Stories

Clock In: The Kids You’re Raising Money For Bradley Beeding is 14 years old. He plays guitar. And on April 11, he’ll share the Redstone Room stage with business leaders, nonprofit executives, and community heavyweights — not because he’s opening the show, but because he’s the reason the show exists. Clock In is a youth…

Most financial planners don’t moonlight as rock stars. Matt Sivertsen has been involved in the music scene for a long time. Matt Knoll had never performed on stage before this. Both are senior financial planners at The Planning Center. Both are on Common Chord’s board. And somehow, their team managed to pull together a full…

Frankie Messick grew up watching his dad play punk shows in Chicago. Week after week. Year after year. Still booking gigs. Still showing up. Still playing. At 60-something. “I wanted to grow up to be like him,” Frankie says. So he did. He learned drums. Picked up the horn. Found his way into music early…

His three-year-old son sings Kiss all day long. That’s what happens when your dad picks up a guitar for Battle of the Businesses and starts practicing “Rock and Roll All Nite” in the living room. Chris Beason doesn’t usually have time to play anymore. He’s the president of Ruhl & Ruhl Realtors and Ruhl Commercial….

Sam Russell has memories of his dad on stage at company holiday parties. Not speeches. Not presentations. Music. Jim Russell would step away from the jobsite and pick up his guitar. In front of employees. In front of clients. In the same room where business happened all year long. It was a side of leadership…

Ten Years! That’s how long it’s been since Andrew Lopez and his bandmates last played music. Ten years of running LoPiez and Floyd’s Burgers. Building businesses instead of building setlists. But when Andrew saw the ad for Battle of the Businesses, something clicked. “I was like, how do I be a part of this?” he…

Bobby Ray Bunch didn’t learn guitar the traditional way. No lessons. No formal training. He watched friends. Taught himself tabs. And tested it all in karaoke bars. “You get real feedback,” he says. “If you bomb enough, you figure out what works.” It worked. Sixteen years later, he’s still playing across the Quad Cities. Usually…

Every day, Morgan Ottier is live in front of cameras, lights, and thousands of viewers across the Quad Cities. But this is different. At last year’s Battle of the Businesses, she walked off stage and said she was done. No encore. No repeat. Stage fright is real. Still, she’s back. “One more time,” she says….

On March 5, the Adler Theatre became a classroom. 7,000 students experienced live orchestral music — many for the first time. The lights dimmed. Seven thousand students leaned forward in their seats. The conductor raises the baton. And then it hit them. Not from speakers. Not from earbuds. From more than 60 musicians playing in…