On Sunday, May 26th, 2024 we will be returning to Chicago's Orchestra Hall for the 44th Anniversary Celebration Concert for the Western Springs School of Talent Education and the Naperville Suzuki School!! Due to the pandemic, we have not been able to have an Anniversary Celebration since 2016.
We are very excited that the founding Director of our Chicago Consort, Thomas Wermuth, will be returning after three years of retirement to lead the Chicago Consort and the alumni on the concert.
We want to have as many alumni, Suzuki families, and students attend this huge event as possible! Please mark your calendars for May 25th and 26th-- May 25th is our dress rehearsal day with everyone involved in the concert, and May 26th is the actual concert day.
The school also has big news that is bitter sweet-- the Anniversary Concert will be Edward Kreitman's last concert with the Western Springs School of Talent Education and the Naperville Suzuki Schools. After a beautiful career, in the summer of 2024, Mr. Kreitman will be retiring and moving to Atlanta, Georgia. He will be enjoying a well deserved rest with his dog, Charlie, and he will be close to his family in Georgia.
Edward Kreitman started the Western Springs School of Talent Education in 1980 and has been the Director and visionary ever since. He has changed the face of the Suzuki world with his books, teacher training, institute teaching, performing groups, numerous jobs with the Suzuki Association of the Americas, his vision, and amazing students. The schools will never be the same without him, but the schools will continue his legacy with the new Directors Emily and Patrick Connolly and our fantastic faculty.
Emily and Patrick are current faculty at the schools and are alumni of the program. They met at the school as children, and now are married and devoted to making the school as magical as it has been for the last 43 years. Patrick Connolly has been the Administrative Director of the school for the past four years and will continue to make the schools run as smoothly as ever.
We are so excited!