Don’t touch that dial! No matter where you’re heading, the Dubuque Chorale has you covered with a full slate of road trip favorites. Keep your radio tuned to this station and join us October 24-25 as we embark on a musical adventure celebrating the 100th anniversary of Route 66! We’re spinning tunes honoring the places we visit, the people we meet along the way and the experience of the journey. The Dubuque Chorale, Cadenza, and the Dubuque Chorale Children’s Choirs are proud to present our first concert of the 2026-27 season, On the Road Again.
Route 66 was first established in 1926, winding its way through hills and forests, across prairies, farmland, and desert from Chicago to Los Angeles. Although the highway was decommissioned in 1985, its iconic status endures due to its significance in American history and popular culture. It has many nicknames, including the Main Street of America and The Mother Road. The latter was coined by John Steinbeck in his novel Grapes of Wrath, as the highway was a major route taken by people traveling west during the dust bowl. Another of its nicknames is The Will Rogers Highway. Rogers was a world-famous vaudeville performer, humorist, and actor. Route 66 was dedicated as The Will Rogers Memorial Highway after the entertainer’s untimely death in 1935, as the route symbolized Rogers’ journey from his home state of Oklahoma to his career in Hollywood. Woody Guthrie’s song “Will Rogers Highway,” which will be performed by one of the Children’s Choirs, pays tribute to this legacy.
In the years following WWII, automobile ownership surged and Americans were increasingly travelling Route 66 for tourism. Due to the businesses and roadside attractions that sprang up along the road, the experience of traveling the Route became its own tourism draw. This idea is immortalized in the song “Route 66,” written by Bobby Troup and originally recorded by Nat King Cole. This song, which will be performed by the combined adult and children’s choirs, provides a fitting closer for the concert.
In addition to Route 66, this concert celebrates travel and road trip experiences more broadly, with a variety of musical styles from country and rock and roll to contemporary choral music. Songs like Tom Cochrane’s “Life is a Highway” and Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” urge us to enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” reflects on the diverting paths we may choose through life. The Dubuque Chorale chamber choir, Cadenza will join the children in a version of this poem set to music by Z. Randall Stroope. Norman Dello Joio’s “Song of the Open Road” uses text from Walt Whitman’s poem to take listeners on a musical journey and bids us to travel together on the open road.
We hope this concert will transport audience members to their own memories of traveling with family and friends, and the songs that kept them company on the journey. Tune your radio, pop in your travel mixtape, or load up your road trip playlist, and join the Dubuque Chorale for On the Road Again, October 24 at 7pm and October 25 at 2pm. Don’t be afraid to sing in the car!
On the Road Again
Saturday, October 24, 7pm
Sunday, October 25, 2pm
Bread of Life Presbyterian Church, Hilltop Campus
2155 University Ave, Dubuque, IA 52001
Thanks to all our sponsors and in-kind donors!
Premier Bank, Gronen, Iowa Arts Council, City of Dubuque, National Endowment for the Arts, Henry Family Foundation, Schoen Family Charitable Trust, The Wahlert Foundation, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Bread of Life Presbyterian Church, Grand View Methodist Church, Church of the Nativity, and the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation.
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