SingFest!

What a fantastic day! 250 students and 35 teachers participated in a full day of music, fun and food. Students from four counties joined with the Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus and the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain for an amazing musical exchange. Everyone learned new songs, made new friends and at the end of the day performed a great concert for the community.

The teachers had their own sessions learning vocal techniques from guest clinician Lissa Gray from England and had a great repertoire session with Emily Ellsworth. One teacher commented on how much she liked the observation session “observing SingFest chorus rehearsals and getting amazing rehearsal technique ideas”.

The culminating concert included everything from Scott Joplin to a traditional Zulu piece and brought down the house with the entire 250 voice Honors Chorus singing Bob Chilcott’s Look to this Day! 

Neil Bergquist was a chorister from 1990-1993.  After graduating from high school in 1997, he attended Middlebury College in Vermont and graduated in 2001 with a dual degree in Geography and French.  During his time at Middlebury, he continued his love of singing in an all-male a cappella group called the Dissipated Eight, which just celebrated its 55th reunion.  He moved to Boston after graduation and has lived there since. 

Neil is a Director at Observant LLC, a strategic market research consulting firm located in Waltham, MA, specializing in custom market research for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.  Neil specializes in qualitative research techniques and manages research engagements throughout the US, EU, and Asia.  Neil lives in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, and enjoys auto racing, home improvement, non-business related travel, and the Boston Red Sox.  Regrettably, singing is relegated to the shower and the car...

“Music is enough for a lifetime – but a lifetime is not enough for music.”
 Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

A couple of years ago a touring chorister put this in our rehearsal’s “happy box” – a place for comments read aloud at announcement time to share good news, lift someone’s spirits, or, in this case, share a musical quote.  It’s been up on my bulletin board ever since, and seems most meaningful at the busiest times of the season!

April is full of music:  a visit with the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain, our annual Honors Singfest for students and teachers from a four-county radius, a trip to Cincinnati for Concert Chorus, an artist series concert in Barrington for the Touring chorus, and many staging rehearsals for everyone with Geoff Edwards, our guest stage director for our upcoming spring program. 

All of our ensembles are hard at work staging, memorizing, performing near and far, and getting ready for our May 17 culminating concert at Edman Chapel, “Stories in Song” at 7 pm.  We will be joined by members of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and guest soloists.  Please join us for an engaging evening of gorgeous music in a dramatic context from Mozart to Sondheim. 

Meanwhile, the much-anticipated announcement of the new name of the Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus is almost upon us.  Current choristers and their parents will gather on May 1 to hear the news and learn about the process which produced it.  Brochures will be put in the mail the next day to everyone we know.

Exciting times are upon us!

Choristers in Dance Rehearsal

Join us for GECC's spectacular spring concert at Edman Chapel in Wheaton, May 17th at 7:00 pm. It will be a delightful evening of staged music from opera and musical theater by Mozart, Bernstein, Britten, Puccini, Gilbert & Sullivan and many others. Tickets are $25 reserved and $15 general admission.