April 02, 2009
A STAR-STUDDED MUSIC BY THE LAKE SEASON 2009
Where can you go and relax on a beautiful, spring-fed lake by day and have your own Ravinia-style, outside concert at night on the shores of that same lake with top name performers? Right here, on Lake Geneva at George Williams College of Aurora University!
From 1951 to 1969 Geneva Lake created one of its grandest traditions by bringing some of the world’s greatest musical performing artists to the college in Williams Bay: violinist Isaac Stern, Louis Armstrong, “Doc” Severinsen, and the Chad Mitchell Trio, to name a few. Area residents, as well as summer visitors and tourists, enjoyed top notch entertainment right in their own back yard. With the gaining popularity of TV at the time, however, the series eventually was discontinued. In 2000 when the college became affiliated with Aurora University of Illinois, the new President Sherrick brought her artistic vision with her. She took the risk of not only bringing back Music by the Lake, but of growing the series and providing a permanent pavilion for the performances alongside the lake shore on the grounds of George Williams College.
This summer, the one-year old spacious Ferro Pavilion will host an array of well known musical artists: jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis and his trio, baritone Thomas Hampson, singers Michael Bolton and Natalie Cole, saxophonist Johan Stengard, with the opera Madama Butterfly and a tribute to James Taylor thrown in. If your style is more casual, bring your own picnic and blanket and buy an inexpensive space on the lawn, where an excellent sound system will serenade you while you gaze at the star-filled sky and the sunset over the lake.
For ticket information, visit Musicbythelake.com. The stars on stage, as well as in the sky, are all waiting for you!
Posted By: 
Julie Sarton
Tagged With:
entertainment,
ferro pavilion,
music by the lake
and williams bay
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