A review of last Friday’s third annual Epiphany party….in verse!
The party at Andrea’s was surely a blast.
The food was perfect and the drinks did last.
We had conversations with friends old and new,
And we played some games that were fun, too.
So, if you missed Andrea’s party this year,
Drop by next time for a cup of good cheer.
Bev Sheridan
Bill Crowle
I believe that it is through us and our music that God speaks to people every bit as much as through the spoken word. As a musician in church and in the synagogue, I am always reminded of how my playing touches the lives of the parishioners. Currently, I am the organist at First Presbyterian Church of Deerfield and accompanist at Lakeside Congregation for Reform Judaism in Highland Park, IL. In addition, I teach private piano lessons and am the staff accompanist for the music department at Vernon Hills High School. I also taught piano, composition, theory and music literature at Trinity Christian College and the American Conservatory of Music.
I have been involved in music throughout my life, having earned a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and Masters and Doctorate degrees in composition with high distinction from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. Besides my playing responsibilities, I am also active as a soloist and accompanist in a variety of other venues. These include the Downers Grove Choral Society, the New Classic Singers, Kol Zimrah, Beverly-Morgan Park Choir, Waukegan Concert Chorus, the ILMEA District VII Senior Division Honors Choir, and the Buffalo Grove Symphonic Band. I have enjoyed playing for several notable conductors in the Chicago area, as well as performing on a number of interesting organs, ranging from the Reed-Barton organ (used to accompany silent movies in their “heyday”) at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, IL to the Casavant organ in Orchestra Hall and the 100-rank Aeolian-Skinner organ in Alice Millar Chapel at Northwestern University as part of the WFMT Bach Organ Project.
In the tradition of J.S. Bach, I often am called upon to write specific compositions for various instruments or a given situation. Recent performances include a work I composed for organ and the Lincoln Park Brass Ensemble: “Fanfare and Aria”. My “Holy, Holy, Holy”, for choir and piano was premiered in November 2015 in Greensboro, North Carolina and the upcoming performance of my arrangement of “Amazing Grace” for soprano, clarinet and piano will be premiered on February 19, at First Presbyterian Deerfield. A short choral work of mine, “Old Irish Blessing”, will be performed by the Beverly-Morgan Park Community Choir at their spring concert on April 2 at St. Cajetan’s Church in Chicago. I have written other works for the Lakeside Congregation for Reform Judaism and the Kol Zimrah Choir. First Presbyterian Deerfield commissioned me to write “Gloria”, for adult mixed choir, youth and children’s choirs, organ, piano, guitars, bass guitar and percussion. I also wrote a “Festival Overture” commissioned by the Buffalo Grove Symphonic Band, commemorating the village’s 50th anniversary.
Busy musicians also need to unwind and keep balance in our lives! When I am not making music, I enjoy walks on the DesPlaines River Trail and I also make frequent visits to Chain O’ Lakes and Moraine Hills State Parks where I like to hike. If I have more time on a given day I may sometimes venture to Starved Rock. I really like spring and summer and the fall foliage.
We organists should never take for granted what we do or the reasons why we are doing it. People often tell me what a wonderful experience it is for them when I play. That’s what keeps me going. I hope to meet more friends in the AGO to collaborate and share more experiences. Feel free to visit at my church, First Presbyterian Church in Deerfield. I always welcome opportunities to host groups or individuals.
Bill Crowle
It was a quiet month for activity in our bank accounts. We had no income (which is not unusual for this time of year!) and the only expense was $495 for the quarterly bill from our webmaster. I anticipate that next month we will have some fees from the organization that supports our web name and platform. We have plenty of money to cover those expenses!
Our general checking account has a balance of $3,762.20. Our scholarship fund’s balance is $5,300.54 and our saving account has $35,005.96 in it. We are in a very healthy financial situation, thanks to your dues and contributions.
Laurie Stivers
Laurie Stivers, treasurer
Andrea Handley
We had a wonderful Epiphany party last night! (Read more in the Recent Event Review.) Also take particular note of the Other News section this month – there’s a lot of important information there about various items.
My husband, the preacher, has always been hesitant to repeat a sermon. I’ve always wondered why, but as I was looking through some old Dean’s Columns today for inspiration, I began to understand his hesitation. I had to fight the concern that readers will either consider me either a) too lazy to come up with a new column, or b) egotistical enough to assume that something I wrote in the past is worth repeating. But as I read this January 2014 Dean’s Column, it spoke anew to me, so I decided that maybe it was worth repeating – with a few edits. Besides, I deserve to be a little lazy at this time of year, right?
