Woodlands Academy Hosts Fine Arts Evening May 14
An evening to enjoy student drawing, printmaking, painting, ceramics and photography exhibits, along with Spring Concert performances by the school's choirs and orchestra following their outstanding achievements at the recent WorldStrides Heritage Festival in San Francisco, is in store at Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart's annual Fine Arts Evening. This end-of-the-year celebration of the arts, which is open to the public free of charge, takes place Wednesday, May 14, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the all-girls' high school, 760 E. Westleigh Road, Lake Forest.
"Our students' work truly represents their personal expression, which is why I'm so proud to be able to display it at Fine Arts Evening," says Fine Arts Department Chair Catherine DeVuono, a visual art instructor at Woodlands Academy since 2006.
"This event has traditionally been an art exhibit and gallery reception for the artists, which includes all visual art students followed by a music concert that includes all choral groups and the orchestra," she explains. "New this year will be a performance piece combining theatre, choreography and music that will take place during the gallery viewing - as part of our move toward a more collaborative and integrated fine arts program at Woodlands."
The choir and orchestra concerts begin at 7 p.m. in the Chapel of the Sacred Heart and will feature music the ensembles performed at the WorldStrides Heritage Festival April 11-14. The honors for Woodlands Academy, the smallest of the 17 schools from five states competing in the festival, included winning the coveted Festival Sweepstakes Award which goes to the school whose top three musical groups' scores averaged the highest.
Other honors achieved during the competition included a Gold award for the Kaleidoscope choir as well as Silver awards for the Microscope (student-led) chamber choir and the Woodlands Academy Symphonic Orchestra. In addition, two Woodlands students were among the approximately 10 (out of 950 students representing 16 different types of music ensembles) to be recognized for outstanding individual achievement. Music Maestro awards went to senior Yue Sheng Wang and freshman Shi Yu Wang, both of whom are international students from China. Yue Sheng was honored for her contribution as director of the Microscope choir. Shi Yu was honored for her contribution to the Kaleidoscope choir's performance as an accompanist.
This was the first joint trip to a competition by Woodlands Academy's vocal and instrumental ensembles. The choirs are under the direction of Elizabeth Kurowski, and the orchestra is conducted by Lauren Moldenhauer.
For more information about Fine Arts Evening, visit the Woodlands Academy website, www.woodlandsacademy.org or e-mail DeVuono at cdevuono@woodlandsacademy.org.
Founded in 1858, Woodlands Academy is an independent Catholic college preparatory day and boarding high school for young women, and part of a worldwide network of Sacred Heart Schools that spans 19 cities in the United States and 44 countries around the world. A nonprofit, Woodlands Academy's identity is rooted in Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat's desire to inspire young hearts and minds to excel, to lead lives of integrity and to serve. For more information about Woodlands Academy, please visit www.woodlandsacademy.org