Two-time Grammy Award winners who have released more than 40 full-length albums to date, the lighthearted country, Western-swing, and children's-music entertainers of Riders in the Sky perform an October 28 concert at the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center, the beloved singer/musicians famed for NPR's serial Riders Radio Theater and their songs and companion albums for Pixar's Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc.

Legendary heavy metal artists who were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year, the musicians of Judas Priest bring their national tour to Moline's Vibrant Arena at the MARK on October 29, the hugely influential, Grammy-winning rockers currently celebrating, as her tour title states, “50 Heavy Metal Years.”

Touring in support of his most recent album Please Take a Seat, a recording that Paste magazine called "a wondrous adventure for anyone who is willing to hold on through its twists and turns," the Chicago-based avant-pop multi-instrumentalist Nnamdi Ogbonnaya – also known as Nnamdï – headlines an Ocober 18 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, with Paste adding of the artist “whether it be hip-hop, indie rock, electronica or bubblegum pop, he stays true to who he is."

A moving and emotional two-act chamber opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, Two Remain (Out of Darkness) will enjoy its Quad Cities debut with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra under conductor Ernesto Estigarribia, the October 22 performance in Augustana College's Brummer Theatre Center presented as part of the area-wide Holocaust-remembrance project Out of Darkness (OutOfDarknessQC.com).