Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

U. of I. Concert Jazz Band to present spring concert April 30

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Jazz fans in the Champaign-Urbana area are accustomed to hearing University of Illinois musicians performing around town in small ensembles virtually every night of the week. It’s rare, though, for audiences to hear all the top players perform together on the same stage.

Fans will get that chance April 30 (Saturday) when the U. of I. Concert Jazz Band presents its annual spring concert at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana.

Chip McNeill, chair of jazz studies, said the group will play compositions and arrangements written by the band’s own members, including selections from the band’s latest CD, “Freeplay.” Several of these tunes have garnered awards from the Downbeat Student Awards, ASCAP and the Jazz Education Network.

The band also will perform original arrangements written for jazz vocal major Olivia Flanigan, who will be featured in the concert.

The Concert Jazz Band is the university’s premiere jazz ensemble and features graduate and undergraduate students who are jazz majors in the jazz division of the School of Music.

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Studio Theatre of Krannert Center. For ticket information, go to www.krannertcenter.com or call 217-333-9714.

Read Next

Health and medicine Life sciences Veterinary medicine Two men in a lab. The seated man holds a hologram projection of a brain.

Mutation increases enzyme in mouse brains linked to schizophrenia behaviors

Researchers found a key role for an enzyme regulating glycine in the brain while investigating a rare genetic mutation found in two patients with schizophrenia.

Honors A photo collage featuring all three Sloan Fellowship awardees.

Three Illinois professors named Sloan Research Fellows

Three Illinois scientists are among 126 recipients of the 2025 Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. According to the foundation, the awardees represent “the very best of early-career science, embodying the creativity, ambition, and rigor that drive discovery forward.” This year’s Illinois recipients are chemistry professors Angad Mehta and Lisa Olshansky, and materials science and engineering professor Yingjie Zhang.

Life sciences Graphic with the title "42nd Insect Fear Film Festival" in a scary font and with a picture of a tarantula.

Insect Fear Film Festival to feature ‘hairy, scary’ tarantulas

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The 2025 Insect Fear Film Festival at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will feature “Tarantulas: Hairy, Scary Spiders” as its theme and a Hollywood bug wrangler who works with the 8-legged creatures as a special guest. The festival, which is hosted by the Entomology Graduate Student Association and is in its 42nd […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010