Geneseo Community Choir Schedules Annual Concert and Invites Singers

By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current

The Community Choir of Geneseo will celebrate their 16th annual concert this summer with a theme of “Does It Matter?” The performance is at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26, in the Geneseo High School Concert Hall.

The Community Choir is open to those entering eighth grade and older adults. Rehearsals are held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, beginning May 29 and continuing through June 19 in the Geneseo High School Concert Hall.

Repertoire includes: “Do You Hear the People Sing?” “Memory,” and “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.”

Anyone interested in singing with the group is asked to contact Pam Edwards, director, at 309-944-6641 or email singplay53@gmail.com by May 3.

Youth entering grades 4-7 are invited to sing in the Children’s Choir which rehearses on June 20, 21, 24, 25 and 26, and will perform with the Community Choir on June 26.

Registration forms are available from Geneseo elementary and middle school choir instructors or by contacting Pam Edwards. The deadline to register is May 3. Repertoire includes: “Play For Me a Simple Melody,” and a “Mary Poppins Medley.”

Combined choirs will sing “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee,” “Sing, Sing, Sing,” “Earth Song,” and “God Bless the USA.”

Cyanotype Print Making Class Scheduled at RutabagA Art Gallery

By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current

Joyce Mattan. Photo by Claudia Loucks

Geneseo RutabagA Art Gallery member Joyce Mattan shows examples of cyanotype art, created by Jeanne Coulter O’Melia of Princeton. O’Melia will teach a class in cyanotype print-making from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 13, at RutabagA, 108 North State St. Cost is $10 per person which includes materials. Participants are asked to bring latex gloves and a smock; pressed flowers, ferns, flat evergreens such as arborvitae, etc.; pieces of lace paper or crocheted dollies, old photograph negatives or x-rays, and anything opaque enough to block out the sun. O’Melia added, “Participants also should bring a good imagination!” For more information about the class, call RutabagA at 309-944-4994. Claudia Loucks Photo

ABOUT JEANNE COULTER O’MELIA

At Iowa State University, O’Melia studied metal work, charcoal and pastel drawings and watercolor. At Augustana, she took metal casting and life drawing and spent one week at The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI. O’Melia also has taken classes at the Geneseo Art League.

“Creating artwork in a variety of media continues to be a major joy of my life!” she said. “Whether in clay, painting, papier mache, sculpture or cyanotype prints, life experiences fuel my imagination and are reflected in my artwork. I enjoy life drawing.”

She uses pen and ink in her travels, at concerts and in church, or at footraces and biking events, and she added…”I have filled dozens of sketch books. Some drawings become cyanotype prints or acrylic paintings. Watercolors are always plein air. When working with clay, I usually make figures, animals or containers. I have also made two small ceramic finger labyrinths. Papier mache becomes people or animals.”

In 2012, she moved back to her childhood home on a farm north of Princeton and she said, “I’m discovering old photos and toys I played with and art work I made as a child. It’s a whole new source of inspiration!”

Jeanne Coulter O’Melia - Submitted Photo

Geneseo Kiwanis Club Pancake Breakfast Sunday

By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current

Geneseo Kiwanis Club members Ray Bergles, left, and Wayne Stone will help serve at the annual Pancake Day on Sunday, March 3, at Geneseo Moose Lodge, 1025 South State St. The breakfast menu will be served from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m. Tickets, at $7 for adults and $3 for children 10 years and younger, are available in advance from Kiwanis Club members, Geneseo High School Key Club members, members of Boy Scout Troop 131, or at the door on the day of the event. Carry-out meals are available and the menu includes pancakes, sausage and “all the trimmings.” All proceeds are used to support club projects including Boy Scouts, Fun Day at the Geneseo Swimming Pool, Doo Dah Parade, scholarships, Neuroscience Research Foundation, Key Club and Builders Club. Photo by Claudia Loucks

Valentine Vocalists 2024 at GHS

By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current

Several Geneseo High School students received singing telegrams on Wednesday, Feb. 14, in observance of Valentine’s Day. Student Council sponsors the event each year when students pay a minimal amount of money to hire groups of student vocalists from the high school choir to deliver Valentine’s Day greetings in song. Recipients of the Valentine greetings included, Dru Curcuru, seated, surrounded by, from left, Raelyn Bjorkman, Elizabeth Ramp, and Isablla Hainey; in back, Claire Kehoe, Alyssa Gentry, Kirsten Zimmerman, Imogene Greene, Carleigh Norton, Madison Ochs, Jill Corso and Addison Dykstra. Photo by Claudia Loucks

Geneseo High School students Lilly Johnson and Aaron Betcher received a singing telegram on Valentine’s Day from GHS vocalists, from left, Dylan Gehl, Tyler Holtzen, Cody Hensley, Bryce Anderson, Russell Brown, Paxton Sherbeyn, Preston Cartwright and Carter Eastburn. Photo by Claudia Loucks

GHS senior Jillian Beneke also received a singing telegram on Valentine’s Day from the vocalists. Photo by Claudia Loucks

Lil Poms Perform at GHS Boys’ Basketball Game

By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current

On Tuesday, the Geneseo High School Maplettes were joined by 80 “future Maplettes” for the Lil Pom performance at the GHS Boys’ Varsity Basketball game. The girls danced to music from the movie “Tangled.”: The routine was choreographed by GHS juniors Sophia Clifton and Ava DeWolfe. The Maplettes are coached by Lydia Reyburn and Yvonne Wayne. In the photo are, in front from left, Meya Pollock, Sophia Pollock, Lydia DeWolfe, Ava DeWolfe, Lauren Dietch and Sophia Clifton. Contributed Photo

Six-year-old Mattingly Lewis-Rayley poses for a photo prior to lining up for the Lil Pom performance at the GHS Boys’ Varsity Basketball game on Feb. 13. Photo by Claudia Loucks