Mary Poppins Opens to Rave Reviews!

Congratulations to the cast, crew and orchestra of DGN's Mary Poppins, for an opening that was "practically perfect in every way!"

DGN's Mary Poppins: Thursday - Saturday

DGN Theatre and DGN Fine Arts presents Mary Poppins!  Catchy classic tunes, special effects, live orchestra, and colorful tech make this a spectacle you won't want to miss. Mary Poppins is presented in the Clarence Johnson Auditorium - Thursday & Friday March 10th and 11th at 7pm, or Saturday, March 12th at 5pm!  Tickets are free for D99 students with ID. D99 Students need to reserve seats ahead of time. $5 for non-D99 students, and $10 for adults.  Reserve tickets https://gofan.co/app/events/499228!  "Step in Time" and don’t miss the show.

DGN Winter Guard Takes 2nd Place at Lake Park

Congratulations to the DGN Winter Guard on yet another 2nd place finish in their new class this weekend at the Lake Park High School contest!  The team continues a streak of success this season, placing first or second in their regular circuit shows all season long. 

After their best run yet on Saturday, the DGN Winter Guard is feeling energized as they begin preparing for championships.  Bravo, winter guard, and best of luck as you prepare for champs!

DGN Musicians Find Success at 2022 State Contest

Downers Grove North High School student musicians participated in the Illinois High School Association State Solo and Ensemble Contest on March 5, 2022.

46 music events from Downers Grove North High School earned a Division I rating of SUPERIOR.  A Division I score is categorized as “A Superior Performance – outstanding in nearly every detail.”  In addition, 10 music events from Downers Grove North High School garnered a Division II rating of OUTSTANDING.  A Division II score is categorized as “An excellent performance – only minor defects.”

“Preparing for a Solo and Ensemble contest is a great opportunity for our students to express their individualism as soloists and to develop team-work skills with small ensembles,” said Brayer Teague, Fine Arts Department Chair at North High.  “We’re very proud of all our students who entered the state contest this year.  They did a terrific job representing North High with their musicianship.”

Five North High events received perfect scores, and three student musicians received the "Best in Room Citation" for garnering the highest achievement score in their event room.

The following North High Music Events received a “Division I—Superior” rating:

Audrey Anderson (Violin)

Anika Canamedi (Oboe)

Gwen Casten (Trumpet) *

Stephen Cecil (Viola) *

Isabel Eide (Flute)

John Fioti (Trombone)

Pallavi Fisher (Violin)

Penny Ham (Flute)

Sophie Hamelka (Cello)

Cameron Hejny (Clarinet) *

Zachery Heppner (Clarinet)

Isaac Hsu (Cello)

Robert Huth (Cello) Best of Day Citation in Contest Room

Tabitha Irvin (Bass Clarinet) * Best of Day Citation in Contest Room

Hannah Janka (Horn)

Sarah Jeske (Alto Saxophone)

Sadie Kearney (Flute)

Ella Knickerbocker (Violin)

Juliana Kolatek (Clarinet)

Anya Konieczka (Trumpet)

Francesca Korbitz (Flute)

Natalie Lamar (Flute)

Sarah Lampsa (Violin)

Joe Leckie (Cello)

Gina Liu (Piano)

Ethan Martin (Tuba)

Kyra McComb (Snare Drum) * Best of Day Citation in Contest Room

Colleen Milos (Oboe)

Nathan Moawad (Trumpet)

Nicole Moravec (Violin)

Eric Morton (Trumpet)

Amaya Munoz (Violin)

Tyler Nicholas (Violin)

Aarush Palli (Flute)

Melissa Parkinson (Double Bass)

Adam Pearson (Trombone)

Kayla Riehle (Flute)

Erin Tamasi (Flute)

Julia Toth (Horn)

Ethan Weingust (Bassoon)

Madeline Antonio, Stephen Cecil, Isaac Hsu, Nicole Moravek, Melissa Parkinson (String Ensemble)

