North Shore Country Day School - Mirror Yearbook (Winnetka, IL)

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A CAPPELLA CHOIR The idea of forming a small group of girls who were interested in a cappella singing sprouted from a few Sophomores in the fall of 1941. The objectofsuch a group was to give the girls experience in reading and singing unaccompanied music for their own enjoyment. Enthusiasm was soon aroused throughout the school and although there was a waiting list of prospective members, the size of the group was limited to twelve, to make possible the singing of three, four, five, and even six-part songs. By the be- ginning of the next year, with the well known Ramsay Duff as their director, the chan- teuses were already organized and on their way to fame. During this school year the choir has held its rehearsals during the lunch period, four days a week. This schedule is rather uncomfortable for the members, who are forced to bolt their meagre repast in order to get in a full half hour of rehearsing. Conflicts also arise with various other student meetings called during the lunch hour, but, as yet, no satisfactory alternative has been found. The A Cappella Singers have sung, during the past year, for the Evanston and Win- netka Music Clubs, the Highland Park U.S.O., servicemen at the Farwell ' s home in Lake Forest, the Evanston First Methodist Church, the Vaudeville, and a return engagement at the National College of Education. The honoraria earned at several of these ap- pearances has been divided between increasing the A Cappella library and furnishing records for servicemen overseas through the Armed Forces Master Record Committee. This Christmas the group made its first recording, which was presented ceremoniously to Mr. Duff. This is the beginning of what they hope will be an ever growing record library, illustrating the development of the organization. The repertoire of the choir consists of contrapuntal music, madrigals, motets, Russian Church music and part songs. Members of the group are: Lee Wilcox, Carol Yeomans, Ginger Bensinger, Lindsay Harper, Ellen Selfridge, Alice Barnes, Posie Welsh, Hester Davis, Judy Campbell, Joan Fitzgerald, Martha Bacon, and Nancy Northrup. 18

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CHRISTMAS The Christmas Season at North Shore is always memorable, and this year certainly was no exception. Here at North Shore we try to strike a happy medium by having a bit of gaiety plus some seriousness. The Christmas Party starts out the program and furnishes the gaiety. It is full of good humor and dancing, and is climaxed by the entrance of Santa himself. Usually this creator of good cheer enters by the medium of the conventional chimney. This year, however, his better judgment getting the better of him, he decided not chancing the chimney as he had gained a little extra weight. Instead he decided to sneak in through one of the gym windows. As it turned out he found himself locked into the balcony of the gym and had to be rescued by a group of the Lower School children. As soon as he had ascended his throne, all else was forgotten while he and Mr. Smith, a good friend of Santa ' s, launched themselves into a warm conversation. After this, followed a long and serious conference with the Lower School in which Santa received numerous, de- tailed suggestions as to properly enhance each family ' s hearth Christmas Eve. These requests usually accomapnied by eager affidavits of good intentions, and contracts for future behavior. After this, with occasional interruptions by various tots who wished to further impress Santa the exact nature or feasibilities of their suggestions, he was amused by the whole-hearted, if not expert prosecutions of dances by the members of the whole School. Completely filled with good intentions for the school, Santa then departed. To complete and add the necessary serious note, a number of tableaux were given representing famous paintings about the life of Christ. Then the Freshman class, under the able direction of Miss Radcliff, produced a simple but expressive pageant depicting the quest for and finding of the Christ Child. 17

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THE ORCHESTRA The North Shore orchestra is an organization composed of members of the school plus one or two professionals and headed by Mr. Duff. The group gets together in the Lower School building every Thursday for practice. It is a small group and thus is limited in its possibilities. Even so it manages to whip into shape some fine pieces for its various public performances during the year. •The orchestra made its first appearance for this year in the Thanksgiving Day Morn- ing Exercise. Its main function was to accompany the chorus on the stage. Later in the year the orchestra gave a Morning Ex. of its own. If you arrived a little early you were probably not very surprised to hear the writhing tones of Dixie Land struggling for supremacy which issued forth from the trumpet and clarinet section, or may be you couldn ' t hear them for the noise of a certain trumpeter trying to hit high C with his characteristic gusto. The main performance of the year is, of course, the opera on which the orchestra spends most of its time. It then closes its season with the Commencement music. 19