On Wednesday, July 14, the Kokomo Park Band will present “Within Driving Distance-a Musical Travelog” at 7:30 p.m. in Highland Park.

The program features vocalist Sally Duke and the bassoon duo of Jennifer Kirkman and Candi Granlund. The Kokomo High School Marching Wildcats will provide a pre-show at 7 p.m. The free concert is sponsored by Community First Bank of Indiana. Popcorn and drinks will be available from the "Serving in Love Team” of Morning Star Church. The program is part of the weekly KPB Summer Concert Series sponsored by the Kokomo Parks Department, Community Foundation of Howard County, the Allen Whitehill Clowes Foundation, the Center Township Trustee, and the Tippecanoe Arts Federation in cooperation with the Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In the event of rain, the concert will move to the Northwestern School Auditorium. The decision to move inside is generally not made until after 4:30 p.m. with announcements posted on Facebook and with a recorded announcement at 765-319-8554.

The Kokomo High School Marching Wildkats have a long tradition of excellence and have appeared several times in previous years with the Kokomo Park Band. They were the 2019 runner-up at the Indiana State Fair Band Day competition and are in preparation for the 2021 Band Day event. They will present a preview of their competition show “Malala.” The band is under the direction of Brandon Anderson, Justin Ekstrom, and Dylan Humburg.

The Kirkman-Granlund Bassoon Duo will perform “Bassoonium” by Al Sweet.

Jennifer (Hainlen) Kirkman is a Howard County product and graduate of Eastern High School during the “Whorwell” years. She earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in music education from Indiana State University and pursued graduate-level studies in bassoon performance with Homer Pence at Ball State University.

She returned to Eastern as assistant band director, a position she held for 15 years. Kirkman also has taught at Taylor University as an adjunct applied music instructor of bassoon and currently maintains a private teaching studio in Kokomo. As an avid chamber musician, she performed with the Mariah Wind Quintet for over 30 years. She also has performed with the Reeds and Ivory Trio and the Kokomo based Bach Trio. She recently has been involved in the creation of the Whorwell Musicianship Fund as a way to pay tribute to Eastern’s legendary former band director Charles Whorwell and to support Eastern’s band program.

Candi (Edson) Granlund is a graduate of Northwestern High School and serves as band director at Zionsville West Middle School. She has earned numerous professional honors, including the IMEA Outstanding Middle School Music Educator Award in 2017 and the prestigious Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship in 2013. She was a co-founder and clinician of the Ball State University Bassoon Camp from 1998 to 2009 and currently serves as the director of the Indy North Summer Music Clinic.

Granlund is an accomplished bassoonist, performer, and private lesson instructor. In 2019, she was selected as principal bassoon for the WAWOP (World Adult Wind Orchestra project) and traveled to Austria to perform in the Mid-Europe Festival. Granlund is a graduate of Ball State University where she was a presidential scholar and was awarded the prestigious Young Artist Award. She earned her masters of arts from the University of Indianapolis with additional coursework at VanderCook College of Music in Chicago.

Vocalist Sally Duke is the Generations Travel Club officer at Community First Bank. She was active in music at Eastern High School and has performed with Greentown’s Music at the Fountain, Kokomo Civic Theater, Lamplighter Christian Dinner Theater in Tipton, Ole Olsen Theater in Peru, and for numerous church-related events. On each Travel Club group trip, Duke takes the time to sing the hymn "How Great Thou Art" at some awe-inspiring spot. She has sung in a cave in New Zealand, a castle in Ireland, at the rim of the Grand Canyon, in the National Redwood Forest, and on famous stages such as the Hollywood Bowl. She will sing “Moon River” by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer.