Trumpeter John Daversa and pianist Tal Cohen are back in Eastern Iowa as faculty for the annual Cedar Rapids Chamber Music Festival, June 26-30 on the Kirkwood campus. They’ll bookend their week here with two “Art of Duo” shows, June 25 at CSPS Hall, and July 1 at the Sound Conservatory in Rock Island. Five …
Steve Shanley, after being out of the country for the first two weeks of the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band season, picks up his baton this week for a program that features his friend and mentor David Lang on euphonium. Also, music from Disney’s “Brave,” a Phantom of the Opera medley, and a song with the …
Cedar Rapids Opera brings two comedies to the Brucemore outdoor stage June 22-24, “American Gothical,” a delightful take on the creation of Grant Wood’s masterpiece, from the pen of Cedar Rapids native and award-winning composer Robert Lindsay Nassif, and Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi,” in which a family must enlist the help of a scoundrel to help …
Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler Mondays from 6:00pm to 10:00pm Miroslav Vitous’s ECM Years, Show #1 Host Craig Kessler spins a batch of excellent selections from Miroslav Vitous’s 13-plus ECM recordings. We’ll hear the bassist with the likes of Chick Corea, Roy Haynes, Jack DeJohnette, John McLaughlin, and many others. …
Hey, Jazz fans! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of saxmen Joe Thomas, Jerry Jerome and Sahib Shihab, singers Helen Humes and Dave Lambert, bassists Milt Hinton and Jamil Nasser, pianist/composers Lalao Schifrin and Arturo O’Farrill and more! We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of “The Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis …
Culture Crawl 828 “Jazz Titans Walk into the Studio” Gabriel Espinoza celebrates his latest album “Bosses & Boleros” with a Cedar Rapids performance on June 23 at the inaugural Jazz on 2nd. Gabriel talks about how a Yucatan native ended up as professor of jazz at Iowa’s Central College, and also the joy (and nerves) …
Riverside Theatre’s Free Outdoor Shakespeare series returns this summer with “Twelfth Night,” one of The Bard’s best-known comedies, spinning a tale of mistaken identity, romance, revenge and other hijinks. Adam Knight and Kathleen Johnson say make sure to come at 6:30 for the “Green Show,” kind of a condensed version of the play to help …
Dennis Green was present for the very first July 4 fireworks display in downtown Cedar Rapids, which over the past 40 years has grown into the 3-week Freedom Festival celebration. Freedom Festival celebrates its big birthday with the return of some old favorite events, plus some new ones, including Jazz on 2nd, the Festival’s first …
