Friday, January 3, 2020; 6:30pm
by Melanie Jongsma
LANSING, Ill. (December 24, 2019) – The first After-Hours Concert of the new year will bring celebrity-level ballroom band music to Lansing. The Steve Cooper Orchestra will set up on the main stage of the Lansing Public Library on Friday, January 3, 2020. Doors will open at 6:00pm for a one-hour concert that will begin at 6:30pm. Admission is free, thanks to sponsorship by the Friends of the Lansing Library.
The Steve Cooper Orchestra is one of the most popular ballroom bands in the Midwest, and they regularly play at the Willowbrook, Glendora House, and Chevy Chase Ballrooms. Cooper performed on The Oprah Winfrey Show when Oprah did a program about ballroom dancing, and he has played private parties for Mary Tyler Moore, Phil Donahue, Liza Minelli, Carol Channing, Steve Allen, the cast of NBC’s “Frasier,” and others.
With more than 20 years of performances in the Chicago area, the Steve Cooper Orchestra has developed a sense of audiences’ best-loved songs. They perform popular hits by both the Swing and Sweet Bands. They play the actual musical arrangements of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Sammy Kaye, Dick Jurgens, Eddie Howard, Chuck Foster, Jan Garber, Hal Kemp, Red Nichols & The 5 Pennies, Bob Crosby, and many others. A few years ago they were the only band in the country to receive much of the actual music of The Lawrence Welk Orchestra, music that Lawrence Welk played on TV and ballrooms for over 50 years.
The library’s After-Hours Concert series provides free musical entertainment during the winter months on the first Friday of the month. This year’s series began on December 6 with a Christmas concert by local favorite Classic. The series continues through April:
- January 3: The Steve Cooper Orchestra (ballroom band)
- February 7: The Spaniels Forever (doo-wop, R&B, gospel)
- March 6: Trillium (Celtic, folk, ragtime, bluegrass, Dixieland)
- April 3: Chez Butter (soul, funk, Motown, jazz)
The Lansing Public Library is located at 2750 Indiana Avenue in Lansing, Illinois.
