The Warm Up is coming, and we're RAFFLING off a 32 GB iPad 2!
Our Staff and Board:
Monica Blacconeri, Associate Director
Evelyn Dias, Pianist/Intern
Madelyn Ross, Concert Choir Intern
Elizabeth Haas, Junior Assistant
Megan Vescio, Junior Assistant
Gary Geiger, Director and Founder
Gary is a native of East Cleveland, OH, but is now happily settled in Evanston with his wife Mie, an art therapist, and their little dog Kuma, an adorable shelter mutt. Gary is an active accompanist, composer, director and teacher in the Chicago area with a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance. He studied piano at Northwestern with Deborah Sobol of the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and at DePaul with Mary Sauer of the Chicago Symphony. Gary’s composition, No. 5, premiered in the nationally-renowned Waa-Mu show at NU in his sophomore year, and he was a recipient of the Corrine Frada Pick Award for Piano as a senior. From 1996 to 2003 he worked extensively with the Chicago Children’s Choir, being a regular Concert Choir pianist from 1998 to 2001. He has also performed regularly with groups such as the Fleur de Lys Chorale, the Music Institute of Chicago Chorale, and progressive performing ensemble yes is a world.
Gary has premiered several of his original choral works with CCC choirs as well as the ECC. As a pianist, he has premiered works of other composers such as Danny Wallenberg, Bob Applebaum, and Ted Hearne. Gary’s work as an accompanist has taken him to major concert venues throughout the Midwest including Ravinia and Chicago’s Symphony Center, as well as the southwestern US and Japan. Gary served on the Musical Offering Board of Directors from 2004-2006 and directed the Lake Street Church Children's Chorale in Evanston from 2004-2009. In 2002 Gary founded the "Musical Offering Children’s Choir," which went independent and was re-named the Evanston Children’s Choir in 2006. In addition to directing the ECC, Gary currently maintains a thriving piano studio of over 30 students.
Monica Blacconeri, Associate Director
Monica Blacconeri, a Chicago area native, is the latest new addition to the ECC staff. She has been teaching music to youngsters for the past 8 years, and has been involved with choral singing as either a participant or director for most of her life. We are excited to have Ms. Blacconeri bring that rich wealth of experience, her natural talent for teaching, her great rapport with young people, and her formidable vocal expertise to the Evanston Children’s Choir! In addition to taking on the expanded Associate Director position with the ECC, Ms. Blacconeri teaches general music to all classes, kindergarten through fifth grade, at Oakton Elementary School in Evanston. She also directs the 75-voice Oakton School Chorus as well as an after-school percussion ensemble. Ms. Blacconeri holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Choral/General Music Education from the Conservatory of Music at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI. When she’s not sharing her passion for music with her students, Ms. Blacconeri enjoys singing with the Chicago Chamber Choir, playing Ultimate Frisbee, scrapbooking, and hanging out with her bulldog, Roxie.
Evelyn Dias, Pianist/Intern
Evelyn Dias started playing the piano at the age of six. A native of Bombay, India, she was an active participant and winner of several local competitions while still at school. She has performed in the U.S., France and the Czech Republic as well as in India at the National Center for the Performing Arts’ Experimental Theatre, the British Council Division, Max Mueller Bhavan’s Stuttgart Hall, Goethe Hall and the Alliance Française’s Theosophy Hall as well as on All India Radio.
After acquiring a B.A. in Economics and Statistics from Bombay University, Evelyn entered The University of Iowa School of Music where she obtained a Masters degree in Piano Performance under the tutelage of Dr. Ksenia Nosikova. Evelyn is currently a doctoral candidate in Piano Performance at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music where she studies with Dr. Sylvia Wang. She has also performed in master classes with Vladimir Feltsman, Leon Fleisher and Richard Goode among others.
For the past 2 years she served as part-time faculty at Northwestern teaching courses in secondary piano. During her course of study Evelyn has also been an active chamber musician. As a teaching assistant Evelyn has gained experience in both group piano as well as studio teaching. She has also held positions as church and ballet accompanist and is very happy to have the opportunity to work with the Evanston Children’s Choir.
