“Così fan tutte” versus “Grease”

Our tastes vary here at LCPA. Like today…

… one of us enjoyed the Bowen Park Opera (BPO) production of Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” at the Dr. Lynn Schornick Theatre of the Jack Benny Center in Waukegan. Kathryn Kamp did her by-now-to-be-expected fabulous job as Stage Director, outperformed only by the performers themselves, several of whom are BPO veterans. As always the “intimate” theatre brings the audience up close to the stage; having the opera performed in English was a help to many in the audience, based on the positive and enthusiastic response. Meanwhile…

… the other one of us went to watch “Grease” at Lakes Community High School in Lake Villa IL. Though a fairly new school, it already has an active arts program with quite a few talented students. Kudos to: the dance director who made sure everyone on stage got excellent exposure, the set designers, and of course the students who put in all that hard work to put on such a great show (which set a record for highest attendance so far).

Shifting the Blog…

Those of you have have been following this blog have noticed a change or two in recent days… hopefully for the better! The internal or self-hosted WordPress blog was too problematic for now, so we opted for an “external” version which opens in its own window. All the content remains, but will hopefully be easier for you to access, navigate, post comments, etc.

New Kidstuff from MYA!

Rebecca Watts is the Marketing Assistant for MYA.
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Midwest Young Artists‘ (MYA) new Early Childhood Education program is up and running!

Since 1993, Midwest Young Artists (MYA) has provided outstanding orchestral, choral and jazz programming for 2^nd through 12^th grade students.  Today, we launched Miniature Young Artists – a music and movement program for 8-month-olds to 5-year-olds.

Research indicates that music-making enhances reading, verbal and math test scores in children and that there is a correlation between music lessons and increases in IQ.  We wanted to provide a program that allows students to experience music as early as possible.

This class has been in the works over the past few years.  Jessica Jordan, our Miniature Young Artists (note the take off on MYA!) teacher, has created a totally unique program for MYA based on the research that music provides a stimulus for young children to achieve in all facets of the educational process – academic, social and artistic.  She truly enjoys teaching and is currently pursuing her Master’s of Music in violin performance and pedagogy at Northwestern University.

It was evident that the hard work was worth it when our first student (an outgoing 2-year-old) walked through the front door and asked, “Do you guys have music here?”

We do indeed have music here, and the students in our first classes today really seemed to enjoy themselves.  Today, they sang, danced, played with rhythm sticks, shakers, resonator bells, bean bags, and scarves, and even had time for story time and a juice break.

Our first session of Miniature Young Artists runs from February 5 – March 19, and the second session will run from April 2 – May 14.  Throughout each seven-week session, children will explore and grow together while learning to express themselves through music.

It’s not too late to register!  If you would like to enroll your child in Miniature Young Artists, please contact MYA at (847) 926-9898.

Please check back for updates about Miniature Young Artists, as well as other MYA programs!

 Link: http://www.mya.org/programs/mini.php