Ivory League closes Sterling Concert Series season with local performance

Sterling’s concert season ended Sunday afternoon with The Ivory League on the stage at the Dorothy Corsberg Theater in E.S. French Hall on the Northeastern Junior College campus, giving the Sterling Concert Series a finale built around familiar local names and a community venue.

The quartet featured Mary L. Smith, Emily Kaufman, Jennifer Linn-Leaf and Nita Gillham. An event listing said the group first appeared as a guest piano quartet with Sterling’s Master Chorale in 2019, and its ties to Denver, Sterling, Leadville and Des Moines give the ensemble a regional reach that still feels close to home for Logan County audiences.

That mix of background and familiarity is part of what gives the Sterling Concert Series staying power. The program has been active for years, with concert listings reaching back to 2019 at Sterling Middle School and continuing in 2022, when David Osborne was scheduled there at 7 p.m. with ticket prices set at $15 for students, $45 for adults and $100 for a family or group option. The series has remained a visible part of Sterling’s arts calendar across multiple seasons, not a one-time showcase.

The April 19 performance also showed how the series has moved between community spaces while staying rooted in Sterling. Sunday’s concert brought the season to a close at Northeastern Junior College, while earlier seasons centered on Sterling Middle School, keeping the program tied to institutions that already anchor daily life in town. That matters in a county where public attention often goes first to council agendas, school issues and other civic obligations.

The closing concert gave residents one more reason to gather around local music before the next season begins. For Sterling, the measure of value is not only that a concert happened, but that the series kept drawing audiences, gave local musicians a stage and kept a steady arts calendar alive in the middle of town.