Stephen Cecil, Ella Knickerbocker, Joe Leckie, Nicole Moravec, Holden Peckenpaugh (String Ensemble)
Isabel Eide, Sadie Kearney, Erin Tamasi (Flute Ensemble)

John Fioti, Jakub Jasinski, Colin Nockels, Lincoln Peckenpaugh (Trombone Ensemble)

Katie LaVere, Sydney Fleming (String Ensemble)

Caleb McCloud, Joaquin Orellana (String Ensemble)

* - Perfect Score

The following North High Music Events received a “Division II—Excellent” rating:

Peter Anderson (Trumpet)

Grace Avila (Horn)

Thaddeus Bednard (Horn)

Marc Contreras (Horn)

Natalie Folkening (Cello)

Fernando Garduno (Trumpet)

Samantha Hansen (Flute)

Eden McDonald (Horn)

Demetrios Stavrou (Violin)

Prakruti Torlinkonda (Flute)

DGN Vocalist Selected to Sing National Anthem at IHSA State Basketball Playoffs

Congratulations to DGN Choir member Ian Stagaman, who was selected through a series of competitive auditions to perform the National Anthem - as a soloist - for Sessions 7 & 8 of the IHSA State Basketball playoffs. Ian will perform, in Champaign, IL on Saturday, March 12, 2022.

National Black History Month Spotlight: Viola Davis (1965 - )

February is Black History Month, and @DGNFineArts is pleased to spotlight the pioneering work of Black artists.

Viola Davis is an American actress and producer. The recipient of an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards, she is the first African-American to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2017. In 2017, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her ninth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century up to that point.

Born in St. Matthews, South Carolina, Davis began her acting career in Central Falls, Rhode Island, starring in minor theater productions. After graduating from the Juilliard School in 1993, she won an Obie Award in 1999 for her performance as Ruby McCollum in Everybody's Ruby. She played minor roles in several films and television series in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Tonya in the 2001 Broadway production of August Wilson's King Hedley II. Davis's film breakthrough came in 2008, when her role as a troubled mother in the film Doubt earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Greater success came to Davis in the 2010s. She won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for playing Rose Maxson in the Broadway revival of August Wilson's play Fences. For starring as a 1960s housemaid in the comedy-drama The Help (2011), Davis received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2014, Davis began playing lawyer Annalise Keating in the ABC television drama series How to Get Away with Murder, and in 2015, she became the first Black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. In 2016, Davis reprised the role of Maxson in the film adaptation of Fences, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She went on to receive a BAFTA nomination for her performance in Steve McQueen's heist film Widows (2018). In 2020, Davis garnered universal acclaim for her performance in the titular role of the film adaptation of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, for which she received an NAACP Image Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. With that nomination, Davis became the most nominated Black actress in the history of the Academy Awards, with four acting nominations, and the first Black actress to have been nominated for Best Actress more than once.

Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon, are founders of a production company, JuVee Productions. Davis is also widely recognized for her advocacy and support of human rights and equal rights for women and women of color. In 2019, she became a L'Oréal Paris ambassador.

DGN Winter Guard at WGI Regional Competition

Congratulations to the DGN Winter Guard on their second-ever appearance at a Winter Guard International (WGI) Regional.  On Saturday, February 26th, the team traveled to Lincoln-Way East High School and represented DGN very well on the larger, regional stage. With a score of 73.35, the team bested their previous week total by a significant margin of 13 points. 

 

The team competed in a competition class higher than the class in which they normally compete at WGI (and two classes above where they started the season).  Despite this added challenge, the team managed to place 11^th out of 18 guards.  

Way to go DGN Winter Guard!

National Black History Month Spotlight: Omar Thomas (1984 - )

February is Black History Month, and @DGNFineArts is pleased to spotlight the pioneering work of Black artists.

