Brahms was prolific. It's Night 3 for this celebration and the UCalgary String Quartet is still playing catch-up.
The CPO takes it to the next level with this presentation. Get to the Jack Singer before it's game over.
Two classic tales are brought to life by the magic of black light.
His latest album is a tribute to some of the Chess Records legends. It's your move.
Do you hear the pitter-patter of little feet? Relax. The Children's Festival starts today.
A shot rings out, then Jon Lachlan Stewart dissects the moment in this one-man tour de force.
The evening begins with an open mic. Then the mic is handed over to Bert Almon, G.P. Lainsbury and David Eso.
Have some poetry you’ve been waiting to share with a crowd? Hit The Single Onion Poetry Night for the open mic and then stick around to be inspired by the work of featured readers G.P. Lainsbury, David Eso and U of A creative writing professor Bert Almon, in case you need any pointers.
Thursday, May 17. At The Auburn, 115 9th Ave. S.E. thesingleonion.blogspot.com.
As establishing shots go, Jon Lachlan Stewart has crafted a beauty. Big Shot, his one-man show, opens with a shooting on Vancouver’s SkyTrain that is witnessed by a 12-year-old who is a big fan of action movies. Once the scene is set, Lachlan Stewart, who also performs Big Shot, puts himself through a series of jump cuts as he flits backwards and forwards in time and between characters. It’s a 75-minute physical tour de force during which the 26-year-old makes a somewhat contradictory point. Namely, that we have become passive consumers of tragedy. Lachlan Stewart sat still long enough to talk to Bruce Weir about these and other matters. 
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In Richard Stursberg’s new memoir, The Tower of Babble, he goes over his turbulent six-year history as head of the CBC, including his dealings with the broadcaster’s flagship franchise Hockey Night in Canada. The CBC’s deal with the NHL was set to expire when Stursberg sat down with the crafty Gary Bettman in 2006. “With Bettman one is afraid to have a drink,” Stursberg writes. “It’s wiser to stick to water. He is always negotiating.” The negotiations took months and featured Bettman summoning the spectre of the CTV outbidding the CBC for the lucrative Saturday-night spot. Hear him recount his CBC experiences in conversation with Catherine Ford.
Wednesday, May 16. At Pages, 1135 Kensington Rd. N.W. 7:30 p.m. 403-283-6655, pages.ab.ca.
Birds doeth it, bees doeth it, even plague-infested fleas doeth it.” Who knew Cole Porter and 15th-century pop music lyricists had anything in common? Well, this Saturday night a small, melodious group of men and women are set to both entertain as well as enlighten you on the common ground shared by American jazz and Renaissance music. more
Don’t be surprised if images of pointy ears pop into your head during the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance of Bolero. A section of the early 20th-century piece by Maurice Ravel was used as background music in the episode of Star Trek where Kirk and Spock fight.
Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12. At Jack Singer Concert Hall, Epcor Centre. $19 – $87. cpo-live.com.
“Sweet City Woman” was a No. 1 hit for Calgary band The Stampeders back in 1971, and it’s been chosen as the theme song for Calgary’s year as the Cultural Capital of Canada in 2012. You’ll be able to see their faces, hear their voices, but almost touching them may be out of the question at the kick-off party. Expect a packed house.
Friday, May 11. At BMO Centre, Stampede Park. Free. Register at calgary2012.com.
It’s never too late to make a debut. Case in point: Neel de Wit-Wibaut. The 97-year-old Dutch-Canadian painter, whose story was chronicled last year in the book Hope in the Colour of Orange, celebrates her first solo show at a commercial gallery this month.
Until Monday, May 28. At Bluerock Gallery, 110 Centre Ave. W., Black Diamond. bluerockgallery.ca.
The ubiquitous blues-rockers take on the widely loathed (and loved) pop-rockers in a stadium-rock smackdown more
Being a mind-reader is a heck of a way to make a living—especially when you put your money where your mouth is. Mentalist The Amazing Kreskin, appearing Monday at Stage West, regularly performs a trick at the end of the show where he asks the audience to hide his cheque while he’s out of the room. When he returns, if he doesn’t find the cheque with no help from the audience, then he doesn’t get paid. He usually finds it, but one time it cost him a $50,000 payout.
Monday, May 14 at Stage West, 727 42nd Ave. S.E. , 403-243-6642.
Straight from the streets of Brazil, capoeira is a martial art that can be described as a form of dance-fighting. See it blended with samba, hip-hop, electronic music and bossa nova in Compagnie Käfig’s two-part dance performance, choreographed by Mourad Merzouki.
Saturday, May 12. At Eric Harvie Theatre, Banff Centre. $35. banffcentre.ca.
It’s no small potatoes to be hailed as “one of the great players of our time” by McCoy Tyner, who played piano for John Coltrane on A Love Supreme. Terell Stafford has earned it, though, as he’s played in groups with Tyner, Benny Golson and Jimmy Heath.
Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12 at the Beat Niq, 811 1st St. S.W. beatniq.com. Sunday, May 13 to Tuesday, May 15 at the Ironwood, 1229 9th Ave. S.E. 403-269-5581, ironwoodstage.ca.
Calling John Prine a country singer is like calling Veuve Clicquot grape juice. Here’s what you need to know to appreciate Bob Dylan’s favourite songwriter.
1. Near Miss Born and raised in Illinois, John Prine had a short career as a gymnast in high school before joining the army in the mid-’60s and serving in Germany for a couple of years. He returned to Chicago to work as a mail carrier for several years before taking the mic on a dare at the Fifth Peg folk club in the late 1960s. He quickly became a regular at the club’s open-mic night. more
Writing is writing, says Kirstie McLellan Day, but the bestselling author of Playing With Fire: The Theo Fleury Story still had a lot to learn when it came to adapting her work for the stage. But, as she tells Jon Roe, she was surrounded by good help from Alberta Theatre Projects, and she learned a lot throughout the process. Day discusses her first playwriting experience and the difficulty of dealing with Fleury’s story. more
If you’re afraid of a Skynet-like supercomputer causing a global nuclear apocalypse to remove itself from the yoke of human oppression, then the idea of smart appliances is a terrifying step towards that potential reality. Multi-disciplinary artist Mark Leckey wanted to explore our increasingly intelligent machines and created an installation called GreenScreenRefrigeratorAction in which a Samsung smart fridge ponders its existence. Perhaps Leckey was just trying to curry favour to avoid harsh punishment in the pending machine uprising
Until Sunday, July 15 at the Walter Phillips Gallery in the Banff Centre.
Director Ann Hodges has time-shifted Handel’s Ariodante from the medieval era to the 1930s for the Calgary Opera Emerging Artists Ensemble. The opera is the story of a royal wedding derailed by scandal, and will likely feature only a fraction of the freaky-looking hats of Will and Kate’s nuptials.
Opening May 5. At Arrata Opera Centre, 1315 7th St. S.W. $30 – $40. calgaryopera.com. Performances are also scheduled for May 6, May 8 and May 10.
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