The North Shore Weekend, October 8th, 2022

INSIDE

Get Ready For Spring

While it’s hard to believe, if you are thinking of selling your home in the spring market it’s time to start

planning. Most people believe that the spring market starts in March and April, but to truly be competitive and take advantage of the spring market you need to be ready to list by January.

In order to put your best foot forward, you need to think about pictures and capturing people’s attention. As we all know, Midwest winters are gorgeous when there is fresh snow, but a few hours later it’s dreary. You want pictures that showcase your home’s curb appeal. If you are thinking of selling this spring, give me a call and we can discuss getting the listing ready to make your listing shine.

WHAT HOME MEANS TO YOU.

WE ARE ENGEL & VÖLKERS

Home means something different to everyone. The generic definition for home means “the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household”. Yet, that does not grasp the true meaning of home and what it means to different people. In reality, home means so much more. The Latin root word for home is actually the same word we use for human being, person and people. Home is not just where your heart is, but also the hearts of those you love and trust. Find the right Engel & Völkers advisor to help you find your dream home today.

more at chicagonorthshore.evrealestate.com.

LIFESTYLE & ARTS

12 north shore foodie

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

BY ALLISON DUNCAN

NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

One of the most prestigious dance companies in the world, The Joffrey Ballet has a reputation for boundary-breaking performances with a mix of all-time classics, modern masterpieces, and original works. That stellar reputation has been shaped by Greg Cameron, who has been leading The Joffrey Ballet as president and CEO since 2013, and Ashley Wheater MBE, The Mary B. Galvin Artistic Director.

“Over the last several years, the Joffrey has striven to curate performances that speak to our ambitions, provide a voice to rising choreographic talent, and reach audiences everywhere,” says Wheater.

This season, the Joffrey will add nine new dancers to the company—Davide Oldano, Coco Alvarez-Mena, Wictor Hugo Pedroso, Natali Taht, Zach Manske, Nae Kojima, Basia Rhoden, Sergei Osminkin, and Annabelle de la Nuez— who hail from across the globe. Think everywhere from Miami, Florida and St. Paul, Minnesota to Tallinn, Estonia and Turin, Italy.

“I select artists who possess both strong tech nique as well as a depth of artistry,” says Wheater.

recognizing talented and emerging dancers who embody the exceptional level of creativity that makes the Joffrey unique. Our Board chair, Anne Kaplan, is also deeply committed to their growth onstage and off; part of our overall vision to give every Joffrey artist the tools to be exceptional artistic and cultural ambassadors.”

The dancers will help The Joffrey Ballet kick off its second season at the Lyric Opera House with live music performed by the Lyric Opera Orchestra, conducted by Joffrey Music Director Scott Speck. “Our partnership with Lyric Opera has created a perfect situation as far as present ing transformative and powerful dance,” says Cameron.

The 2022-23 season—the Joffrey’s 67th—fea tures inspiring new commissions from artists like Chanel DaSilva, Cathy Marston, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa as well as classics like Suite SaintSaëns from the Joffrey’s own Gerald Arpino, paired with back-to-back grand story ballets— Anna Karenina and The Little Mermaid—by two giants of the art form in Yuri Possokhov and John Neumeier.

Neumeier’s haunting interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairytale The Little Mermaid—with an original score by Lera Auer bach—is soon to be the largest production ever mounted by the Joffrey and will premiere in April 2023. It’ll follow the tormented mermaid heroine

the highest level of artistry from the dancers and is technically demanding. The company is more ready than ever to take on this exciting challenge.”

Since the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020, the Joffrey has persevered through countless obstacles, learning to embrace ambiguity and un certainty with a renewed focus on what the Joffrey does best: presenting world-class dance to the city it calls home and providing dance education to students everywhere.

In the next five years, Cameron says the Joffrey will continue to focus on its strategic initiative and a rebrand of its educational programming “Joffrey for All,” envisioning a three-tiered approach for a holistic Joffrey education, including exposure to dance through Joffrey Com munity Engagement, scholarships, and training at the Joffrey Academy of Dance. The Joffrey has every intention of lead ing from the front, bringing new ideas about what dance and dance education can be to a growing generation of artists looking to make an impact. New dancers Oldano and Kojima were promoted from the Joffrey Studio Company, a professional training program within the Joffrey Academy that is described as the “penultimate step to becoming a profes sional dancer.”

