‘We live better than the kings’

Jim Kendros

     “Good afternoon everyone. I’m very happy to be back again at Belmont Village. My name is Jim Kendros, and I had such a wonderful time being here before. We’re going to explore great music today.”
     An audience of about two dozen people, including my parents, gathered in the lobby of a senior living community in Buffalo Grove last week.
     “Today I have a program called ‘Mozart and More,’” Kendros continues.
     He plays “Carol of the Bells” on the piano. It quickly becomes clear that the lobby is not the best environment for a recital. Noisy conversations erupt. Phones ring. A few residents arrive, late and loudly. A janitor rolls a garbage can rumbling by.
     None of this fazes Kendros, talking major versus minor, diving into musical theory.
     “Chances are you have heard something we call the ‘incipit’ in music,” he says. “I-N-C-I-P-I-T. It’s a Latin word that basically means the smallest part of a melody.”
     Kendros does this for a living. He also lectures before concerts, as well as social clubs and libraries. He is a composer, creator of the Mount Prospect Overture.
     For me, just visiting here once a week can be an occasion for somber reflection. I wondered how Kendros views his audience.
     “They’re near the end of their lives, even though I hope they will live another 20, 30 years,” he told me, earlier, over the phone. “I would like to believe I’m bringing them not only new things to think about but helping them to feel younger.”

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