ST. PAUL, Minn., Aug. 17, 2009 - The wind blew and the crowd rocked as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association wrapped up its first ever Rock the River Tour. On a blustery Sunday at St. Paul's Harriet Island Park, 23,000 people turned out for a day of rock and hip hop with a positive message.

The evangelistic summer concert tour started in July in Baton Rouge, La., and traveled up the Mississippi River to St. Louis, into the Quad Cities (Davenport, Iowa), and Minneapolis-St. Paul. A total of 112,798 people attended the summer series.

"This all happened because God put a burden on my heart for young people-how can we reach kids of this generation? For so many their lives are upside down and in a mess and they don't even know why," said Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and international relief organization Samaritan's Purse. "That's why I'm so excited that we've had this opportunity to share the message of God's love with all of these young people. It's a chance to change thousands of young lives."

Graham shared brief, challenging Gospel messages multiple times during each Rock the River Tour event. A total of 2,871 responded to Graham's invitation to follow Jesus Christ. Along with the music and messages from Franklin Graham, Rock the River Tour included skateboard and wakeboard exhibitions.

Music artists participating in the Rock the River Tour included Flyleaf, Kirk Franklin, Superchick, DecembeRadio, Flame, Canton Jones and Lecrae.

This coming Wednesday your chance to meet Music Director and Conductor Mark Russell Smith at Barnes and Noble, NorthPark Mall, Davenport. The Quad City Symphony Orchestra is hosting a bookfair at Barnes and Noble on July 22 and a percentage of the proceeds from items purchased in the store that day - everything from CDs to coffee - will be directed to the QCSO.

Music Director and Conductor Mark Russell Smith will be meeting with music lovers and hosting a presentation of next year's Masterworks repertoire starting at 5:30 PM. Barnes and Noble is also stocking recordings of much of next year's repertoire so you can spend more time with the music before hearing it live. Maestro Smith's presentation will last about a half-hour with time for questions and photos after the presentation. Present a voucher at check-out and a percentage of the proceeds from the items purchased will be directed to the QCSO. Vouchers can be downloaded at www.QCSymphony.com.

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The 250th anniversary of the life of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) will be celebrated in the Blackhawk Chamber Music Festival's Bach and Telemann celebrate Handel's 250th Anniversary with mezzo soprano Vivien Shotwell, flutist Jeffrey Cohan, guitarist Oleg Timofeyef and harpsichordist Larry Peterson on Sunday, July 12 at 7:00 PM at Ascension Chapel at Augustana College, at 639 - 38th Street in Rock Island.

The suggested donation, a free will offering, will be $15, and students 18 years of age and under are encouraged to come for free. For further information please see www.bhcmf.org.

The program will feature 18th-century cantatas for mezzo soprano, flute, guitar and harpsichord including Johann Sebastian Bach's beautiful well-known cantata Ich habe genug, and the cantata Ihr volker hört by Georg Philipp Telemann from his series of cantatas for each Sunday of the year entitled the Harmonischer Gottesdienst ("the Harmonic Church Service"). The program will also include one of George Frideric Handel's beautiful Deutsche Arien ("German Arias") for mezzo soprano, flute and accompanying instruments, along with flute sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel.

Now in its 9th season, the Black Hawk Chamber Music Festival offers a midsummer bouquet of chamber music by famous and little-known composers, illuminating many unusual aspects of musical performance from the Renaissance through the present, and sometimes providing an opportunity to hear these works performed on exact replicas of the instruments with which the composers were familiar. Festival repertoire ranges from classical favorites and new works written for the performers to unpublished chamber music from the Library of Congress. The festival brings together artists from the region and other world-class musicians from around the country and abroad.