To the joy of concertgoers and the delight of a small boy, a couple of short but hard downpours were not enough to wash out Lake Forest Symphony`s annual Concert-on-the-Green last weekend.
The rains, which came about 15 minutes before the Saturday show time, dampened picnickers` food and blankets. It did not halt music director Paul Anthony McRae`s downbeat on the national anthem. After all, more than 4,000 adults and children had come to hear the symphony play a ”Rhapsody in Red, White and Blue” musical tribute to the nation. And as the orchestra and McRae were very aware, 7-year-old Steven Lytle had come for his debut conducting appearance.
Lytle, a 3rd-grade student at Pierce Downer School in Downers Grove, is also a leukemia patient at Children`s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. The Maclean Fogg Co. of Mundelein had bought the conducting opportunity at a Lake Forest Symphony benefit in February so Make A Wish Foundation could use the experience to brighten a child`s life. Lytle thought conducting sounded like fun. He was eager to try. And just slightly nervous.
McRae had taken the would-be conductor through the 2/4 beat patterns during rehearsal that morning. Lytle figured he was as ready as he would ever be. He did not want a rain check. ”I wondered if the concert would be canceled. I didn`t want it canceled,” Lytle said.
Five minutes before the concert a rainbow replaced the rains. And halfway into the program, Lytle led a beaming, tearful orchestra through a grand rendition of a popular Sousa march. ”The musicians like playing for him,”
said McRae. And Lytle liked conducting.
When asked how conducting compared to sports, the avid baseball and soccer enthusiast said, ”playing soccer is easier.” But the conducting experience has Lytle thinking about the future. McRae had given him a baton, which Lytle thinks might come in handy. ”Maybe someday I will become a leader of an orchestra,” he said.