CARBONDALE – The City of Carbondale is introducing a new addition to its already vibrant live-music scene, the Civic Sessions.
The Civic Sessions will be a brief, “unplugged”, or acoustic performance by Carbondale musicians in the lobby of City Hall, starting at 5:30 prior to each City Council meeting. The inaugural launch of this series will be at the upcoming City Council meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 9.
Inspired by similar offerings in other cities with a very present music scene, council member Dawn Roberts says, “I introduced Civic Sessions as a way to open City Council meetings with the sound of Carbondale, SIUC, and our region’s renowned and deeply rooted music culture. The series is a way to bring residents, students, and neighbors together with their City government to celebrate our talented musicians and foster a shared sense of connection and pride in our community—one song at a time.”
The inaugural performance of Civic Sessions will be performed by SIU School of Music Faculty, William Cernota (cello) and SIU sophomore, Vincent Jones (contrabass).
William (cello) is currently a member of the music faculties at Loyola University Chicago and Southern Illinois University Carbondale School of Music and also joined the faculty of OPUS Chamber Music, a youth community outreach program. He has been a member of the Lyric Opera Orchestra since 1982, a Chair and member of the Lyric Opera Orchestra Members Committee since 1994, and from 1982 to 1996, was a substitute cellist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He is traveling to and from Chicago, where he will be playing in the Lyric Opera’s production of “The Nutcracker”, taking time in between rehearsals and performances to play the inaugural “Civic Sessions”.
Vincent Jones (contrabass) is a sophomore at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, on a University Excellence scholarship, studying both Music and Zoology. He currently works as a Resident Assistant with SIU’s university housing. He has been playing the contrabass for around 9 years. Vincent owes a lot of his experience and growth to his high school at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois, as he was able to experience playing in a symphonic orchestra and even play at Disney Land as part of an orchestra group. He is now part of the SIU Symphony Orchestra where he has been in the position of Principal Contrabass for 2 years.
William and Vincent are both members of the Versa’tile Faculty Student Chamber Music Ensemble, a new ensemble offering a diverse range of free performances for the community at large.
We look forward to having these talented musicians launch this new series for our community.