Sue McLean and Associates present Five for Fighting with special guest: Matt Wertz at the Fitzgerald Theater on Saturday, March 20th at 8:00 p.m. Singer/songwriter John Ondrasik has spent the past decade writing deeply personal songs that include social messages, invoke the human spirit and make an emotional connection. The celebrated, Southern California-born singer/songwriter’s fifth album under the Five for Fighting banner, Slice, finds Ondrasik spreading his creative wings, ever so gently incorporating his love for classic R&B on songs like Love Can't Change the Weather and even firing up a Marshall stack on Transfer. Lyrically, he honors his family, friends and personal heroes, from fitness pioneer Augie Nieto to American servicemen serving around the world. Five for Fighting will head out on the road beginning in March for a headline tour in support of the new album.

Tickets are available for $29.50 and $27.50. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket.

Sue McLean and Associates present The World’s Most Exciting Young Violinist DAVID GARRETT at the Fitzgerald Theater on Sunday, March 21st at 7:30 p.m. By the time he was thirteen years old, the virtuoso violinist David Garrett had a classical music career that would make most artists of any age envious. A true child prodigy at age eight, he was being booked to play as a soloist in front of some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Russian National Orchestra. When he turned thirteen, he was signed to one of the most famous and prestigious classical music labels in the world as a solo artist. As a result, David has carved out a unique and wholly new artistic path, one that pays as much homage to Metallica as to Mozart. Dubbed, “the fastest violinist in the world,” David Garrett will be in the 2010 Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest-ever performer of the Flight of the Bumblebee, clocking in at a blistering 66 seconds. David Garrett is set to conquer a whole new terrain with his first American self-titled release.

Tickets are available for $38.00 & $35.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. Minnesota Public Radio members receive a discount.

Minnesota Public Radio presents Wits^TM - How To Sacrifice Everything For Your Ungrateful Children with Julia Sweeney at the Fitzgerald Theater on Saturday, March 27th at 8:00 p.m. Wits will bring leading humor writers, satirists and storytellers to the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater to share their work and shed some light on a wide range of topics. The series will be hosted by American Public Media radio host, McSweeney’s contributor, author and humorist John Moe. Moe and his guests will weave (and unravel) conversations around topics as wide-ranging as hard work, chickens, parenting and distraction. Wits™ will feature phone calls from special guests, musical guetss on stage, and include readings – poems, passages, quotes – of works by our favorite clever dead guys, and some living ones, too.

John Munson, of The New Standards, will be on stage and on mic to underscore the shows with his upright bass and commentary. Minnesota Public Radio is not the only one that noticed John’s musicality and on-stage wit. Jon Bream of the Star Tribune writes “New Standards bassist/singer John Munson is very funny”. A handful of writers will join in on the conversations by phone. Join John, John and some of the country’s brightest wits for conversations and curveballs.

The former Saturday Night Live cast member, actress and sometime Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me! panelist is the creator of autobiographical monologues, including “God Said Ha!”, portions of which have been featured on This American Life. Julia left Hollywood for a quieter part of the country and a life as a stay-at-home mom. She’ll explore this transition with John Moe. Comedy writer and former writer for The Simpsons Dana Gould will join the conversation by phone from Hollywood where he lives with his wife and children, and Singer/Songwriter Mason Jenings will stop by to play a song or two.

All tickets are $25.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. We are offering a Wits Series Package discount, buy three get the fourth show for free. Minnesota Public Radio members receive discount. We would like to thank the Highland Grill for their help in offering special 50% discounts to Wits for high school and college students.

89.3 The Current welcomes Twin Cities singer-songwriter Chris Koza to the stage of the historic Fitzgerald Theater on Saturday, April 10th at 8:00 p.m. Chris presents Rogue Valley , an evening dedicated to unearthing tales of springtime through songs and stories of thawing landscapes, regeneration, and youthful abandon. Author Alex Lemon, Jeremy Messersmith, JoAnna James, and members of Electric Arc Radio and the Waconia High School drumline join Chris to tell the tale of new love and the hope that blooms with every spring. Producer Sanden Totten will join in with field reports on spring and Alicia Wiley, a Fitzgerald Theater Indie-Artist apprentice, will take on the Mighty Wurlitzer Theater Organ. The performance coincides with the release of Chris’ first album in a series of four that will arrive with each season.

