Local singer, actress solos with band Thursday

The sixth concert of the Kankakee Municipal Band will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Don Palzer Bandshell in Bird Park and will feature songs from Broadway and Kankakee's distant, frontier past.

Harold Huber directs the municipal band.

The vocalist will be Karla Sampson, a graduate of Illinois State University where she was the recipient of the Gertrude Erbe Memorial Music Education award.

She taught vocal music in the Central schools at Clifton from 1985-1987, at which time she "retired" from teaching to return to school full-time. She received a degree in physical therapy and is employed by Riverside Home Health Care as a licensed physical therapist's assistant.

She has appeared in numerous Kankakee Valley Theatre productions, including "The Sound of Music," "Nunsense," "Into the Woods" and "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?" She has also directed music for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" for KVT, and "Rags" and "Bugsy Malone" for Young People's Theatre.

She has been director of music at St. Anne Presbyterian Church, St. John United Church of Christ and currently is music director at Trinity United Methodist Church in Kankakee.

She most recently was a soloist for "Mozart's Requiem" this winter with the Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra, as well as at the July Fourth Pops concert.

She has been an IHSA and IESA adjudicator for local music solo/ensemble and organizational contests for more than 15 years and was a member of the Iroquois County Fair Talent Show Committee for several years. She has also been a soloist for Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School's annual "Do-It-Yourself" Messiah for many years.

Karla is a native of Crescent City and lives in Kankakee with her husband, Kavin, also a well-known area musician, and their "furry" children.

During the band concert intermission, the Theatiki Fife and Drum Corps, led by Dave King, will perform.

This talented group, dedicated to the preservation of 18th-century music, was formed in June of 2001 to commemorate the early French influence along the Theatiki River. They celebrate French and American history through the performance of ancient folk and martial music. Their 18th-century attire and authentic wooden fifes and wooden rope-tensioned drums add visual and musical appeal to their performances. The corps' music dates back to the period of both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. Kankakee is celebrating its history this year. The city and the county are 150 years old.

Here is Thursday's program:

"Star Spangled Banner" -- Key/Sousa

March "Grandioso" -- Seitz/Reed

"Russian Sailors' Dance" -- Gliere/Leidzen

"Looney Tunes" Overture -- arr. Holcombe

Selections from "The Sound of Music" -- Rodgers/Bennett (guest vocalist Karla Sampson)

"The Sound of Music"

"How Can Love Survive"

"The Lonely Goatherd"

"Sixteen, Going on Seventeen"

"So Long, Farewell"

"Do, Re, Mi"