Improv Playhouse Company Receives 2009 Best of Libertyville Award

Our congratulations to David Stuart and his wonderful crew of professionals at Improv Playhouse in Libertyville!

Improv Playhouse Company Receives 2009 Best of Libertyville Award
U.S. Commerce Association’s Award Plaque Honors the Achievement

WASHINGTON D.C., October 8, 2009 — Improv Playhouse Company has been selected for the 2009 Best of Libertyville Award in the Entertainment Service category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA) .

The USCA “Best of Local Business” Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2009 USCA Award Program focused on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

(Improv Playhouse is an entertainment organization and full-service acting school that specializes in comprehensive improv-comedy and acting classes for adults and youth, corporate and private entertainment, business training and development, and talent management. 

Located in Libertyville, Illinois in central Lake County with  programming in Highland Park, Vernon Hills, Buffalo Grove and Round Lake Beach.)

http://www.improvplayhouse.com/
116 W. Lake, Libertyville IL 60048, (847) 968-4529

LFHS Drumline “Drum-A-Thon” Fundraiser

From Gazebo News:

Lake Forest High School’s Drumline will host a Drum-A-Thon on Saturday at the school’s West campus to raise funds for its upcoming trip to the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. The Convention is held in Indianapolis and brings together many of the world’s top percussion performers and educators. The Drumline will perform as part of an interactive clinic and will have the opportunity to work with world-renown percussion professionals.

The six-hour Drum-A-Thon runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is open to the public. People are invited to attend any or all of the event. There will be extra drums and percussion accessory instruments available to play for a small donation. The Drum-A-Thon is planned for outdoors but if it rains, the group will continue in the school building. The West campus is located at 300 S. Waukegan Road, Lake Forest.

Forescast looks like it might be a bit cool and rainy for ‘em. Stop by to enjoy some rythms and support them if you get the chance.

“Tosca” ala Met Opera Hi-Def Videocast

I’m looking forward to seeing another performance by the New York’s Metropolitan Opera (“The Met”) this Saturday. I’ll be watching a live performance (Saturday afternoon matinee), driving a whole 20 miles to the venue, and paying only $22 for the pleasure, including exclusive peeks at the goings-on back-stage during the performance and scene changes as well as commentary about the work and interviews with some of the performers by an internationally-renowned opera singer. How?

By attending a High-Definition videocast of a live performance, broadcast around the world. Hi-Def video and Dolby 5.1 Sound in quality theatres like the Regal Lincolnshire 20/IMAX in Lincolnshire IL. I have already attended several other performance in the first three seasons of this series, and must say that “it’s a winner”. So do the growing numbers of opera fans, who are starting to regularly sell-out the theatres videocasting the performances.

I’ll be enjoying the performance along with other members of the Lake County IL Opera Meetup Group, beginning its second full year. Membership is open to anyone in the area who is interested in local “opera-tunities” to catch opera (and related events) without the committment of travel to Chicago or Milwaukee, construction and traffic delays, parking fees, exhorbitant ticket prices, and returning after midnight. These Videocasts form a major part of the season, along with Waukegan’s “Bowen Park Opera” and opera preview events with various suburban chapters of Chicago’s Lyric Opera, presented by members of the Lyric’s “Lecture Corps”.

Get your tickets soon (via Fandango or at the theatre) and join us!

Guitarist Brad Conroy reviews…

We’re happy to report that Brad Conroy, long-time area guitarist and friend of LCPA, will now be writing columns and reviews for Guitar International.

Check out his first review of the Aaron Shearer Classic Guitar Technique, third edition.

Apple Tree Theatre closes its doors…

We were saddened to hear the recent news by the management of Highland Park’s Apple Tree Theatre to cancel the 2009-2010 season and close its doors.

In this economy, it is not surprising that we should see one or more local arts groups, which so frequently operate on shoestring budgets and dedicated volunteers, find themselves finally without resources.

What IS a bit surprising is that it should be this troupe prior to others. Apple Tree Theatre has been performing continuously since 1983, earned 28 Jeff Awards (something exceptional in its own right, competing against the Chicago playhouses), and has enjoyed financial support from the city and community organizations.

