About 700 people were in attendance when St. Walter School in Roselle performed its annual concert. Joan Figley, associate music director at St. Walter and concert director told me that all the children in fifth, sixth and seventh grades were welcome to participate in the concert. Each grade included a foreign song as one of its selections.     The fifth-grade students sang an Italian folk tune “Ma Bella Bimba” translated as “The Beautiful Girl,” and the sixth grade sang a song from Poland called “Dowidzenia” about saying farewell. The seventh grade performed “Al Shlosha D’Varim” in Hebrew, a song about truth justice and peace as well as the Scottish piece “Auld Lang Syne.”
    An interesting aside to Auld Lang Syne is that this version was arranged by Lee Kesselman, a composer and friend of Figley’s. Kesselman came to St. Walter one day to work with the seventh-graders on the song. It was a thrill for everyone to meet and work with a real composer and arranger. The St. Walter Children’s Choir sang “Ani Mia’Amin.” The St. Walter Handbell Choir, a group of 15 eighth-graders performed “Puer Nobis.”
    I had often wondered how they knew when to ring “dem” bells. So afterwards I went up to their section to take a look at their music. Notes, written in different colors, let them know what to play and when.
    The seventh grade ended the concert with a medley about being “Back to the Fifties.” The students looked like they were having a lot fun strutting their stuff with the dancing routines, which were choreographed by Figley.
School principal Mary Lloyd was in attendance and delighted at the performances.             Fifth-grader Maddie Zoltek, who played piano, was especially impressive. She did a lot of the accompaniment for the concert although she has only been playing for three years. I have heard her before and the girl is terrific. Talent runs in the family. Her sister Maureen is the pianist for the Chicago Civic Orchestra and is getting a master’s degree in music at Roosevelt University.

Grandparents day
    The Lutheran school of St. Luke in Itasca held its Grandparents Day March 1. I was in attendance with my own granddaughter Rachel Bushell, a student at the school. The event featured a continental breakfast and a short talk from principal Sue Domeyer. I had breakfast with Rachel’s grandmother Darlene Hoppe from Itasca and while we sat there, another visitor, Jo Plucinski, sat across from us joining in on the conversation only to discover that she and Hoppe had lived in the same neighborhood in Chicago. Further discussion found that they had attended the same school, Lakeview High School, and graduated the same year.
 The two surprised people exchanged phone numbers with promises to get together. After breakfast we left for Rachel’s class led by teacher Kim Hogan. Hogan has been at St. Luke for seven years and a teacher for 18. She had the 21 students in her class introduce their grandparents and had the grandparents say a few words. It was a lot of fun.
    She introduced her aide Jennifer Todd who has been with Hogan for the last seven months. Todd attends the Arlington Heights Campus of North Park College and will be graduating with a degree in elementary education. Best wishes to the both of them and of course St. Luke. And a Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all readers. Until next time.

The Roselle-Itasca Beat is a weekly column appearing on Thursdays. Ideas and items for the column can be faxed to Ed Obrochta at (630) 894-4251 or e-mailed to eobrochta@sbcglobal.net.