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After college at COD, Boston University and NIU I settled in a small rural community in Northern Illinois. For most of my career I balanced the world of professional performing musician with conventional classroom teaching and independent ed related activities, much through the Illinois Arts Council. All the show off biz talk is on my website, jimkanas.com. After the passing of my wife, Claudia Johns-Kanas, I re-prioritized my career to focus on single parenthood. My kids are now 16, 16 and 20 so I'm feeling the independence again as most of my classmates have experienced for some time now, those of you with grown children that is. The re-prioritizing of career has included more classroom teaching (K-5 general music, DeKalb, IL) and and less freelance educational programming, but it also included a a more focused emphasis on jazz guitar since my American Roots/multi-instrumentalist program has been established for years anyway. I am really happy about that. I've had the opportunity to play cool concerts and gigs. Channel 11, PBS came out and did a feature on me some years back and rebroadcasted many times....Hobbies? I ride my motorcycle and bicycle a lot. I enjoy cooking (a byproduct of being a single parent) and outdoor activities. I'm still in Kings which is near Oregon, Illinois, which is my favorite place to go on a weekly basis (the Rock River Valley). My folks are aging and I'm starting to care for them even though they are still on their own in Lake Hinsdale (yes, commuting is a big part of my life too). My brother Pete is in CA and my oldest, Sarah, is high functioning with Autism so she needs special attention too. Life is good. I pretty much just wanna have fun :-)
