Marsha Heather Long

District 70 Notes

Hestad looses battle with cancer

The Libertyville Elementary District 70 community is mourning the loss of former Rockland Principal Dr. Marsha A. Hestad, who died on the evening of Aug. 23 after a courageous battle with cancer.

Hestad, 61, was principal of the elementary school from 1996-2005. Her role as a principal brought her back to the Libertyville school where she taught gifted education, in a program then called SOAR, and worked with struggling students in remedial resource from 1988-1991.

She went on to become a nationally known expert on gifted education. Not bad for a North Shore woman who also rode a lime green motorcycle.

Funeral arrangements are pending for the Northbrook native.

Dr. Hestad was an enthusiastic life-long learner who devoted her career to education, but also enjoyed traveling, cooking, and being outdoors.

While principal at Rockland, she created a successful cable TV show featuring students in front of the camera and behind operating equipment, called “Blast Off with Math and Science.” She also encouraged creativity by supporting a national problem solving competition called Destination Imagination.

“She never let anything get in her way, including cancer,” said Rockland first grade teacher Cheryl Crenshaw, adding that even when Dr. Hestad was sick from fighting cancer, she went skydiving. “She was very encouraging to have us try new things and very supportive when we did.”

But Dr. Hestad not only lead the teachers, she became a part of their families. “Marsha got it, even though she didn’t have her own children, she got it. When I had my children, she was right there with me, helping out. She understood.”

Her early career in District 70 found Dr. Hestad teaching seventh grade language arts and literature at Highland in 1993-94, and in the summer of 1994 served as summer school co-director. Before becoming principal at Rockland, Dr. Hestad was a principal in Bensenville for two years.

Toccata in D Flat by Joseph Jongen | Oil Painting Museum

Roger Nyquist recorded this brilliant piece in 1973 on the Casavant organ at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in San Jose (which I have also played). A highly-honored recitalist, Dr. Nyquist was organist and Music Chair at the University of Santa Clara when this recording was published by Bridge Records of Pacific Press Publications of Mt. View CA. He now has his own website with available recordings: www.rogernyquist.com Joseph Jongen (1873-1953) was a composer from Liege, Belgium. According to the album notes by James Lang, his is “yet another example of unwarranted neglect…..impressionism makes itself felt in some of his best works….evident in his “Toccata in D Flat Major,” where the listener is vehemently bombarded with exciting shapes and shifting colors. It is written in the French Toccata style (reflecting the French orientation of Jongen), with brilliant rapid splashes of color in the manuals supported and punctuated by thematic ideations and fragments in the pedal, proceeding recklessly and relentlessly to a piquant and solidly fulfilling conclusion.” See my list of organ favorites with links to the music at philosopherswheel.com More on Jongen at: www.classical-composers.org

Fantastic command performance with the brilliance and facets of a diamond in the sunlight. No other organist has the technique and mind to play the D flat maj. Toccata with this electrifying drive. The Jongen is notorious for being a muddled wash of notes in every other performance. The spaces between the notes are as important as the notes themselves. Just like the release is as important as the attack of the key. Worthy of the highest praise is Dr. Nyquist’s musicianship in this stunning rendition of an all-too readily dismissed piece, which is frequently confused with the Toccata from the Symphonie Concertante, which exists in solo arrangements. This is a real Jongen organ piece played by an organist/musician who observes the composer’s specific (yet vague) instructions regarding tempo.. Please refer to the last page of the score for these.

Heather

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