this is going to be a great concert this weekend! I listened to a run through of Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi. The rehearsal actually began with the final movement, The Pines of the Appian Way. For those of you that haven't heard it before it begins with this soft, far-off, alomst eerie sounding march in the low instruments and gradually builds to a majestic, uplifting end. This movement also has some great extra brass parts that are played from the balcony, and we definitely have some fantastic trumpet and trombone players to play. By the end of the movement I nearly jumped to my feet and applauded - and I was practically the only one sitting in the theatre!

After the brilliant last movement the orchestra went back to the first three movements. Each movement is of course, literally based on different scenes around Rome featuring, what else, a pine grove. Meastro Hanson and the orchestra invoked the atmosphere of each scene with great ease. The Pines of the Villa Borghese was playful and mischevious; Pines Near a Catacomb was somber and haunting; and The Pines of the Janiculum was light and thrilling.

If you've never heard this piece you MUST come to the concert this weekend to experience it and all of the other wonderful pieces on the concert. If you know Pines of Rome this will be a performance you shouldn't miss! I hope we see you at the concert this weekend!

"Building Community through the Arts" October 1st Event

The Elgin Symphony and the Elgin Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the City of Elgin will be hosting a "Business After Hours" event on Thursday from 5-7pm in the Hemmens Theatre in downtown Elgin. This should be a great event not only for networking but also highlighting our theme for our 60th anniversary of "Building Community through the Arts". Participants are also invited to attend the dress rehearsal (which begins at 7:15pm) of our Classics 1 concert with The Romeros. (who, by the way, will also be speaking at the After Hours event) I see this as a great way for all nonprofits around the community to come together to experience what we have to offer and also see what opportunities may abound for the businesses in the area with regards to client cultivation. We are also inviting current and prospective new business partners to join us at our Friday night concert, so it should be a hoppin' place next weekend!
At the Saturday night concert, we're very excited that Mayor Ed Schock, his wife Karen and Congressman Bill Foster will be joining us to celebrate our opening weekend and the "Year of the Symphony" which was "declared" at our FoxFire concert last month. And, we look forward to welcoming a large group of Sherman doctors to our Sunday concert - also anticipating the new Sherman Hospital opening which will be celebrated in December with a specially-commissioned brass quintet piece by Elgin native composer Daniel Brewbaker. Stay tuned for more information on that event.
Hope to see everyone at the BAH or the ESO concerts next weekend - happy Fall!

Music Affects Brainwaves...Really!

This week I have been doing some reading about why music is important to teach in schools and why we need to keep the arts alive in our society. The newest argument seems to be that the arts, and music in particular, can change the way your brain processes information. Why teaching the arts is important is becoming an increasingly important question as school standards are constantly changing and budgets are continually being cut back.

So why are music and the other arts important in education? Well, there is growing evidence that listening to music and practicing the other arts disciplines (dance and visual art) can actually restructure your neurological pathways. Really! Chicago Public Radio just did a bit about this a few weeks ago. The notion that listening to music can improve test scores is to some extent being debunked; however, the long-term effect of participation in the arts is what is important to the argument for the arts. What scientists are finding is that involvement in the arts helps students learn social, emotional and problem solving skills easier than without the arts.

I have a hard time wrapping MY brain around this rather abstract concept, but maybe that's because it seems simple and obvious, as it might to anyone who has studied or appreciated one of the arts. I actually took a class in college that focused on philosophical writings from ancient Greece to the present studying why music is important to society. This has been a question humankind has been asking itself for thousands of years. With these new brain-oriented studies maybe we're getting closer to answering the question...but maybe the point is that civilization has been pondering this almost literally forever and hasn't been able to clearly define why we need music. The fact is, we're still talking about it, and music is still here despite those who think it's an unnecessary discipline.

So whatever music does to affect the biology of our sensitive systems we need to continue to teach and spread an appreciation for it. If you've ever been touched by music of any kind you know what it can do without defining it in technical terms.

Getting Started

Getting the year started is always exciting. This year in particular for me as I am starting the year in a new capacity - I've gone from "Operations and Education Manager" to "Education and Community Engagement Manager". Fortunately, this change has given me the chance to really evaluate and take on new education programs (and write for the blog!).

My favorite part about this season is the launch of the Family Fun Series. The series is comprised of three hour long concerts - in November, January and April - with an hour and a half of activities for kids and their parents in the lobby of Hemmens Theatre. And it is my job to make those activities happen. It seems fairly simple, and it is, but there is always that moment when you wonder if anything will happen at all because nothing seems to happen for a long while. And then, as happened this week, it all suddenly snaps into place. Let me tell you, it is a GREAT feeling when that finally happens. Don't worry...I wasn't worried...but it is a great feeling.

