COOK- At a recent gathering in a Chicago home, the usual rhythm of a high-end arts fundraiser gave way to something different.
There were no tuxedos. No hushed auction paddles. No carefully staged gala program.
Instead, there were pasties, hotdish, and the sound of two North Woods musicians seated side by side at a piano, each on their own bench, bringing the story of a small-town library to life more than 500 miles from home.
The event, hosted by Chicago residents JD Miller and his husband Mike Aden, raised $12,000 for the Friends of the Cook Public Library, which continues to rebuild after the devastating 2024 flood.
At the center of the evening were two familiar figures in the Cook arts community, retired music teacher Bailey Conger and retired librarian Marjie Miller, whose piano duet program, “Ink and Ivory,” weaves together literature and music and has helped support the library’s recovery since 2024.
The collaboration grew out of years of shared involvement in local church music and a long-simmering idea to combine literature and music into a single performance.
For JD Miller, the connection to Cook is rooted in childhood trips north, including time spent fishing on Lake Vermilion with his aunt, Marjie Miller, and his uncle.
“She’s been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember,” Miller said. “Really encouraging music, exploration, reading, all of that.”
That connection helped shape the Chicago event.
“Mike and I said, you know, we do that stuff here in Chicago all the time. Let’s see if anyone’s interested in it,” he said. “We started telling the story, and everyone just got really passionate about the music, the library connection, the importance of the flood, and that’s how we put it together.”
“People are used to boring, stuffy, black-tie events, and when we said we were going to have pasties and hot dish, it really caught people’s imagination,” he said.
That contrast played out as a crowd of 43 gathered in the couple’s home for “Ink and Ivory.”
But the program’s name, it turns out, could have gone in a very different direction.
“Somebody told us to call ourselves Two Butts on a Bench… thank God we got away from that,” Marjie Miller said, laughing.
Miller said the concept behind the program resonated most with Chicago guests.
“It’s such a cool idea, the way they connect music and books. Every song ties back to a story, and people really respond to that,” JD Miller said.
For Conger, the program had been years in the making.
Conger said the idea dates back nearly a decade, when the Friends of the Cook Public Library was looking to raise money and build membership.
“I started thinking about what I could do,” she said. “I’m not much of a knitter or a quilter, but I read a lot and I play the piano, and I thought we can do something with that.”
She turned to her longtime friend Marjie Miller, but the idea sat for years.
“It really took us a good eight years to get it off the ground,” she said. “When the flood came in 2024, I told her, we’re either going to do it or we’re putting it to bed. I said, I think this is the time.”
Since then, the pair has performed the program for free in churches and community settings across the region, asking only for donations to the Friends of the Cook Public Library.
At the heart of the evening was the dynamic between the two performers.
“Bailey’s sort of the straight man, and Marjie is sort of the quirky librarian. That resonates really, really well,” JD Miller said.
That chemistry was evident as the pair moved between storytelling and music, guiding the audience through selections tied to works ranging from classic literature to modern musical theater.
“You could make eye contact with people, and they were looking back at us and listening, they were listening,” Marjie Miller said. “One lady in the front row was crying because she was so moved.”
That spirit carried into the gift baskets the pair brought from northern Minnesota.
“We brought six different baskets filled with goods from northern Minnesota, and we gave those out as door prizes,” Conger said.
The baskets included local products, books, Dorothy Molter root beer, and a church cookbook, which proved to be a favorite of one attendee.
“The fellow who got that basket was most excited to get the cookbook, because he collects church cookbooks,” Conger said.
For Miller, those details helped set the tone.
“It gave people a real sense of authenticity,” he said.
“We call it our Cook connection… how connected Cook can be to all of these things,” Conger said.
One connection at the performance was especially meaningful for Conger, that with former student Trevor Nicholas, a 2004 Cook High School graduate who went on to become an award-winning choral music teacher at Chicago’s Senn High School before recently entering a doctoral program at Northwestern University.
During the trip, Conger spent a day with Nicholas at Northwestern, touring campus and participating in a class on music in community, where she shared her perspective as a retired educator.
“It just felt good to be on a campus. It was like full circle to be there with my former student,” she said.
Back in Cook, the impact of their performances continues to build. Combined with earlier events, Conger and Miller say their efforts have raised nearly $19,000 for the Friends of the Cook Public Library.
For Marjie Miller, the experience has been both surprising and deeply meaningful.
“If you could say to me, what is one word to describe how you feel about all of it, I will tell you, I am humbled,” she said. “It’s just humbling, humbling, humbling.”