Music foundation seeks grant for outdoor concerts

Your vote could bring a series of free, live outdoor concerts to downtown Aurora next summer.

A project developed by the Fox Valley Music Foundation and the city has been named one of 25 finalists for the 2019 Levitt AMP (Your City) Music Series. The Levitt AMP program will provide $25,000 to up to 15 of the finalists, allowing them to offer a 10-week series of concerts featuring multiple styles of music.

An online voting process will help Levitt AMP select the winners. The voting continues through Nov. 20 at https://grant.levittamp.org/voter-registration-page/.

The Aurora concert series would be held in the newly improved Agnes Mundy Park, on the 0-100 block of South Broadway.

Mundy Park, which stretches from Broadway to the Water Street Mall, is undergoing renovations that include new trees, new plantings and a small tiered area for seating.

Mundy Park runs alongside the Fox Valley Music Foundation's soon-to-open Aurora music center, called The Venue, at 21 S. Broadway. The Venue is a new music performance space and home to the Fox Valley Music Foundation.

The concept of the space is to provide regularly scheduled programming featuring intimate performances by international, national and local musical artists, educational programs about music history, interactive workshops and clinics, open jams and a meeting place for musicians to collaborate and create.

The Levitt AMP Aurora free outdoor music series would showcase local and regional talent presenting a variety of music forms. The foundation intends to present music of many different genres, such as Americana, jazz, blues, hip-hop, reggae, bluegrass, classical and some subgenres of what is called World Music.

The Fox Valley Music Foundation is a not-for-profit, created in November 2014 with the mission to preserve, promote and present the music of the Fox Valley, while providing music education to people of all ages, and from all walks of life.

For details, visit foxvalleymusicfoundation.com.