About this Event
After decades of entertaining Chicago audiences with her wide ranging, soulful voice in club performances and concerts, Bonnie is still drawing devoted fans while attracting new. Her 80th birthday concert at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music was sold out with people who have followed her since her early folk days at The Earl of Old Town.. Now Bonnie is being discovered by a younger generation that is finding her music on the internet.
Bonnie's friendship with John Prine led to a 2023 invitation to join the Country Music Hall of Fame's three-day celebration of John's life and music.Bonnie sang and recounted stories of her Chicago days when she, John and Steve Goodman were the luminaries of the Chicago singer-songwriter scene. She will return this year and be part of a concert celebrating John at the at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
After Nashville she will perform at the Illinois Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the induction of her friend, Steve Goodman. Bonnie will be inducted in 2025.
Bonnie is best known for her singing—seven albums and eight CDs—but she is also a gifted visual artist who has had numerous one-woman shows, including a 1996 solo exhibition at the Elmhurst Museum of Art. In 2024 Bonnie had a one-woman show at Tony Fitzpatrick's Dime Gallery in Chicago.
This multi-talented woman began college at the University of Northern Iowa as a drama major, but it took 20 years before she went on the professional stage. In 1986, Joseph Papp, the legendary producer of New York's Public Theater, cast her as the lead female in the musical drama, The Human Comedy, which went to Broadway.
Producer Papp in a conversation the day after The Human Comedy's closing, referred to her as "the great Bonnie Koloc, one of the most extraordinary performers I've seen on stage. " Papp pointed out her "most unusual inner life" and felt that she was adaptable to film and stage drama. He was on the lookout for a straight play that would suit her.
For her performance, Bonnie received the Theater World Award for Outstanding New Talent for 1984 and was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical by New York Drama Desk.
Bonnie is still singing strong and is sharing the stage with some of Chicago's finest musicians.
John Moulder is considered to be one of Chicago’s premiere guitarists. In live performances and recordings, John has performed with such diverse artists such as Eddie Harris, Paul McCandless, and Kurt Elling. His release Decade: memoirs was named one of Chicago Tribune’s 10 best new jazz recordings in 2018. johnmoulder.com
Eric Hochberg is a mainstay of the music scene and has performed with a long list of who’s who in in the music industry that has included: Barbara Streisand, Mark Murphy, Kurt Elling, Pharaoh Sanders, Peter Erskine, Laurence Hobgood and Steve Million to mention just a few. www.erichochberg.com
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The North Street Cabaret, 610 North Street, Madison, United States
USD 41.35 to USD 46.97
