The Chad Stoner Band is set to take the stage for its first-ever Music at Miller Park appearance, closing out the series on Saturday, August 8. Organized by Omaha Performing Arts (O-pa), in collaboration with Nelson Mandela Elementary School and the Minne Lusa and Miller Park Neighborhood Associations, Music at Miller Park offers free, community-driven outdoor summer concerts each year at the Miller Park Pavilion, located at 2707 Redick Ave.
For saxophonist and bandleader Chad Stoner, this show marks both a fresh collaboration with O-pa and a homecoming to a neighborhood that has influenced his musical path.
Stoner draws inspiration from artists such as Luther Vandross, Donny Hathaway, Anita Baker and D’Angelo. Critics have labeled his band’s sound as “elegant with an edge,” “stirringly soulful” and “sophisticated swagger,” though Stoner is careful to point out those aren’t descriptions he coined himself.
His performance philosophy centers on connection. Regardless of whether he’s performing a well-known R&B hit or an instrumental piece, Stoner wants audiences to feel a personal pull into the music.
That perspective stems from his own history with music as a source of stability. Stoner first picked up the saxophone in the sixth grade. After high school, he played football for the Huskers, but later stepped away from music while facing a tough college period involving substance use and mental health struggles.
Following a suicide attempt, Stoner left college and returned to live with his parents as he healed. During that time, he purchased a bass guitar from a pawn shop and started playing along to U2 songs in his parents’ basement.
“I would play and three, four hours would go by,” he said. “And in the midst of just a dumpster fire internally, it was an escape, but it also put me in a place of hopefulness again.”
He later rediscovered the saxophone after friends invited him to join a garage band.
Music, he came to understand, was more than just a pastime. It was something that kept “pulling me out, not just out of the dumps, but giving me a vision of what could happen with my life.”
That experience has shaped much of his work since. Stoner served as a pastor for 20 years. Today, he works in the in-school suspension program at Papillion La Vista South High School, the same district where he grew up and where his own children went to school. He also performs professionally on saxophone at various local venues.
These roles have given him numerous chances to provide steadiness to others, whether through ministry, in the classroom, or on stage.
While Stoner supports others, he also draws from a deep well of support himself. He credits much of it to the North Omaha community.
“North Omaha has been the greatest source of support for me in every way, relationally and musically, in opportunities,” he said. “It just can’t be overemphasized, the impact and the support, love and embrace I’ve had. That is really who I am and why I’m doing what I’m doing now.”
He is excited to return to that community for Music at Miller Park on August 8. His aim for the concert goes beyond just playing songs people can enjoy. Stoner scans the crowd, locks eyes with audience members, and seeks ways to make the experience intimate.
“Whether that be in terms of a soulful uplift, or in ballads that draw out some kind of a longing, or something where it meets someone where they are in life, if you reach them there, that can be transformative,” he said.
For Stoner, this isn’t just a concept. It’s a lived reality. Music carried him forward when he had no idea what lay ahead. Now, each performance is an opportunity to extend that same lift to another person.
“When people come, they get lifted,” he said. “When they leave, I want them to feel like life is good.”
Music at Miller Park is free and open to the public. For details, visit o-pa.org/mamp.
Tara McNamara
Omaha Performing Arts
+1 4026618448
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