At long last, the Steering committee for the Great Lakes AGO convention for June of 2023 is free to share our program line-up with you all!
We’re very excited to share the following highlights of our June 25-28, 2023 convention:
- Convenient location at the Holiday Inn Chicago North in Evanston from Sunday, June 25 to Wednesday, June 28, 2023. Many venues within easy walking distance!
- Festival concert featuring organ and orchestra at Alice Millar Chapel.
- Festival Worship service and Hymn Festival with organ, choir, instruments, commissioned works, and congregational singing.
- Carillon concert at the beautiful Botanic Garden with catered lunch.
- Venues with magnificent organs: Alice Millar Chapel, First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, First United Methodist Church of Evanston, St. Luke’s in Evanston, Trinity UMC in Wilmette, North Shore Congregation Israel, Glenview Community Church, St. Giles Northbrook, Winnetka Congregational, Faith Hope and Charity Winnetka and more.
- Recitals by well-known local, national, and international artists including: Christina Garcia Banegas, Stephen Buzard, Vincent Dubois, Nicole Keller, Yun Kim, Christa Rakich and Madeleine Woodworth.
- Workshops on practical topics such as: Building Youth Choirs, Teaching Organ Online, Performance Anxiety, and a choral reading session.
- ‘Worship and Workshops on the Square’. Four themed-worship services to choose from (Taize, Gospel, Jazz, Organ/Instruments).
- Final gala banquet and reception at hotel.
- OPTIONAL ADD-ON EVENT! (Thursday morning, June 29): ‘A Taste of Chicago’ – a morning of exploring four exciting instruments in Chicago with mini-recitals and console time at Loyola University Madonna della Strada Chapel, St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church, Fourth Presbyterian Church, and Holy Name Cathedral.
We are very excited about hosting the 2023 Great Lakes Regional AGO convention, and are planning an event that will make us all proud to be part of the North Shore AGO chapter!
As many of you remember, this event was scheduled originally as a 2021 convention, but due to COVID, all of the 2021 regional conventions have become 2023 conventions. Thanks to your generous donations in 2019 and 2020 before we pivoted, we had already raised about 60% of the goal for financial support needed for this convention. And if there is a silver lining in this two-year delay, it is that some of you who were not able to give in 2019 might be in a position to do so now; and that those of you who did might be able to consider a second donation, this time to support specific artists/events/items associated with the needs of the convention. There will also be many ways you can volunteer your time and help as we move closer to the convention date. More on all this later!
In conjunction with the NSAGO chapter, we’ll be hosting a ‘Taste of the Great Lakes Regional Convention’ event on October 23. We hope to see many of you there, to give you more details on the convention.
Andrea Handley
Convention Coordinator, Great Lakes AGO Regional Convention 2023