Schaumburg Township District Library
Audiovisual Department Newsletter -- January, 2005

Peter Tye Quartet

 

Peter Tye Quartet
Monday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m.
Audiovisual Department

Peter Tye is a proficient guitarist and vocalist that is known for his incredible approach to musical entertainment. His rendition of Sinatra favorites is a real audience pleaser and his versatility when performing Latin, Jazz, Dixieland and beautiful ballads takes everyone on a musical journey.

For the listening and dancing enjoyment of our patrons, the Peter Tye Quartet includes a guitarist, bass player, drummer and pianist.  These experienced and professional artists perform extraordinary musical combinations.

For over 20 years, Peter Tye has performed exciting and mellow melody-driven music at many distinguished venues and events throughout the Chicago metropolitan area and the Midwest.

The Peter Tye Entertainment Group has provided services for many establishments. Some include:

  • Pump Room
  • Drake Hotel
  • Palmer House
  • Hilton Hotel
  • Walgreen's
  • Target
  • Chicago Bulls
  • Cantor Fitzgerald

Peter Tye accepts inquiries by e-mail at PTTA7131@aol.com or by calling Peter Tye at (708) 562-5293.

John Russell Ghrist

By now, nany of you know that  John Russell is the radio personality who features the Midwest Ballroom program on WDCB, 90.9FM. However, most people really don't know the real John Russell. Midwest Ballroom is a media hobby of John's. After some 30 years in the broadcast business, John decided to produce this show to bring back the sound of big band music and promote local music events in the community.

Each Midwest Ballroom radio show requires over 25 hours of volunteer work. Yes, John Russell volunteers his time to present this high quality big band show. This includes collecting interviews, editing material, writing a script, producing promotional announcements, sending schedules to the local newspapers, answering the mail, etc. The fun part for John is actually choosing the music that is played on the program each week. He never runs out of ideas for the shows. New bands and performers are always sending him their recordings and schedules. Sometimes he goes out to meet and interview them. John spends many hours at home in his little studio creating programs and editing material.

In February, Midwest Ballroom will be four years old. This equates to having produced over 200 shows and donating over 5,000 hours of free time to WDCB and the College of DuPage. John loves hearing from listeners who enjoy the show. The program is produced for them and the bands also receive a great benefit from having their music played on the radio. They receive prime exposure which helps them sell CDs and get more gigs to perform for the public's pleasure. 

John has authored 13 local history books and is busy working on two more. The library owns two titles.  Rural Shoolhouse Faces Possible Destruction: A Special Report focuses on the historic preservation of Lindbergh School located in Elgin, IL. The book is being rewritten to include recent developments on the project.  The other, Valley Voices: A Radio History, is a 500-page book detailing the beginning of radio broadcasting in the Chicago and suburban area. A smaller and more condensed version is sold by Barnes and Noble.  John is also mentioned in a couple of Who's Who editions.

 

  January 2005
 

 

Welcoming the New Year is one of the oldest and most exciting customs celebrated around the world.  We ring church bells, toot horns, hear siren's shrieking and watch New York City's Time Square celebration with crowds of happy and very noisy people.

Whether visiting relatives or watching New Year's Day parades on TV, welcoming the New Year is always full of entertainment, celebration and resolutions.  People worldwide resolve to act better in the year just beginning than in the year just ended.

January 1st has only been recognized as a holiday by Western nations for approximately 400 years. The generally accepted practice throughout the English-speaking world on New Year's Eve is to gather at midnight, drink a toast to the coming year and sing a rousing chorus of a song which has become indivisible with the celebration of modern New Year's festivities. That song, Auld Lang Syne, was first written in the Scottish dialect around 1788 and then transcribed by Robert Burns (1759-1796). The title means "old long since" or "long ago" and the melody is based on an old Scottish folk tune. The lyrics and music were first published together in Volume V of the "Scots Musical Museum" in 1796, approximately six months after the death of Robert Burns, one of Scotland's most celebrated sons, known affectionately as "Scotland's Bard." A Bard is known as a minstrel (singer-poet).

