Music Features

What promises to be an exciting, transitional season for the Illinois Symphony Orchestra got underway Friday at the UIS Performing Arts Center with Maestro Rei Hotoda presiding over an exciting and ambitious evening of music, crowned by a towering performance from guest soloist Itamar Zorman. Hotoda is the first of several guest conductors this season, […]

Do you remember the old CB radio craze days and how we learned to say things like “10-4, good buddy,” and “breaker breaker”? Well, I couldn’t pass on the “What’s your 10-20?” phrase since it matched this Thursday’s date, so here we go with a bunch of locations (the 10-20 code meaning) for live music […]

No need to beware these Ides, for they come complete with good tidings of excellent live music simply there for you to enjoy. All that is needed is for said “you” to get out and participate in a number (or just one) of the many musical moments happening this week around town. First, allow me […]

Don’t look now, but summer is over and autumn has arrived, and with cool temperatures by wondrous ways of the weather. You may need to bundle up for outdoor events as we weave toward the end of the season, but you can tell yourself (and others) that you are cool, for real. Now let’s see […]

So here we go, busting off the rails through the final days of September 2022 into the beginning of October with a fun-filled, split weekend with plenty of live music to bring it all home. We can hop aboard the gig train (it’s on time) for the weekend and catch a couple of cool acts […]

Dive right on into our observations and distillations of the Springfield music scene to find what you can on our voyage of discovery and adventure. This week sadly brings mourning for a great friend and fellow musician in our small part of the world, along with an assortment of things to do involving live music […]

Now here we go, approaching mid-September already like this year’s in a hurry or something. Maybe we’re just making up for lost pandemic time, but whatever the case may be, here we are ready to see and hear what the week has to offer in music entertainment on the Springfield scene. First and foremost, let’s […]

Here we go on our adventures in music-making for the second full weekend of September for 2022. I suppose we are officially into the fall season now following Labor Day (I put away almost all of my white outfits), but there’s still plenty of time and fine temperatures to enjoy outdoor activities, especially those involving […]

Well, we made it to Labor Day 2022 and the holiday weekend attached fairly unscathed from the bustling summer music schedule. Now let’s move forward with eyes and ears wide open to catch all the bountiful music bursting onto our local scene with verve and gusto, plus some good, old-fashioned fun in the sun. This […]

Now that the 2022 Illinois State Fair is in the rearview mirror, we can turn our attention back to the local scene without interruption from the large, but fairly pleasant, north-end ruckus. I spy the most consistently popular downtown festival, plenty of offshoots from the fest and an assortment of music-making goodies going on around […]

Good day, fellow travelers and a hearty welcome to you as we pass on through more time and space to discover what’s going on in the Springfield music scene. This week the live tunes landscape continues to be dominated by the happenings at the Illinois State Fair, but there’s a fair amount of fine stuff […]

Here we go again into the wondrous world of the Illinois State Fair. If there’s another singular annual event that impacts Springfield and surrounding areas more, I am at a loss to even venture a guess as to what it could be. From temporary one-way roads to parking in yards, late night action to early […]