Symphonic Band

Symphonic Band

Auditorium Theatre

Performance Location:

Our 40th anniversary concert will be performed at the beautiful Auditorium Theatre.

Located just a few blocks from the host hotel at

50 East Ida B. Wells Drive,
Chicago, IL 60605

The Auditorium Theatre has a past that follows the path of Chicago’s history, from the Great Chicago Fire and World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 to the great rock and roll era of the 1960s and 1970s to the present. From opera to hip-hop, from political conventions to sporting events, the Auditorium Theatre has played a role in the lives of Chicago citizens for 130 years.

Schedule:

You can find the schedule HERE

Music:

Music selections will be announced later in the year. There will be two world premier commission pieces for this concert!
Music will be emailed directly to you in April. You can see what part you’re playing by visiting this spreadsheet. We will split the band into 2 full symphonic bands. Each band will play half the concert and get to enjoy listening to the other half!

Concert Dress:

Concert dress is concert black. Formalwear is encouraged. If you have a tux that you’d like to wear with a white shirt you’re welcome to but you must keep your jacket on. No Jeans or gym shoes. 

Symphonic Band Artistic Leadership

Kyle Rhoades
Kyle Rhoades holds a Bachelor’s Degree of Music Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master’s Degree of Music Education from VanderCook College of Music. His conducting influences and teachers include Professors Craig Kirchhoff, Mallory Thompson, Peter Griffin, H. Robert Reynolds, Charlie Menghini, and Joseph Manfredo. As a trumpet player, Mr. Rhoades performs regularly with the Northshore Concert Band, and has performed with the Wheaton Municipal Band, the Prairie Brass Band, and Mariachi Fenix of the University of Chicago. In addition to performing, he is also a high school and middle school band director, music theory teacher, choral accompanist, and musical producer in School District 401. As a music arranger and wedding musician, Mr. Rhoades has prepared more than 60 pieces for brass quintet as well as pieces for Concert Band, Marching Band, and Pep Band. In addition to the arrangements he’s created for his own students, Mr. Rhoades has been commissioned to arrange pieces for the West Towns Barbershop Chorus, Downers Grove North Bands, and the Chancel Ringers Handbell Choir of the Downers Grove First United Methodist Church. Symphonic Band Artistic Director since Winter 2008.
Photo of Drag Queen Manic Maxxie
Manic Maxxie is the drag persona of classical musician Cleo Goldberg. Cleo (they/them/theirs) is regularly involved as a music educator, conductor and percussionist. They teach K-8 music at Alexander Graham Bell School and are also the founder and director of the Millennial Chamber Players. As a percussionist, they have performed at festivals and competitions across the United States as well as in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Russia. They have studied conducting at the New York Conducting Workshop, the International Conducting Workshop & Festival (Lviv, Ukraine), the Pierre Monteux School, and the Juilliard Evening Division. They are also a published arranger through Keiser Southern Music. Cleo received their Bachelor of Music degree in percussion performance from Manhattan School of Music and their Master of Music Education and Certification degree from VanderCook College of Music. Manic Maxxie was born in November 2019 and has been the Artistic Director of the Lakeside Pride Pops Ensemble since the spring of 2021. Her drag allows her to celebrate black artists and let out a type of energy that she rarely shows in her day-to-day life. Maxxie is Cleo in their boldest, wackiest, and most feminine form.
Dr. Jon Noworyta, is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Indianapolis, he serves as Director of Bands, Instrumental Activities, and Educational Outreach, administers all aspects of the instrumental area, teaches courses in conducting and music education, and conducts the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Pep Band. A versatile conductor who is equally comfortable with orchestras as well as wind and brass groups, he is also the Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Artistic Director of the Crossroads Brass Band of Franklin, IN., and Artistic Director of the Queen City Freedom Band of Cincinnati. Noworyta is a twenty-one year veteran public school music educator. As the former Director of Bands at Wheaton North High School, he directed all aspects of the band program (curricular and extracurricular) and taught music technology and music theory. Previous positions included those at Naperville North High School and in the North Tonawanda (NY) City Schools. Ensembles under his direction have performed at local, state, national, and international venues most notably Carnegie Hall, where the Wheaton North Wind Ensemble was invited in 2009. The WNWE also appeared at the 2010 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic (rehearsal lab) and the 2013 Music for All National Concert Band Festival. Noworyta has led groups at Chicago’s Symphony Center, the Kennedy Center, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Carnegie Hall. Dr. Noworyta’s professional affiliations have included the NAFME, CBDNA, WASBE, NABBA, NBA, Pride Band Alliance, GLSEN, the Conductors Guild, and the Indiana, Illinois, New York (NYSSMA) and Ohio Music Educators Associations. He currently sits on the Committee for Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion for the North American Brass Band Association, is listed among the Who’s Who in America Educator’s Edition, and is on the advisory team for the 28,000+ member “Band Director” Facebook group. He was the 2012-13 Distinguished High School Teacher in Wheaton-Warrenville School District 200 and is a member of the Fine and Performing Arts Wall of Fame at North Tonawanda High School (his alma mater). A Western New York native, Noworyta holds degrees from Baldwin-Wallace College (BME) and Northwestern University (MM), and the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati (DMA). Additional study as a participant in conducting workshops at the Eastman School of Music, the New England Conservatory, and the Juilliard School, has given Noworyta the opportunity to work with the major conducting pedagogues in the field today. Noworyta shared his personal-professional story in “Out In Front: Queer Identity and Visibility in the Wind Band,” a compilation of queer career and coming out stories included in the recent GIA publication The Horizon Leans Forward… stories of courage, strength, and triumph of underrepresented communities in the wind band field by Erik Kar Jun Leung.
Known for making musical ideas accessible at many levels, Jadine Louie has been a featured artist in numerous orchestra, band, Pride Bands Alliance member, and Gay Games concerts. Jadine taught instrumental music and math – sometimes simultaneously – and coached ensembles ranging from funk horn sections to opera chorus. After decades working in community and school music, including a thirteen year stint directing the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, the press dubbed her the “spiritual center” of the Dance-Along Nutcracker™ and the Best Justification for Music in the Schools. When honored by the City of San Francisco with Jadine Louie Day, her only quibble was that it did not include free parking. She currently lives with her family in the NYC area.

