A Summer Soundscape - Midwest Big Band at Memorial Opera House

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A Summer Soundscape

Midwest Big Band featuring Mary Kay Steele & Jim Bulanda

Saturday, June 17, 2023 • 8:00pm

Big band music of the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s has gifted American culture with arguably the greatest love songs on the charts. Listening to the crooning of “Rat Pack” members Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Bing Crosby, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop on the radio was enough to melt any icy heart until it skipped a beat to the thrill of a saxophone. Band leaders like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller drew crowds and bridged racial divides through the love language of swing.

For the past three years, this professional quality, historical, 18-piece big band has been thrilling audiences across Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland with their world-class talent. Instrumentalists include the best semi-professionals in the Region, some of whom have toured professionally with Ray Charles, played freelance in Los Angeles, or taught music at the high school and college levels. Local vocalists Mary Kay Steele from La Porte, who has performed in community theater in Northwest Indiana for many years, along with Jim Bulanda, who is famous for his “Tribute to Frank Sinatra Show,” have joined the band to style the jazz standards.