Holdings Fine Arts and Applied Arts University Bands Prairie Ensemble Records Finding Aid Holdings Fine Arts and Applied Arts University Bands Prairie Ensemble Records Finding Aid By Nolan Vallier, Elizabeth Hartman, Katie Nichols
Title: Prairie Ensemble Records, 1996-2015
ID: 12/9/143
Primary Creator: Kevin Kelly (1961-)
Other Creators: Grant, Joe W. (1947-)
Extent: 10.4 cubic feet. More info below.
Arrangement:
Organized in three series: Series 1) Board of Directors Meeting Minutes and Governing Records, 1996-2015; Series 2) Financial Records, 1997-2015; Series 3) Administrative Records, 1996-2015; and Series 4) Concerts, Special Events, Publicity, and Digital Records, 1997-2014. All four series contain both paper and digital records and have been further divided to show this structure.
Series 1 is arranged into two sub-series: sub-series 1) Board of Directors Records and sub-series 2) Board of Directors Digital Records.
Series 2 is arranged into two sub-series: sub-series 1) Financial Records and sub-series 2) Financial Digital Records.
Series 3 is arranged into two sub-series: sub-series 1) Administrative Records and sub-series 2) Administrative Digital Records.
Series 4 is arranged into four sub-series: sub-series 1) Concerts Programs, sub-series 2) Special Events and Correspondence, sub-series 3) Publicity, and sub-series 4) Concert Programs, Special Events, and Publicity Digital Records.
Date Acquired: 06/13/2015. More info below under Accruals.
Subjects: American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), Business Records, Concert Programs, Concerts, Fund Raising, Illinois Arts Council, Instrumental music, Local History, Orchestra, Radio Station - WILL, Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestras, Taxes
Formats/Genres: Meeting Minutes
Languages: English
Consists of business records, financial reports, group bylaws, payroll sheets and performer contracts, meeting minutes, advertisements and publicity reports, photographs, awards, concert programs, computer files, and correspondence documenting the governance, operations, events, and publicity of the Prairie Ensemble chamber orchestra of Champaign-Urbana.
The Prairie Ensemble was founded by Kevin Kelly in 1996 in Champaign-Urbana. As a chamber orchestra, the Prairie Ensemble performed classical music throughout Central Illinois, attempting to make symphonic music more approachable to the community by performing in informal attire across several local indoor and outdoor venues. On occasion the ensemble performed major symphonies and masses by composers like Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Mahler, Mozart, and Schubert, but they also played contemporary chamber pieces by composers like Virgil Thomson, Jacques Ibert, and Kurt Weill as well as contemporary classics by popular composers like Bernard Rogers, Leonard Bernstein, and George Gershwin. Players within the ensemble were drawn from the community and ranged from professional musicians to gifted amateurs, undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Illinois, and faculty of the University of Illinois. These players did not audition for their seats, but were paid. The ensemble also hosted many guest soloists including both local artists like pianist Ian Hobson, and vocalists Ollie Watts Davis and Jarold Siena as well as nationally-touring performers like pipa player Zhou Yi, violinist Stefan Milenkovich, and cellist Rohan de Silva.
As a non-profit arts organization, the Prairie Ensemble was overseen by a board of volunteers, who filled many roles within the organization. The organization successfully earned several Illinois Arts Council grants, which helped keep the organization opperating throughout the 2000s. After Kelly moved to Chicago in 2014 and due in part to finanical constraints, the Praire Ensemble was disbanded in 2015.
Kevin Kelly grew up in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In 1979 he was accepted at Northwestern University, where he earned bachelors degrees in English and music history and criticism. After working as an editor for the Chicago-based publishing house Mosby-Year Book, Kelly moved to Champaign-Urbana to pursue dual masters degrees in orchestral and choral conducting at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Kelly studied conducting with Kenneth Kiesler, Paul Vermel, and Victor Yampolsky. Prior to graduating in 1993, he became the conductor of the East Central Illinois Youth Orchestra and has served in this position for over thirty years. In 1996, Kelly became the host of WILL-FM's classical program "Live and Local." In that same year he founded the Prairie Ensemble, a local chamber orchestra, which operated from 1996 until 2015. Kelly also became the choir director at Emmanuel Memorial Episcopal Church in Champaign in 1996, serving the church for seventeen years.
In 2014, Kelly moved to Chicago where he became the director of the Allegro Community Chorus of Palatine, Illinois, a position he has held for over fifteen years. In addition to his part-time conducting roles in Chicago and Central Illinois, in 2020 Kelly expanded upon his experience as a radio host, becoming a voice actor. Kelly maintains a career as a professional musician as well, singing with several professional choral ensembles in Chicago, including the Chicago Symphony Chorus, the Grant Park Symphony Chorus, The City Musick, Basically Bach and His Majesties Clerkes (now Bella Voce).
American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP)
Business Records
Concert Programs
Concerts
Fund Raising
Illinois Arts Council
Instrumental music
Local History
Orchestra
Radio Station - WILL
Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Orchestras
Taxes
Repository: The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music
Accruals: Eleven cubic feet of material from the Prairie Ensemble were acquired from Joe Walter Grant Jr. on June 13, 2015. Computer Files were processed in 2025.
Alternate Extent Statement: 932 Gigabytes
Acquisition Source: Joe Walter Grant Jr.
Related Materials: Prairie Ensemble Records 12/9/143
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