An eagerly anticipated annual exhibition returns to the Quad City Arts Center after last year's online-only experience, with dozens upon dozens of phenomenal student artworks on view in the 44th Annual High School Art Invitational, a showcase of burgeoning talents working in all mediums and the incredible creativity of our area's gifted youths.

Some of the most enjoyable tunes in musical theatre will be performed by some of our area's most familiar and adored performers when Quad City Music Guild, from April 9 through 18, presents its virtual revue On with the Show: A QCMG Cabaret, an online trip through the 73-year history of this beloved Quad Cities theatrical institution.

Described by NPR as an artist who “explores pop songwriting with playful magnetism” and by SavingCountryMusic.com as someone “fearless in both what he's willing to say and how he's willing to say it,” alt-country and Americana performer Parker Millsap plays a virtual concert on April 9, the Englert Theatre presentation showcasing a musician whose compositions, according to Pop Matters, “ring with authenticity through his expressive twang.”

Hosted by the Moline Public Library as a companion program to WQPT-TV's new Ken Burns documentary Hemingway, the virtual presentation A Visit from Ernest Hemingway will, on April 12, treat viewers to an audience with the legendary writer as portrayed by Brain “Fox” Ellis, the award-winning storyteller and historical interpreter who last portrayed famed industrialist John Deere in a February event for the library.

Appearing in a special presentation hosted by the Moline Public Library, a best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize recipient will be showcased in the virtual program An Evening with John Sandford, an April 14 event with the author of the wildly popular Prey series that boasts 30 books (and counting) featuring crime-solving protagonist Lucas Davenport.

A tribute to the diversity of American music inspired by the Figge Art Museum’s current exhibition For America: 200 Years of Painting from the National Academy of Design, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's final Masterworks concert of the 2020-21 season – For America, being performed live at the Adler Theatre on April 10 – is a symphonic tapestry weaving together many different musical traditions, and boasting the musical talents of the Sphinx Quartet: violinists Jannina Norpoth and Ruben Rengel, viola player Paul Laraia, and cellist Thomas Mesa.

Teaming up for the new series Kinogarten that will screen German films on the first Friday of every month through September, Rock Island's Rozz-Tox and Davenport's German American Heritage Center present the venues' season-opener with an outdoor April 2 showing of The Edukators, the award-winning 2004 release that the Los Angeles Times called a “sweet, funny, and gripping romantic adventure.”

A fascinating virtual program in the Bettendorf Public Library's popular “Community Connections” series, Endless Possibilities: Iowa's African American History will boast a presentation by members of Cedar Rapids' African American Museum of Iowa, the April 8 event continuing the venue's stated mission “to preserve, publicize, and educate the public on the African American heritage and culture of Iowa.”

On April 2 and 3, the long-awaited return of live music at the Rock Island Brewing Company will be celebrated with concert sets by venue favorites The Schwag, who, in the band's 30th year as professional Grateful Dead tribute artists, will perform from a repertoire that includes such classics as “Uncle John's Band,” “Truckin,” “Alabama Getaway,” and the chart-topping “Touch of Grey.”

Presented on April 1 in conjunction with the Figge Art Museum's current exhibition For America: 200 Years of Painting from the National Academy of Design, the virtual Scholar Talk with Margie Cain finds the co-director of Rock Island's Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum sharing information on the venue, its collections, and its exhibits in connection with artist and inventor Samuel F.B. Morse, whose painting Self-Portrait is showcased in the popular Figge attraction.

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