BENEFIT & WINE
A Toast to the Cedar
It’s Good Samaritan Involvement Day, so be sure to fill your day with good deeds. Then continue into the evening hours with a wine-tasting benefit for the Cedar. Now in its third year, the Zipp’s Liquors/Seward Co-op Spring Wine & Food Show features more than 100 wines, beers and spirits, live music, a wine and cheese pairing, a silent auction, and a raffle drawing — all of this accompanied by the joy of helping out one of our top local music venues.
6-9 p.m., The Cedar, 416 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-338-2674; $40.
MUSIC
The Jazz Is Back — The Jazz is NOW!
After a three-year break due to Artistic Director Jeremy Walker’s health struggles, Jazz is NOW! is back. Celebrate the long-await return with a preview of its NOWnet ensemble (formerly the Jazz is NOW! Orchestra) tonight at the Minnesota Opera Center. Unfortunately, Walker had to abandon the saxophone, but he’ll be on piano, with Chris Thomson and Scott Fultz on saxophones, Jeffrey Bailey on bass, Kelly Rossum on trumpet, and Kevin Washington on drums. The ensemble, as always, will be performing all original compositions.
8 p.m., The Minnesota Opera Center, 620 N. First St., North Loop, Minneapolis; $10 (students $7).
A Young Piano Master at Play
For more classical fare, with masterful piano playing, don’t miss Lang Lang tonight at the Ordway. At only 24 years old, Lang has already sold out major halls across the globe. "His artistry and ability to connect with audiences on a personal level has established him as an international sensation and one of the most exciting and sought after artists of our time." Tonight’s performance includes Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 13 in B flat major, K.333, Schumann’s Fantasie for piano in C major, Op. 17, six traditional Chinese works, Granados’ Goyescas, H.64, topped off by two fabulous Liszt compositions.
8 p.m., Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, 345 Washington St., Saint Paul; 651-292-3268; $15-$45.
How Birds Work
And for more jazz, hit up the Artists Quarter tonight to discover How Birds Work. What do birds have to do with it? Hear them play, and hear them take flight. "Fiery chops, instinctual communal listening skills, sprawling musical vocabulary, dynamics in flight — that’s How Birds Work." Let the all-star quartet lead you on a unique, experimental tour of jazz tonight — from hard bop to fusion to melodic classics.
9 p.m., Artists’ Quarter, 408 St. Peter St., Hamm Building, St. Paul; 651-292-1359; $5.
BOOKS & AUTHORS
The Post-Birthday World of Lionel Shriver
Novelist Lionel Shriver has built a career around characters of intense complexity and raw connection, but The Post-Birthday World’s
perturbed Irina, a London children’s book illustrator, is perhaps
Shriver’s most thoroughly explored and convincingly drawn protagonist
yet. To cheat or not to cheat? wonders Irina as she grapples
with choosing between her devoted partner and his best friend, a
fervent, flamboyant snooker player. She’s torn between what is and what
might be, in other words. And while that’s hardly the most original of
plots, Shriver sharpens her two-pronged narrative with such honesty and
wit that readers won’t feel compelled to pick sides—the prospect of
either outcome will have them equally hooked. —Haily Gostas
4 p.m., University of Minnesota Bookstore, Coffman Memorial Union, 300 Washington Ave. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-625-6000.
And if you’re up for some shopping, the new Crate & Barrel opens today in Galleria.
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