Cook County News Briefs

Chronicle Media

David Caplan, a 17-year-old cellist from Skokie, performs. He will appear on an upcoming episode of From the Top, the hit NPR radio program featuring America’s best young classical musicians. The show will air nationally the week of May 29.

SKOKIE

17-year-old cellist on national radio program

David Caplan, a 17-year-old cellist from Skokie, will appear on an upcoming episode of From the Top, the hit NPR radio program featuring America’s best young classical musicians and hosted by acclaimed pianist Christopher O’Riley. The show will air nationally the week of May 29 and is available for streaming and podcast at fromthetop.org. The episode was taped before a live audience at the Belcher Center at LeTourneau University, presented by LeTourneau University and Red River Radio.

 David has been playing cello since he was 9 years old, and is a senior at Niles North High School. He is a recipient of From the Top’s Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award. The $10,000 award is given to deserving young musicians to help further their musical studies. David presently studies with Jonathan Pegis of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He is the principal cellist of the Midwest Young Artists Symphony Orchestra and a member of Quartet Bellezza. His most precious musical memory was performing Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture under the baton of Gennady Rozhdestvensky at Symphony Center in Chicago. Outside of music, David loves traveling, watching documentaries, and spending time with friends.

On the broadcast, David performs Élégie, Op.24 by Gabriel Fauré with Christopher O’Riley, piano.

EVANSTON

Ecology center installs apiary

In an effort to support the declining honey bee population and to educate community members about the importance of pollinators, the Evanston Ecology Center has installed an apiary that is home to an estimated 40,000 honey bees in Eggleston Park. Four hives, each containing approximately 10,000 bees, have been installed adjacent to the Ecology Center Farmette and the Edible Evanston Orchard, located west of McCormick Boulevard and south of Bridge Street. Each hive is painted a different color so that bees can recognize their own hive. 

The apiary will allow Ecology Center staff to provide educational programming about the biology, anatomy and behavior of honey bees, as well as to educate community members about threats to the honey bee population and what they can do to help. The honey bee population has declined steadily in recent years due to pesticides, disease and other factors.

For more information, call or text (847) 448-4311.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS

Epic rock play, Hair, is at the Metroplis

Metropolis is presenting the Grammy- and Tony-winning epic rock musical “Hair” through July 1. The play rocked the theater world with its hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution in the first ever epic rock musical.

It is filled with hit songs, “Age of Aquarius,” “Good Morning Starshine,” “Let the Sun Shine In” and others. Focusing on a generation in cultural crisis, a tribe of young hippies celebrates freedom, love, sex and drugs. While questioning authority and protesting the war, one of their members is called into the draft, forcing them to examine their values. “Hair” is a time capsule of the flower children’s philosophy of peace, love, harmony and understanding. The play contains adult content and explicit language.

Tickets are $38, and can be purchased online at MetropolisArts.com or by calling the box office at (847) 577-2121. Metropolis is at 111 W. Campbell St., Arlington Heights.

BROOKFIELD

Zoo exhibits pangolin for first time

A rare and unique animal found in Africa and Asia can be seen at Brookfield Zoo. The Chicago Zoological Society, which manages Brookfield Zoo, is exhibiting one of 13 white-bellied pangolins it owns. Guests can see a male on exhibit in the Habitat Africa! The Forest.

The zoo said four species of pangolins are native to Asia and four are native to Africa—and they are all facing extinction. Over the past 10 years, more than a million have been poached from the wild for food in the illegal bushmeat trade, for their use in Asian medicines, and for their scales, which are made into jewelry. This past January, all species of pangolin were officially declared endangered.

In an attempt to save pangolins, zoological institutions in the United States have formed a consortium working to establish a sustainable population of white-bellied tree pangolins under professional care. The zoo said during the first year of the consortium’s program, several member institutions, including Brookfield Zoo, have had successful births.

NILES

Resident representing Oakton at golf nationals

Oakton Community College freshman golfer Stephen Bukielski, of Niles, has his eye on the cups – the ones at the Longbow Golf Course in Mesa, Arizona – as he competes in the 2017 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II Men’s Golf Championship through May 26.

Bukielski is contending against approximately 300 junior college golfers from around the country at the par-71, 7,050-yard golf course that features emerald fairways, strategic bunkers and a picturesque desert view.

During the 2017 season, Bukielski was named an NJCAA Region IV All-Region and Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference All-Conference first teamer.

–Cook County News Briefs–