St. Charles choir director reflects on his history of service
As Jeff Hunt prepares the chancel choir at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Charles for its Good Friday candlelight service with the Metropolis Chamber Orchestra, it will mark the first time a Charlemagne Award winner is organizing such a musical feast.
Following in the footsteps of his father Max, who won St. Charles' prestigious top citizen award in 1978, Baker musical director Jeff Hunt recently earned the 2019 prize - and the surprise of his life.
"I was very surprised, and the chamber did a great job of keeping it a secret," Hunt said of the event at Pheasant Run Resort.
He enjoyed the new twist on this year's presentation, as the award was announced early in the evening rather than at the end of the night as in past events.
"I could sit together with my family, many of which came from different parts of the country, and have dinner," Hunt said. "It was better than them hiding in the back all night."
Hunt was chosen for the Charlemagne Award for more than just his life's passion at Baker Memorial UMC, where he has been music director and founder of the St. Charles Singers for nearly 40 years.
He acknowledges he comes from a family that has loved St. Charles for years, and shown it through volunteer work and charitable donations.
After all, his parents, Max and Doris Hunt, both also won the William D. Barth Award for volunteerism from TriCity Family Services. And his siblings - David, Steve, Gregg and Jennifer - have all joined him in giving time to CASA, Baker Community Center and church boards.
Hunt has been involved with the city's Visitors Cultural Commission in the past, helping to highlight arts organizations needing funding. And he's been involved with CASA, a group his mother helped start to match adult volunteers as advocates for youngsters from fractured families navigating the court system.
He's also been on Illinois Chamber Symphony and Norris Cultural Arts boards for many years, but his main calling card is creating the St. Charles Singers, a nonprofit music organization that has garnered local, state and national attention.
He oversees the volunteer church choir and the St. Charles Singers, whose members are paid and audition from all across the Chicago area.
The Good Friday service is open to the public at 7 p.m. Friday, April 19, at Baker church, putting the church choir skills on display in singing "Requiem for the Living" by Dann Forrest.
"We try to do a special composition every Good Friday as part of the church service, and this will be a contemporary work and very moving," Hunt said.
At age 61, Hunt has thought about what will happen to the music programs at the church when he retires. But he's not going anywhere anytime soon.
"I have several years to go here, and we have to finish our big Mozart journey," he said, referring to a series of 17 Mozart concerts, with one held each year.
"We will end with Mozart's requiem in the final piece, probably in 2021."
That will keep Hunt's attention for some time, though he acknowledges someone else eventually will have to become music director at Baker and he intends to help assure that person "will do a better job than me."
Pelican sightings galore:
A few readers were quick to point out in the last week or so that migrating pelicans made their annual stops in the area.
It's always fascinating to see these birds flock by the hundreds to our various ponds and small lakes. People mentioned seeing them in Sugar Grove, Aurora and on Boy Scout Island in St. Charles.
One noted that Kane County did a controlled burn on the prairies around Nelson Lake in Batavia's Dick Young Forest Preserve, and the pelicans avoided that area.
Instead, many were spotted on an island in a small lake off Tanner Road in North Aurora.
The pelicans "hung out" for a few days on their little island before heading off and leaving central Kane County behind.
Experts from the Illinois Raptor Center, who have probably forgotten more about pelicans than I'll ever know, claim that pelican migrations through our state are at least somewhat odd. They say the pelican migration used to be far west of northern Illinois, but it's possible that a storm some years ago pushed them our way.
They stayed once, liked what they saw, and have been coming back ever since.
Tasty fish fry:
It's been around for about 10 years now under the name of Dam Bar & Grill, and this place has held up its end of the bargain in terms of serving good food and drink since the days it was known as River Lane Pub in Geneva.
Either name fits, really. It's located on River Lane, but it's about as close as it can get to Geneva's dam on the Fox River.
Mostly, it proved to be a good choice last week for a fish fry as we moved into the final weeks of Lent.
I went for the "all you can eat" fish fry and, of course, all I could eat was what they served at the start - a nice pile of french fries and four pieces of beer-battered cod.
Ramble is on:
I wrote about this a few weeks ago, but here's a reminder that the Fox River Arts Ramble takes place Saturday, April 13, and Sunday, April 14 throughout the Fox Valley.
Those who want a map or brochure to plot a strategy for checking out all of the arts locations can do so at Smitty's On The Corner, Arcedium Coffeehouse, Kava Diem, Blue Goose Supermarket, Brunch Café, the city Municipal Building, and the First Street parking garage in St. Charles, as well as Limestone Coffee & Tea in Batavia.
All of that information is also available in printable format on the Fox River Arts website.
dheun@sbcglobal.net