Chris Koza grew up in Portland, Oregon and started taking piano lessons at the age of 6, He came to Minnesota for the first time as a freshman of St. Olaf College, Since releasing his debut album Exit Pesce in the autumn of 2004, Chris has kept a steady creative pace with the release of subsequent albums Patterns (2006), A Friend of a Friend (2006), and The Dark, Delirious Morning (2008), all of which have appeared on year-end best-of lists throughout the Twin Cities media.

All tickets are $25.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. Minnesota Public Radio members receive a discount.

Sue McLean and Associates present Loud & Rich with Loudon Wainwright III and Richard Thompson at the Fitzgerald Theater on Wednesday, April 14th at 7:30 p.m. Loudon Wainwright III is one of America’s most cherished music icons, a darkly witty and personal songwriter and storyteller. He started out in the folk clubs of New York and Boston before going on to parallel music and acting careers, giving birth to over 20 albums, acting in a long list of productions from MASH to the 40 Year Old Virgin, as well as creating music for film and theater. Richard Thompson is the product of a working class London family, the teenage founder of British musical pioneers Fairport Convention, the creator with then-wife Linda Thompson of critically acclaimed musical masterpieces in the 1970s and 80s, and the proud owner of an ongoing legacy of great solo albums that continues to this day. He was named by Rolling Stone to their top 20 alltime guitarists list and is the recipient of a BBC Lifetime Achievement Award. Richard Thompson & Loudon Wainwright III, long-time friends and collaborators commence their first ever North American tour together, be prepared for a once in a lifetime concert event when they join forces on the same bill, onstage together and separately.

Tickets are available for $39.00 and $37.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. Minnesota Public Radio members receive a discount.

Blue Boat presents Peter Mayer in concert at the Fitzgerald Theater on Saturday, April 24th at 8:00 p.m. Peter will be celebrating the release of his latest recording Heaven Below. Peter will be joined by percussionist Marc Anderson, multi-instrumentalist Dan Schwartz and other special guests.

Peter has gained a passionate following across the country, and been a favorite here in Minnesota for years. His philosophical songs break the boundaries of "folk", and transcend to a realm well beyond the everyday love song. Mary Sue Twohy of XM radio says "Peter Mayer makes it look easy--beautifully crafted songs that pose eternal questions--his arrangements make it sound like there is certainly more than one man and his guitar…". Dirty Linen Magazine says "Mayer offers up everything you could ever want from a singer/songwriter". Come see what they mean at The Fitzgerald Theater on April 24.

Tickets are available for $24.00 and $26.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. Minnesota Public Radio members receive discount. This show is not recommended for children under twelve.

Sue McLean and Associates present Martin Sexton at the Fitzgerald Theater on Sunday, April 25th at 7:30 p.m. Sugarcoating, Martin Sexton’s forthcoming new studio album, which releases April 6, finds this one-of-a kind writer/artist doing what he does best: locating larger truths within the specific details of the life he’s living. “I write from personal experience — my own hang-ups and quirks, good times and bad times,” he acknowledges. The Syracuse-born, western Massachusetts-based artist describes the new album as “a photo album filled with snapshots of my family and friends.” The new release was tracked live off the floor in seven days with a remarkably cohesive studio band composed of drummer Dave Mattacks, guitarist Duke Levine, bassist Marty Ballou and keyboard player Tom West.

Tickets are available for $29.00 and $27.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. Minnesota Public Radio members receive discount.

