Arts & Culture

BARRINGTON’S WHITE HOUSE

Signature and Community Series

Heralded as a leading inter-preter of the great classical master-works, international concert violinist

rachel Barton pine thrills audiences with her dazzling technique, lustrous tone, and emotional honesty. With an infectious joy in music-making and a passion for connecting historical research to performance, pine transforms audiences’ ex-periences of classical music.

This season pine performs concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, dvorak, Fairouz, Mozart, sibelius, and Vivaldi, with orchestras including the santa rosa symphony, the new Mexico philharmonic, and the Flagstaff, Wind-sor, and gainesville symphony Orchestras. she continues her recital tour of the Complete Bach sonatas and partitas for Unaccompanied Violin and a life-size video installation of her will be the culmination of a new Musical instrument Mu-seum exhibit about master violin makers.

in March, 2016 avie records will release pine’s performance of J.s. Bach’s six sonatas and partitas for Violin. pine collaborated with con-ductor sir neville Marriner and The academy of st. Martin in the Fields for Mozart: Complete Violin Concerto, Sinfonia Concertante, her debut album on avie.

pine has appeared as soloist with many of the world’s most prestigious ensembles, including the Chicago symphony; the philadelphia Or-chestra; the royal philharmonic; and the nether-lands radio Kamer Filharmonie. she has worked with such renowned conductors as Charles du-toit, Zubin Mehta, erich leinsdorf, neeme Järvi, and Marin alsop. Visit www.rachelbartonpine.com to learn more.

Rachel BaRton Pine solo PeRfoRmance may 7, 7:30–9:30 P.m.

Geoffrey Baer lecture – march 13, 3–5 p.m.

Barbara Rose school Presentation – april 13, 7:30–9:30 p.m.

sons of Bildor Rock Dou – april 15, 8–10 p.m.

Barrington 220 art show – april 17, 3–5:30 p.m.

the monarch Butterfly – may 4, 7–8 p.m.

to learn more or purchase tickets or reserve your tickets, visit

www.BarringtonsWhitehouse.com.

Rachel Barton Pine

Here is a list of otHer upcoming Barrington WHite House events:

62 • Quintessential Barrington | QBarr ing ton.com

As part of the library’s

“Barrington Creates”

program, a miniature

Barrington village

scene was created in

the Maker Lab, using

tools such as the

Tinkercad and a 3-D

print-maker, vector

graphics, laser material

cutters, and more. Reminiscent of the 1960s era Parker Brother’s “Game of

Life”, the adorable tabletop game board can be seen in the Barrington Area

Library’s lobby.

Meet the passionate guardians of

Barrington’s bucolic landscape

who embody the pioneering

Midwestern spirit and its citizens

who ably represent Barrington in

the national arena in “Chronicles

of Barrington”. Author Diane P.

Kostick has lived in Barrington for

more than 50 years. She taught

language arts in Barrington 220

for 39 years and now teaches

courses in both U.S. history and

humanities at the Illinois Institute

of Art in Schaumburg. Kostick

has been a member of the Bar-

rington Writer’s Workshop and

the Second Saturday Poetry Workshop for decades and she is the author of

eight books, including “Voices of Barrington”. By Diane P. Kostick; Foreword by

Karen Darch; and Illustrations by Mort Luby. Available at www.arcadiapub-

lishing.com.

On Sat., February 13,

Barrington native Pat

McKillen performed

at Barrington’s White

House. A prolific song-

writer, McKillen finds

joy in every part of the

creative process. As the

sole producer of his first

two albums and latest

EP (Stagefright [2011],

The Red Headed Enemy

[2013], Love Without Me EP [2014]), every song is a complete cycle of the creative

process. The result is an evolving sound that couples a passionate voice with a

fusion of musical genres including folk, pop, and rock. Visit www.patmckillen.

com.