“I truly believe community makes us

and telling stories that truly move people.”

When Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino founded The Joffrey Ballet in 1956, they must have known that spotlighting rising choreog raphers and emerging talent would be vital to the longevity of ballet. As Robert Joffrey once said, “Classical ballet is our core, but it is not our circumference.” That’s something Wheater inher ently understands, too.

Wheater, in partnership with Raymond Ro driguez, Abbott Academy Director of the Joffrey Academy of Dance, helped bring the Joffrey’s ballet for young audiences Rita Finds Home to fruition this summer with an all-woman creative

“They also demonstrate a versatility that is key to taking on our unique and diverse repertoire and to evolving as an artist.”

Cameron elaborates, “These individuals bring many different backgrounds and experiences, talents, and personalities. Ashley is exceptional at

on a journey between the divergent worlds of land and sea—one utterly complex, the other magnifi cently serene.

“This isn’t the Disney animated film version of The Little Mermaid but instead a sophisticated take on the fable,” says Wheater. “The sets and costumes are of the grandest scale. It demands

stronger,” says Cameron. “A foundational principle of our founder Robert Joffrey was that dance was for everyone. Our ‘Joffrey for All’ programming is a reflection of that principle and also the core of the Joffrey’s mission to make dance accessible and relatable. It’s about collaboration, partnership with the community, honoring and supporting artists,

team made up of choreographer Amy Hall Garner, author Karla Estela Rivera, and illustrator Elisa Chavarri.

The collaborative project between the Joffrey and Miami City Ballet made its debut at the Navy Pier Lake Stage in July and will be remounted again next summer with performances around the city.

“Our art form must constantly evolve to remain relevant and have a place in this ever-changing world,” says Wheater. “Performing the classics and simultaneously bringing in rising choreogra phers to set work on our company is what shapes the type of artists that have always made up the Joffrey—those who can perform a technically demanding ballet like Don Quixote and then turn around and perform a much more contemporary work. Nurturing and embracing this breadth of repertoire is so important. I am always exploring the limitless language of dance.”

And there’s no better place for exploration than Chicago.

“This city has an incredible capacity to embrace art at every level, from ballet and opera to classical music and contemporary art and theater,” says Wheater. “I find that incredibly inspiring.”

For more information, visit joffrey.org.

ABOVE: Wictor Hugo Pedroso and Zach Manske

LEFT: Front row: Coco Alvarez-Mena, Annabelle de la Nuez. Back row: Davide Oldano, Nae Kojima, Zach Manske, Sergei Osminkin, Basia Rhoden, Wictor Hugo Pedroso, Natali That PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICK FOCHTMAN OF NICHOLAS JAMES PHOTOGRAPHY

CATCHING THE “LIGHT”

BY GREGG SHAPIRO THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

Musician and Highland Park resident Jared Rabin, who grew up in nearby Deerfield, is one of those people with music in his DNA. After all, his grandfather was the first chair violinist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Rabin started playing music as a young boy and it has stuck with him his whole life.

A multi-instrumentalist with a master’s degree in jazz composition from DePaul University, he has been playing professionally for more than 15 years in a variety of musical groups, attending and leading jam sessions, songwriters’ circles, and performing in the city and surrounding region. He released his first solo album in 2015, and his new album, “Chasing The Light” (jaredrabin.com) was released on Friday. Rabin is playing a record release show at Madame Zuzu’s in Highland Park on October 21.

We interviewed him recently and here’s what he had to say:

You come from a musical family with a grandfather who was the first chair violinist at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Was violin the first instrument that you picked up to play?

Yes. I started playing violin at age 5. My parents and grandparents started me on Su zuki violin lessons. Violin was the first instru ment that I studied and played throughout my whole childhood.

Did you also play in any school orchestras as well?

I played in my high school orchestra a little bit. I played in the Midwest Young Artist’s Orchestra outside of high school. I also played in junior high orchestra growing up, as well as my high school jazz band.

How many instruments do you play?

I play three instruments well, and I dabble in maybe three or four others sort of at an intermediate level.

What are the three that you play well?