Sue McLean and Associates present Jakob Dylan & his band Three Legs featuring Neko Case & Kelly Hogan at the Fitzgerald Theater on Tuesday, April 27th at 7:30 p.m. Jakob Dylan, the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter and frontman of The Wallflowers, will release his second solo album Women and Country on April 6th. The album was produced by T Bone Burnett, who has also produced acclaimed albums by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Brandi Carlile and The Wallflowers, as well as the mega-successful soundtrack albums for Crazy Heart, Walk The Line and O Brother Where Art Thou? Jakob Dylan’s new album features guest vocals from Neko Case and Kelly Hogan and Burnett’s acclaimed group of backing musicians, including Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello) on guitar, Keefus Ciancia (Cassandra Wilson) on keys, Dennis Crouch (Johnny Cash, John Mellencamp) on bass, Jay Bellerose (Aimee Mann, Ani DiFranco) on drums, David Mansfield (Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams) on fiddle & mandolin and Greg Leisz (Sheryl Crow) on pedal steel.

Tickets go on sale Friday, March 12th at noon. Tickets are available for $32.00 and $30.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. Minnesota Public Radio members receive discount.

Minnesota Public Radio presents Wits^TM - Hard Work and For What? with George Saunders at the Fitzgerald Theater on Thursday, April 29th at 8:00 p.m. Wits will bring leading humor writers, satirists and storytellers to the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater to share their work and shed some light on a wide range of topics. The series will be hosted by American Public Media radio host, McSweeney’s contributor, author and humorist John Moe. Moe and his guests will weave (and unravel) conversations around topics as wide-ranging as hard work, chickens, parenting and distraction. Wits™ will feature phone calls from special guests, musical guetss on stage, and include readings – poems, passages, quotes – of works by our favorite clever dead guys, and some living ones, too.

John Munson, of The New Standards, will be on stage and on mic to underscore the shows with his upright bass and commentary. Minnesota Public Radio is not the only one that noticed John’s musicality and on-stage wit. Jon Bream of the Star Tribune writes “New Standards bassist/singer John Munson is very funny”. A handful of writers will join in on the conversations by phone. Join John, John and some of the country’s brightest wits for conversations and curveballs.

The geophysical engineer turned writer George Saunders is author of the essay collection “The Braindead Megaphone” among other books. An award-winning fiction writer and Syracuse University creative writing professor, George is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, GQ, McSweeney’s and Harper’s. From soil engineer to convenience store employee to award-winning writer, George has a vast store of experience to draw from when he talks about hard work. Authors Chuck Klosterman and Amy Sedaris will join us by phone to labor over the question as well. Mike Doughty will stop in to plays some tunes off his new album, Sad Man Happy Man.

All tickets are $25.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. We are offering a Wits Series Package discount, buy three get the fourth show for free. Minnesota Public Radio members receive discount. We would like to thank the Highland Grill for their help in offering special 50% discounts to Wits for high school and college students.

The homely old bar on the corner with the piano in back hasn’t freshened up its look lately, or its menu for that matter. But the piano is always in tune somehow, and the late-night clientele that shows up to sing is about as much decoration as a room can handle.

Minnesota Public Radio invites you to The Piano Bar Show hosted by Dan Chouinard at The Fitzgerald Theater on Saturday, May 8th, at 8:00 p.m. Join us for an evening at the well-worn neighborhood watering hole where musician types stop by after a gig to let down their hair and sing a couple of tunes in exchange for a drink on the house. Pianist Dan Chouinard hosts this big-tent barrelhouse evening of swing, soul and sweetness, calling up a roster of singer friends including jazz showman Dennis Spears, a sopranorama with Maria Jette, Molly Sue McDonald and Janis Hardy along with heartthrob John Munson on bass and vocals. Vocalist Thomasina Petrus, legendary street balladeer Jerry Rau, Joe Savage, The Caskettes, and North Dakota street duo the Calamity and the Owl help round out the cast. All we need is you.

Dan Chouinard is a pianist, accordionist and occasional storyteller and is called upon frequently by Minnesota Public Radio to create special programs which blend storytelling, interview and music. Dan grew up in a musical family, attended St. John’s University in Collegeville MN and spent four years as a teacher of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota. When not working as a musician he travels the world by bicycle, with tent and accordion in tow, seeking out new repertoire and music making opportunities.

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 discount.

