Appearing in the ensemble's first performances as guests in Polyrhythms' Third Sunday Jazz Workshop and Matinée Series, Mike Conrad & the Iowa Jazz Composers Orchestra will take the stage at Davenport's Redstone Room on January 19, playing from a jazz repertoire comprised solely of works by gifted Iowa-based composers.

Winner of six 2013 Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Score for pop icon Cyndi Lauper, the high-kicking musical Kinky Boots enjoys its first long-running area engagement at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse January 15 through March 14, the show called “cause for celebration” by Entertainment Weekly and, according to Time Out New York, “the very model of a modern major musical.”

In a unique blend of sound art and public reading, the latest presentation in the Midwest Writing Center's Spectra series, Bradley/Clifton/Miller, will find noted writers Jon Miller and Brian Clifton collaborating with sound artist William Ellis Bradley to create a thrilling, multi-modal experience at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox, the January 8 event also boasting readings by local authors Beth Roberts and Ryan Collins.

Praised by AllMusic.com for their “intriguing and quite effective blend of hard melodic rock with progressive rock tendencies and awesome vocal arrangements,” the musicians of the iconic rock ensemble Head East play a special concert at East Moline's the Rust Belt on January 10, performing more than a half-century after the band's formation and eight years after being inducted into the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Music Association's Hall of Fame.