DeKalb Municipal Band to pay tribute to Jan Bach

The DeKalb Municipal Band will open the 2021 summer concert season with “A Tribute to Jan Bach” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 8, at the Dee Palmer Band Shell in Hopkins Park, 1403 Sycamore Road in DeKalb. The band is under the direction of Kirk Lundbeck.

Jan Bach was an award-winning composer, who wrote for virtually every live medium of vocal and instrumental performance over his career. His music has been recognized with numerous composition awards and grants since 1957 when, at the age of 19, he won the BMI Student Composers first prize. He also won the New York City Opera competition, First International Brass Congress, and Nebraska Sinfonia chamber orchestra competition.

Six of Bach’s compositions were recommended for the Pulitzer Prize in music; a CD featuring one of his works was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2018.

Bach taught at Northern Illinois University’s School of Music for 38 years. Originally hired to teach French horn, Bach taught music theory and composition there from 1966 to 2004, during which he received the Excellence in Teaching Award (1978) and a Presidential Research Professorship grant (1982), and was nominated six times for the national CASE Professor of the Year award.

Bach earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in composition from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. As associate first horn in the U. S. Army Band (1962-1965), Bach had the honor of playing for President John F. Kennedy’s funeral. Bach played French horn with the DeKalb Municipal Band for three decades.

Bach died at his home in DeKalb in October 2020. A scholarship fund has been established in his memory through NIU at https://foundation.myniu.com/give.php.

Joining the band for the first concert is one of many local favorites, Terri Crain-Goodman. She will perform “The Man I Love,” “The Way He Makes Me Feel” and “Tonight.”

A Sycamore native, soprano Goodman graduated from Sycamore High School in 1982 and earned degrees in vocal music and music education from NIU. Goodman taught K-12 general and choral music and directed theater in the Mt. Morris, Oregon and Sycamore school districts for 26 years. Even after leaving teaching music in schools, Goodman continues to maintain a private voice studio and is currently the PR specialist at Bill White’s C.A.R. Hospital.

Goodman is active in theater, having directed, music directed, produced and held starring roles in numerous plays and musicals over the past 40 years. She has worked with theater groups from Naperville, Wheaton, Freeport, Dixon and Sycamore and was honored in 2014 to be a SCOTY Award recipient from Stage Coach Players in DeKalb. Goodman serves on the Stage Coach Marketing Committee and is cast in the role of Mrs. Lovett in the upcoming October production of “Sweeney Todd.”

Other musical selections on Tuesday’s program include “Bombasto,” “American Overture for Band,” “Praetoris Suite,” “March in Dee,” “Chicago the Musical,” “Nobles of the Mystic Shrine,” “Glenn Miller in Concert,” “La Danza,” “Pizzicato Polka” and “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Admission is free; bench seating is available or bring a lawn chair or blanket. Follow social distancing guidelines of 6 feet apart and wear a mask when this is not possible.

For more information about the band or to donate to “Help the Band Play On,” visit www.dekalbmunicipalband.com. Visit the band’s Facebook page for up-to-the-minute happenings and to learn of any weather cancellations.