For hundreds of Eastern Iowans, Drum Corps was a foundational teenage experience. Cedar Rapids fielded a top-notch ensemble called the Emerald Knights for decades. Emerald Knights alums and other drum corps supporters team up each year to bring some of the world’s top drum corps to Cedar Rapids for the Tournament of Drums. This year, …
Riverside Theatre presents “Everybody,” a play where the actors don’t know who is playing which part until after they cast lots right before the show begins! This is a new work by acclaimed playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, which riffs off a 15th Century work. In addition to the conceit of assigning roles literally at the last …
Steve Shanley has stuffed just about as many soloists into this week’s Cedar Rapids Municipal Band concert as he can, including Chris Haas on trumpet, Young Artist finalist Christian Maakestad on guitar, and even Steve’s sister Sara on piccolo. Selections include music from the musical “Wicked” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” July 19 at …
Culture Crawl 836 “Drawn to Iowa in the Middle of July” Ryan Jeter is the founding sax player of Euforquestra, who moved back to Iowa a few years ago. He has recently formed a new group, Mind@Large, with Jay Foote, a bassist who also recently moved back to Des Moines. The mission of Mind@Large is …
“It’s going to be a good one,” says Steve Shanley on week six of the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band’s 2023 season. Ryan Smith will be featured with a classical saxophone solo and the band will present a challenging piece by Valerie Coleman that mixes styles from Latin jazz to Turkish music. Other selections this week …
Larry Baker managed and owned movie theaters in Oklahoma before moving to Iowa and writing novels. His seventh book, “Harry & Sue,” takes place in just such a theater, populated by a variety of ghosts you will know, such as Marilyn Monroe, Harry Chapin, Mark Twain, Patsy, Cline, and Harry Houdini. But the ghosts, particularly …
Community Concert organizations were created in the 1930s, as smaller communities worked to bring musicians and entertainers to towns of all sizes, not just big cities. The Cedar Rapids Community Concert Association has been doing that very thing for 93 years. Board member John Haack says because the group is all-volunteer, they can keep ticket …
This is arguably the biggest week of the year for Cedar Rapids Municipal Band, as the patriotic-themed concerts around Independence Day are always popular. But Muni Band director Steve Shanley says the program will not only include expected favorites like America The Beautiful (featuring the Cedar Rapids Concert Chorale), Stars & Stripes Forever, and Armed …
