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Celebrating 16 Years as Barrington’s Signature Magazine
Celebrating 16 Years as Barrington’s Signature Magazine
Ron Arden, a private voice instructor at BHS for the last 17 years, has taught dozens of gifted young men in the school’s choral department. Arden dreamed of an all-male ensemble to come back home once a year to sing, reconnect, and raise money for promising young talent going on to music school. One year ago, he was having lunch meetings with former voice students just to catch up. Most are singing in some ensemble in college and many are music majors at leading universities. He reached out to five of those young men and shared his dream. They all enthusiastically said yes and have been meeting for weeks as the first-ever board of directors of the Barrington Men’s Alumni Chorus.
Their mission? “Barrington Men’s Alumni Chorus invites male singers of the Barrington community from throughout the years to celebrate the fellowship and power of choral music. Performing a yearly concert, the chorus raises scholarship for college-bound musicians.” Their comradery and diligence are infectious. The board will be moving in the next couple of months to reach as many men from the BHS choral program as they can, going back at least 20 years.
It doesn’t matter if you have taken a break from singing or if you live far away. It will be just a weekend commitment with one concert a year. Share the vision. Renew old friendships. Men seeing this article are encouraged to reach out to BMAC for now at: ardenmusik@gmail.com to receive details about the first event on July 17, 2021; venue TBD. Ahead of the weekend, singers will get copies of the music and voice tracks to practice. Any and all male singers from Barrington, whether they were in the choral program or not, whether they took lessons or not, are invited to sing. Singers should be able to read music and have some experience as choral singers.
The Fox River Valley Hound Heritage Foundation will present a panel discussion on the impact of the COVID-19 virus on air, water, habitat, and wildlife in the Fox River Valley, on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020 at 4 p.m. at Barrington’s White House. A limited number of tickets are available for $30 for the main stage and $10 tickets for online webinar viewing ($10 overflow video viewing downstairs). Co-sponsored by the Barrington Area Conservation Trust and The Conservation Foundation, the event promises to be an insightful look at the short- and long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our way of life.
Questions to be explored include: Will changes in human behavior on the environment wrought by the virus be temporary or long lasting (e.g., less car and airplane commuting/more webinar meetings)? What species have thrived during the pandemic with human stay at home orders? How have public lands been affected in the Fox River Valley forest preserves and parks?
The panelists for this forum may include Jeff Mengler, President for the Fox River Ecosystem Partnership (Sr. Project Scientist at Hey and Assoc.); Gary Swick, President of Friends of the Fox River Valley; Wendy Paulson, birder, conservationist and wildlife expert; Jack Pizzo, Ecologist and Environmental Designer and Arnold Randall from the Forest Preserves of Cook County. The symposium will be presided over by Robert McGinley, president of the Fox River Valley Hound Heritage Foundation and moderated by Judy Freeman, chief operating officer for Hound Heritage.
During the pandemic, Barrington’s White House has been hosting virtual events to keep culture alive in Barrington. This fall, as Illinois moves to Phase IV of the Restore Illinois Plan, we will once again host live cultural events at Barrington’s White House, with limited attendees, plus we’ll be adding a virtual component.
The full fall season schedule will be announced in August. The season kicks off with the magnificent Lincoln Trio, which will present a world premiere of Dash, a chamber work written specifically for the trio by three-time Grammy Award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon.
Season highlights also include a new second Thursdays Jazz Cabaret series which begins in August, as well as our continued 3rd Thursdays Art Night Out presentations beginning in September.
The season also features Chicago Tribune political cartoonist Scott Stantis portraying the 2020 election; a presentation by Patty Dowd Schmitz, Laura Keyes, and Mary Pat Kleven on children’s author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family history in Kane County; a panel discussion about the environment and COVID-19 presented by the Fox Valley Hound Heritage Foundation; and folk singer William Florian. Holiday events will be announced soon!
For information regarding ticket sales and ways to view events live or virtually, go to barringtonswhitehouse.com/events.