Omar Thomas (https://www.omarthomas.com/)

composer // arranger // educator

Described as "elegant, beautiful, sophisticated, intense, and crystal clear in emotional intent," the music of Omar Thomas continues to move listeners everywhere it is performed. Born to Guyanese parents in Brooklyn, New York in 1984, Omar moved to Boston in 2006 to pursue a Master of Music in Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory of Music after studying Music Education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is the protégé of lauded composers and educators Ken Schaphorst and Frank Carlberg, and has studied under multiple Grammy-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider.

Hailed by Herbie Hancock as showing "great promise as a new voice in the further development of jazz in the future," educator, arranger, and award-winning composer Omar Thomas has created music extensively in the contemporary jazz ensemble idiom. It was while completing his Master of Music Degree that he was appointed the position of Assistant Professor of Harmony at Berklee College of Music at the surprisingly young age of 23. He was awarded the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award in 2008, and invited by the ASCAP Association to perform his music in their highly exclusive JaZzCap Showcase, held in New York City. In 2012, Omar was named the Boston Music Award's "Jazz Artist of the Year." Following his Berklee tenure, he served on faculty of the Music Theory department at The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Now a Yamaha Master Educator, he is currently an Assistant Professor of Composition and Jazz Studies at The University of Texas at Austin.

Omar's music has been performed in concert halls the world over. He has been commissioned to create works in both jazz and classical styles. His work has been performed by such diverse groups as the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, the San Francisco and Boston Gay Mens' Choruses, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, in addition to a number of the country's top collegiate music ensembles. Omar has had a number of celebrated singers perform over his arrangements, including Stephanie Mills, Yolanda Adams, Nona Hendryx, BeBe Winans, Kenny Lattimore, Marsha Ambrosius, Sheila E., Raul Midon, Leela James, Dionne Warwick, and Chaka Khan. His work is featured on Dianne Reeves's Grammy Award-winning album, "Beautiful Life."

Omar's first album, "I AM," debuted at #1 on iTunes Jazz Charts and peaked at #13 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Albums Chart. His second release, " We Will Know: An LGBT Civil Rigths Piece in Four Movements," has been hailed by Grammy Award-wining drummer, composer, and producer Terri Lyne Carrington as being a "thought provoking, multi-layered masterpiece" which has "put him in the esteemed category of great artists." "We Will Know" was awarded two OUTMusic Awards, including "Album of the Year." For this work, Omar was named the 2014 Lavender Rhino Award recipient by The History Project, acknowledging his work as an up-and-coming activist in the Boston LGBTQ community. Says Terri Lyne: "Omar Thomas will prove to be one of the more important composer/arrangers of his time."

DGN Winter Guard Takes 2nd Place at Schaumburg Contest

After their recent class promotion two weeks ago, the DGN Winter Guard made their very first appearance in the SAA Class this past Sunday at the Schaumburg High School Winter Guard Contest. They were thrilled to find continued success, even when up against tougher scoring criteria.  Congratulations to the Winter Guard for rising to this new challenge and placing 2nd at this weekend's contest!  

If you haven't caught the DGN Winter Guard yet, be sure to catch their performance of "Can't Burst My Bubble" at one of their upcoming contests!  Next Saturday February 26th, the team will be taking on the WGI Chicago Regional held at Lincoln-Way East High School.  The following weekend (March 5th) they will be competing at Lake Park High School.  

Congratulations again, DGN Winter Guard!

National Black History Month Spotlight: Kadir Nelson (1974 - )

February is Black History Month, and @DGNFineArts is pleased to spotlight the pioneering work of Black artists.

