Jackson Concert Series is bringing a variety of performers this season
by Xiomara Levsen
November 03, 2023

The Jackson Concert Series kicked off its season this year and will have a concert at the end of this month with a Celtic tradition.

jackson concert series logo

Jackson Concert Series Logo

A Celtic Christmas will perform on Thursday, Nov. 30, at 7:30 p.m. at Wesley United Methodist Church in Muscatine.

According to the Jackson Concert Series website, A Celtic Christmas is in its 27th season of touring nationally, Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas recreates the joy and innocence of a night before Christmas in a remote farmhouse in his native parish of Teampall an Ghleanntáin in the west of Ireland. He did this in the 1950s when the neighboring families gathered around the fire to grace the wintry night with traditional Irish Christmas carols. They filled the night with the laughter of their stories.

Dan Laaveg is the Music Director at Wesley United Methodist Church and part of the committee for the Jackson Concert Series. He said the Jackson Concert Series provides free concerts for everyone to enjoy with a great variety.

Other concerts for the Jackson Concert Series include The Wartburg College Handbell Choir and Kantorei on Feb. 17; Project Trio on March 24; Wanees Zarour on April 18; Daniel Pak on May 16 and Josh Duffee and his Big Band on July 29.

The concerts kicked off on Oct. 29. Greg Hand performed with three high school students from Muscatine High School. Hand teaches how to play the pipe organ at the University of Iowa. He was Laaveg’s professor. Laaveg said he was excited to have him perform Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and for the students to be able to perform with Hand.

The Singing Contractors performed on Friday, Nov. 3. Laaveg said when word started getting out about this performance people were asking how to get tickets.

“It’s just a couple of guys who build houses who really just started making a couple of videos of them singing,” Laaveg said. “They’ve got some really huge voices. They sing Gospel and country and have a really huge following.”

They didn’t give themselves their name, he added. People who followed them online did.

“They’ve got 100 million YouTube views and very big personalities,” Laaveg added. “We had someone several months back ask ‘When can we get tickets?’ There are no tickets.”

All of the concerts are held at Wesley Methodist Church located at 400 Iowa Avenue in Muscatine and are free and open to the public. Doors open half an hour before the performances and are locked 10 minutes after the performance starts. For more information visit https://wesleyonline.org/jackson-concert-series/.

 

 

 

 

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