The Festival Performance Series was created to provide a showcase of the performing arts. The FPS provides the Kaneland Community the opportunity to see full length, professional quality performances at an affordable price. Ticket prices for these performances are $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens and students , and $23 for the Family Ticket. With the purchase of a Family Ticket, all family members currently living in one household can attend. Please visit this page for more updates regarding FPS events.
Cor Cantiamo, a newly formed choral ensemble, was conceived and initiated by Dr. Eric A. Johnson, esteemed Director of Choral Activities at Northern Illinois University. The ensemble is comprised of professional musicians in the Chicagoland and Northern Illinois area, brought together by a love of fine choral music. The group's vision is to perform contemporary choral compositions of the highest quality and promote the continued creation and success of such compositions and the composers who write them.
With a roster that includes students from Miami to Milwaukee, the NIU Jazz Ensemble has long been considered one of the best college jazz bands in the world. The ensemble performed at the 54th annual Midwest Music Clinic in Chicago with saxophonist Jimmy Heath as the guest artist, and at the 28th annual International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) Conference in New York with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis as the guest artist. During the summer of 2001 the band performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, at the Jazz à Vienne Festival in France, and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The list of guest artists with whom the ensemble has performed includes Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Bellson, Clark Terry, Tito Puente and James Moody, just to name a few.
Lee Murdock has uncovered a boundless body of music and stories in the Great Lakes. There is an amazing timelessness in this music. Great Lakes songs are made of hard word, hard living, ships that go down and ships that come in. The music is grounded in the work song tradition, from the rugged days of lumberjacks and wooden sailing schooners. Murdock comes alongside with ballads of contemporary commerce and revelry in the grand folk style. With a deeper understanding of the folk process, Lee's repertoire combines historical research and contemporary insights. Making folk music for the modern era, Lee Murdock's work is a documentary and also an anthem to the people who live, work, learn and play along the shores of the Great Lakes today.