Summer Concert Series
2005

The summer concert season is just around the corner and plans include 13 performances by well-known big bands in Town Square. All contracts have been received and the calendar of events is completed. Concert cups will be available to our concert attendees. On one side these 22 oz. cups will feature the 13 events by performance date and the other side will include businesses in Schaumburg Township who have agreed to co-sponsor our events.  This is a very exciting time for the Library because we have never featured so many great big bands in one season. We are grateful to these businesses and we encourage all of you to patronage them.  We could have never accomplished this promotion without them.  Once the list is complete, we will share their names with you in the February Musically Yours newsletter. The concert cups will list the following programs:

June 6     West End Jazz Band
                 vocalist Leah LaBrea
June 13    Bob Duda's Swingin' Brass
June 20    Banjo Buddies Dixieland Band
                  vocalist Ann Stewart
June 27    Kings of Dixieland
July 4       Library will be closed
July 11     Steve Cooper Orchestra
                  with vocalist Mary Kalfas
July 18     Ron Smolen Orchestra
                  with vocalist Marvina Bowker
July 20     Spring Valley Concert Band
July  25    Yorkville Amer. Legion Big Band
                  Dean Potter & Leslie Beukelman
Aug. 1      Dick Gulbrandsen Big Band
                  with vocalist Julie Creighton
Aug. 8      Larry Bemben Jazz Ensemble
Aug. 15    Jay Mau Orchestra
                  with vocalist Luci D'Mari
Aug. 22    Seymour's Big Band
                   with vocalist Patsy Irke
Aug. 29     Vito Buffalo Orchestra
                    with vocalist Lee Stevens
Rain dates will be posted in the library's Program Guide or the library's website at: http://www.stdl.org/programs.asp

 News From the Popular Service Director About an Audiovisual Survey

We are looking for your input! The New Year brings new technology, and we are exploring adding more MP3 discs to our spoken book collection.  We also are entertaining the idea of adding downloadable audio to our AV collection.  In January, look for a survey on the STDL website – www.stdl.org asking about patrons’ audiobook usage while exploring the interest in this type of media.  By using this technology, patrons could download audiobooks to their PC/laptops, burn them to CDs, or transfer them to over 500 portable devices.We are interested in the types of audiobooks people are currently listening to. Patrons will be included in a drawing for their efforts.  If you are an audiobook user, please take the time to answer this survey. There will also be print copies of the survey available in the Audiovisual Department. The results will be very helpful in planning for future purchases.

Thank you,

Judy Napier

Head of Popular Services

Arianna Trio

 

Arianna Trio
Monday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m.
Audiovisual Department

A unique trio comprised of flute, violin and harp, Arianna renders the finest in classical music and is equally at home with popular compositions. Arianna was featured at the National Flute Association's Convention in Orlando with a premeire performance of their arrangement of Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances.

Carlyn Lloyd, Flute
Carlyn Lloyd has been heard in performances on radio station WNIB with Karl Haas and on station WFMT as part of their Dame Myra Hess and Live From Studio One series. Ms. Lloyd has served on the faculty of the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove and the Hinsdale Center for the Arts. She has written many arrangements of popular and classical music for Arianna. Carlyn Lloyd is a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the National Flute Association, honored member of America's Registry of Outstanding Professionals, listed in the International Who's Who in Music and Who's Who in American Music.

Sara Vettraino, Violin
Ms. Vettraino received her Bachelor of Music Degree from Michigan State University. After graduation, she worked as a music therapist in psychiatry and then in special education with young children. She continues to teach music to preschoolers and maintains an active private teaching studio. She is a very busy free-lance musician in the Chicago area and performs with several symphonies. In addition to the violin, Ms. Vettriano enjoys singing and playing the guitar and piano.

Joy Yu Hoffman, Harp
Joy Yu Hoffman was born into a musical family. Her father, Yu Zhong Hai, was a famous musician and music educator in China. She has had a distinguished career as a pianist and harpist in China and the United States. She received her Diploma of Harp Performance at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, a bachelor's degree from Roosevelt University and a master's degree from Northwestern University. She studied harp under Yue Ping Chieu, Elizabeth Cifani and Edward Druzinsky. Joy won first prize for harp performance in the Young Artists Competition in Harbin, China and also spent 12 years as an opera coach at the Harbin Opera Company. During her early years in the United States she won a piano concerto competition and numerous scholarships both at Roosevelt and Northwestern. Joy has been on the faculty of Roosevelt University and Trinity International University. She is a harpist in several orchestras in the Chicago metropolitan area, including work for the Lyric Opera, the Illinois Chamber Symphony, Harper College, the Symphonic Pops Orchestra, the Fox Valley Symphony and the Wind Symphony of Illinois State University. She has performed in live radio broadcasts and has made recordings in the Chicago area. Ms. Hoffman is an active teacher of harp and piano students.

Carlyn Lloyd  accepts inquiries by e-mail at Lloyd@Tri-L-CoMusic.com  or by calling Carlyn Lloyd at (630) 941-9418.

