Kenny Janak Orchestra

Name: Kenny Janak Orchestra
Start: 2024-08-25T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Stuhr Museum

Schedule

Sun Aug 25 2024 at 07:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Stuhr Museum | Grand Island, NE

The Grand Island Music Series will present its final concert of the 2023-2024 season at Stuhr Museum! Food and drink will be available to purchase from the Chocolate Bar.
Admission is FREE!
In case of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held indoors at College Park directly across the street from Stuhr Museum.
About the performers:
The Kenny Janak Orchestra was formed in 2016 after acquiring the music library of the Eddie Janak Orchestra. Eddie was bandleader Kenny Janak's uncle and he had a popular band in the midwest from the late 1950s into the 1970s. The band often featured the clarinet work of Eddie, and Kenny's grandfather, Pete Janak. Eddie's music continues to be a big influence on the musical concepts and style of the band. The band has continued to build the musical repertoire over the past several years, drawing from some of the great Czech, German, and American bands, as well as adding some original tunes.
The musicians in KJO have extensive experience playing a wide variety of styles and genres but all share in the love of playing this great European-inspired music known as dechovka (Czech), blasmusik (German) or simply polka music! KJO aims to share their love of the music through carefully crafted arrangements of the songs played with energy and feeling. You'll hear vocals done in Czech and English with a little German as well. To provide some variety, you'll also hear the band perform some classic swing, pop, and Latin tunes, aiming to offer styles that appeal to a wide audience.
Members of the band:
Kenny Janak - bandleader, clarinet, saxophone, vocals, composer, arranger; Leslie Janak - clarinet, saxophone; Cheryl Janak Janda - trumpet; Bob Zagozda - trumpet, baritone, saxophone, clarinet, vocals; Julia Williams - accordion; Jeff Janda - tuba, arranger; and Dean Fornoff - drums.