Illinois State University Center for Performing Arts

It's been a busy year for ISU bands. Their latest collaboration invites a Chicago mariachi band onstage with the Wind Symphony for Sunday's concert.

Buttermilk goodness, a frosty dip in the lake and a weird space play? Yes, please.

A new show at the ISU Planetarium offers a cinematic history of celestial science, while a John Prine cover band makes its central Illinois debut. And maestro Yaniv Dinur makes his final trip to Bloomington-Normal vying for the music directorship at Illinois Symphony.

Regional jazz and blues artists convene at Jazz UpFront, while a Mackinaw Valley Vineyards dinner dresses up in a Knights of the Round Table theme.

Saturday's concert begins and ends with two of America's most prolific classical composers.

Fort Worth Symphony assistant conductor Taichi Fukumura declined a new contract, looking for the next big thing in his career — a possible directorship with Illinois Symphony Orchestra.

Scenic designer and professor John C. Stark has retired after 32 years at the helm of Illinois State University's scenic design program. In this career retrospective, Stark notes crossing paths with legendary faculty at the beginning of his tenure and other notable memories.

A festive season finale at ISU features music by Béla Bartók, Antonin Dvořák and living composer Michael Torke.

The theater department at Illinois State University brings to life a satirical (mostly) true telling of local hero John Wesley Powell's 1869 expedition through the American West. Powell's journey with other erudite explorers is hilariously captured in the play, "Men on Boats." The play runs Feb. 17-25 in the Westhoff Theatre at ISU.

In a first-ever collaboration, Bloomington-based opera company MIOpera teams up with the Illinois Symphony on Saturday for a Shakespearean evening of opera and orchestral music.