So what happened that caused me to give a huge sigh of relief? Well, let's see. Several of the partners who I had hoped would sign on finally did - we got the Chicago Wolves mascot, "Skates", for entertainment before the first concert, as well as their fantastic prize package for the raffle; Gail Borden Public Library District has everything they need and will have a display up in their lobby for us around mid-October; items for the goody bags are ordered; we've got permission to use enormous plywood pictures of animals playing instruments from the City of Elgin's Foxfire Fest; and best of all - School District U-46 will be taking charge of the arts and crafts area, dance center and will even run a drumming circle for us during the second Family concert which features our Percussion section!!! (I told you a lot happened this week)

So this is the fun of getting started: watching all of your best laid plans come together and finally start to mesh and make sense. It's like a dense fog suddenly clears and you can see an enormous castle that's been there in front of you the whole time. I'd better get back to work - I have to make sure I'm not seeing things...

Doin' my job

Hello, I am the operations director and artistic administrator for the Elgin Symphony. I’ve been doing this since 1999. I’ll get to the operations part in a future blog. What I’m thinking about today are two recitals I recently heard.

One of the most pleasant requirements of my job is that I need to listen to concerts. (Everybody needs to keep up. Scientists go to conferences, accountants take seminars, and hopefully my dentist is keeping up with his journals.) Mostly I listen to evaluate soloists. (Mind you, I don’t make the final decisions about soloists. I’m more like a scout looking for talent and bringing recommendations back to our music director and artistic committee.) Sure, recordings are available, but they can’t replace live performances where you get to see the soloist and feel how the audience responds.

Last Wednesday I heard a wonderful violinist, Lindsay Deutsch, at the Chicago Cultural Center. The recital was part of the Dame Myra Hess series that takes place from 12:15 – 1:00 every Wednesday. And it’s free!

Then on Thursday I went to the Art Institute to catch a Mexican pianist, Mauricio Náder in recital.

A very cool—and coincidental—thing about both recitals was that they featured a lot of short pieces. Ms. Deutsch played Winter by Astor Piazzolla, an homage to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and an amazing transcription of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Fun and amazing! Two words in short supply in the classical world.

Ditto for Mr. Náder. The first half of his recital was full of beautifully played miniatures that you might occasionally hear as an encore. And by composers I don’t know, such as Armengol, Castro and Morales.

The recitals got me to thinking that it’s a shame our concert life is dominated by big, weighty works. Don’t get me wrong, an extended work can be wonderful, even amazing. But they are rarely fun. What’s wrong with fun? Why have short pieces become practically illegal on concert programs? And for that matter, why do we always have to hear the whole symphony? What’s wrong with occasionally performing a favorite movement in concert?

Anyway, these are two musicians I was happy to discover. I look forward to hearing them again and possibly bringing them to Elgin to play (maybe some short pieces) with our orchestra.

Best,
John

Here's a preview of The Romeros, the ESO's Opening Weekend Guest Artists!

A veritable institution in the world of classical music, the Romeros’ quartet has dazzled countless audiences and won the raves of reviewers worldwide. Celedonio Romero, founder and creator of The Romeros guitar dynasty, died on May 8, 1996 in San Diego, California. As the family says, "the spirit of the quartet is him; all our concerts now will be to pay homage to him". His sons and grandsons continue Celedonio's legacy.Some fortunate musicians are able to rise to the peak of a musical art form; some very few musicians are able to originate an art form. The Romeros have achieved both. In a lengthy feature article, The New York Times said: "Collectively, they are the only classical guitar quartet of real stature in the world today; in fact, they virtually invented the format."The legendary Celedonio Romero, with his sons Celin, Pepe and Angel, founded the internationally renowned ensemble known to millions as "The Royal Family of the Guitar". With the introduction of Celin's son, Celino, into the quartet in 1990, and Angel's son Lito joining his father in duo recitals, The Romeros encompass three generations of concert artists. To have so many virtuosi of the same instrument in one family is unique in the world of musical performance, and in the realm of the classical guitar it is absolutely without precedent.Those who are privileged to hear these world-renowned musicians perform have the delightful opportunity to experience a musical phenomenon:

"One of the enduring mysteries of musical talent is how skills seem to flow genetically from musical parent to musical child. In the Romero family the flow has been swift and unimpeded. The virtuosity of the four Romeros was uniformly solid and finely considered, as if these techniques had derived from a single mold" (The New York Times).

Celedonio Romero was a renowned soloist in Franco's Spain. As each of his sons reached the age of two or three, they began learning the guitar from their father. All of his sons had made their debuts in Spain by the time they were seven years old. In 1957, the family immigrated to the United States where "The Romeros" walked onto the world stage as its first guitar quartet while the boys were still in their teens. Since then, The Romeros have given hundreds of concerts all over the world and have consistently dazzled audiences everywhere and inspired enthusiastic praise from critics coast to coast. To this day they continue to produce extraordinary music. The sterling reputation of the Romeros has been continually confirmed by repeat appearances with virtually every major symphony orchestra in the United States including those of Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Detroit and many others. The family has twice been invited to the White House; in 1983 they appeared at the Vatican in a special concert for His Holiness Pope John Paul II, and in 1986 they performed for His Royal Highness Prince Charles, Prince of Wales. Regular festival appearances include the Hollywood Bowl, Blossom, Wolf Trap, Saratoga, Flagstaff and Garden State. After a performance at the prestigious Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany in November 1996, the Leipzig Volkszeitung stated "The Romeros: Guardians of the Holy Grail of the Classical Guitar. What the 'Three Tenors' are to the world of opera, The Romeros are to the classical guitar." Whether performing as a quartet, duet, or as soloists in recital and with symphony orchestra, The Romeros prevail as champions in the realm of classical guitar. His Royal Majesty King Juan Carlos I of Spain knighted Pepe and Celin into the Order of "Isabel la Catolica", Spain's highest honor. The official ceremony took place at the University of Southern California on February 11, 2000, and included a gala concert performed by The Romeros. The Romeros are extremely popular with college audiences and make regular appearances on university music series throughout the country as well as on fine arts series nationwide. In New York they have appeared at Carnegie Hall, at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, at the Cloisters in upper Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park and on the Distinguished Artists Series at Rockefeller University. Additionally, they regularly tour throughout Europe and the Far East playing in every major city. Their most recent tours of Europe and the Orient included more than forty concerts; virtually all of the performances were sold out, and one concert in Taipei was attended by over 10,000 people.For over 40 years three generations of Romeros have inspired composers to enrich the repertoire of guitar quartet with orchestra, which includes works by such distinguished composers as Joaquín Rodrigo, Federico Moreno Torroba, Morton Gould, Francisco de Madina, Lorenzo Palomo and others. Fans have seen and heard the Romeros many times on television programs such as The Tonight Show and The Today Show as well as on PBS specials and PBS's telecast of Evening at the Boston Pops.In the words of Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo, "The Romeros have developed the technique of the guitar by making what is difficult to be easy; they are, without a doubt, the grand masters of the guitar."

Countdown to 60th Season!

23 days and counting until the ESO's 60th anniversary season launch with the Romeros! We are really looking forward to a wonderful season with lots of great guest artists joining forces with our fantastic Elgin Symphony and Music Director Robert Hanson.

In November, we are very excited to launch our new Family Fun Series, with the classic Peter & the Wolf, narrated by Peter Sagal (host of NPR's wildly popular news quiz show, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! and a visit from "Skates", the Chicago Wolves mascot. Bring your kids or your grandkids to this exciting new concert series, which includes pre-concert activities.
Stay tuned for more tantalizing tidbits!

A New Season with the ESO Education Programs

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the ESO's Education Department as we get ready to launch all of our programs this season. Some of you may have no idea of the scope of ESO Education Programs in the schools. The beginning of the school year and our season is a great time to tell you since we are in the middle of putting together a brochure and series of emails to promote the programs to area music educators and administrators.

Our Education Brochure is sent out to over 1000 teachers, PTO and PTA Presidents and Principals at elementary, middle and high schools all over the Fox Valley and beyond. We manage to reach schools from as far away as Chicago and Crystal Lake each year. Basic programming includes a week of Kidz Konzerts at Hemmens Theatre, an In-School Chamber music program which brings ESO musicians to elementary schools for assemblies, a guest artists masterclass series and several student discounts. We are very excited about all of the programs and hope we continue to see an increase in interest as we have over the past two seasons - last year we reached over 15,000 students by the end of the season!

All About the ESO's 60th Season Blog

Thank you for visiting the Elgin Symphony blog! As an extension of both our website and facebook fan page this blog will give you more in-depth information on everything: from the music we are playing, to our guest artists, musicians, conductors and the day-to-day workings of a professional symphony orchestra.

There will be several contributors throughout the season to give you unique perspectives on the many different facets of the ESO - you may even see a few of our guest artists contributing a blog or two about their time in Elgin! In addition to the blog posts we will be posting a series of audio podcasts throughout the season.

One of the great things about this blog is the feedback we receive from you, our readers. Please let us know what you think of our posts so we can plan the kinds of articles and interviews you want to read and hear.

So stay tuned to the ESO 60th Season blog for more information about the music, musicians and orchestra. We are looking forward to seeing you here!