Month: May 2014
The 2013 OPUS “Listening to Our Young Artists” Concert – Part 2 Airing Time under “Naperville After Dark”
- Fri May 23 3:00 PM
- Sat May 24 10:00 AM
- Mon May 26 at 8 pm
- Tues May 27 at 2 and 7:30 pm
- Wed May 28 at 9 pm
People without cable access to NCTV channel 17 can watch it live stream online.
And Parts 3, 4 and 5 will follow — simply check NCTV’s schedule to find the showtimes.
OPUS’ officers Mara Gallagher and Barbara Norris Coates talk about the OPUS Summer Camp and Community Workshop on NCTV’s Business Connection! View it here.
Bravo! OPUS campers Maxwell Lowery (Viola), Tolya Kuznetsov (cello), and Luc Waked (cello) support their Naperville North High School friend, 17-year-old Taylor Kroma, also an OPUS camper, a junior at Naperville North High School, by performing their music and sharing the music with the patients at Naperville’s Edward Hospital through their Healing Arts Program. Performing for the underserved, those in pain and/or anxiety, people with physical and/or mental disadvantage, is always a part of the entire OPUS program for young people to increase their awareness and the pleasure of social responsibility.
The Herald had a great article about the event – read it here.
When Grace Ng began her freshman year at Naperville North High School, she felt like a “girl of the background” — one who smiled a lot and worked studiously, but spoke softly and was particularly awkward around boys.
To overcome her insecurity, Ng set lofty goals. She wanted to define herself as a uniquely accomplished person.
Nearly four years later, she is the top-ranked student in her class with a weighted 4.78 GPA on a 4.0 scale. She’s also an accomplished pianist and violinist, a member of the school tennis team, a math team captain and an active volunteer at her church, among many other accomplishments and leadership positions.
Ng is fluent in the Cantonese and Mandarin dialects of Chinese and proficient in Spanish. And she has a green belt in kung fu.
“She fits more into one day than most people do in several days,” said Jennifer Witt, Ng’s counselor at Naperville North.
“It’s obvious that she’s brilliant,” Witt said. But what makes her unique “is her true passion to learn and grow as not just an academic but as a person as well.”
Ng spent the past few years thinking hard about how to define a person’s worth and significance. She sought out family and friends to discuss the question, concluding that “my worth is not dependent on the length of my resume or some arbitrary measure of success, but is justified simply by my position as a friend, a daughter, a student, a citizen of this world.”
“High school is definitely a growing time,” Ng said in an interview this month. “A lot of what changed the way I thought of myself was from the people I got to meet in high school. One of the things that I’ll remember best about high school is the friends and the teachers that I’ve gotten to know.”
Ng will attend Stanford University. She is considering studying bioengineering and piano performance.
By Kim Geiger – Chicago Tribune – View the original article here.
CBS 60 Minutes aired a story about Paraguay’s “Recycle Orchestra”
- “Ultimately, Music will triumph everywhere and anywhere.”
- “You will be amazed what else is made of this trash. Violins are made from concentrates; cellos from oil cans, …. these instruments are not worth a dime.”
- “I always wanted to be a musician, or play an instrument. Actually, I wanted to be a singer. Sometimes our dreams do come true, maybe not in our lives, but people we love very much.” said the grandma.
- “When I play the violin, I am transported to a beautiful place which is completely different than where I am now, it has clear skies, open fields, and lots of green. It’s clean, and no trash, and no contamination. It’s just my violin and me alone.” said the 1st violinist.
- “These values are completely different than those from the gangs. These kids are absolutely love the orchestra, and hate to be a part of the gang.”
- “People used to called us trash pickers; and today, they are more civilized, they call us “recyclers”.”
- “Send us your garbage, and we’ll send it back to you, as music.”
- “You could make music with trash.”
View the broadcast here.
We are happy to partner up with Naperville Woman’s Club (NWC) on a solo and chamber ensemble competition, sponsored in part by a SECA grant.
- Date: Sat. Feb. 7th, 2015
- Ages: 8th-12th Grades
- Place: North Central College (Koten Chapel or Madden Theatre)
- Type: Solo or Chamber Ensemble
One of the Chamber Ensemble players must be from Naperville (since this is a SECA grant sponsored event)
Instrumentalists Only (our Camp instruments, percussions, and more)
Free of Charge
Prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd places.
Winners will receive an invitation to perform in NWC’s Annual Art Fair in Naper Settlement in July!