ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The Community Concerts of Liberal group works hard every season to bring in quality entertainment for the community and this past weekend, its most recent season came to its conclusion.
This year’s season began with The Sidekicks, followed by Dan Miller's AmeriCoustic show and then the Aria Nouveau duo. The season continued with David Burnham's Broadway and Beyond show and then concluded with The Suits. As Community Concerts of Liberal President Mike Brack tells it, the season was very successful.
“We're working on building back our program to what it was before COVID-19 hit. We didn’t have any concerts for the 2021 season, and I think it was 2022 when we came back,” Brack said. “We're working on building up our numbers back up from that and a lot of things that happened during that period of time. People took a little bit more time to decide they were comfortable getting back out and about and getting back into the swing of everything. When you have those kind of situations, it takes a while, so we’ve been working hard this year to spread the word about all the concerts. We're continuing to get the word out about Community Concerts of Liberal and what a great opportunity it is for people here in our community to see top quality entertainment for a pretty reasonable price. I'm a full supporter of getting getting kids exposed to all different kinds of menus, or menus all different kinds of music.”
Overall, Brack said, the shows seemed to be very entertaining for the audiences.
“With The Suits being our closer, I think they did a great job, they had people up dancing and and having a good time and they were a great group,” Brack said. “David Burnham was also fantastic, and he'd been here before, so I feel like that recognition helped. It’s hard for me to pick out a favorite though because being a musician myself, I enjoy every concert, even though a show might not be my particular favorite type of music. What's really cool about our board's experience is they get an opportunity to meet the performers and help unload equipment and help set up if they need it. We have that communication via e-mail or texts or phone calls, so we kind of feel like we know them, and that’s always great.”
Brack added he was pleased with the turnout to each show for this most recent season.
“Maskus Auditorium at Liberal High School seats 1,200 people, and I do look at the number of tickets that we sell, and I was pretty pleased with this year,” Brack said. “I know it's impossible for every person who buys a ticket to come to every concert. There’s one couple who came to the final concert, and they told me ‘We will continue to buy tickets, but this is the first concert we've been able to come to, because we've always been out of town for the shows.’ That's part of the reason why we got the cons out earlier this year, so people could plan ahead and get put the shows written on their calendars. And I would recommend, if you're not able to come to a concert, give your tickets to someone who is so they can have the opportunity to experience this quality of music here in Liberal.”
While the 2025-26 season has just concluded, Brack offered encouragement for people in the community to become members of the Community Concerts of Liberal board. Brack added the 2026-27 season is set to be another good one for the community.
“Anyone who’s interested in being part of Community Concerts of Liberal, they can give me a call at (620) 482-0466 or email me at
