43rd Annual Concert Season: 2019-2020

All public concerts are held in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall of the Music Building at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.  See map of location

Ticket information is available here.

Program notes for the concerts of October 12, February 22, and May 2 will be available here.

Most of the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra (KSO) concerts will be available as radio broadcasts on WNIU (90.5 FM) after the concert dates. These broadcasts are part of the WNIU 7:00 p.m. Monday Encore series, as listed ​here​.

Love is in the Air

Saturday, October 12, 2019, 7:30 p.m.

Vorspiel und Liebestod from the opera “Tristan und Isolde,” by Richard Wagner
Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra in D Major, Kr. 172, by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
          Alex Hanna, soloist
Symphony No. 2 in D flat Major, Op. 30 (“Romantic”), by Howard Hanson

Location: NIU Boutell Memorial Concert Hall

This concert is supported in part by the Kishwaukee Symphony Associates.

There will be a free pre-concert talk by the Music Director, in a room near the Concert Hall, at 6:30 p.m.

Halloween Concerts

Tuesday, October 29, 2019, 5:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

Location: NIU Boutell Memorial Concert Hall

The KSO will present its annual free concert of music with a theme appropriate for children and adults.  The 5:30 concert will be repeated at 7:30, and there will be trick-or-treating in the building a half hour before the 5:30 concert.

Children’s Concert

Thursday, November 21, 2019, 10:00 a.m.

Location: Egyptian Theatre, DeKalb

Each year, the KSO presents a concert, not open to the general public, that is specifically for students and their teachers invited from elementary schools and middle schools in our region.

Supported by the Farny R. Wurlitzer Foundation.
Busing of District 428 students supported by Kishwaukee Kiwanis and by Tracy Nunnally of Vertigo™.

Winter Wonderland

Friday, December 13, 2019, 7:00 p.m.
and
Sunday, December 15, 2019, 2:00 p.m.

(A season ticket for this concert may be used on either of these two dates.)

Location: NIU Boutell Memorial Concert Hall

The KSO will warm your heart with music of the holiday season. Many holiday favorites are part of this traditional family concert.

Supported in part by the George E. and Betty B. Dutton Foundation.

Arthur D. Montzka Young Artists Concerto Competition

Saturday, January 4, 2020, 10:00 a.m. – 2:45 p.m.

Location: NIU Boutell Memorial Concert Hall

This is a live annual competition for instrumentalists up to the age of 18 years. It open to the public at no admission charge. Each performer, with a piano accompanist, will play one or more movements of a solo concerto, or an appropriate one-movement composition, that is written for orchestral accompaniment, the performance time not to exceed 15 minutes. Audience members may arrive and leave during any of the brief breaks between the 15-minute performances. The competition winner, as determined by a panel of judges, will receive a cash award and perform as soloist with the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra in its concert at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 22, 2020.

The schedule of performances for the January 4 competition will be found here.

Arthur D. Montzka Memorial Concert

Saturday, February 22, 2020, 7:30 p.m.

Mazeppa, S. 100, by Franz Liszt
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major, Op. 61, by Ludwig van Beethoven
     Isabella Brown, soloist; Young Artist Concerto Competition winner
Czech Suite in D Major, Op. 39, by Antonín Dvořák

Location: NIU Boutell Memorial Concert Hall

Supported in part by the Farny R. Wurlitzer Foundation Fund of the DeKalb County Community Foundation

There will be a free pre-concert talk by the Music Director, in a room near the Concert Hall, at 6:30 p.m.

Spring Pops Concert

Saturday, March 7, 2020, 7:30 p.m.

The Blue Danube Waltz, Op. 314, by Johann Strauss II
Symphony No. 5, by Gustav Mahler

Location: NIU Boutell Memorial Concert Hall

Supported in part by the Ideal Industries Foundation, with a generous gift from Jean Juday.

There will be a free pre-concert talk by the Music Director, in a room near the Concert Hall, at 6:30 p.m.

Note: Changes in programs, dates, times, and location of concerts will be posted at this website.