40th Anniversary Commissions

We are very excited to announce Sweet Home Chicago conference will have 2 world premier commissions  by two different composers. 

Christen Taylor Holmes
Christen Taylor Holmes (b. 2000) born and raised in Southern Maryland is an emerging Composer and French Hornist. She graduated from Calvert High School in 2018 and is currently at the University of Maryland where she is in the process of earning a Bachelor of Music in Music Composition, a Bachelor of Science in Information Sciences, and a minor in Arts Leadership. Through UMD, she has experienced many fantastic opportunities like collaborating with professional chamber groups such as yMusic and Dal Niente, participating as a Fellow for the Sphinx Connect Conference in Detroit, MI, working with student musicians for public performances, collaborating with the University of Maryland’s theatre department, being a sister of the Sigma Alpha Iota Gamma Epsilon chapter, and participating as a student ambassador for the Arts and Humanities College. After she graduates in 2023, she plans to immediately attend graduate school to earn a Master’s in Media/Film scoring or Performing Arts Management. Holmes aspires to compose music for Visual Art and/or Video Games and work in the Music Administration field to create safe spaces for marginalized groups within Classical music, fund music programs, and generally make Classical music more accessible for anyone who wishes to participate.
Evan Williams
The music of Evan Williams has been performed across the country and internationally by members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Quince Ensemble, Fifth House Ensemble, and at festivals such as SEAMUS and the New York City Electronic Music Festival. In addition, he has been commissioned by notable performers and ensembles including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra and many more. Williams holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, Bowling Green State University and Lawrence University. Williams is the Assistant Professor of Music Composition/Technology and Director of Instrumental Activities at Rhodes College. For the work, Mr. Williams will draw inspiration from the poetry of Claude McKay, a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. McKay was bisexual and spent the last four years of his life in Chicago. Williams plans to compose a fantasia-like piece of many moods, reflective of McKay’s ungendered love poems.