Sue McLean and Associates present Pat Metheny - The Orchestrion Tour at the Fitzgerald Theater on Sunday, May 9th at 7:30 p.m. World-renowned guitarist/composer Pat Metheny has won an extraordinary 17 Grammy Awards and has been nominated 33 times in 12 different categories, more than any other performer in Grammy history. Aside from critics’ awards and fan accolades, Pat’s focus continually remains on breaking down barriers and exploring new musical ideas. This tour is no exception as Pat moves from brilliant solo guitar improvisations to acoustically driven “solo ensemble” music he is dubbing Orchestrionics. The performance will feature all new original compositions from the forthcoming CD, as well as some older tunes from the Metheny songbook.

Tickets are available for $53.00 and $48.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. Minnesota Public Radio members receive a discount.

Ballet Minnesota presents the 22nd Annual Minnesota Dance Festival featuring the full length ballet Sleeping Beauty at the Fitzgerald Theater on Friday, May 14th at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, May 15th at 2:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. Sleeping Beauty is the classic fairy tale story of Princess Aurora, who is curse by an evil fairy and sleeps for 100 years until she is awakened by the kiss of a prince. The music was written by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the second of his three ballets and is based on Charles Perrault's La Belle au bois Dormant. The work is widely regarded as Tchaikovsky's finest ballet score, and has become one of the classical repertoire's most famous ballets.

Ballet Minnesota will perform the complete version of Sleeping Beauty for both evening performances. The Saturday matinee performance will feature excerpts from Sleeping Beauty along with other featured dance works including the story ballet, "The Nightmare" , Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and others.

Tickets are $26.00 for adult, $19.00 for senior, $23.00 for groups of 20 or more, and $12.00 children under 12. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. Minnesota Public Radio members receive a discount.

The 10th anniversary season of Talking Volumes continues when Kerri Miller welcomes author Monica Ali to talk about her latest novel In the Kitchen at the Fitzgerald Theater on Wednesday, May 19th at 7:00 p.m. Gabriel Lightfoot is an enterprising man from a northern England mill town, making good in London. As executive chef at the once-splendid Imperial Hotel, he is trying to run a tight kitchen. But his integrity, to say nothing of his sanity, is under constant challenge from the competing demands of an exuberant multinational staff, a gimlet-eyed hotel management, and business partners with whom he is secretly planning a move to a restaurant of his own. Despite the pressures, all his hard work looks set to pay off. Until a worker is found dead in the kitchen's basement. It is a small death, a lonely death -- but it is enough to disturb the tenuous balance of Gabe's life. Elsewhere, Gabriel faces other complications. His father is dying of cancer, his girlfriend wants more from their relationship, and the restaurant manager appears to be running an illegal business under Gabe's nose. Enter Lena, an eerily attractive young woman with mysterious ties to the dead man. Under her spell, Gabe makes a decision, the consequences of which strip him naked and change the course of the life he knows -- and the future he thought he wanted.

Monica Ali is the daughter of English and Bangladeshi parents. She moved to England at age three. Her first novel, Brick Lane, is an epic saga about a Bangladeshi family living in the UK, and explores the British immigrant experience. It was shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and made into a film, released in 2007. Monica Ali lives in London and was named in 2003 by Granta magazine as one of twenty 'Best of Young British Novelists'.

Talking Volumes is a partnership of Minnesota Public Radio and The Star Tribune, in collaboration with The Loft Literary Center.

All tickets are $20.00. Discounts are available for Minnesota Public Radio members, Star Tribune Talking Volumes Members, and Loft members.

Minnesota Public Radio presents Wits^TM - Chickens and Other Dilemmas with Susan Orlean at the Fitzgerald Theater on Thursday, May 20th at 8:00 p.m. Wits will bring leading humor writers, satirists and storytellers to the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater to share their work and shed some light on a wide range of topics. The series will be hosted by American Public Media radio host, McSweeney’s contributor, author and humorist John Moe. Moe and his guests will weave (and unravel) conversations around topics as wide-ranging as hard work, chickens, parenting and distraction. Wits™ will feature phone calls from special guests, musical guetss on stage, and include readings – poems, passages, quotes – of works by our favorite clever dead guys, and some living ones, too.

