Cor Cantiamo, Northern Illinois University Ensemble in Residence will receive a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. NEA Acting Chairman Mary Anne Carter has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the Arts Endowment’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2019. Included in this announcement is the Art Works grant of $10,000to Cor Cantiamo for a commissioning project with acclaimed composer Libby Larsen. Art Works is the Arts Endowment’s principal grantmaking program. The agency received 1,592 Art Works applications for this round of grantmaking, and will award 977 grants in this category. (more…)
Al O’Connor, a longtime professor of music, and the founder of the world-famous NIU Steelband, passed away June 9 in DeKalb at the age of 75. A memorial visitation will be held Friday, August 2, at First Lutheran Church in DeKalb from 4-6 p.m., and a musical celebration of his life will be held Saturday, August 3, at 3 p.m. in Boutell Memorial Concert Hall in the Music Building on the NIU main campus.
Cheryl Porter, a Chicago native who studied opera in the NIU School of Music from 1990-1995, went to Italy in 1996 to “further [her] studies in music and opera.” She tells Public Radio International’s Carol Hills that she had no idea there was “so much love for gospel and jazz and R&B” in Italy. (more…)
Renowned jazz guitarist Bobby Broom has been appointed assistant professor of music in the Northern Illinois University School of Music. He will teach jazz guitar and improvisation in the school’s Jazz Studies Program. (more…)
Music performance major Tyrique McNeal describes the happiness he feels being able to study music at NIU.