QBarr ing ton.com | Quintessential Barrington • 63

NashVille has listening rOOMs tucked away everywhere. When i spoke with Chuck gannon a week before press time, i brought up amy Kurland’s famous Bluebird Café, and asked

‘wouldn’t it be great if grassroots could be like the Bluebird?’ to my sur-prise, Chuck said he’d much prefer singing at todd rhodes’ grassroots than at the Bluebird. That’s right, here in downtown Barrington.

some of country music’s biggest superstars have been discovered at the Bluebird, a 90-seat space. Many return to the low-key venue to get back to basics. “What made the Bluebird great is that the audience out there really appreciated the craft of fine songwriting, and they were there because they love the music, and love great songs,” he said. he went on to say that the tV show “nashville” has brought more of a tourist crowd into nashville’s most famous music club. so why does he come up here to Barrington? “i’m thrilled to do something like this, keep the arts alive, help a growing place like grassroots—and have a place where i can sing my heart out. i like the eclectic and cool dry goods store. it has more personality and is one of the coolest rooms i’ve played in. My green room was its barber shop,” he said.

Chuck Cannon grew up in south Carolina’s low Country. i asked him about his musical influences. “smokey robinson, Bruce springsteen, Bob dylan, the Beatles, the stones, and Jackson Browne,” he says. “Oh, and Jim Croce, too,” he says of another great storyteller.

now, 30 million terrestrial airplays later, it’s country superstars that in-clude dolly parton, Willie nelson, John Michael Montgomery, and toby

Good Times, Hard Rhymes

a Visit With nashVille’s chuck cannon

(Left) Todd Rhodes, Grassroots’ owner, sits in the musician’s performance area.

(Right) Musical guest’s “green room” is the barber shop at Grassroots. (Photos: Jim

Prisching)

Pulling from his

extraordinary personal

music catalog, I asked

Chuck which songs that

he’s written are his

favorites:

American Soldier

I Love The Way You Love Me

We Were In Love

Messes

Money Don’t Matter

You Let The Fox Watch The

Henhouse

Pick Your Poison

If I Was Jesus

Keith who sing Chuck’s songs. as Broadcast Music (BMi) explains, one mil-lion songs played back-to-back on radio (not streaming, or other digital means) equals six years of nonstop music. For Chuck, that means 180 years of continual play of his music.

today, Chuck is making the pivot from writing for others to composing for himself. no matter who he’s writing for, Chuck is a gifted storyteller whose medium is r&B, rock ‘n roll, and gospel music. he will leave you wanting more.

On March 18 and 19, Chuck will return to grassroots to perform. last time he was here, this AMA Song of the Year-awarded singer-songwriter (he writes the lyrics and the music) performed to a sold-out crowd. see our QB Calendar for performance details. –Lisa Stamos

64 • Quintessential Barrington | QBarr ing ton.com

Music Boutique & Lessons

579 N. Rand Rd., Lake Zurich 847.726.8742 � www.knightmusicacademy.com

Classical Guitar

Electrical Guitar

Violin, Viola & Cello

Voice

Piano

Flute

Drums

Early Childhood

� Lake Zurich Shoppes �

Call to schedule a free trial lesson

On FeBrUary 6, taMara taBel was the Barrington area li-brary’s first “expert in residence” guest as part of its “Barrington Creates” program. The event ran from 2 to 4 p.m., where tabel con-

tributed her experience and answered questions to interested visitors.“i love that the Barrington area library devoted a month to the topic of

creative process” tabal said. “The ability to imagine and create a poem, painting, song, or a lego building is part of what makes us human—it connects us. it was great fun to be the inaugural expert in residence and lots of patrons stopped by to chat about writing.”

tabel has served as the Chair of the Barrington Writers Workshop for six years, serves on the Barrington Cultural Commission, and was a founding board member of the Barrington Cultural arts Center. she is also a member of the sec-ond saturday poetry group through the northwest Cultural Council.

she displayed her published poems from a va-riety of journals and a hard copy printout of her recently completed historical novel, which is now being pitched to agents. The novel got the most at-tention.

QB asked Table about her new novel:I did almost 10 years of research,” she says about the novel. “The trick is to weave in enough actual events, people, and details throughout the backdrop of the story to make your time and place become real to the reader, without overloading the book with facts.

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And you have to be accurate—there are fact checkers out there who will call you on it if you’re wrong.

