Elgin Symphony honors board member with 'Ainsworth Concerts for Youth'
The Elgin Symphony Orchestra recently renamed its field trip concerts for students as the Ainsworth Concerts for Youth in honor of supporter and board member Stu Ainsworth of St. Charles. He is the board's education committee chairman and a member of the education and community outreach committee. His particular focus as a volunteer has been music education for schoolchildren.
The 2017 Ainsworth Concerts for Youth will be offered in Elgin's Hemmens Cultural Center on April 4 for middle school students and on April 5 and April 7 for elementary students.
Ainsworth has been involved with many community organizations. He has served as a board member, as well as board president of the Elgin Choral Union (now Elgin Master Chorale) where he was involved from 1992-2000. He is a board member and event chairman for the St. Charles Art & Music Festival and has co-chaired seven of the past eight American Grand concerts. Ainsworth has participated in performances of the Berkshire Choral Festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Canterbury, England; Salzburg, Austria; and Sheffield, Massachusetts. He is also very involved with Kiwanis International as a past-president and is a current member of the St. Charles Noon Club, and the St. Charles Golden K Club, as well as a past-lieutenant governor of Division 10. A founding member of the Fox Valley Rovers Travel Group (with 32 members), he enjoys traveling, gardening, and hiking. Ainsworth, with his wife, Tammy, who passed away in 1993, has four sons and four grandchildren.
As a native of northwest Iowa, S.E. "Stu" Ainsworth graduated from Iowa State College with a degree in agriculture. His entire professional career was devoted to commercial agriculture, with emphasis on control of insects and weeds. Prior to his retirement from Abbott Laboratories as manager of Global Agricultural Projects, Ainsworth held positions in field sales, marketing, product management, and sales management for large chemical businesses, including Dow Chemical, Ciba-Geigy, and International Minerals & Chemicals.
This spring, the Ainsworth Concerts for Youth will feature two 45-minute performances at 9:45 and 11:15 a.m. The program, "Compose Yourself!" by James Stephenson, offers the perfect blend of education and entertainment.
Leading American orchestras, instrumentalists, and wind ensembles around the world have performed the music of Chicago-based composer James M. Stephenson, both to critical acclaim and the delight of audiences. The Boston Herald raved about "straightforward, unabashedly beautiful sounds," suggesting "Stephenson deserves to be heard again and again!" A formal sense of melody and tonality characterize his music, each embedded in a contemporary soundscape. These qualities, coupled with the composer's keen ability to write to each occasion, have led to a steady stream of commissions and ongoing projects. "Compose Yourself!," Stephenson's landmark young-audience work, has now been performed over 300 times since its creation in 2002, engaging children across the U.S. and in Canada and New Zealand.
Students learn about the instruments of the orchestra and get the chance to compose a piece using three elements of music - melody, harmony and rhythm. The program is lighthearted and comical and musicians enjoy performing the concert, with its entertaining theatrical aspects. Tickets are $7.50 per student. Teachers and chaperones receive one free ticket for every 10 seats purchased. It is open to all schools and home-school groups. For reservations, contact Wendy Evans, ESO education manager, at w.evans@elginsymphony.org, or (847) 888-0404, ext. 238. For more information about the ESO, visit ElginSymphony.org.
Thousands of area students have attended ESO youth concerts since 1951 when the orchestra was founded, with education prominent in its mission "to serve and engage a broad audience through the performance of powerful symphonic music and dynamic educational programs while developing strong community relationships." These concerts are designed to introduce children in first to eighth grade to the fundamentals of music. Teachers are given educational materials in advance to help enhance learning. The ESO has also partnered with Elgin Area School District U-46's Lowrie Elementary, which has a 90-percent poverty rate, to provide complimentary tickets to the concerts, providing access to many who otherwise would not have a classical music concert experience. See ElginSymphony.org for more information.