Illinois Wesleyan will celebrate the inauguration of its 18th president at Light the Night, a gala event featuring three different bands with Illinois Wesleyan faculty and staff as well as a series of musical theatre performances by students.
Light the Night will be held in the Memorial Center beginning at 8 p.m. Refreshments will be served.
The three bands performing are:
• Frontera, performing Latin American and Caribbean music and featuring Cecilia Sanchez, adjunct instructor in Hispanic Studies. Frontera was founded in the early 1990s by Sanchez and Carlos Parodi in order to bring the sounds and rhythms of Latin American and Caribbean music to the audiences of Central Illinois. Over the past five years, the group's repertoire has included salsas, merengues, cumbias, plenas, boleros and Cuban melodies. The addition of the violin and the conga to traditional keyboard, vocals, and percussion elements has allowed the group to demonstrate the unique nature of each of these genres in particularly expressive ways.
• Bloomsday, a Celtic band featuring Chris Callahan, associate professor of French. Bloomsday, named after the Irish holiday of June 16th, has been playing in the Central Illinois area since 2001. Performing "Traditional Celtic Music and Then Some," the five-member band has a fairly extensive repertoire of pub songs, ballads, reels, jigs and polkas, and, according to Callahan, “devotes quite a bit attention to fashioning our own arrangements.” For additional details, see the Bloomsday Web site.
• Knights of Crisis, a classic rock band featuring Jim Dougan, associate professor of psychology, and Fred Miller, associate vice president of information technology. The Knights of Crisis formed when a few members of the band met while attending a function at their children's school. According to the band's Web site, “What started as an excuse to play some music and drink a few has grown into some serious fun.” For additional information, including music downloads, go to the Knights of Crisis Web site.
In addition, Tom Ossowkoski will directs students from the School of Theatre Arts in scenes from musical when the bands are between sets.