John Munson, of The New Standards, will be on stage and on mic to underscore the shows with his upright bass and commentary. Minnesota Public Radio is not the only one that noticed John’s musicality and on-stage wit. Jon Bream of the Star Tribune writes “New Standards bassist/singer John Munson is very funny”. A handful of writers will join in on the conversations by phone. Join John, John and some of the country’s brightest wits for conversations and curveballs.

Susan Orlean has written for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice. She’s been played by Meryl Streep in the film, “Adaptation,” which was based on her book, “The Orchid Thief.” Susan is a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of “The Bullfighter Checks Her Make-Up” and “Lazy Little Loafers.” Susan has a body of work about animals, including articles about dogs, birds, donkeys and chickens. John Moe ventured into the animal-writing realm as well with a recent article in the New York Times Magazine about his dog. Clearly, there’s a lot to talk about. During the show, we'll give former Poet Laureate Billy Collins a call so he can chime in on the topic and read one of his poems in which a dog looms large. Special musical guest Haley Bonar will be on hand to join in the fun.

All tickets are $25.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. We are offering a Wits Series Package discount, buy three get the fourth show for free. Minnesota Public Radio members receive discount. We would like to thank the Highland Grill for their help in offering special 50% discounts to Wits for high school and college students.

Minnesota Public Radio presents Sebastian Junger on War at the Fitzgerald Theater on Wednesday, June 9th at 7:00 p.m. Bestselling author Sebastian Junger joins American RadioWorks’ Stephen Smith to discuss the lives of U.S. troops on the ground, fighting in Afghanistan. Junger’s new book, “War,” is based on his experience with a single platoon of the U.S. Army as they battled their way across eastern Afghanistan. He explores the psychological, social, and even neurological elements of combat, as well as the bonds that form between these small groups of men.

Sebastian Junger is the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Storm, A Death in Belmont and Fire. He is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and has been awarded a National Magazine Award and an SAIS Novartis Prize for journalism.

All tickets are $20.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. Minnesota Public Radio members receive discount.

Minnesota Public Radio presents Wits^TM - An Examination of Diversions, Distractions, and Hey Look at That Thing Over There with John Hodgman at the Fitzgerald Theater on Friday, June 18th at 8:00 p.m. Wits will bring leading humor writers, satirists and storytellers to the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater to share their work and shed some light on a wide range of topics. The series will be hosted by American Public Media radio host, McSweeney’s contributor, author and humorist John Moe. Moe and his guests will weave (and unravel) conversations around topics as wide-ranging as hard work, chickens, parenting and distraction. Wits™ will feature phone calls from special guests, musical guetss on stage, and include readings – poems, passages, quotes – of works by our favorite clever dead guys, and some living ones, too.

John Munson, of The New Standards, will be on stage and on mic to underscore the shows with his upright bass and commentary. Minnesota Public Radio is not the only one that noticed John’s musicality and on-stage wit. Jon Bream of the Star Tribune writes “New Standards bassist/singer John Munson is very funny”. A handful of writers will join in on the conversations by phone. Join John, John and some of the country’s brightest wits for conversations and curveballs.

The Daily Show’s Resident Expert and a contributor to McSweeney’s, John Hodgman has become a famous minor television personality as the PC in the Mac commercials. He has served as humor editor for The New York Times Magazine and is author of “The Areas of My Expertise” and “More Information Than you Require.” John Hodgman and John Moe first met as writers on McSweeneys.net. John talks with his longtime friend about everything but the topic at hand. Neil Gaiman, author of "Coraline," "The Graveyard Book" and "The Sandman" graphic novel series, among other works, will take part in the conversation by phone from "somewhere unlikely."

All tickets are $25.00. There will be an additional $2.50 facility fee added to the price of each ticket. We are offering a Wits Series Package discount, buy three get the fourth show for free. Minnesota Public Radio members receive discount. We would like to thank the Highland Grill for their help in offering special 50% discounts to Wits for high school and college students.