Your lifestyle

[music playing] (Pete) My earliest experiences in music probably were with my grandmother. She's the one that taught me how to play the piano a little bit when I was in grade school. I played trombone in the high school band, and then I decided to become a music teacher and went off to college and got a degree in music. I've been doing the Naperville Chorus for about 30 years. Prior to retirement, I was a music professor at North Central College. When I first knew about the Naperville Chorus, it was a group of about 35 people and they did things accompanied by piano. My idea was to make it a bigger chorus and do bigger productions, with full orchestra, which we have accomplished. I retired from school, but I kept the Naperville Chorus. I love doing it, and I like the social aspect. They've become more than just choir members, they've become friends. I can tease them, they can tease me, we have a good time. We can be serious, we can be lighthearted. It's like one big family. (Chorus Member) Oh my gosh, I love Pete. He's very thoughtful, and he's a great director. (Pete) I like the idea that you have people of all ages involved. Right now, we have from the 20s to a gentleman who's 90, and everything in between so really a 70-year span of ages, and I like that. (Chorus Member) I had him as a professor for a term. And he was wonderful as a professor, yeah. (Pete) In the chorus, we have several members that are former students of myself that are now grown up, and they come back. I'm always surprised when all of a sudden somebody shows up, "Hey, I had you in class 10 years ago, or three years ago or whatever," and they come back to sing. [music playing] All my life I�ve gotten nervous before a concert. Once I'm up there, everything's okay. It's just the anticipation." The most exciting part is probably the actual performance. It's exciting when you do it. It's very exciting when it�s done, when you finish and say, �Okay, we did it." I feel guilty sometimes that I have stayed on doing this for so long. I think that perhaps I should allow somebody else to step in, but when I mention the idea of stepping away, the chorus members seem to want me there. It�s kind of like retirement. You know everybody said when do you retire, well, you'll know when you're ready. And I knew when it was time to retire from my job. The same thing with this. I think I'll know when it�s time for me to say, "Okay, that's enough." I think it's very important that everybody continue to follow their passion and continue to do things that get them out into the world in a social environment. It's real easy to stay home. But once you get there, you're all fired up and happy that you're there. [applause]