Ballet Minnesota presents The 20th Annual Minnesota Dance Festival at The Fitzgerald Theater on Friday, May 16th at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, May 17th at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. The evening performances will feature the full length Classical Ballet Swan Lake.

This most revered of classical ballets did not appear in a blaze of glory, and even the exact origins of the ballet are uncertain. The Petipa/Ivanov version of Swan Lake that we consider the "standard" today was in fact created after Tchaikovsky’s death and was greatly altered from the original concept. Many of the features of Swan Lake that we believe to be from the original production (e.g. the White Swan pas de deux) were the result of revisions after the Petipa/Ivanov version. The legend of the Swan-Maiden goes back for centuries, appearing in differing forms in both eastern and western literature. Women who turn into birds and vice versa were popular themes, and the swan was particularly favored due to its grace when swimming in the water.

Tickets are $26.00 (Adults), $19.00 (62+), and $12.00 (12 & under). There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket.Minnesota Public Radio members receive a discount.

Due to a change in schedule, the Cokie Roberts event on Thursday, May 22nd is being postponed. We will post information on this page as soon as a new performance date is announced.

If you have already purchased tickets, please contact the original point of purchase for a refund.

Minnesota Public Radio, The Star Tribune, and The Loft Literary Center continue their "Talking Volumes" series at The Fitzgerald Theater on Tuesday, May 27th at 7:00 p.m. with a conversation with author Michael Ondaatje and host Kerri Miller. Ondaatje, who was born in Sri Lanka and now lives outside Toronto, has written four novels (including "The English Patient"), one memoir and several books of poems. His most recent novel, "Divisadero", begins in Northern California in the 1970s with a man and his two teenage daughters. An act of violence splinters the family, and from these shards Ondaatje spins more tales -- which send us spinning from the past to the present, and from the casinos of Nevada to the French countryside. Reviewers have called it "lyrical," "finely chiseled," "prismatic" and "mesmerizing." A Vintage paperback edition will be released in April.

Musical guest for the show is Dreamland Faces, a five-piece ensemble with an otherworldly ability to channel the musical spirit of bygone days. The group’s repertoire consists of both old-time and modern standards, as well as originals, with accordion, musical saw, banjo-ukulele, saxophone, tuba, and bullhorn vocals. The group was featured as part of Vaudevillian Stages at the Fitzgerald in June, 2007.

All tickets are $15.00. Discounts are available for Minnesota Public Radio members, Star Tribune Talking Volume Members, and Loft members.

Peter Ostroushko: French, Italian and Scottish strings
the Brass Messengers: Balkan musical anarchy
the Rose Ensemble: Songs of the medieval church and square
Maria Jette: Intercontinental diva
Josette Antomarchi: Chanteuse extraordinaire
Sima Shumilovsky: Russian gypsy songs
Dirk Freymuth: Fretboard wunderkind
John Munson: American crooner cousin
Diane Jarvi: Italian folk song
Dennis Curley: Ballads and laments

All tickets are $29.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. Minnesota Public Radio members receive a discount.

The Mrs. Minnesota - Wisconsin - Iowa Pageant returns to The Fitzgerald Theater on Saturday, June 7th at 7:00 p.m. Join Mrs. Minnesota-America 2007, Bessie Giannakakis, Mrs. Wisconsin-America 2007, Jayne Black, Mrs. Iowa-America 2007, Taryn Schuyler and this year's contestants for an exciting evening, culminating in the crowning of Mrs. Minnesota-America 2008, Mrs. Wisconsin-America 2008, and Mrs. Iowa-America 2008.

Tickets are available for $35.00 and $33.00. Group discount available for groups of 15 or more.

Minnesota Public Radio, The Star Tribune, and The Loft Literary Center continue their "Talking Volumes" series at The Fitzgerald Theater on Thursday, June 12th at 7:00 p.m. with a conversation with author Judy Blume and host Kerri Miller. Blume, who divides her time between New York City and Key West, Fla., is perhaps best known and loved for her frank and funny take on preteens in "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." Now she's launched "Soupy Saturdays With the Pain and the Great One" (Delacorte), the first of four books aimed at ages 5 to 7. The series, an equally frank and funny take on sibling dynamics, features Abigail (The Great One) and her brother, Jake (The Pain). Like siblings everywhere, they needle, aggravate, tease and compete with each other. And, when you're not looking, they even like each other.

All tickets are $15.00. Discounts are available for Minnesota Public Radio members, Star Tribune Talking Volume Members, and Loft members.

Garrison Keillor will host a very special Prairie Home Companion reunion show at the Fitzgerald Theater on Sunday, June 15th at 3:00 p.m. Prairie Home Reunion: Still Singing After All These Years brings together most of the old crowd whose music inspired the creation of a radio show back in the summer of 1974. The radio show sprang out of a loose community of acoustic musicians who were young and brash, independent, played what they loved, and lived close to the ground. They're still playing and leading the musical life, and on Father's Day we're bringing them back to the Fitzgerald for a reunion.

People keep asking what happened to them and the answer is, they're still here, including Bill Hinkley and Judy Larson (The Original Powdermilk Muffins) with Cal Hand on dobro, pianist Butch Thompson, cowboy singing idol Pop Wagner, the Powdermilk Biscuit Band with Adam Granger, Bob Douglas, Mary DuShane and Dick Rees, singer Becky Riemer Thompson, mandolinist and composer Peter Ostroushko, and guitarist Dakota Dave Hull. As a special added attraction, the Brandy Snifters — Minnesota's Oldest Old-Time Band — will offer a few tunes. Sound effects wizard Tom Keith will reminisce about the early days of the show, and Richard Dworsky, music director of A Prairie Home Companion for the past 14 years, will perform a medley of songs he was playing in 1974, when he was just out of high school.