Madelyn Ross, Concert Choir Intern
Madelyn Ross is a sophomore at Northwestern University majoring in music education and vocal performance at the Bienen School of Music. She has won numerous awards in both middle school and high school including first place at the Kiwanis Solo Vocal Competition in 2006, 2008 and 2010. In high school, she was admitted to the South California Honor Choir four years in a row. She was also accepted to California All-State Honor Choir and the ACDA Western States Honor Choir in 2009 and 2010. In the summer of 2009 she attended the prestigious Boston University Tanglewood Institute. This past summer she studied vocal performance in Piobicco, Italy at the Music in the Marche summer program. She loves teaching music to children and has been Music Director at Dee-lightful Productions music theatre camp for 4 years. She is excited to begin her work as the Concert Choir intern and to be a part of the Evanston Children's Choir's creative and supportive community.
Elizabeth Haas, Junior Assistant
Elizabeth Haas joined the ECC in fall 2008, and currently sings in the Concert Choir as a soprano. She started volunteering as an assistant for the Junior Choir in fall 2009, and we are delighted to have her working with the Junior Choir program yet again this season. Elizabeth is quite a multi-faceted artistic and bright individual: she has played the piano since she was seven, she enjoys writing and acting, she practices taekwondo, and she is a member of a Model UN club. She is a junior in high school and is currently homeschooling.
Megan Vescio, Junior Assistant
Megan Vescio stumbled upon the ECC by accident in early 2008, and wouldn't you know it, she is now a geeky veteran of the Concert Choir! Entering her first year as a Junior Assistant, she plans to be just as geeky as a teacher. She hopes to someday become a professional performer/music director of some sort, but her interests go far beyond that. She is also a guitarist, beginning pianist, aspiring writer of various genres, and amateur cartoonist. She has many influences, but by far her greatest inspirations, especially for music and teaching, have been Gary Geiger and Kathryn Crabb [former ECC Associate Director], whom she thinks of as mentors. Megan has a rather nutty sense of humor, but she likes to think that it makes her an interesting character. A sophomore, she is homeschooled and proud of it.
Gary Geiger, President
Kay Blume, Vice President
Jacqueline Haimes, Treasurer
Lesley Williams, Secretary
Jeff Balch
Melissa Gutridge
Ruth Haas
Marco Rodriguez
Liza Steman
see above
Kay Blume, Vice President
Kay and her husband, Howard moved to Chicago in 1995 from the Finger Lakes in upstate New York where they owned and operated Goat Folks Farm, makers of award winning artisan goat's milk cheeses. Kay's love of the arts blossomed as a child growing up in Pennsylvania. She studied voice, drama and ballet beginning at age 5. She left home for New York City at 17 to enroll in drama school and for the next 40 years performed there on stage, screen and television. Along the way she graduated from the New York Restaurant School, partnered with her husband in a small advertising agency, and nearly received her degree in clinical psychology. Kay has been the assistant manager for both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Telefunding and Telemarketing departments since 1996. She has a son, a daughter and three grandchildren. Grandson, Justin is a member of the ECC Junior Choir.
Jacqueline Haimes, Treasurer
Jacqueline Haimes joined the ECC board in 2009 and has been an enthusiastic ECC parent since 2006. Originally from Bethesda, Maryland, Jackie has always had a passion for the performing arts, spending much of her free time in childhood singing and dancing. She spent her 20s as a medical student, psychiatric resident, and child psychiatry fellow, respectively, which unfortunately made it difficult for Jackie to pursue singing and dancing. She and her husband moved to Illinois in 1998. Jackie originally worked at the University of Illinois Chicago in the Institute for Juvenile Research practicing academic psychiatry. Since having her daughter Anika, Jackie now works part time as a child/adolescent and general psychiatrist in her private practice in downtown Evanston. Anika will be entering 6th grade this fall at Haven Middle School and is a member of ECC’s Concert Choir. Gradually over the past several years, Jackie has found time to sing and dance again! She studies dance at the Giordano Dance Center where she proudly brags that she is (at least) twice the age of most of the students there. In addition, Jackie has been performing in community musical theatre in Wilmette in such shows as Oklahoma, Ragtime, and Beauty and the Beast. Jackie is thrilled to be connected with the Evanston Children’s Choir and hopes to see it continue to grow and thrive in the years to come.