I play guitar, violin, and mandolin pretty well. I also play some banjo. I can play a little piano and some bass guitar.

Is there one among those that you consider your favorite?

I’ve spent the most time with guitar, because of growing up listening to rock'n'roll. I studied jazz guitar in college, so that's probably the one I'm best at. I like them all. They're all good in their own way for different types of music, different styles, and it's been great to be able to play all three as a professional musician because you have a lot of versatility.

I’m glad you mentioned versatility, because, as you mentioned, you play jazz, prog rock, and bluegrass, to mention a few

of your genres. Bluegrass music might not be the first thing that comes to mind when someone thinks of the North Shore suburbs of Chicago, and yet you and Noam Pikelny (of Punch Brothers), natives of the region, are both bluegrass musicians. What do you think it is about bluegrass that is appeal ing to people from the northern suburbs of Chicago?

Well, I think it's appealing to a lot of people everywhere. I think it's grown massively in its appeal over the past two or three decades. I think where you find people spending time studying instruments, anywhere now in the country, there are people interested in bluegrass, Americana, folk music and stuff like that. Noam is like a virtuoso on banjo, one of the best ever. In Chicago, with the Old Town School (of Folk Music), and the bluegrass scene in general, is definitely healthy and alive here in the city and surrounding areas. You can find all sorts of acoustic and bluegrass bands, that kind of music going on everywhere.

Your new album, “Chasing The Light,” is on the bluegrass/folk end of the musical spectrum and features an interesting range of cover tunes from Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” to Stone Temple Pilots’ “Vaso line.” What draws you to a song for a cover version?

Both of those songs that I included on this record are from opposite ends of the spectrum of influences, but they’re songs that have meant something to me in my life. I grew up listening to both of those types of music and love both the records that they come of off. When there’s a song like that, that has always resonated, it’s always been fun for me to try to make my own arrangement of it. Paying homage to the original in a way, but also putting my own spin on it. That’s something I’ve always done with songs that I like.

The remaining songs on the album are Jared Rabin originals. What is involved in your songwriting process?

For these, in the studio, it was a process where I made demos of each song and then gradually replaced the demo track with the track that you actually hear now on the record. The demos morphed into the actual songs over

time. I did a lot of the record ing myself in my home studio. I had musicians from all over the country contribute parts and I put it all together here.

I’m glad you mentioned the other musicians. Who is the female vocalist singing with you on the song “We’ve Been There”?

That's my good friend Ren Patrick from Houston. She was on “American Idol,” maybe twice, I think. She flies to Chi cago every week to perform at weddings with a group that I play with also here in town. I play with her all the time. She recorded some parts for that song that turned out really great.

You recently played a show at Madame Zuzu’s in Highland Park, and your record release party for “Chasing The Light” is also being held there. What do you like best about that venue?

I played a brunch there a few weeks ago, and that was my first time there. I’ve known it was there for a while and I'd been aware of their old location, too. I think it’s a really cool space. I wanted to do something different for a record release show. I’ve been dragging my friends, fans, and family to my shows at clubs

in Chicago for 15 years now. I was looking for something different to give people a memo rable experience. Madame Zuzu’s being right here in town, and I live here in Highland Park, and I discovered that this was an awesome place. It seemed like a great fit to try and do something cool there.

Fellow Highland Park resident Billy Corgan is the proprietor at Madame Zuzu’s which made me wonder if there are any Smashing Pumpkins tunes in your reper toire.

Over the years there's definitely been some Smashing Pumpkins covers in the repertoire. I don't know if I would be so bold as to go there on the grounds of Madame Zuzu’s. He's an all-time hero of Chicago music, and to me, personally. That’s another cool part about playing there.

As you mentioned, you live in Highland Park with your wife and two young children. Has either of your kids shown an interest in music?

Yes, they’ve both shown an interest. My older kid, my 5-year-old son, is reluctant to start taking lessons. I've said that I’m going to start him on guitar lessons. I know that once we pull the trigger and do it, he’ll love it. He clearly has a bit of aptitude for music and remembers a crazy number of songs and lyrics. It’s just a matter of time for him.

