Posts Tagged ‘music’

The public is invited to a “Winter Wonderland Variety Show” and a reception to follow at 1 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 13, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave.

Hosted by Desi Vasquez, social director at the Arms, the event will be several performances blending into a colorful holiday celebration.

Entertainment will include the Oak Park Arms Chorus, the Resident Reader’s Theatre and members from the monthly tap dance workshop. The Triton Singers, the Mills Orchestra and the Flower’s Reader’s Theatre Group will also perform.

Refreshments will be served following the show at a reception in the Patio Room.

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay – a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.

The Oak Park River Forest High School show choir will perform at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave.

The choir, known as “Noteworthy,” is made up of a highly selective group of singers, dancers and live band members.

Under the co-direction of Amber Hooper and Cameron Burgess, the group is now in its second year and has over 30 members. Often compared to the popular TV series “Glee,” the talented teens of Noteworthy belt out pop tunes while dancing to choreography on stage.

The group performs in the Oak Park and River Forest communities and Chicago.

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay – a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The event is free and open to the public. Call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.

The public is invited to a performance of “Hymn of Praise” at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 20, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave.

Formally titled “The Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, op. 52,” called the “Lobgesang,” and known as the “Hymn of Praise,” this piece was created in 1840 by composer Felix Mendelssohn.

Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor. Recognized early as a musical prodigy, he is remembered as one of the most popular composers of the Romantic Era.

His best-known pieces include incidental music for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Italian Symphony” and the “Scottish Symphony.”

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay – a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The event is free and open to the public. Call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.

The public is invited to enjoy an intergenerational choral performance at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Oak Park Arms Retirement Community, 408 S. Oak Park Ave.

The first and second grade elementary students from the Oliver Wendell Holmes School chorus will join the Oak Park Arms Chorus in the ballroom as part of the Arms’ Halloween Extravaganza. Both choruses will perform songs together (such as the Halloween classic “Monster Mash”) and individually. A solo by Howard R. McClain will also be featured, as well as a community sing-along.

The Oak Park Arms Social Programming Director, Desi Vasquez, has partnered with Anjali Asokan Karia, the Holmes School music director, for a captivating night of performances.

This is the students’ annual debut, and also the first time they will be singing in harmony together.

Festivities will also include a costume parade open to anyone interested in participating. The best-dressed winner will receive a prize.

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay – a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The day’s events are free and open to the public. Reservations are requested. Call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.

The Monday Night Concert Series continues with “American Masters” performed by pianist Bobby Schiff at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave.

Bobby Schiff is back at the Arms with his “American Masters” lineup.

As a composer, arranger, conductor, pianist and producer, Schiff has been in the music scene in Chicago and Los Angeles for over 45 years.

Throughout the years he has worked with premiere entertainers and musicians, including Mel Torme, Peggy Lee, Johnny Hartman, Frank D’Rone, Ella Fitzgerald and Bobby Rydell, both in the states and internationally.

He has led orchestras and bands, performed on piano and keyboards, directed, composed and arranged for and with the best. In the 70s he worked for Sesame Street, McDonald’s, John Deere, Sears, Kraft and Hallmark.

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay – a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The event is free and open to the public. Call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.

Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear will feature “Pete Kelly’s Blues” at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 30, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave. The group returns to Oak Park Arms with a show that includes live jazz music from the Dick Elliot Band, along with other sound effects.

Pete Kelly’s Blues was a radio series crime drama with a strong musical atmosphere. It aired from July-Sept., 1951. In it, musician Pete Kelly (starring Jack Webb) heads his own jazz combo, “Pete Kelly’s Big Seven.” The group worked in a speakeasy set in Kansas City in the 1920s. The plots usually centered around Kelly’s reluctant involvement with gangsters, gun molls, FBI agents, and people trying to save their own skins. Paying tribute to the real meaning of “the blues,” the endings of this show were known to often be downbeat and gloomy.

Though the series was short-lived, it inspired both a movie and television version of the show in 1955 and 1959 respectively.

Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear is radio troupe composed of Chicagoland professional actors and voice-over artists who share a common interest – to perform old-time radio programs for the community. Each donates talent and time for free. The group’s founders Ben Dooley and Pam Turlow, husband and wife, established a connection with The Oak Park Arms in September of 2002, when Turlow’s father became a resident. They’ve been performing at “The Arms” ever since.

Dooley and Turlow’s group pours in a lot of effort when creating a show. They browse through thousands of old time radio episodes, select a favorite, listen and type out the script. Many shows are not available in print and have to be painstakingly transcribed. Then they gather sound effects, rehearse and mount the show.

Sound effects were an important part of live radio shows, so the group performs them live. They have a real door for slamming, buzzers, a sound board and shoes for footsteps, and doorbells. In this particular show, a live band will also be on stage.

Dick Elliot started his band in the early 60s. Though there is only one original member left, the 10-piece band is still thriving. Elliot himself plays the bass, while other instruments include the trumpet, keyboard and the drums.

The band will consist of just three players for “Pete Kelly’s Blues.” They will be on stage with the radio troupe for the full performance, joining in periodically with music.

Though no stranger to performing at the Oak Park Arms, this will be the band’s first time on stage in conjunction with Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear.

“We really like to entertain seniors,” Elliot said. “So when the radio troupe sent us a copy of the tape, complete with music, we listened to it and we liked it so we jumped on board.”

The shows are very popular with residents and people from the community. Some bring their children to show them what “pre-TV” entertainment was like.

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay – a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.

The Oak Park Farmer’s Market band will play in the lounge at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave. The public is warmly welcomed and light refreshments will be served.

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay – a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The program is free and open to the public. Call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.

The Monday Night Concert Series continues with “The Jeremy Kahn Trio” by jazz pianist Jeremy Kahn at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave.

Kahn and his group will perform some of the best songs of the 20th century. Referred to by Chicago Tribune’s Howard Reich as “a rare and gifted pianist,” Kahn has played in jazz venues around the world and pit orchestras for theatrical events such as “Wicked.” He has also performed with artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Joni Mitchell, Phil Woods, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Aretha Franklin.

After over a decade living in New York, this Chicago native has returned home and now lives in Oak Park with his family.

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay – a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The event is free and open to the public. Call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.