By Pete Ellman
Founded in 1958, our independently-owned family music business provides our customers throughout northern Illinois with instrument rentals, sales, repair, music, and accessories, including weekly deliveries to the schools.
Our family has always felt that supporting our community is very important. For this reason after my father, Gil Ellman, passed away, my mother, Joan, brother Michael, and I started the Gil Ellman Memorial Fund with the Naperville Education Foundation. The fund helps students who cannot afford an instrument to get one and join band or orchestra in School District 203.
The Pete Ellman Big Band NFP was started in August of 2009. Our goal is to provide a place for student groups to perform and listen to big band music. We perform from 8-10PM every Thursday at Mullen’s, located at 3080 Warrenville Rd., in Lisle. And every week we have a different student group open for us at 7PM. This year we will reach 4,000+ students we have hosted in this spacious venue. And the music is free of charge.
In addition, once a month during these concerts we help raise funds for other nonprofit organizations including Toys For Tots in November and Loaves and Fishes in December.
We’re also very excited to note that this year through the Pete Ellman Big Band NFP, we are hosting the first annual Naperville Big Band Jazz Festival, sponsored in part by SECA Funds, at Wentz Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Center located at North Central College.
The guest clinicians/artists include world-famous jazz artists Wayne Bergeron, Andy Martin, and Jeff Coffin. Students will perform for these professional artists, then receive comments and suggestions from them. We will have approximately 325 area high school students from 16 different bands join us for this all-day event. An evening concert featuring the artist/clinicians with the Pete Ellman Big Band NFP will be held at Wentz. Tickets to the evening concert are available to the public for just $25.
We welcome the community to any and all of our concert events when we’ll showcase the musical talents of our local youth.
For more information, visit www.ellmansmusic.com, www.pebb.net or give us a call at (630) 355-5880.