Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 2023 Thanksgiving edition of Now Playing. As you give those thanks on Thanksgiving Day proper, don’t forget to give a shout out, however humble, to all of the musicians, venues, fans and participants in general that make our music community the vibrant and scintillating scene it is. As usual, […]
Music Features
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Friday music rules
With a few weeks of November 2023 under our belts, the time is slipping by like a cool fall stream in the autumn woods as we approach the midpoint of the month. Be on the lookout for Thanksgiving next Thursday, which means a big party night on Wednesday plus a lot of things to do […]
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Remember this November music
What a week of warm weather for November, and with it comes a collection of hot music done by some very cool people as our scene continues to bloom with talent and events. Let’s take a gander at what’s happening around town this weekend. By commemorating Veterans Day on Friday, Nov. 10, we’ve managed to […]
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Hello November music
It’s hard to believe – or maybe it isn’t – that we are into the first weekend of November 2023. We sneaked through October with some warmer-than-usual weather, allowing for pleasant enough outdoor music activities for longer-than-normal, but the time for cessation of most live music outdoors is here. Nevertheless, our intrepid readers know that […]
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Illinois Symphony launches a new season
When Maestro Ken Lam announced in May 2022 that he would be leaving after five years as music director of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra to accept a prestigious job at the Juilliard School in China, the conductor’s timing was off. The news arrived too close to the start of the 2022-2023 concert season for the […]
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Meet Maestro Taichi Fukumura, the first candidate, this weekend
Taichi Fukumura has strong ties to Illinois. The season’s first candidate, who will be conducting the concerts this Friday and Saturday in Springfield and Bloomington, spent much of his early career in Chicago. “I was there for seven years or eight years – I’ve lost count,” he said. He had initially moved to the Windy […]
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October-ized music
While we work our way through the month of October, the outdoor gigs are getting the cold shoulder as we begin to drift indoors to the warm embrace of manufactured heat and creature comforts. Let’s see what we can find going on in the scene. First, I’d like to jump ahead to Sunday, Oct. 29, […]
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Springfield rocks on
Central Illinois contains a definite rock connection, ranging from early garage band days to producing superstar groups. Nowadays the music world is splintered into many factions but this weekend the rockin’ returns full blast with plenty of heavy hitters hitting the scene, just by chance of the calendar. While we’re messing with Springfield rock music […]
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Music in the garden, on the shores and at the Hoogland
Welcome to our first full weekend of October as we find ourselves in the midst of fall flings, autumnal outings, Oktoberfest-erings and all such things that happen as we finish out the year of outdoor festivals and begin to consider the approaching cooler weather. So let’s get out while we can and enjoy all the […]
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September music moves
Here we are wrapping up another month of mighty music-making as we slip on into October for the year of 20 & 23 or the Year of the Rabbit in Chinese culture or 5784 in the recently started Jewish new year. But all that matters not, for we are not here to do a thing […]
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Much to do with music
As we roll along into the last full weekend of September (Oct. 1 is a week from Sunday), let’s get outside while we can to enjoy the last of the year’s under the sky gigs, while preparing ourselves for the upcoming colder weather and inside shows to come. On Thursday, the Moving Pillsbury Forward group […]
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Mid-September music-making
Off we go to imbibe the music made in our fair city and surrounding towns this weekend. The festivals and fairs are winding down, but the bars, wineries and breweries are still going strong as we gallop through the year. Let’s take a gander at where to wander for the fun stuff happening around here. […]
