After a mere two rehearsals last weekend, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra (QCSO) treated roughly 7,000 audience members to a smart, polished Holiday Pops concert Saturday at The Mark. Joining the QCSO’s 82 musicians were 109 singers from the Davenport First Presbyterian Church Sanctuary Choir, a 97-voice children’s chorus, 22 members of the Figure Skating Club of the Quad Cities, and jazz quintet The Hot Club of San Francisco – a rather grand total of 315 performers.
Anybody expecting a big expansion for the Future Appletree record label is likely to be disappointed. The bands obviously hope to make a big splash, but the label itself is trying to keep things intimate. "It started as a thing among friends, and with the exception of A Is Jump, it's pretty much stayed that way," said Pat Stolley, one of the label's founders and a member of The Marlboro Chorus.
• Stubbs the Zombie, an upcoming new video game, takes players back to the good ol' zombie-killing days of the late 1950s, collecting modern acts time-traveling as well, covering early pop-rock classics for the modern age on the accompanying soundtrack.
• A terrific new charity CD is due next week, benefiting refugee assistance in Sudan's humanitarian crisis. Entitled Genocide in Sudan, the Waxploitation Records release features contributions from an amazing array of socially conscious artists, including Tom Morello's Nightwatchmen, Tweaker with Will Oldham, Danger Mouse with Murs, and DJ Spooky with Lee "Scratch" Perry.
Quad City Symphony Orchestra Conductor Donald Schleicher promised us a “night of beauty, elegance, and gorgeous melody” this past Saturday, November 6, at the Adler Theatre. He, the Quad City Symphony, and guest oboist Robert Atherholt delivered just that at the symphony’s second classical series concert of the season.
Twenty years after it first raised awareness and funds for African famine relief, the Band Aid Trust is active again, preparing to re-record the mother of all benefit projects, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" later this week with Bono of U2; members of Morcheeba, Coldplay, Travis, and Supergrass; Sir Paul McCartney; Dido; Robbie Williams; and Snow Patrol, with guitar power via The Darkness.
In this day and age, making music is easy. What's hard is getting somebody to pay attention. "Anybody with a computer can make music," said Jeff Konrad, the founder of the Rock Island-based Radical Turf record label.
Eddie Henderson, one of today's top and most original jazz trumpet players, joins one of today's best jazz bands when he performs on Friday with the Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble at North Scott High School in Eldridge.
• The "ignorance is bliss" mentality of SpongeBob SquarePants turned the freckle-cheeked barnacle into the prince of the Nickelodeon television network, but in two weeks he graduates to the big time with his own feature-length motion picture.
Political enlightenment is the buzz for this coming Tuesday, as three new CDs hope you swing by your favorite record store after voting your conscience. Virgin Records is releasing a eMOTIVe, a collection of politically minded covers by A Perfect Circle, featuring a bonus DVD and a limited edition with a bonus T-shirt.

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