Kadir Nelson (kadirnelson.com/about) is an award-winning American author and artist based in Los Angeles, California. His paintings are in the permanent collections of several notable institutions including the United States House of Representatives, the Muskegon Museum of Art, The National Baseball Hall of Fame, United States Postal Museum, the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland, and most recently, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the World Trade Center, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Nelson received a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and upon graduating with highest honors, he was summoned by DreamWorks Pictures to create conceptual artwork for Steven Spielberg’s Oscar® nominated feature, “Amistad” and the animated feature, “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron”. He is the recipient of multiple awards from the Society of Illustrators in New York, including the prestigious Hamilton King Award as well the 2020 recipient of the Caldecott Medal and Coretta Scott King Award for illustration. He adds this to multiple Caldecott Honors, Coretta Scott King Author and Illustrator Awards, New York Times Best Illustrated Book Awards, several NAACP Image Awards and an Olympic Art Bronze medal, among others. Mr. Nelson has also created artwork for a host of distinguished clients, including but not limited to National Geographic, HBO, Nike, Disney, Hennessy, and Sony Music, for whom he painted the cover artwork for Michael Jackson’s posthumously released album, “Michael,” which was listed in the Guinness Book of Records® for the largest poster in the world. Nelson’s artwork was also featured on the cover of recording artist Drake’s multi-platinum selling album, “Nothing Was the Same”; over a dozen commemorative US postage stamps honoring American legends, such as Major League All-Stars Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, NBA great Wilt Chamberlain, and most recently Motown’s Prince of Soul Marvin Gaye, which altogether have sold several million stamps.

Nelson’s masterful artwork also frequently graces the cover of The New Yorker magazine, paying tribute to historical and contemporary American figures in New York City and abroad, including the magazine’s dandy, Eustace Tilley. Additionally, Nelson has also authored and illustrated several award- winning New York Times Best Selling picture books including, “WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball”, which was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, and “Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans”. Currently, he has over 30 children’s book titles in print with a global circulation in the millions, and in multiple languages. Nelson’s list of illustrated children’s books include titles by Debbie Allen, Will Smith, Spike and Tonya Lee, and Delores Jordan, mother of NBA great Michael Jordan.

Nelson’s primarily figurative paintings and sculptures focus on historical narratives and heroic subjects in American culture and are often informed by the Old Masters like Ingres, Michelangelo, Hopper, and Tanner. His sumptuous settings and characters, rich palette, and realistic, yet painterly technique speaks to both modern urban realism and masterly works of turn-of-the century American painters.

DGN Visual Artists Honored at Orland Park Art Alliance Exhibition

Madeline Pearson - "Resilient Oaks" [Orland Park Arts Alliance Honorable Mention]

The Orland Park Arts Alliance in conjunction with The Orland Park Arts Commission invited high school Visual Art programs in the region to nominate student artwork for exhibition. Congratulations to the 10 student artists from DGN Fine Arts who were featured: 

Sarisa Chulanon, Eve Giesler, Ali Hackett, Charlie Michaels, Bailey Mongello, Gretchen Nelson, Madeline Pearson, Matthew Poe, Lake Ragnini, Aiden Robinson.  

Two students from North High received awards:

Honorable Mention

"Resilient Oaks" - Madeline Pearson

Orland Park Arts Alliance Award

"Lost Touch" - Sarisa Chulanon

Ali Hackett

Lake Ragnini

Matthew Poe

Eve Giesler

Bailey Mongello

National Black History Month Spotlight: William Grant Still (1895-1978)

February is Black History Month, and @DGNFineArts is pleased to spotlight the pioneering work of Black artists.

William Grant Still Jr. (May 11, 1895 – December 3, 1978) was an American composer of nearly 200 works, including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas, over thirty choral works, plus art songs, chamber music and works for solo instruments.

Often referred to as the "Dean of Afro-American Composers", Still was the first American

composer to have an opera produced by the New York City Opera. Still is known primarily for his first symphony, Afro-American Symphony (1930), which was, until 1950, the most widely performed symphony composed by an American.

Born in Mississippi, he grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, attended Wilberforce University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and was a student of George Whitefield Chadwick and later Edgard Varèse.

Of note, Still was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have a symphony (his 1st Symphony) performed by a leading orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company, and the first to have an opera performed on national television.

Due to his close association and collaboration with prominent African-American literary and cultural figures, Still is considered to be part of the Harlem Renaissance movement.