ORDINARY TIME – JANUARY 2014:
I LOVE all the Christmas decorations in my house – the trees, the lights, the aromatic candles, all the festive red and green, the Christmas china. But never fail, even though every year I can’t imagine EVER wanting to take it all down, sure enough, sometime in the first week of January, I start getting antsy to “undecorate” and get it all put away. Even with the mild sadness that I feel as it all goes back in the boxes for another year, even with the slightly stark and empty look the living room has when it’s all gone, I’m strangely driven to get it done and get back to “normal”. And it ALWAYS surprises me that there’s a sort of serenity that comes over me as I look at my home afterward.
It surprises me because I have such wonderful memories of choir and staff parties in my home, warm and fuzzy times in front of the fire with my kids all home, and beautiful Christmas music playing all the time. One would think that it would cause more than mild sadness to see all that go for another year. And yet, I really do welcome the simplicity, and getting back to the mundane routine of “normal” life.
Could this be what “Ordinary Time” is all about? We have a short stretch of Ordinary Time now in the Christian calendar, after the Baptism of our Lord and before Lent. The term “Ordinary Time” has always sounded kind of depressing to me, as if it’s dead time between the really exciting times in the liturgical calendar. So it surprises me that there’s something in me, and I suspect in all of us, that welcomes it. I wonder if on some level it’s some part of us knowing what Richard Foster wrote in his book Prayer, Finding the Heart’s True Home: “The discovery of God lies in the daily and the ordinary, not in the spectacular and the heroic. If we cannot find God in the routines of home and shop, then we will not find Him at all.” After all, the moment before Mary was confronted by the angel was Ordinary Time, wasn’t it?
And what does it have to say to us as organists? For me, I know that I’ve always really enjoyed planning and playing for Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. But I can too easily slip into short-changing the time and energy I give to “Ordinary Time” Sundays. But remembering that my primary purpose is to be help people worship and encounter God in new ways, from now on I hope I will appreciate that in Ordinary Time I’m helping people worship a God who speaks especially “in the daily and the ordinary”.
Andrea Handley
Dean
Susan Klotzbach
I joined the North Shore AGO chapter a year or so ago, when I began serving as organist at Kenilworth Union Church. Unfortunately, my work in Bloomington has prevented me from attending AGO events in Chicago. But, it is almost January, and that means it is time for new resolutions! So, I have put the AGO events on my calendar for spring and will hope that I can meet some of you at an upcoming event!
I have held organist or music director positions in churches ever since I was in high school, working in Clinton, Illinois at the United Methodist Church. Over the years, I have had the privilege to serve churches in most of the mainline Protestant denominations. Currently, I am the organist at Kenilworth Union Church, and I also am an adjunct organ instructor at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. My husband is employed at Illinois Wesleyan University, so we spend most of the week in Bloomington and the weekends in Chicago. For us it is absolutely perfect! I was inspired to begin organ lessons while in high school from Doris Hill, the organist at my church. She made worship interesting by the way she played the hymns and with her choice of music. From there I continued organ study at the University of Iowa with Del Disselhorst, then on to graduate school at the Eastman School of Music with Russell Saunders. I consider myself very fortunate to have had such good teachers!
Since leaving school, my full-time positions have primarily been teaching organ at the collegiate level: Houghton College in Houghton, NY; Carthage College in Kenosha WI; and Stetson University in Deland FL; all the while, continuing to hold part-time positions as a church musician. I enjoyed working with many excellent students!
I feel it is a privilege to be able to help lead worship at KUC, working with the other wonderful musicians and clergy. I also enjoy playing the Dobson two-manual pipe organ!
I look forward to meeting the members of this AGO chapter, and to sharing in the support and collegiality that belonging to an AGO chapter brings!
Susan Klotzbach
Happy New Year!! We ended 2016 in fine financial shape. We are delighted to see that Cynthia Perrizo and Brigid Cantagallo have renewed their membership and we thank Maggie Kemper for her donation to our chapter.
Our checking account has a balance of $4,169.20 ($4,269.20 reported by the bank less $100 outstanding check) and our savings accounts have $5,300.40 (Scholarship Fund Savings) and $35,004.44 (General Savings Account).
Thank you for your continuous support of our chapter. Stay warm and I look forward to seeing you in February at our next event!!!
Laurie Stivers
Laurie Stivers,
Treasurer
