EVERGREEN PARK, IL — Members of the entire Evergreen Park Community High School music department were treated to an iconic experience this month thanks to a generous donation from the parents of a classmate who will forever remain part of Mustang Nation.

 

Alan Reyes-Landeweer would have been graduating from high school this spring. The beloved Southwest Elementary School alum was in his first year at Central Middle School when he died unexpectedly as a 12-year-old sixth grader in 2019. Alan was considered a rising star on the Evergreen Park music scene as a trombone player in the CMS band.

 

“Alan was a shy kid, but whenever he got into the music room he was so happy,” his mother Ana Reyes remembers. “He played trombone in the regular band, and they even put him in the jazz band. It would always make him smile.”

 

Ana and her husband, Jeff Landeweer, have made regular donations to the Central music department in the years since Alan’s death, helping raise money for additional instruments for students who couldn’t afford them or students who are interested in learning how to play a second instrument.

 

Before this year, EPCHS Band Director Ken Kazin said he was approached by the family about making one more donation since this would have been Alan’s senior year. That’s when the idea of attending the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert at Symphony Center came about.

 

“We came up with the idea of a live concert, and there just happened to be a matinee scheduled in March,” Kazin said.

The matinee event included both the vocal and instrumental performances of the CSO, something EPCHS Choir Director Logan Scalf said was important in including not only the EPCHS band members, but choir students too.

 

“We had something for everyone,” Scarf said. “The orchestra played the first two pieces, and the CSO choir sang in the final piece.”

 

It was an “amazing” experience for students like EPCHS senior Ilaan Wheeler, who remembers Alan well from middle school.

 

“I play the trumpet, so it was really cool to see the different kinds of trumpets they had in the orchestra,” Wheeler said. “We are forever grateful to the Reyes family for this amazing experience.”

 

Louise Brady, an EPCHS junior who plays percussion in the band, said the day was “nothing short of impressive.”

“I’ve seen professionals perform before, but nothing like this,” Brady said.

 

Kazin said it was an EPCHS alum, Brian Koenig, who now works ticket sales for the CSO, who helped connect the dots in planning the outing. All tickets and buses were paid for by the Reyes family.

 

“All it cost the school was the 2 blocks of time that the music kids were out of class that afternoon,” Kazin said, noting that many of the students who were on the trip made it home with plenty of time to spare to perform in that night’s talent show at the high school.

 

“Most of our students have never had an opportunity to sit through a symphony,” he said. “I don’t think most of our students ever experienced a formal choir concert with soloists and a full chorus, either. They got to see a lot of things and had an awesome time.”

 

As Alan’s favorite musical growing up was “The Nutcracker,” planning a trip to the CSO could not have been more fitting.

“Band was very dear to his heart,” Landeweer said. “Music was really important to him and so was kindness. It’s a legacy he has left with all of us.”

 

His classmates continue that legacy of kindness years later. Alan’s parents, and his younger brother, Kevin, currently a freshman at EPCHS who plays the French Horn in the band, saw that when they joined the music students on the CSO trip.

 

“I see a little piece of my child in each one of these kids,” Ana Reyes said. “And, how I realized that time flies. They are all ready to go out into the world. To see how well-behaved they were on the trip made me so proud.”

 

Kazin, Scalf and Landeweer all took note of other adults at the CSO concert who commented on the EPCHS students etiquette during the concert.

 

“These seniors went through a lot with Alan. A lot of pain when he was gone,” Ana Reyes added. “But I wanted one of their last memories of Alan to not be sad, but beautiful.”

 

“And it gives us a little bit of closure, too.”