I sent my 8 year old to a Glee Camp at Bach to Rock with friends on a day off from school last…read morespring. All the kids came out smiling from ear to ear saying they wanted to take singing lessons. But my own spirited daughter said forget singing...she saw a drum set at Bach to Rock and thought that looked way more fun. She's asking for a new activity every few weeks so I tend to ignore her requests until she asks at least a dozen times...and she kept asking. Finally I agreed to drum lessons if she went to Glencoe Academy of Music since it's so close to my house. I'm all about the least amount of driving possible being a busy working mom of 3 kids. She agreed and I sent an email to Glencoe Music Academy asking for info...and very quickly heard back from Brandon who got us scheduled with Mark. Glencoe Music Academy may be convenient, but the lessons would be well worth it even if we had to drive there. Mark is patient, fun and my daughter comes out with a huge smile every week. To be honest I thought drumming was just making a lot of banging noise, but I've been really surprised (and pleased) with how much coordination is involved w/ playing the drums...and it's been fun to see her make progress. She also has a bunch of friends who take guitar lessons with Carlos and are very pleased as well. The lessons themselves are pretty expensive, but I think that's to be expected when it comes to private music lessons. I haven't agreed to an expensive (and loud!) drum set quite yet, but Mark has offered a few times that he can come with us to the store to help us pick one out when/if the time comes. In the meantime, I'm happy with her playing on her little amazon pad to keep the noise down a bit in my house.

If you are interested in picking up a new hobby or just getting back to playing something you used…read moreto years ago, Glencoe School of Music is the place to be. It brings downtown and area musicians to the North Shore. Carlos and his staff are amazing, talented and fun people who know how to motivate the young and the old! Situated in the middle of downtown Glencoe, next to Foodstuffs, the studio is easy to get to and has plenty of parking with a public lot right behind the building. If you are thinking of taking up an instrument or want to work on your karaoke skills (seriously Kay Rutherford is an amazing vocal instructor), GAM is the place to go. All the instructors are performers in their own right and have the skills, patience and knowledge to make you a better performer!

I came here for a magic show with a group of friends on a Friday. Overall, good facility! There's a…read moresmall parking lot for patrons nearby, which was nice. Bartenders were friendly. Bathrooms were clean. It was cold, but that's typical of buildings in the summer. I'd come back!

What's life without a little magic! We came by to see a show on a Sunday afternoon and we're able…read moreto enjoy the Physician's show. When you walk in there is a bar and some tables but through the double doors, you'll find a 2nd bar with a speakeasy feel. When we checked in, we were assigned our tables. We ordered drinks before hand and the drinks were brought to our tables. We also ordered the pimento cheese and crackers. We snacked on the crackers most of the show as there was quite a bit of pimento in the bowl. The show was great and was broken into 2 parts. There were a lot of great metaphors along with it being a very interactive show with the crowd. Many of the tricks and magic left us in complete awe. We can't wait to come back and see future shows!

Great live music recordings. Just know that their cds appear to be cdrs. When i rip onto a…read morebluesound vault, no identifying data shows up. Inconvenient but glad i purchased anyway for the great music

Cagen Music put on an epic performance at our wedding. They are extremely talented, bring tons of…read moreenergy, and did not take any breaks. The dance floor was packed all night. Highly recommend!

Big Beat is an extremely talented and professional band who helped make our wedding a success. From…read moreour first phone call to the event, Becky Cagen was a pleasure to work with and helped bring confidence and ease. From the vocalists to the drummer, we were utterly impressed how talented the musicians in Big Beat are. We were floored by the quality of the set list and we danced truly all night. After the wedding, numerous people told us it was the best band that they had ever heard at a wedding and we could not agree more! Thank you Big Beat!

While there are almost too many choices of classes and fun activities for toddlers and big kids,…read morethere's not much going on for babies in the North Shore. I think it's because most people move to the burbs when they have their 2nd baby (like I did). Who has time to do classes with baby #2? Not I, but once my toddler was in school for a few hours I figured maybe it was time to start stimulating the baby. When we lived in the city I was a big fan of Bubbles Academy,* which may have been even more fun for the adults than the kids. There is a Bubbles in Lake Forest, but a bit far from where I live in the city....and driving more than 15 minutes for a kids class isn't worth it in my opinion. While I never tried Old Town School of Folk Music in the city, I had heard rave reviews of their Wiggleworms classes. I was psyched when I heard they had a Glencoe branch and signed my baby up as soon as he was old enough (6 months). After a few years attending classes at the oh so cute Bubbles Academy it took some getting used to Wiggleworms. Bubbles had an entire facility of props to choose from, but Wiggleworms just takes place in a classroom like setting. For 45 minutes the instructor sings some songs, gives the kids some instruments to drool on, does a bit of parachute time and the grand finale involves some banging on a drum. Wiggleworms first took place in a room located above Olly Olly. Carrying my extremely heavy baby (+ the car seat) up a long flight of stairs was not the highlight of my week. But when Olly Olly closed their doors they moved the class to a lovely classroom at the Takiff Center, which is much more enjoyable. As time went on I've learned to love Wiggleworms almost as much as I loved Bubbles. My son (now 14 months old) loves it so much that my nanny now takes him twice a week. He absolutely loves the instructor Miss Linda, who has been teaching his class for 8 months. He's also made lots of "friends" in class, as have I & my nanny. We've also taken John Francisco's classes when taking make-ups on the weekends and he's pretty fantastic. He taught a great sibling class during the weekend, which wasn't a convenient time for us, but I'd love to see more of those during the week. Now that my "baby" has pretty much entered the toddler stage there's more activities for him in the North Shore, but Wiggleworms remains his favorite. * http://www.yelp.com/biz/bubbles-academy-chicago

