“Hamilton” actress and singer Renée Elise Goldsberry will join the Quad City Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, May 15, 2021 for an outdoor 7:30 p.m. concert at Davenport’s LeClaire Park. The special concert (of Broadway, pop, and soul favorites) was originally scheduled for Davenport’s Adler Theatre and was first announced in early February 2020. QCSO executive director Brian Baxter said Friday they decided in December to move the show outdoors, due to Covid concerns, rather than cancel or postpone. “We’ve considered everything. I would say every option was weighed,” he said,... Read More

Two members of the Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles (QCYSE) have been named winners of the annual Concerto Competition – a pianist from Alleman High School and a trumpeter from Pleasant Valley High. Last month, eight Youth Symphony Orchestra (YSO) members auditioned to win one of two prizes. The YSO Prize winner is typically awarded the opportunity to play their concerto at the QCSYE Winter Concert in February, accompanied by the YSO. The Grand Prize winner performs their concerto with the QCSO at the QCSO/QCSYE Side-by-Side Concert in April. Winners are selected by a committee consisting... Read More

The day last August that Marian Lee was to be the first female pianist to play for Iowa Public Radio’s (IPR) Steinway Café series, was the day after the devastating derecho swept through the Midwest. The St. Ambrose University associate professor of piano rescheduled her virtual appearance to this Monday at noon. Lee’s pre-recorded 45-minute program (filmed at SAU’s Madsen Hall) will be available on IPR’s Facebook page and Ambrose music department’s Facebook. Lee will be watching and answering viewer questions in real time on the IPR site. “I was really surprised to find I was the... Read More

Saturday In The Arts is a comprehensive weekly feature looking at a trend, personality, or major subject involving the Quad-Cities arts and entertainment scene. Making it through nearly five months of a paralyzing pandemic was bad enough, but for those of us in Iowa and the Quad-Cities, Aug. 10, 2020 and the days that followed seemed especially cruel. I’ll never forget that Monday afternoon, working on my laptop in the basement, a prisoner in my home trying not to go insane during a crazy year. The power suddenly went out, as a freak inland hurricane (or “derecho” – duh-RAY-cho – as everyone... Read More

Hannah Holman, principal cellist with the Quad City Symphony, got an early Christmas present this month – the keys to the historic Deanery at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Davenport. She’s had a longtime dream to start a new music school, which she did online in September, and she is Executive Artistic Director of the Quad City Music Academy. Following months of negotiations between the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral’s Vestry and her academy’s Board of Directors, Holman now has a 15-year lease on the 90-year-old building and the QCMA will rename it The Deanery School of Music. “It’s so... Read More

A maid’s song in Jacob Bancks’s new opera “Karkinos” has painfully relevant lyrics – “Slowly, slowly, what is your hurry? Little by little the bird builds a nest. Patience obtains all things. Sooner or later a seedling will climb. Wait, and all that has life will flourish in time.” Patience is certainly what we all need in the Covid era, as the premiere of “Karkinos” – a collaboration between the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and Living Proof Exhibit – again has been delayed, until February 2022. The opera, penned by Bancks (an Augustana associate professor of music), was first... Read More

With all of the election stress this week, we could all use some GOOD news, am I right? And every month, we at QuadCities.com, along with our media partners at KWQC-TV6’s “Paula Sands Live,” present What’s The Good News, a look at some of the awesome people and positive news happening around the area! So, what’s the good news for November? Here ya go… Quad City Arts Visiting Artist Series Takes On An Online Educational Tone Quad City Arts has launched its new collection of online educational materials for the 47th-annual Visiting Artist Series that’s designed to help people during... Read More

Several Quad-Cities cultural organizations and projects were among 176 grants totaling just over $2 million, announced Friday by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs (IDCA), for works in art, film, history, and culture. The funding comes through programs overseen by the department’s divisions: the Iowa Arts Council, the State Historical Society of Iowa and Produce Iowa, the state office of film and media production. “These funds are critical to help sustain arts, film, heritage and cultural vibrancy across the state and showcase Iowa’s world-class cultural programs and destinations with... Read More

The coronavirus crisis continues to play havoc with outdoor music events in the Quad-Cities, as more summer series are being canceled, while others optimistically remain on the 2020 calendar. Given the ongoing uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic surrounding when exactly public gatherings will once again be permitted, and out of concern for the health, safety and well-being of the Quad-Cities community, Moline Centre has made the difficult decision to suspend the 2020 Bass Street Landing Thursday Night Summer Concert Series until further notice. “This decision did not come easily, as it... Read More

Like most others during this crazy Covid crisis, arts organizations locally and nationally are struggling to find financial help. Though four individual artists recently got some funding, no Quad-Cities arts groups – all reeling from the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic — were helped in the first round of $191,000 from the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs (IDCA). The first relief grants this month were limited to artists and very small nonprofits, including Q-C artists Courtney Lyon (dance), Lojo Russo (music), Matthew Terry (visual art) and Pat Bereskin (art and art education). In... Read More