Wednesday Night at 7 p.m
and
Thursday Afternoon at 2 p.m
Movies in the
AV Department

Every week the Audiovisual Department presents recently acquired feature films. The library has acquired a Movie Copyright Compliance Site License from Movie Licensing USA. The following feature films will be shown on Wednesdays at 7 p.m.
January 5        Shrek
January 12      Shrek 2
January 19      Princess Diaries
January 26      Princess Diaries 2

The following feature films will be shown on Thursdays at 2 p.m.
January 6        Mean Girls
January 13      Terminal
January 20      Laws of Attraction
January 27      Spider-Man 2

 


Midwest Ballroom with John Russell Ghrist
WDCB 90.9 FM radio

WDCB is a non-commercial, educational radio station broadcasting continuously to northeastern Illinois. The station is known for its diverse music programming: lots of jazz, folk, reggae, world, classical and my favorite, Midwest Ballroom, hosted by John Russell Ghrist. In February, the program will observe its fourth year on WDCB. It is heard Saturdays at 5 p.m. over WDCB 90.9 FM and features Chicago area big bands and musicians. The station is owned by the College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL and can be heard throughout Chicago and the suburbs, as well as worldwide on the Internet by going to http://www.cod.edu/wdcb/wdcb_online.htm. Listeners may contact the show at  P.O. Box 1073 Dundee, IL 60118, or via e-mail at midwestballroom@yahoo.com.

Midwest Ballroom Programs for January, 2005
1/1/05 - New Year's Day Dance Party with the Ron Smolen Orchestra at the After Four Club in Cedar Lake, Indiana. Owner Tom McCann serves up a tasty brunch, as the Ron Smolen Orchestra  plays for an afternoon of delightful dancing. Guests also include singer Luci D'Mari, trombonist Mike Monahan and Big Band DJ Len Tetrault. Dance music by other vintage big bands are also presented during the program. The Ron Smolen Orchestra will perform a free concert on July 18 at the Schaumburg Township District Library in Schaumburg's Town Square.
 
1/8/05 - The West End Jazz Band is on the air. Mike Bezin's WEJB has two new recordings, Live at the Blue Lantern on Hudson Lake and Sweet and Hot Dance Movie Palace Style with organist Dennis Scott.  The band features hot jazz and danceable tunes from the 1920's and 1930's. Their main vocalist is Leah LaBrea, "The Windy City Songbird."  The group plays on the second and fourth Sundays for brunch at the Milk Pail in Elgin. The WEJB will be taking its fourth annual trip to Hudson Lake in Northwest Indiana on May 1, 2005 and will be appearing on the Bix Biederbecke Legacy Cruise in November. The WEJB will perform a free concert on June 6 at the Schaumburg Township District Library in Town Square. 
 
1/15/05 - The Peter Tye Quartet will entertain patrons with a free, hour-long concert at 7 p.m., Jan. 17 at the Schaumburg Township District Library. Listeners can hear a sneak preview of this popular jazz group on Midwest Ballroom. They have been together for over 20 years and have performed at the Pump Room and other famous Chicago establishments. The program features songs and an interview with guitarist and leader Peter Tye.
 
1/22/05 - The Banjo Buddies Dixieland Band with Ann Stewart will be one of 13 groups performing this summer at the Schaumburg Township District Library on June 20 in Town Square. They present nearly 300 Dixieland Jazz shows each year. The program will feature some of the band's favorite tunes, and Ann Stewart will discuss the history of the group. The band's motto is "not just music...entertainment." The show will also include interviews with members of the Chicago Accordion Club.
 
1/29/05 - The Barristers Big Band, directed by clarinet player John S. Vishneski III, is composed of Chicago judges and lawyers. They regularly perform concerts at the Washington Center in Chicago. The band has produced an all Duke Ellington CD, and is completing a new album featuring the works of Count Basie. John discusses the band's
background and future projects.
 
2/5/05 - Joan Hammel introduces her new album, joanland, a collection of original contemporary songs. She has appeared in movies, hosted radio programs and sung America, a song about 9-11. Joan recently returned from Cuba on a USO tour.
 
2/12/05 - Midwest Ballroom Fourth Anniversary Program. The show will feature highlights of last year's guests and shows. 

For a complete listing of the library's next summer concert series which include rain dates, please visit http://www.yorkvillebigband.com/AAAA-DECBBBB.htm.

Musically Yours,

Barbara R. Marik

Thank you for subscribing to Musically Yours. Your email address will be used only to send you messages from the Audiovisual Department of the Schaumburg Township District Library. Email addresses will not be sold or provided to anyone else. If you have news or questions you want to share with other Musically Yours subscribers, just drop me a line at bmarik@stdl.org. I welcome all comments. If you decide to be removed from the list of eletter recipients, please reply to me and I will take your name off the list.

Audiovisual Information Coordinator/Music Programmer • Schaumburg Township District Library
130 South Roselle Road • Schaumburg, IL 60193 • (847) 923-3186