While tromping through the woods in southeast Wisconsin looking for a good place to fish, angler and baritone Warren Fremling heard the pounding of hammers. Fremling, choir director at Congregation Solel in Highland Park and a garrulous soul struck up a conversation with Eric Lentz. Lentz is the co-founder along with his wife Deanna Hallagan of the Rustic Falls Nature Camp, a place where at-risk and special needs kids as well as cancer survivors can get out of town and into nature.
Fremling wanted to help. He organized a concert with some of his pals.
Continue reading ““Every song is a picnic.” A benefit for the Rustic Falls Nature Camp” »
The Orion Ensemble
Chamber music is known as the “music of friends.” The first publicized season of the Orion ensemble was in 1993-94. Kathryne Pirtle (clarinet), Florentina Ramniceanu (violin), Diana Schmück (piano), Judy Stone (cello) and Jennifer Marlas (viola), That is clearly a lot of friendship.
Listening to a chamber music concert is a refreshing harmonic interlude in an often disconcerting world. Spending a couple of Sunday hours with Chicago’s award-winning Orion Ensemble might delude you into thinking the world is a place of beauty and the passion of dedicated artists (instead of the messy discordant place we know it really is).
Continue reading “Making Harmonic Connections: the Orion Ensemble” »
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” Lena Horne
Ava Logan
Imagine an evening of songs that have been performed by Lena Horne and Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Etta James, Anita Day, Johnny Frigo among others. Then imagine internationally known vocalist (and Chicago resident) Ava Logan singing at one of the premiere listening rooms on the North Shore. It will all be there when the Skokie Theatre presents “Lena Horne and Friends” on Saturday, March 20 at 8 p.m.
Besides being an extraordinary singer and actress, Lena Horne was a transformational figure in the movement for civil rights. At the age of 16 in 1933, Horne joined the chorus line of the famed Cotton Club in New York City. During a club engagement in Hollywood, talent agents caught her act and Horne signed a long-term contract with MGM; the first African American performer to do.
Continue reading ““Lena Horne and Friends”: Ava Logan@The Skokie Theatre” »
