Search Interviews

A conversation with Charlotte Bader. This conversation was recorded at the school on July 25th, 2017. Go to www.oldtownschool.org/StoryCorps to hear selected excerpts from interviews collected as part of the StoryCorps-Old Town School partnership.

A conversation between Joe Filisko, blues harmonica player and teacher, and Harlan Terson, touring and teaching bass player. Harlan remarks on his luck to experience the zenith of the blues era and working with several Chicago Blues Legends. Joe remembers...

A conversation between Peggy Lipschutz and Peggy Browning. This conversation was recorded at the school on October 14th, 2017. Go to www.oldtownschool.org/StoryCorps to hear selected excerpts from interviews collected as part of the StoryCorps-Old Town School partnership.

My dad is not a very opened person and I decided to choose him because I would like for him to open up me about his life and what it was like for him growing up.

A interview of interviewee Jessica Perez and her story of one of her great experiences. Made for English II

A conversation between Charles Kim, Guitar and Songwriting teacher at Old Town School since 1999 and Kim Bellware, friend and student. Kim and Charles discuss the effect of YouTube on classes at Old Town School, and how people choose to...

A conversation between Jane Stracke Bradbury and Old Town School documentarian Mareva Lindo. Jane has been present at every incarnation of the school, even before it began. Daughter of Old Town School co-founder Win Stracke, she recalls memories of her...

A conversation between partners and musical collaborators Gregg Ostrom and Tisa Batchelder, who met many years ago at the Old Town School, where they work. They share memories of their first encounters with the school, of their long courtship, and...

She mostly talked about her dad being a very strong man and taking care of her family. Her and her mom watch movies every New Year on her mother’s birthday. Her mother passed away when she was 15 years old....

Mary Jane Anderson discusses her childhood in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago, her work at the Santa Fe Railroad, and her religious and family life.

In my interview with Joseph Wilcox (my father) we discuss many different topics from many different points in my life. We talk about things from what parks he used to play at, to how our family was almost not even...

Old Town School teachers Barb Silverman and Jess McIntosh talk about teaching at the school, experiences as women in a male-dominated music community, and reflections on their friendship over the years. Barb is a clogger and multi-instrumentalist who performs in...

An overview of major events my grandmother remembers while living in Chicago in 1968. She was twenty years old and witnessed many of the terrible and iconic events on the news.

Chicago public employee give her insights.

A conversation between friends, bluegrass musicians and fellow Old Town School coworkers Colby Maddox and John Huber. Colby has been managing the Resource Center and teaching mandolin at the school since 1999. John has been working at the school since...

Lynn shares with Sarah her experience of going to the 1965 Presidential Inauguration, of attending Northwestern in Chicago in 1965-1969 during the campus uprisings, and recognizing the importance of living in diverse places with water roots.

“My childhood was actually great!” In November of 2018, ninth grade student, Olivia Foxman interviewed her grandmother, Shelly Foxman. Olivia learns about Shelly’s admirable  childhood post World War ll. Shelly’s story starts in 1951 in Chicago, but her family's story originates...

In this interview I speak with my dad about how growing up in his family changed him as a person as well as the influence brought onto him by his mother and neighbor. We speak of family traditions, origins from...

This interview was mostly me just asking Ms. Jackson some random question. About her life, growing up, Job, and etc.

Last one!

Ted and Marcia Johnson have been married almost as long as they've been a part of the Old Town School community. They met at an early 1960s anniversary concert for the Old Town School, where Marcia had been taking guitar...

This is the life of my dad who has lived 76 years in Vermont and lived a humble, hardworking life!

My Grandfather, John Grey, has had an interesting upbringing moving from place to place with his family. He was raised as a young child in Chicago Illinois, and later moved to Dallas Texas with his family. In this interview, Me...

Oulimata Sylla, Djibril Cisse, and Patricia Carlin, talk about Ouli’s recent arrival from Senegal to finally be reunited with her husband.

Don Anderson discusses his childhood growing up in Chicago, what he is grateful for, and what kind of legacy he will leave to his children and grandchildren.