LMK Studios moves to St. Luke's

St. Luke Church is now the new home of LMK Studios. We had a good run at St. Andrew's for five years! We leave St. Andrew's with much appreciation for the time spent there and for their hospitality toward us and our piano families.

St.Luke Church

It's time to grow and expand, and that's just what we'll do at this new facility. The building where St. Luke's now resides used to have a school in it, so we are now leasing three classrooms that are side by side. We're hoping to add one more teacher to our two teacher roster and have all three classrooms humming tunes by 2024. We've got some other expansion ideas in the works, as well, and hope to offer more music opportunities to our students.

Despite all this change, some things remain:

• Our schedule at St. Luke's is still Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. (Wednesdays and Fridays Louise teaches in her home studio)

• Louise and Ellie will be teaching mostly half-hour lessons.

• We will continue our annual Winter and Spring recitals, this time in St. Luke's Sanctuary.

• We will offer extra enrichment/performance opportunities with the Downers Grove Music Club Piano Festival, to interested students who qualify.

Piano families will be as delighted as Ellie and I are by the new facility, which has been professionally painted in anticipation of our move in. They even cleaned the carpets and helped us move instruments. We are blown away by the hospitality of Pastor Holly and

Raina, the Parish Administrator.

St. Luke Church extends a warm welcome to our studio

You'll find our studio in the lower level of St. Luke's. Piano families should enter the building from the North Door. Go down the stairs and you'll find our studios there. There are plenty of areas where you can wait for your student during their lessons; in addition, Pastor Holly invites all families with small children to spend time in the nursery, which is full of toys.

St. Luke is located at 5235 Fairview Avenue, Downers Grove 60515

Here's a message for all piano families from the pastor at St. Luke:

Welcome LMK Studios, Students, and Families!

The St. Luke Family is absolutely thrilled you have joined us in the building and we look forward to meeting you. St. Luke is a small congregation that is ready and excited to GROW! We moved into this building right before the pandemic hit and have been working hard to remodel and update it so that everyone feels safe and welcome.

Worship on Sunday mornings is at 10:00 am in the sanctuary and ALL are welcome. You don’t have to be perfect or have it all together to join in. We strive to be a church where you can bring your joys and celebrations, doubts and fears all to the table of Jesus and feel loved. Currently, our children & youth programs are small, and we have eager staff, volunteers, children, and youth who are eager to meet you!

If there is ever anything I can do please let me know. In the coming weeks, we will have more information available to help orient you to the space and programming. For now, feel God’s love welcoming you into the space.

Peace and blessings,

Pastor Holly

LMK Studios FIRST EVER Student Composition Recital

This was so much fun!!

Seventeen young pianists performed their own original music at our Student Composition Recital this Sunday, April 16th. Teachers Ellie and Louise enjoyed helping students complete their compositions in preparation for this exciting event. Students performed completely original work.

The audience, comprised of families and community members, were delighted by the sheer diversity of performances and song topics. Here is the program for the event. (see below)

Student wrote an introduction for their piece to be read before their performance. You can read each introduction here. Enjoy the video of these fabulous performances!

This summer, LMK Studios will offer a student composition class. Interested in signing up? Email louise @ louisekelly . com

Downers Grove Music Club Piano Festival 2023

Ten courageous students from LMK Studios participated in the Downers Grove Music Club Piano Festival last weekend, on Sunday, March 5th. Students memorized 2 pieces from a list of required repertoire. They performed a scale and cadence chords. They stressed and sweated over this performance that involved one single student in a room with a judge who graded all the wonderful details of her performance.

We'd like to give a shout out to all ten students who took the 2023 DGMC Piano Festival Challenge:

Finley Smith

Robert Wojciechowski

Rachael Wojciechowski

Evelyn Phillips

Simran Bindra

Martin Baker

Evie Vidrio

Addy S

Rebecca Rodeck

Elizabeth Kansa

from left to right: Siblings Rachael & Robert Wojciechowski, Simra Bindra and Ms. Kelly, Cousins Evie Vidrio & Noelle Kelly

After the festival, several of our DGMC participants were properly rewarded by their parents for their hard work with sweet treats.

Finley Smith is rewarded with his sweet treat of choice after performing in Level 3 DGMC Piano Festival.

Two of our 10 LMK Studios students earned exceptionally high scores on their performances. They have been invited to participate in an extra Piano Festival distinguished event: The Honors Recital. Congratulations Addy S. and Rebecca Rodeck!

Rebecca will perform Bach's Minuet in g minor in the Honors Recital, Level 3.

Addy will perform the first movement of Wilton's Little Sonata in the Honors Recital, Level 1.

The Honors Recital will be held this Sunday, March 12, 2023 at

First United Methodist Church in Downers Grove. There will be two recitals; Rebecca and Addy will perform in the earlier recital at 1:30pm. Best of luck to you, Addy and Rebecca, in this next and final round of the 2023 DGMC Piano Festival! Enjoy the experience!