Light Up the Lawn: Victor & Penny

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Paul Andrews Photography

Swing-infused folk-jazz rooted in the riff-driven Kansas City style.

Join the Midwest Trust Center for the 2022 Light Up the Lawn Concert Series featuring some of the best live music Kansas City has to offer. Bring your blankets, lawn chairs and picnic baskets (no alcohol) for these fun events! No reservations required.

Named “Best Folk Ensemble 2015” by the KC Pitch, “Standout Concert of the Year” by the Joplin Globe and four-time Folk Alliance International official showcase artists, Victor & Penny are Jeff Freling (Blue Man Group, Chicago) and Erin McGrane (George Clooney's "Up in the Air" and cabaret troupe Alacartoona). The group just released their fourth album, Electricity, which joyfully captures the energy, humor and soaring musical improvisation of their live show.

Formally trained at Berklee School of Music (Boston) and the Conservatory of Music (Kansas City), Freling participated in the international program, The Acoustic Guitar Project, in 2014 and is an accomplished composer, arranger and outstanding instrumentalist.

McGrane is an ArtsKC Fund Inspiration Grant recipient and a Mid-America Arts Alliance Professional Development Grant recipient, as well as a fellow of the ArtistINC program, for which she currently serves as a peer facilitator and workshop presenter.

Victor & Penny were honored to represent Kansas City at a New York City press event as part the America’s Creative Crossroads campaign, “Paris of the Plains Goes to NY." The pair performed at notable Kansas City events such as the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts inaugural New Year’s Eve event, the Missouri Governor’s 2016 EDC Awards luncheon, KC Union Station’s Centennial Celebration and KC Mayor Sly James’ 2015 State of the City address.

They were official showcase artists at the prestigious Folk Alliance International Conference in 2014 and 2015, the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference in 2016 and the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference in 2014. They were 2013 Escape-to-Create artists-in-residence in Seaside, Florida. They regularly tour the U.S., having made nearly 1,000 personal appearances and traveled 180,000 miles in the last four years.

Loose Change Orchestra

Classically trained reeds virtuoso James Isaac fronts his own highly respected jazz quartet, The James Isaac Group. Bassist Rick Willoughby attended the UMKC Conservatory of Music and is a member of Quixotic, The Snow Globes and the Barclay Martin Ensemble. Multi-instrumentalist Kyle Dahlquist (trombone, accordion, glockenspiel and vocals) rounds out the ensemble.