Two classic piano concertos, two world premieres by female composers, and the Quad Cities debut of a new saxophone concerto are among highlights of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's (QCSO's) 111th season, which will formally begin with its first Masterworks program on October 4 and 5.

Iowa gets unfairly maligned as “flyover country.” But the Hawkeye State also has been immortalized as “heaven” in the 1989 classic film Field of Dreams, which was shot in Dyersville. Megan Bannister is firmly in the latter camp, as the bubbly Chicago native turned willing Iowan has traversed our divine cornfields and assembled 84 quirky, fun places to stop in her 192-page paperback book Secret Iowa: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, & Obscure.

River Action’s fun Floatzilla event is roaring back for its 16th year, and it's bigger than ever.

Julie Funk is both excited and terrified to take on one of the most iconic roles in musical theatre. The passionate 50-year-old Davenport mom is playing the monstrous Mama Rose in Quad City Music Guild's Gypsy, running August 8 through 17 at Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium (1584 34th Avenue).

Run by Quad City Arts and open to youth ages 15 to 21, Metro Arts is a paid, five-week summer apprenticeship in which participants work side by side with professional artists on real, public-facing projects. From murals and mosaics to poetry, live performances, and digital storytelling, apprentices shape and improve the creative landscape of the Quad Cities while gaining invaluable professional experience.

For the first time in 10 years, ComedySportz (CSz) Quad Cities will host the world championship for the improvisational comedy group, and for the first time at Moline’s Spotlight Theatre (1800 Seventh Avenue, Moline IL).

John Taylor doesn’t have to go far to hear first-class live music. Since 2014, the friendly Iraq war veteran and computer programmer has hosted concerts at his home in tiny Cambridge, Illinois, 31 miles southeast of Moline.

Like many of us, Mike Conrad is just making it up as he goes along. Unlike most of us, however, the 37-year-old – a Bettendorf High School alum whose trio headlines a June 29 concert at Davenport's Redstone Room – has won international acclaim and several awards for his improvisational wizardry as a composer, arranger, pianist, and trombonist.

Courtney Crouse and Tommy Ranieri are both enthusiastic theatre directors who are taking on recent roles as artistic directors of, respectively, our area's summer-stock organizations the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre and the Timber Lake Playhouse. Their passion for the craft and their new summer homes were obvious in recent interviews about the theatres located just 24 miles apart, one on each side of the Mississippi River.

You only turn 100 years old once. And while the Figge Art Museum – which originated as the Davenport Municipal Art Gallery in 1925 – is marking its centennial year in many ways, it's pulling out all the stops on Saturday, May 17, with a “Glow Up” party, celebrating a landmark $4-million lighting of its building at 225 West Second Street in Davenport.

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