Annual Otto Cultural Arts on the Fox to showcase student music, visual arts
The School District 300 Foundation for Educational Excellence will present the sixth annual Cultural Arts on the Fox on April 22-23, showcasing outstanding student music and visual arts set against gorgeous views of the Fox River in historic Old Town Carpentersville.
The Cultural Arts on the Fox open house will be 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 22, and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 23, in the former Illinois Iron & Bolt foundry building along the Fox River. The building at 100 S. Lincoln Ave. was recently renovated by Otto Engineering. Admission to the event is $1, and all donations will benefit the Carpentersville Boys and Girls Club.
Among the musical performances, the event will feature:
• Dundee-Crown High School Jazz Ensemble: Under the guidance of jazz director Mark Bettcher, who has performed professionally with luminaries such as Tony Bennett, Ramsey Lewis, Gladys Knight and Phil Collins, the jazz ensemble is one of the top student groups in the state. It performed at the ILMEA All-State Music Convention in 2014 and was selected again to perform for the 2016 convention. Bettcher started the Dundee-Crown jazz program in 1989 with a group of eager students who rehearsed in the auto shop (the ultimate garage band) during their lunch hour. Twenty-six years later, after a continual flow of wonderfully talented students and performances with numerous guest artists throughout the U.S. and Canada, the program is swingin' as hard as ever.
• Jacobs High School Chamber Orchestra: The chamber orchestra features 26 talented and dedicated students led by director Terry Foster, who also serves as symphony conductor for the McHenry County Music Center. The Jacobs chamber orchestra has worked with renowned clinicians including Robert Hasty of Northwestern University, Gary Lewis of the University of Colorado, and Louis Bergonzi of the University of Illinois. In 2013, the orchestra program commissioned a work from Michael Ippolito, a music composition professor at Texas State University.
• Hampshire High School Chamber Orchestra: The chamber orchestra is an extracurricular, audition-based ensemble consisting of nine talented and hard-working students who meet weekly to rehearse. While directed by Emma Leland, the chamber orchestra is primarily a student-propelled ensemble, rehearsing together outside of class time to achieve a high level of performance.
More than 1,000 pieces of student artwork also will be on display, with college representatives on hand to offer guidance to those planning to pursue art as a career and award scholarships to one student from each District 300 high school. Students presented American Academy of Art scholarships at last year's Cultural Arts on the Fox include Dundee-Crown student Alexandria Escobedo, Jacobs High School student Isabella Friend and Juan Valladares from Hampshire High School.
"We are thrilled to be able to showcase the amazing talent of District 300 students in such a beautiful setting for community members to come and soak it all in," said D300 Foundation volunteer trustee Mary Gross.
For more information, please contact Diane Magerko, D300 Foundation Performing and Fine Arts Chair, at (312) 310-9156 or dianemagerko@comcast.net. To view previous Cultural Arts on the Fox performances and artwork, visit the foundation's website at www.d300foundation.org/id147.html or on Facebook.
The mission of the School District 300 Foundation for Educational Excellence is to enhance and extend learning opportunities for all students in in all D300, which serves more than 20,000 students and is one of the largest districts in the state. Since its founding in 2002, the foundation has raised well over half a million dollars for District 300 schools and students. The foundation focuses on four areas of impact: literacy, performing and fine arts, science and technology, and student leadership.
Funding for the foundation is raised through corporate partnerships, private donations, and foundation events. View some of the projects and grants the D300 Foundation has funded by visiting www.d300foundation.org.
About Otto Engineering
Tom Roeser, the owner of Otto Engineering, has changed the face of downtown Carpentersville by restoring the buildings along the Fox River to a pristine level. Roeser also was featured in CNNMoney.
A large portion of the original Illinois Iron & Bolt Company building structure has been maintained in Otto's landmark buildings. To learn more about the site for this night of cultural arts, visit www.homesbyotto.com/carpentersville/.