Two named to Sycamore Music Boosters Hall of Fame

SYCAMORE – Talented music educators and performers Jennifer McCabe and Michael Kasper have been named 2021 Sycamore Music Boosters Hall of Fame members. The announcement of their induction was made last month during a virtual version of “A Note to Remember,” the annual fundraiser gala.

Pianist, vocal coach and music director Jennifer McCabe graduated from Sycamore High School in 1990. While in high school, she participated in Marching Band, Concert Band, Pep Band and Jazz Band. Additionally, she sang in both Concert Choir and with Madrigals. She is a recipient of the John Phillip Sousa Award and the Sycamore Music Boosters Senior Music Award.

McCabe earned her bachelor’s degree in piano from Northern Illinois University in 1995. She pursued graduate studies in music education and performance at both NIU and Middle Tennessee State University. Other areas of expertise have included composition, clarinet, saxophone, singing, steel pan and percussion.

McCabe has worked as a pianist, vocal coach and music director, and is active in the musical theater, choral, instrumental and operatic communities throughout the Chicago area. She also is a former manager of the nonprofit Opera on Tap Chicago.

Currently, McCabe runs the Harmony Piano Studio, where she teaches piano and voice lessons. She also teaches at The Musical Offering, is music director at Edgewater Presbyterian Church, and is a pianist at Temple Beth Israel in Skokie.

Hall of Fame inductee Michael Kasper graduated from Sycamore High School in 2004. During high school, he was part of Concert and Symphonic Bands, Symphony Orchestra and Marching Band, and he played in the pit for school musicals. He was drum major for Marching Band his senior year. He also was an annual participant in the ILMEA District 8 Festival Band or Orchestra and Suburban Prairie Conference Band. In 2004, he performed with Symphony Orchestra at the Illinois Music Educators Conference.

Kasper earned his undergraduate degree in music education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and his master’s degree in educational administration from Northern Illinois University.

He has been the band teacher at Carpentersville Middle School since 2009. He directs both the seventh and eighth grade concert bands. He also started and directs two auditioned jazz bands. During his 11 years at CMS, Kasper has grown the band program from 80 students to more than 200. In addition to being a member of the National Association for Music Education and the Illinois Music Educators Association, he is part of the Illinois Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance Committee, where he serves as president-elect.

In 2018, Kasper was a recipient of the Elgin Youth Symphony Educator of the Year award. He teaches private French horn lessons in the DeKalb and Sycamore area.

Most recently, he was a Quarterfinalist for the 2020 Grammy Music Educator of the Year Award.

Kasper and McCabe will be memorialized in the music display case at Sycamore High School, and online at the music boosters website. Both are Hall of Fame Legacy Award recipients. The Legacy Award is one of four Hall of Fame induction categories.

For more information, visit www.sycamoremusicboosters.com.