LEEK & POTATO SOUP

BY MONICA KASS ROGERS THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

There is a delicious vegetable soup in this post. But first? Some grandfather tales. My Grandpa was a big believer in a vegetable diet, eating large quantities of carrots and beets, turnips and potatoes, green beans and cabbage, most of which he peeled and chopped while sitting on a little handmade wooden perch called his “stropping stool.” I made this soup thinking of him.

Grandpa was a powerfully built man, who helped build the train cars for Pullman and was an amateur boxer. When he learned there was prizefighting at White City, an amusement park that used to stand at 63rd Street and South Park Avenue on Chicago’s South Side, he headed into the ring. That went fine until some beer-drinking bud dies dared him to show his strength by breaking a rope tied around his bicep. He broke the rope, but also busted his bicep.

Grandpa started his vegetable regimen shortly thereafter, on the advice of one Dr. Brown who believed a vegetarian diet would cure all ailments (and had most of the relatives muttering, “quack.”) But Grandpa lived a very long time, passing on his love for vegetables to all of us. I still have his stropping stool, where I perched earlier today to peel the potatoes for this very simple, delicious soup. I adore leeks, preferring them over onions for their delicate flavor, buttery texture and beautiful color in a soup. If you like, you can add some cooked barley or couscous for extra texture and calories, but I think this soup—just vegetable broth, butter-sauteed leeks, potatoes and lemon—is perfect on its own.

Tips

Thinking of Downsizing?

Start Decluttering

The earlier you start, the better. Start with furniture and decide if it will help or hinder the sale of your home. Decide what will be going with you and what can get donated or sold. You can declutter by category or go room by room. A few experts can help you from an organizer to a real estate broker. You might also need an estate sale expert, a mover, a stager and a tech savvy person to put a few items online. You will want your home to look crisp and clean. Decluttering can be a painful process, but if you start early and delegate, it will make your life easier and your home sell for more.

SERVES 2

INGREDIENTS

• 2 medium Russet potatoes, peeled and diced into bite-sized cubes

• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter

• 1 large leek, (outer leaves discarded,) sliced in half lengthwise, white and yellow parts sliced into 1/8-inch rings

• 2 cups homemade or high-quality vegetable broth

• Salt and fresh-cracked pepper to taste

• Juice from ½ fresh lemon

METHOD

• In a small, heavy bottomed pot, heat 2 cups water to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer diced potatoes in water until tender. Remove from heat. Drain. Set potatoes aside.

• Add butter to pot over medium heat. Once butter is melted, add sliced leeks and saute, stirring occasionally until tender. Add cooked potatoes and vegetable broth to pot; heat until broth is hot. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot in bowls with drizzle of fresh lemon.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MONICA KASS ROGERS

Drive, Bannockburn

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THE BOLD AND THE DUTIFUL

LAKE FOREST’S KATIE BRICKMAN IS COUNTING ON HER RESOLUTE APPROACH TO BOTH WORK AND ART TO ALSO SERVE AS AN INSPIRATION TO HER CHILDREN, LOUISE AND POWELL.

BY BILL MCLEAN ILLUSTRATION BY BARRY BLITT

Katie Brickman has never sold ice to Eskimos, but she did sell leaves on autumn days to Win netka neighbors with leaf-strewn lawns decades ago.

True story. She was Katie Powell back then, a grade-schooler at Faith, Hope & Charity with a little red wagon brimming with fallen leaves. She’d pull her wares up walkways, ring doorbells, flash her first-grade smile, and charge 10 cents per leaf.

“I can’t believe I was allowed to do that,” Brick man says, flashing a 48-year-old smile from the middle of a couch inside her Lake Forest home on a sun-splashed August morning. “Neighbors actually bought my leaves.

“My neighbors were nice.”

The youngest entrepreneur in Winnetka his tory also set up shop—picture a chair and a card table, supporting her “garage art”—in front of Michelle’s Bakery, which is no longer standing, no longer generating aromas to pull passersby inside. Katie, Inc. stuff for sale at that location included golf balls, golf tees, and bicycle baskets she had painted.

“I took golf balls from golf bags in our garage and usually painted them pink,” Brickman says. “Anything, really, in our garage that could be painted, I’d paint and try to sell.”