This event is SOLD OUT.

Minnesota Public Radio welcomes the Choir from London’s historic St. Paul Cathedral to our Cathedral of Saint Paul on Tuesday, June 24th. Spanning nine centuries of history, this choir has established itself as one of the major forces in British church music today. They last performed at the Cathedral of Saint Paul in 2003. This concert will be broadcast live on Classical Minnesota Public Radio.

A choir of boys and gentlemen has sung at St. Paul’s Cathedral since the twelfth century. Today’s choir is quite large, consisting at full complement of 30 choristers (boy trebles), eight probationers (who will become choristers) and 18 adults: six counter-tenors (or altos), six tenors and six basses. The ensemble will feature 33 singers for this American visit.

The present Director of Music for the choir is Andrew Carwood. A versatile musician, Carwood divides his time between solo and consort singing and directing his own group, The Cardinall’s Musick, in addition to his work at St. Paul’s. Previously he was a choral scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, a lay clerk at Christ Church, Oxford, and Westminster Cathedral before holding the post of Director of Music at the Brompton Oratory in London for five years.

The choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, bases its work on the ancient monastic tradition of sung prayer services. These take on a special effect when heard in Christopher Wren’s great masterpiece, a monumental building completed in 1697 following the Great Fire of 1666. The Cathedral’s music program also is an important vehicle for the performance of new works. In recent years many composers, among them Jonathan Harvey, John Tavener and Hugh Wood, have been invited to write for the Cathedral. In mid November each year, the choirs of Westminster Abbey and Westminster and St. Paul's Cathedrals join together to celebrate the patron saint of music, Cecilia.

Tickets are available for $39.00, $34.00 and $29.00. Minnesota Public Radio members receive a discount.

Minnesota Public Radio presents theater organist Jelani Eddington at the Fitzgerald Theater on Sunday, June 29 at 8:00 p.m., to play a program of popular music featuring the compositions of Leroy Anderson. Pipedreams host Michael Barone welcomes Eddington, one of the world’s most prominent young theater organists who, in 2001 at the age of 27, was named Theatre Organist Of The Year by the American Theatre Organ Society. His Saint Paul concert explores many pages of the ‘American songbook’, and also celebrates the centenary of Leroy Anderson, a famous American composer of light orchestral favorites who was born exactly one hundred years ago, on June 29, 1908. Among Anderson’s most memorable pieces are "Sleigh Ride", “A Trumpeter’s Lullaby”, and "The Syncopated Clock." Many of his scores were introduced by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra.

Born in 1974, Eddington began studying piano at the age of four. A trip to hear the huge Wurlitzer pipe organ in the Paramount Music Palace (a music-themed restaurant in Indianapolis) first introduced the eight-year-old Eddington to the sounds of the theatre pipe organ. Soon afterwards, he began to pursue classical organ lessons, but ultimately began the study of theatre organ, too, under the direction of the acclaimed teacher John Ferguson.

In the spring of 1988, at the age of 13, Eddington won the American Theatre Organ Society’s Young Theatre Organist Competition, prevailing over competitors ages 13-21 from the United States, England, Australia, and New Zealand. He remains the youngest competitor ever to win this title. As proof that his abilities are not entirely musical, Eddington graduated Magna Cum Laude from Indiana University in 1996, and in 1999 earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Yale Law School. He practiced law for several years on the east coast before returning to the Midwest and a full-time involvement as a musician. In his “free” time he also enjoys the study of foreign languages and figure skating.

This event is free and open to the public.

Sue McLean and Associates present the Cowboy Junkies at the Fitzgerald Theater on Thursday, July 17th at 7:30 p.m. Based out of Toronto, Canada, the Cowboy Junkies have been playing for over 20 years. The Trinity Session is perhaps their best known album, recorded live on a single microphone at the Church of the Holy Trinity in downtown Toronto by producer Peter J. Moore. This album also included a cover of The Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane" based on the 1969 Live album version rather than the studio version from Loaded. The single featured in the films Natural Born Killers and The Good Girl.

After multiple recordings and countless tour dates, the Cowboy Junkies have recently released their 11th album, Trinity Revisited, which was recorded at the Trinity Church in one day. On the album, the band features special guests such as Ryan Adams, Vic Chesnutt, Natalie Merchant, and longtime cohort Jeff Bird. With various guests and unique recording techniques, the album is full of eclectic sounds and original songwriting. Don’t miss this evening with the Cowboy Junkies.

Tickets are available for $36.00 and $34.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. Minnesota Public Radio members receive a discount.

Square Peg Concerts present Suzanne Westenhoefer at the Fitzgerald Theater on Friday, September 12th at 8:00 p.m. Fearless. Bold. Sparkly. Hilarious. That’s Suzanne Westenhoefer in a nutshell. She’s made a career out of telling the truth. And, the truth is, life is funny (and no one is off limits). From her sister’s obsession with “Passion of the Christ” to her girlfriend’s Herculean thighs, Suzanne tells stories that leave audiences in stitches. Suzanne works mostly unscripted, so when she hits the stage it’s an unpredictable, original night of comedy magic. Since winning her first comedy competition on a dare in the early 1990s, Suzanne’s career has taken off.

The first openly gay comedian in New York, Suzanne did gay material to straight audiences in mainstream comedy clubs. She was the first lesbian comedian to garner an HBO Comedy Special, which earned her a Cable Ace Award nomination.

Tickets go on sale Friday, May 16th at noon. Tickets are $32.50 and $27.50 in advance or $35.50 and $ 30.50 day of show. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket.