Musical Tribute to Big Band Era of '40's at Plaza del Sol Performance Hall in February

Northridge, CA: Climb aboard the "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" as Five by Design's RADIO DAYS takes its Northridge audience on a ride over the radio airwaves on Saturday, February 24, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, February 25, at 2 p.m. at the Plaza del Sol Performance Hall, (formerly the Performing Arts Center) at Cal State Northridge-- featuring a 13-piece BIG BAND orchestra LIVE on stage! Specially priced faculty/staff and senior tickets to this gala, usually $55, are only $40, with seats still reserved for CSUN employees in the front orchestra sections. Bring a special guest with you to enjoy this affectionate look at the past!

Honoring American's greatest generation, Five by Design recreates a poignant time capsule of American life during the war years. Radio Days recreates the programming, soap operas, game shows, adventure serials, commercials, and the songs that were etched in the nation's psyche. As "Sentimental Journey" opens the production, the audience is transported to a seemingly simpler time when an evening's entertainment emanated from the amber glow of vacuum tubes in a wooden cabinet.

Paying tribute to the vocal groups fronting the big bands in the 1940's, Radio Days interweaves music from the likes of Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey. The hit parade continues with musical memories like the Lone Ranger, soap operas (Our Gal Sunday), game shows (Kollege of Musical Knowledge), and celebrity "appearances" by Kay Kyser, Betty Grable, and Carmen Miranda. And of course, that timeless music: I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo, Big Noise From Winnetka, Moonlight in Vermont, Juke Box Saturday Night, I'll be Seeing You..you get the idea!

Minneapolis-based Five by Design has toured extensively throughout the continental US and Canada-even Istanbul, Turkey! The ensemble has gained national exposure with appearances on syndicated media broadcasts, including National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition Sunday," and "Swingin' Down the Lane" and have been featured in "Symphony" magazine.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Headlines Performance Hall Tribute to New Orleans

NORTHRIDGE, CA -- Big Bad Voodoo Daddy swings into the Plaza del Sol Performance Hall (formerly the Performing Arts Center) at California State University, Northridge, Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 8 p.m. This performance will feature new selections from the release of Save My Soul, their latest album, called a love letter to the music of New Orleans.

Tickets, normally $45, are specially priced for CSUN Faculty and Staff at only $35, and may be purchased at the Ticket Office, located in the Plaza del Sol/University Student Union. Student tickets are only $20! This will be a quick sell-out, so order your tickets now!

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy has done more than any other band to fuel the swing revival of the '90s, due largely to the group's appearance in the 1996 film Swingers. The combo has approached their fifth album with more gusto and verve than ever, infusing their old-school jive and greasy horns with a New Orleans sensibility and panache and, in the process, created their strongest album yet. Although their songs sound like they were lifted right out of the Zoot-suited '40s, the band writes all their own material, taking swing into a raw and modern direction.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy now carries on the tradition of the legendary big bands and orchestras by touring non-stop, performing over 100 concerts each year around the world. Like the Glen Miller Orchestra, Benny Goodman, and the Count Basie Band, BBVD sells out shows to audiences of all ages in cities as far flung as Honolulu, HI, St. Petersburg, FL, even making an appearance at last summer's Pori Festival in Finland. Cal State Northridge welcomes BBVD back home to their local turf, returning to their California roots for this night of fun, nostalgia and SWING!

Blue Grass Legend Ricky Skaggs Headlines Two-Day Country Music salute at Performance Hall

Northridge, CA: Blue Grass legend Ricky Skaggs and his band, Kentucky Thunder ride into the Plaza del Sol Performance Hall (formerly the Performing Arts Center) on Saturday, April 14, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 15 at 2 p.m. for a two-day campus-wide salute to Country Music!

For the next month, special front orchestra tickets have been reserved for CSUN faculty and staff, and tickets regularly priced at $60 are only $50. Student tickets for this stellar event are only $30. Call the ticket office at 818-677-2488 for the very best seats-first come, first served!

Beyond his award-winning records, Ricky continues to lead the charge in bringing renewed vitality to country music's most down-to-earth art form, and has become one of bluegrass' most talented and dynamic performers-carrying this lively, distinctively American form of music to the hearts of audiences across the country.

2006 marked Ricky's 35th year as a professional musician, and this eleven-time Grammy Award winner continues to do his part to lead the recent roots revival in music. Known affectionately today as bluegrass music's official ambassador, Ricky has brought the genre to greater levels of popularity in the past few years than the father of bluegrass music - the legendary Bill Monroe - could ever have imagined.

With seven consecutive Grammy- nominated classics behind him, all from his own Skaggs Family Records label, (Bluegrass Rules! in 1998, Ancient Tones in 1999, both Soldier of the Cross and Big Mon: The Songs of Bill Monroe in 2000, History of the Future in 2001, Live at the Charleston Music Hall in 2003 and currently, Brand New Strings) bluegrass music is undoubtedly in good hands, with the masterful Skaggs at the helm. In 2005, his album Brand New Strings earned him another Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album - marking his 11th career Grammy win.

Skaggs first all-live album with Kentucky Thunder, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder - Live at the Charleston Music Hall, helped the band net the award for the IBMA's Instrumental Group of the Year. (This is an award Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder has won seven out of the last eight years!) The decision to record a live album was an obvious one for Skaggs - the current configuration of Kentucky Thunder ranks among the best group of musicians with whom he has ever worked.

Ricky Skaggs has often said that he is "just trying to make a living" playing the music he loves. But it's clear that his passion for bluegrass puts him in the position to bring this lively, distinctively American form of music out of isolation and into the ears and hearts of audiences across the country and around the world. Blessed with a close-knit family, an abundance of talent, a lifetime of musical experience and a crack band behind him, Ricky Skaggs is well on the way to showing the world that "country rocks, but Bluegrass Rules!"