Lesley Williams, Secretary
When thwarted in her original career goal of hustling at Jeopardy tournaments, Lesley decided to cash it all in for the high stakes, rollercoaster world of library science. She spends most of her days at the Evanston Public Library soothing terrified 7th graders whose laptops died the night before their final research papers were due, and vainly trying to convince them that encyclopedias existed prior to Wikipedia. Mild-mannered power “shusher” by day, Lesley dabbles in the dark art of musical theatre as a member of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation's Purim Players, where she has played major roles in such unforgettable productions as West Side Tsuris, Bally Chai, and Camelplotz. She has passed this hereditary malady on to her daughter Callie, who in addition to singing in the ECC Junior Choir, has performed with JRC, the Musical Institute's "Broadway Bound" program, and the House Theatre Children's Camp. Oh, and the little piker also plays violin, but let's not brag.
Lesley is a committed Evanstonian, and has been a member of the local United Way board for over a decade. Her husband Brian Benson, a lifelong Evanston resident, is a freelance graphic designer specializing in nonprofits and libraries (go figure). She is proud and delighted to be a member of the ECC Board. She is eminently qualified for the role of Secretary, having recently updated the spellchecker on her computer.
Lesley’s educational credentials include a BA from Grinnell College (1982), a Professorat from the Institut Catholique de Paris (1985), and an MLIS from the University of Michigan (1989).
Camisha Riley, Parent Committe Chair
Jeff Balch
Jeff works as a public library staffer and free-lance writer. He used to write a lot about alternative lifestyle & parenting choices--TV-lessness, carlessness, bikefulness--but these days he's more into song composition. His musical tastes tend toward the comic: one of his novelty songs was featured on Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion." Another song combines the familiar jilted lover theme with a bawdy mathematical proof. (No, you won't hear this one performed by the ECC.)
Jeff is married to Dori Conn, an avid ECC volunteer, and they have a couple of big-singing kids. The little one is in the Concert Choir now, while the big one has moved on from the ECC to make time for local theatrical productions. (No, the move wasn't prompted by friction with her little brother. He does bug her, and vice-versa, but when it comes time to sing together they put all grievances aside.)
Melissa Gutridge
In her two decades as one of the most successful senior campaign managers for SDA Melissa has worked with major arts organizations including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Alley Theatre and Arena Stage.
Drawing on her 20 years of experience in campaign design, implementation and management, Melissa now works with arts organizations in a new way by collaborating and developing partnerships in order to help organizations improve their bottom line. She founded Voices for the Arts, Inc., in 2009 with the desire to work one on one and side by side with arts organizations to help build, strengthen and sustain their efforts to develop larger audiences, attract and cultivate new donors, patrons and supporters. She remains that organization’s Principal Consultant.
Melissa is a committed professional with an impressive track record. She has developed a reputation as an effective leader and an exceptional resource for the arts with extensive experience in marketing and fundraising strategy, sales and management training, organizational consulting and executive coaching.
Those who know Melissa describe her as positive and friendly with a great sense of humor and a “wink and a smile” approach to life and work that is infectious.
Melissa is board advisor for Inaside Dance Chicago and is happy to serve on the board of the Evanston Children’s Choir.
Ruth Haas
Ruth is a closet dancer, singer and dreamer, who dreams big for the world, who secretly helps people who don't know they're being helped, all in the quest to make people happy! She's come through Engineering and Computer Science (University of Illinois - Urbana, a native of Chicago and Buffalo Grove) via heart and love and trying to figure out the world, hopefully finding all the answers and meeting people of all sorts to share life with!
She dreams of a bigger and better place for all humans! We have been on a path to today, each of us, and we're wending our way to where we hope to be. Ruth has come through the path of technology, but there's art and there's life in everything we do, and that's where she is today—living and loving the art and the life in our "human being" and, of course, raising her two beloved children, whom she often finds spontaneously bursting into song and music. She loves dancing and singing and finding the joy in every human being she sees and meets, because that's who we all are, our joy and personality, each a delightful gift to discover. And this choir is very much that, a conglomeration of people of every age and many countries, expressing the joy and loveliness of cultures 'round the globe, which brings us all together at a time when we are more globally connected than ever. Ruth profoundly enjoys sharing love for each other in all countries around the world through the music of the Evanston Children's Choir because it is bigger than us, it is bigger than we know and it transcends far beyond our imagination and makes us all feel valued no matter where we come from.
Marco Rodriguez
Liza Steman
Vangelis Economou, Attorney
Catherine McCullough, CPA
Anna Nalls, CPA
Jeff Stitely, Stitely Entertainment