Aria Nouveau will present the next Maple Leaf Community Concert Series event at 7PM, October 29, in the Kasch Performance Hall of Monmouth College's Dahl Chapel and Auditorium
MONMOUTH, ILLINOIS (October 23, 2025) — Up for a good challenge? No less than four concerts are on tap in the Kasch Performance Hall of Monmouth College's Dahl Chapel and Auditorium during a ten-day span from October 24 through November 2. Can you attend them all?
Leading off the events is the college's Wind Ensemble, under the direction of music professor Justin Swearinger. The group will present its annual fall concert at 7:30PM, October 24.
Three more concerts in Dahl will be held in the following days, including the next Maple Leaf Community Concert Series event at 7PM, October 29, as well as a high-school honor band concert at 7PM, October 30, and a Monmouth Civic Orchestra concert at 3PM, November 2.
Three of the concerts are free and open to the public. Individual and membership tickets for the Maple Leaf concert series can be purchased at the Buchanan Center for the Arts in downtown Monmouth or at the door.
Two of Wind Ensemble's major selections will be "Unbroken," which Swearinger said explores "mental-health struggles and how families navigate that," and a work by Illinois composer Roy Magnuson. With its proximity to Halloween, the concert will also feature an H P Lovecraft-inspired work.
The community concert series continues with Aria Nouveau, a pair of classical vocalists who transport audiences on a journey through crossover hits, Broadway blockbusters, mainstream opera favorites, and popular music in an elegant and artful evening perfect for music lovers of all ages.
Artists such as Sarah Brightman, Josh Groban, and Andrea Bocelli pioneered the "classical crossover" genre, where elements of pop and opera seamlessly blend into a lush landscape of soaring vocals, rich orchestrations, and unbridled emotion, and that's the type of performance the MLCCS audience can expect from singers Laura Auer and John Riesen.
The following day, the culminating event of a full day of music for area band students on Monmouth's campus will be their public performance.
The flurry of concerts will conclude when Rich Cangro directs the Monmouth Civic Orchestra in an afternoon event that will celebrate the music from Italy, featuring music by Verdi, Respighi, Caccini, Morricone, and the Concerto for Two Trumpets by Vivaldi, with Nicole Gillotti and Rebecca Hari on trumpet.