I really wanted to like Wiggleworms as my child loves music but I just cant give this program a…read morehigh rating. We have taken other music classes in the area (Bubbles and Musikgarten) that we loved but were urged by a friend to check out Wiggleworms as she had heard good things so we signed up. Total waste of money. The classes are 45 minutes long and basically the kids just sit in a circle signing the exact same songs every single week for 45 long minutes. I understand some repetition for the kids to learn the songs but seriously- same exact songs in the same order every single week?! My child and I were both losing our minds in there lol. There is very little movement/dancing (unusual compared to other classes we have taken) and my child (and most of the others) couldn't sit still that long. Which just leads to kids being antsy and bored. Maybe if you have really young babies this might hold their attention but any child over probably a year or so is not going to enjoy this. And even so you might go crazy yourself listening to the same songs over and over and over again. Seriously, it was nuts. I've never taken a music class for kids where there was no theme each week or different songs.

So much fun! My jaw dropped when I saw my daughter so happy and engaged while enjoying the sensory…read moreactivities. She let loose like I've never seen before. I think I had as much fun as she did!

Art Party is the best! I cannot rave enough about the tremendous creativity and love that has gone…read moreinto this studio. My son and I both had the best time. We had the freedom to get messy and playful, while diving into self-expression and art. Thank you Jamie! Can't wait to come back!

I'm a parent of a little girl who would later be diagnosed dyslexic. In preschool it's not super…read morepossible to know what is coming down the road for a child with regard to reading challenge. The head start Glencoe Montessori gave my daughter who attended 3yr through K has become so valuable to me now as a parent of a third grader. We have moved and my 6 year old twins attend the best montessori school in our new area and the literacy advantage of GMS and ALL the highland park montessori schools is unbelievable in hindsight. When I was a younger mom I found the idea of phonics in preschool to be a questionable practice because I wanted creative play emphasized. The children in the whole Highland Park Montessori sister school Network DO AN EXCELLENT JOB WITH CREATIVITY SUPPORT but they are also exceptional early literacy teachers. Go here. Stay for K if you can afford it. You are getting a value for your money beyond words. Our new school has a chicken farm and beehive the children tend and an outdoor eco lab in addition to the playground and and indoor pool with weekly lessons for pre-k and K. Glencoe Montessori is so much better than this new school (that is fabulous). My children are grateful, creative, and the one-on-one system at GMS and HPS for reading and pre-reading has saved my daughter's life practically. When you have trouble reading in the higher grades the stress for the child is heartbreaking. When my daughter attended GMS (Sue, Ro, Miriam, Beth) she was unstressed and they had her creating journal entries everyday of kindergarten that were super long and filled with phonetically spelled ideas she was having and she was proud to share her ideas and this was the best way to start out. Reading and writing was exciting for her in these early years of development. Your child deserves this!

The BEST!!! My twin boys attended the extended pre-k program here for the 2016-2017 school year and…read morethey loved it! The teachers, the director (Jenniferand ) and owner (Carol)

I can't say enough about how wonderful our experience with Lulu has been thus far. My teenage son…read morestarted with Lulu and there was an instant connection because Lulu and Oscar (cutest pup ever), make it an amazingly comfortable place to learn. To see my teenage son connect so well with his instructor and watch him excitedly learn to play the piano and have a strong understanding for music, is so exciting and pleasing. Luana carries the patience, knowledge and dedication necessary in a good instructor and we are so lucky to have her!

Luana is an absolute delight to know and has been a wonderful addition to my daughter's life…read more Luana is patient with my daughter and passionate about what she is teaching. She also is committed to making sure my daughter is having fun, feels comfortable and is learning from their time together. In addition to exposing my daughter to a variety of music genres to sing, Luana also has found other opportunities for my daughter's continued growth such as a local theater production or local opera. Luana is professional, organized and well trained herself. My family is fortunate to have found Luana.

I've walked by this store millions of times during my 8+ years in Glencoe and admired the artwork…read more I've also heard it's the place to go if you need something framed or even for kids art classes! I searched all over the North Shore, Chicago and even Sun Valley, Idaho for the perfect painting for my family room. And finally I found it here. It was perfect and also priced fairly. Unlike other gallery owners Michael wasn't willing to negotiate at all on price, but he did hang it for me. Months later I purchased 4 paintings from a local artist and stopped back in to get 3 of them framed by Michael. He took about 2 weeks to frame them and did a beautiful job...and once again hung them and another painting for me. I love supporting local and Michael is a lovely man with gorgeous artwork and impeccable framing/hanging skills so look forward to being a longtime customer.

Recently I shipped artwork to Florida which was packed expertly by, Signature Of Art Services of…read moreGlencoe, in customized containers built to fit each object. Everything arrived in perfect condition. We received outstanding service and highly recommend this beautiful Gallery and the superb packing and shipping services they provide.