Named after the legendary contralto and recipient of such honors as the Congressional Gold Medal, the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the award-winning Marian Anderson String Quartet performs as the latest guests in Quad City Arts' Visiting Artist series, the classical musicians' March 29 and 30 performances showcasing the gifts that the Austin Chronicle called “as sweet and soothing as a hand laid gently upon your cheek.”

With Blues Rock Review calling him “a contemporary blues master” and Chicago Blues Guide labeling him an artist who “can sooth, stimulate, and in some cases electrify his audiences with his show-stopping performances,” blues singer/songwriter/guitarist Albert Cummings headlines a spirited Redstone Room concert on March 29, demonstrating the skills that led Grammy-winning producer David Z. to rave, “Albert Cummings writes, plays, and sings the blues like nobody else.”

Presenting an intimate, “in the round” evening of seated artists performing in close proximity with their audience, Davenport's Redstone Room, on March 30, hosts a special “Songs and Stories” program with a trio of talented singer/songwriters: R&B and soul musician Alicia Michilli from Detroit, Michigan; Americana artist Shannon LaBrie from Detroit, Michigan; and folk, rock, and country virtuoso David G. Smith, a native of the Quad Cities' neighboring Blue Grass, Iowa.

Called “one of the top-tier performers of soul and blues music” by Blues Blast magazine and “a strong songwriter and performer with magnetic stage presence” by Elmore, Blues Music Award winner John Németh takes the stage at Davenport's Redstone Room on March 21 in support of his most recent album Feelin' Freaky, a work BluesMatters.com described as “a superb, eclectic, easy-listening release by a man at the top of his game.”

Rozz Tox’s Outlet series of experimental and electronic music offers up one of the most exciting local bills in recent memory with the arrival of Chicago’s ascendant Teklife footwork producer DJ Taye on March 22, performing with support from Collidescope and AppleTree.

A pair of lauded blues-rock collectives out of the Midwest share co-headliner duties at the Redstone Room on March 22, as the Davenport venue hosts one night with two top-tier ensembles: the Chicago-based talents of The Steepwater Band and the Omaha natives of Nebraska's Kris Lager Band.

With the musical bio-pic Bohemian Rhapsody a recent winner of four Academy Awards that has grossed more than $215 million domestic and $875 million worldwide, Freddie Mercury and Queen may be hotter now than ever – which is sure to be proven by the raucous crowd response on March 24 when Moline's TaxSlayer Center pays tribute to the iconic British rockers in the stage spectacle One Night of Queen, performed by Gary Mullen & the Works.

Lauded by Living Blues magazine as “21st Century blues at its best,” the Memphis-based artists of the Ghost Town Blues Band perform a March 24 concert at the Moline Viking Club presented by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society, treating audiences to the soulful, electrifying effects of, as Living Blues stated, “what can happen when the past is distilled through young sensibilities, voices, and instruments.”

NYC-based “sci-fi fusion” trio Consider the Source brings its pyrotechnic-laden prog opuses to the Redstone Room stage on March 14.

The worlds of literature and music will blend in unique fashion on March 16 when Chamber Music Quad Cities hosts its Trinity Episcopal Cathedral presentation “An Evening with Nathan Hill,” with some of the ensemble's premiere talents performing thematically related compositions while Hill reads passages from his debut novel The Nix, a work cited by Entertainment Weekly as the best book of 2016.

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