The Eileen Boevers Performing Arts Workshop, co-located with Apple Tree Theatre, has also closed its doors. In 1970, Ms. Boevers (1940-2009) founded the  Workshop, following-up with a professional company which she dubbed the Apple Tree Theatre, starting off in the same Highland Park church basement that also launched the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Nearby Citadel Theatre (Lake Forest) is offering free placement in its Fall Theatre classes to students already enrolled in Apple Tree Theatre’s fall arts program.

Additional details available in a write-up by Charles Berman in the Highland Park News.

Early visit from the “cold bug”

Urgh… all three of us.

Local student/singer off to a great start!

Our congratulations to Round Lake High School senior Lindon Warren, for his talent and perserverance as described in the Lake County Journals article by Stephanie Lehman below:

ROUND LAKE – Round Lake High School boasted several talented vocalists last year, including three who traveled to the Illinois Music Education Association District 7 Music Festival competition.

One of those individuals was then-junior Lindon Warren, who was called up to perform at the IMEA district festival only after another singer bowed out.

Now, however, he’ll return to RLHS for his senior year with a rather large accolade – second place, and $250 he earned in Elgin OPERA’s third annual Vocal Competition.

“It’s been outstanding,” Warren said. “I was the first guy to ever win an [Elgin OPERA] competition, so it was a great experience.”

Lindon Warren stands next to Solange Sior, founder of the Elgin OPERA

Warren spent weeks leading up to the June competition dates preparing three pieces for the competition. He worked once a week with RLHS choir director Kristin Moroni, and spent a lot of personal time practicing at home, including memorizing one song while cleaning his bedroom, he said.

“He was not taking private lessons at the time, other than [with] me, so it took a lot of extra work on his part,” Moroni said. “He’s pretty good about listening to a recording and really absorbing the style and character of the pieces without much instruction, which is pretty unique.”

The hard work paid off, as Warren made it through the preliminaries and semi-finals to tie for second place with Stacey Bravos of Barrington in the Teen Artist age bracket of competition. The judges were impressed with Warren’s natural abilities.

Read the rest of the article at LakeCountyJournal.com …

Send us your season schedules!

This is the busiest time of year for us, as we receive (and hunt down) schedules from various performing arts groups for the upcoming season to be consolidated on our county-wide Events Calendar.

The job has been getting a little easier over time, as more folks learn about LCPA. Just to cover our bases though… if you are aware of an upcoming concert (or concert series), major recital, dance performance, arts competition, performing arts workshop, jazz event, opera, etc… please let us know! More importantly, please let the PR/Marketing rep for that group know about us! 

The more info we have, the better picture we can present of all the performing arts happening in Lake County.

iTunes U

Looking for free quality music online? Visit iTunes U (part of the iTunes Store), quite possibly the world’s greatest collection of free educational media available .

Short video by Apple about iTunes U…

Quickly becoming the engine for learning-on-the-go, iTunes U has over 75,000 educational audio and video files available. Through partnership with qualifying universities, the power of the iTunes Store is used to  distribute the schools’ educational media to their students (and to the world… the vast majority of the media is accessible to the public). The content can then be utilized at desktop/laptop computers and/or mobile devices such as iPods and MP3 Players.

Topics available in music range from classical guitar recitals at the University of Utah to The Folkways Collection at Smithsonian Global Sound to lectures and performances at Standford and the Yale School of Music. Check it out!

You must have iTunes installed on your computer in order to access iTunes U. iTunes is available for free download HERE.

Woodlands Ensemble Gets Gold

From a recent Press Release at the Lake Forest based Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart website:

Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart’s select performing choirs, “Kaleidoscope” and “Microscope,” received top honors at a recent Heritage Festival national competition held in St. Louis. Under the direction of Elizabeth Kurowski of Mundelein, the 34-member Kaleidoscope received a Gold rating in the Women’s Choir division for their performance of Stuart Stotts’ Music In My Mother’s House, Ken Berg’s I’m Going to Sing, and Beverly Patton’s Exaudi! Laudate!

Heritage Festival judges deemed Kaleidoscope’s performance to have a “great sound and…a very healthy approach to singing.”

Special recognition was also given to senior Somin Lee and sophomore So Yeong Park, both of South Korea, for their outstanding performance as Kaleidoscope’s accompanists. Lee and Park received the Festival’s “Music Maestro” award, an honor given to only six students from the entire student population at the national competition.

Read the entire Press Release HERE…

Our congratulations to Woodlands Academy Music Director Elizabeth Kurowski, and senior Caroline Denniston… Student Director of the a capella choir.