Jeffrey Weaver
[Department Chair, Chorus]
Jeffrey Weaver is the Music Department Chairman and Director of Choral Activities at Walter Payton College Prep High School in Chicago. He currently conducts the six choral organizations at Payton Prep. The Payton Concert Choir has received Division I, Superior and/or Division I Honors Superior ratings (Division I Honors Superior rating was added in 2009) at each of the CPS High School Choral Contests that they have attended. The Sounds of Sweetness (Payton's Men's a cappella ensemble) has performed all over country and at countless events here in the city of Chicago.
Mr. Weaver earned a bachelor's degree in vocal performance and teaching certification from Mansfield University in Pennsylvania. He has worked as a vocal/general music teacher and choral director for twenty-seven years , twenty-four of those in the Chicago Public Schools. Harand Camp of the Theatre Arts was Mr. Weaver's summer home for twenty-five seasons (1980-2004), during which time he has taught singing and musically directed shows.
Prior to his tenure at Walter Payton College Prep, he was the choral/general music teacher at the Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Lincoln Park where he founded the Lincoln School Junior and Senior Choristers. He was also the founding director of the Chicago Area Studio Theatre (CAST) for Kids at the Menomonee Club for Boys and Girls.
Mr. Weaver attends the National Conference on the Training of Children's Voices, every year that it is held, at The American Boychoir School in Princeton, New Jersey. Over the past eight choral conferences he has studied under such famous choral conductors as Dr. Anton Armstrong (St. Olaf College), Dr. Andre Thomas (Florida State University), Kari Ala-Pollanen (Tapiola Choir, Finland), Dr. Doreen Rao (University of Toronto), Dr. Christian Ashley-Botha (Drakensberg South Africa Boys' Choir), Fernando Malvar-Ruiz (The American Boychoir), Dr. James Litton (Former Director, The American Boychoir), Gerre Hancock (former organist and choirmaster of St. Thomas Church, New York), Dr. Henry Leck (Indianapolis Children's Choir), Dr. George Guest (formerly organist and choirmaster of St. John's, Cambridge, England) and Ebbe Munk (The Royal Copenhagen Chapel Choir). Since Payton Prep's opening, Mr. Weaver and the Payton Choral Department have hosted The American Boychoir, The Fort Bend Texas Boychoir, the CPS Elementary Choral Festival and the Heritage National Choral Festival.
In 2010 the Concert Choir received one of only three Division I Honors Superior ratings at the CPS High School Choral Contest and, as a result, was invited to audition to perform at Symphony Center, on a Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert. The choir won this competition and performed on the June 7th , 2010 CSO concert at Symphony Center. Duain Wolfe, director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus, visited Payton to coach the choir for that performance.
In March of 2008 the Payton Concert Choir was one of five choirs from the United States that participated in 'Perform in Harmony With Olympic Spirit' in Beijing, China. While in China the Concert Choir had opportunities to perform their own prepared repertoire under the direction of Mr. Weaver, as well as with a massed choir under the direction of Dr. Rollo Dilworth (North Park University, Chicago). The groups performed at the Oriental Art Center in Shanghai and at the final, festival performance at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. The highlight of the trip for Mr. Weaver was an exchange concert with choirs of the Experimental School Attached to Haidian Teachers' Training College. During this concert both the Payton Concert Choir and the middle school choir from the school performed for each other. Students from the school also performed original dance and instrumental compositions for the Payton Concert Choir. The impromptu finale of the concert occurred when the director of the middle school choir discovered that we knew an arrangement of the much loved Chinese folk song, 'Lotus Flower.' The two choirs then joined together to perform this beautiful song, in the native language. Mr. Weaver was extremely honored when asked to conduct the massed choirs in this performance.
The Payton Music Department has hosted three Heritage National Children’s Choral Festivals and two CPS Elementary Choral Festivals, as well as numerous visits of the American Boychoir and in his spare time Mr. Weaver is the Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 79, Chicago Area Council, sponsored by the Old Town Triangle Association. He was also the sponsor of Payton's Running Club and an avid Cubs and Bears fan.
The Walter Payton College Prep Concert Choir
The Payton Concert Choir was established in 2,000, the year that Walter Payton College Prep opened. Since then the choir has consistently received Division I, Superior and Division I Honors Superior ratings at the Chicago Public Schools High School Choral Contest, which is held in April of each year. A few of those years Rollo Dilworth was an adjudicator for that event. The choir is currently made up of forty-nine students (sophomores, juniors and seniors), all of whom must pass a rigorous audition. Since its inception the group has performed works by Donato, Morley, Certon, Berger, Rutter, Victoria, Isaacson, Dr. Andre Thomas, Mozart, Caccini, Moses Hogan, di Lasso, Stroop, Lauridson, Helvey, Hassler, Strauss, Schubert, Mozart, Whitacre, Dilworth, Brunner, Dickau and P. D. Q. Bach, to name just a few.
Facts about the Sounds of Sweetness (Payton’s men’s ensemble)
The Sounds of Sweetness have performed: for Mayor Daley; former Police Chief Terry Hillard; the wife and children of the late Walter Payton; at the Michigan Avenue Lights Festival; for the Salvation Army Christmas Tree Lighting at the Hancock; at many other venues around the City of Chicago. On November 1st, 2009 they sang the national anthem at the Bears game at Soldier Field on the day that the Bears honored the memory of the great Walter Payton. January 15th saw the group performing the national anthem at the Bulls game at the United Center and they will perform the same at the May 21st Chicago White Sox game at U.S. Cellular Field.
In May of 2005 The Sounds of Sweetness represented the State of Illinois at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the ending of World War II at the Capitol Building.
Glenn Rode
[Band]
Mr. Rode is currently Director of Bands at Walter Payton College Prep High School and is also on the faculty of Moraine Valley College in Palos Hills. Mr. Rode received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Illinois University (Macomb, IL); his Master's from Northwestern University (Evanston). He has studied trombone with Frank Crisafulli (Chicago symphony Orchestra), Frank Hunt (Orchestra of the Lyric Opera), Bill Porter (WGN TV); and conducting with Roland Vamos, John Paynter and Frederick Ockwell.
Previous positions have included Director of bands at Lake Zurich High School (1979-83), District Orchestra Director of Cons. H.S. District 230 (1983-1989), Music instructor at Belding and Murphy elementary schools (1992-1994), and band Director at Mather High School (1994-2000).
Mr. Rode is active as a judge and clinician at various music contests and festivals and is a member of the National Band Association, the International Trombone Association and the International Association of Jazz Educators.