Bold aims. By now it must be crystal clear that Katie and fearlessness have been inseparable partners since her Gerber days. “Bold” also happens to be the word that best describes Brickman’s artwork ( com) today. Bright, saturated colors elate her and set a positive tone, and she has a deep love for simple, clean lines. She paints primarily with acrylic on a whitewashed wood board.

Brickman also paints on ev erything from antique book pages to lampshades to vintage Brook Brothers men’s shirts.

“A friend of mine in Michigan once told me, ‘Everything is an experiment,’ ” says Brickman, the mother of 18-year-old Louise, a Pepperdine University freshman and former Lake Forest High School tennis player, and 16-year-old son Powell, a multisport athlete at LFHS. “And if everything is an experiment, what’s there to fear? If you fail, start over.

“When I started selling my art (as an

adult, nearly two years ago), I wanted to show my kids that anybody can do anything. I’m putting myself out there. I want Louise and Powell to have the courage to do that as well, no matter what they decide to pursue in their lives.”

Brickman was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

She spent her sophomore, junior, and senior years at Cranbrook Kingswood, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a school designed by the late Finnish American architect Eliel Saarinen.

He was known for his art nouveau buildings that sprouted in the early 20th century.

Saarinen’s cre ations—along with painting and drawing and weaving and ceramics classes at Cranbrook King swood—opened Katie’s eyes to the wonders of design and art.

She hasn’t blinked since.

“The gates at the school, the light fixtures, and even the rugs and dorm furniture … all of it amazed me,” Brickman recalls. “I started appreciating art like never before. I was on a campus, but it felt like I had entered some mystical world. Magic was everywhere.

The sculptures? To me they were

“I didn’t just take art courses at Cranbrook Kingswood; I was surrounded

One of her painting teachers instructed the class to emulate a painter. Brickman chose Miro, a Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona. In Paris he

developed his unique style: organic forms and flattened picture planes drawn with a sharp line (Guggenheimcollection.org; 25 December 1983).

Brickman majored in art history at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, and lived brief ly in Charleston, South Carolina, after college. She met her future husband, Joe, in New York, where she landed a position with the designer brand Kate Spade New York, co-founded by the late Kate Spade and her husband, Andy Spade.

Brickman wore too many hats to count for the company during an on-and-off tenure that lasted about seven years. She wrote about the early years of her life in Ohio and Winnetka, and the Spades didn’t just love it.

Mr. and Mrs. Spade used it in their enter prise’s ad campaigns.

“At the time I met them, Kate and Andy were super young entrepreneurs,” Brickman says. “I loved that they were doing their own thing, going with their instincts. They were confident. They put products out there. Their way of thinking, for each product, was, ‘Let’s go for it and see if it appeals.’ ”

The Brickman family has lived in Lake Forest since 2007. Katie has worked with endurance athletes at Vision Quest Coaching, a physical fitness program in Highland Park, and she plans to run the Chicago Marathon on October 9. That woman who’s scrambling around a paddle court at Onwentsia Club or at Lake Bluff Park District and using defense and a steady back hand to keep points alive?

That’s probably Katie Brickman.

Nothing made Brickman feel more alive, as an artist, than when she heard that the re nowned designer Alessandra Branca—a friend and former employer—wanted to purchase 13 of her paintings.

“That was validation of my artwork,” Brick man says. “It meant the world to me that the pieces appealed to her. It also boosted my confidence.”

But Brickman’s best moments to date have nothing to do with the creation of vibrant art. And everything to do with motherhood.

“There’s nothing better than spending time with Louise and Powell,” she says. “Powell, I’m so proud of him. He started a job at a golf course, picking up range golf balls. He later asked for the opportunity to instruct. Guess what? He got that opportunity.

“Louise, she’s my ‘wingman,’” adds Louise’s “ace pilot.” “Louise is chill, calm, confident. Maybe one day she’ll start a blog on restau rants in Los Angeles. Or maybe she’ll write restaurant reviews out there in California. What excites me is knowing she’ll be able to do anything she puts her mind to, and then she’ll do it well.”

For more information about Katie Brickman and her art, visit katiebrickmanart.com.

I started appreciating art like never before. I was on a campus, but it felt like I had entered some mystical world.

Katie Brickman

BROKERAGE FIRM IN THE NORTH