My novel deals very squarely with the issues of racism and discrimination against women, so I have to be careful to place my readers in the South in 1918 so readers understand the social attitudes in that time period. For example, women did not yet have the right to vote and African Americans were often trapped in low-paying sharecropper jobs and subject to injustices through Jim Crow laws. Also, the main characters need to be human. Each needs to reach an awakening—a point of realization and redemption. This helps the reader identify with the character, and, perhaps, even forgive him/her for wrongdoings.

I realize it is more of a challenge to publish historical fiction that addresses injustices in our country’s history, but I feel it’s important to tell these stories. The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett, was rejected 60 times, but went on to become

a bestseller. I certainly hope it doesn’t take me that many times!

tamara tabel is a poet, novelist and copy-writer/marketer. her award-winning poems have appeared in several Chicagoland literary journals and magazines, including Journal of Modern Poetry, Poetica Magazine’s Holocaust Edition, and Quintes-sential Barrington. her non-fiction appeared in Writer’s digest. to learn more about tamara, visit her FaceBook page at: https://www.facebook.com/tamaratabelauthor/

QBarr ing ton.com | Quintessential Barrington • 65

The parKer playhOUse was named in honor of Barrington resident and Bhs alumnus Marc parker (1955-2014). parker’s dream was to continue to support and build the theater community in Barrington

through performances, events, and educational opportunities for aspiring artists of all ages. The founders of parker playhouse and directors of Barrington Com-munity Theatre (BCt) are nancie tobison and ellen Werksman. BCt will have an ongoing relationship with the playhouse by producing a full season of perfor-mances. They will facilitate the growth and collaborative efforts at the new space.

tobison and Werksman have created this space as long-standing leaders of the Barrington arts community. tobison was the Bhs Choir director for 18 years and Werksman is a Bhs alumna who has choreographed their musicals, choir, and Orchesis, as well as owns a local dance studio in Barrington. Both have been collaborating for years to provide additional creative outlets for all the amazing talent in our community.

BCt has presented musical reviews in the summers of 2014 and 2015 at the sanfilippo estate in conjunction with the Barrington high school performing arts alumni endowment (Bhspaae), an organization created by Marc parker to fund the “richard C. Johnson Memorial galfer award”. This is an award given to a graduating senior for outstanding contributions by a student to the perform-ing arts experience at Barrington high school. The endowment was funded in large part by the alumni reunion performance at Bhs in 2010 in which Werks-man was the choreographer and featured performer. parker playhouse is proud

to have established a collaborative ongoing relationship with Bhspaae, and is certain that with its support and enthusiasm the parker playhouse will thrive.

The theater can seat up to 60 audience members and has some optional for-matting designs for rentals. The premiere show in the space was “darn Cubbies” featuring a cast of 30 performers from ages 14 to over 50.

parker playhouse is rapidly gaining the reputation of becoming a home for many of our talented Bhs alumni. returning college students have presented performances ranging from opera, to musical theater, and comedic improv during the month of december. Upcoming events include an evening of opera-works, summer children’s theater auditions, “secret garden Ballet, The enter-tainers showcase” and improv comedy night series. perhaps most exciting is the upcoming spectacular re-staging of “Cats” to be presented this summer.

to support tHe parker playHouseThe parker playhouse is an independent event/community theater space. Through the collaborative relationship with Bhspaae, they are accepting tax deductible donations to help fund the ongoing build-out of the space. if you’re interested in becoming a donor, go to: www.gofundme.com/parkerplayhouse. For more details contact: 847-989-0298. Be sure to follow parker playhouse on Facebook (parkerplayhouseBarrington) to follow the performance schedule and see the growth and development of this new and exciting space in Barrington!

parker playhouse is located at 117 e. northwest hwy. in downtown Bar-rington.

Performing Arts at Parker Playhouse

Jeff Tolle plays the

sports announcer.

Mike Miller as the

Billy Goat (costume

by Sharon Schmidt)

The “Darn Cubbies” cast huddles

before a performance.

The baseball team after

the women joined.Emma Bradford (on left)

and Meghan Rivera.

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66 • Quintessential Barrington | QBarr ing ton.com