Des Moines-based NOLA Jazz Band celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2024. Since its inception, the band has paid tribute not only to their roots in Dixieland jazz, but also to the New Orleans sounds of today. The band is finishing up a new album, taken from an IowaPBS special a few months ago, and …

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Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center has been “a place of peace and transformation” in Cedar Rapids since the ‘90s. Director Leslie Wright is in the studio today to chat about the various events and programs being offered for individuals and groups and to encourage a visit to the peaceful grounds. Enjoy a walk along a hiking …

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Orchestra Iowa opens its 2024-25 season with “A Night on the Town,” which will also kick off the 50th anniversary celebration of Iowa’s Jazz Station. Befitting the partnership between KCCK and Orchestra Iowa, the orchestra will perform the first composition to marry jazz and classical, George Gershwin’s landmark piece “Rhapsody in Blue.” In celebration of …

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Brucemore begins a new series this fall, “Music at the Big House.” The opening performance is directed by Lincoln Ginsberg, a performer and composer who works on the Brucemore Artisan Studio team, along with Dylan Rairdin, called “Themes of the Digital Age,” which presents new arrangements of music from video games. The show will feature …

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Riverside Theatre opens its 44th season with perhaps their most unique production, the operatic comedy “Scalia-Ginsburg.” It’s the tale of these two jurists, at opposite ends of the political spectrum, who came together over their love of opera. Mary Jane Knight, who sings the Ginsburg role, says that wrapping her head and lips around various …

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Matthew 25 teams up with acclaimed artist Akwi Nji for the first “Storytellers of Cedar Rapids,” a new series that will feature local storytellers, some open mic slots, and music. Performing for this first event are Akwi, Matthew 25 founder Courtney Ball, Jason Edwards, Eric Gutschmidt, and Ruth Morrow on the theme of “What …

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Gilded Pear Gallery’s Lauren Tucci and Iowa Ceramics Center’s Ellen Kleckner are teaming up in a big way this October to present the 2024 Iowa Clay Conference in conjunction with the River 2 River National Juried Exhibition.  The conference will be held October 4-6 at the Iowa Ceramics Center & Glass Studio with the exhibition …

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Gerry Kreitzer is back with a breakdown of the Cedar Rapids Concert Chorale’s ’24-’25 season. Their first concert will be Friday, November 8, “Veterans, We Salute You,” at the Veterans Memorial Building. December will feature two concerts of “Handel’s Messiah (Part One),” March will bring a concert featuring Craig Hella Johnsons’s modern day oratorio, “Considering …

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“The Merry Wives of Windsor” is one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays, but one that features one of his best-known characters, the beer-swilling, womanizing rapscallion Falstaff. Crooked Path Theatre’s Patrick DuLaney says legend has it the play was written in just a couple weeks, after Queen Elizabeth told the playwright she wanted to see Falstaff in …

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The Dandelion Stompers played a record number of shows in 2023, and founding member Katies Roche says the band has taken it just a bit easier in 2024. But things are ramping up for late summer and fall. They perform Aug. 23 for the Friday Night Concert Series and at Wilson’s Orchard on Sept. 8. …

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