Valentina Lisitsa
Summer in Madison settles into its final phase this week. The calendar includes: live music by Ben Cosgrove and Crossfade; the second Jazz at Five of the season; a performance by Valentina Lisitsa; book readings by Will Fellows and Timothy Messer-Kruse; and, an APT performance of The Glass Menagerie.
Monday 8.15
NOTEWORTHY: Woodstock begins, 1969.
BIRTHDAYS: Will & Grace actress Debra Messing, 1968; beach volleyball superstar Kerri Walsh, 1978.
Tuesday 8.16
NOTEWORTHY: Elvis dies at Graceland, 1977.
BIRTHDAYS: Pop-chart queen Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, 1958; Dixie Chick Emily Robinson, 1972.
Indie Coffee, 7 pm
In addition to recording eight albums of his own, the Boston composer and multi-instrumentalist has written scores for films, radio and television. Enjoy tunes from his new release, Yankee Division, which features a slew of unusual instruments, such as bowed wine glasses. Maybe he'll play a few coffee cups, too.
Majestic Theatre, 8 pm
The Columbia, S.C. hard rockers play tunes from their latest release, We All Bleed (see Tour Stop). With New Medicine.
Wednesday 8.17
NOTEWORTHY: U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps becomes first athlete to win eight gold medals at one Olympics, 2008.
BIRTHDAYS: Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro, 1943; Go-Go's singer Belinda Carlisle, 1958.
100 Block of State Street, 5 pm
Join an authentic Chicago jazz quartet, the BMR4, for syncopated delights. The musicians trained at Berklee and DePaul, and they gig with the likes of the venerable Lonnie Brooks and Blue Note's Patricia Barber. With the Tony Castañeda Latin Jazz Sextet.
Sequoya Library, 7 pm
The Wisconsin author (Farm Boys) discusses his book Gay Bar, which adds new material to the 1957 memoir of a woman who ran a gay-friendly joint in Hollywood. This time capsule is historically valuable -- and a fun read.
Farley's House of Pianos, 7:30 p.m.
The Ukranian-born pianist is attempting a feat that few ivory-ticklers dare: recording all 32 of Beethoven's piano sonatas. Watch her work her magic, which critics of her performances with the So Paulo Symphony and the Rotterdam Philharmonic have described as both angelic and electrifying.
Thursday 8.18
NOTEWORTHY: 19th Amendment ratified, 1920.
BIRTHDAYS: Oscar-winning filmmaker/film festival patron Robert Redford, 1937; singer Nona Hendryx, 1945.
Rainbow Bookstore, 7 pm
Messer-Kruse, an ethnic studies professor at Bowling Green State University, discusses his book, The Trial of the Haymarket Anarchists: Terrorism & Justice in the Gilded Age. It's about unrest and mayhem in 1880s Chicago. Messer-Kruse got his doctorate in history at UW-Madison, so he should feel right at home in the State Street environs.
American Players Theatre, Spring Green, 7:30 pm
In the indoor Touchstone Theatre, APT presents a heartbreaking production of Tennessee Williams' 1944 poetic masterpiece about an overbearing mother and her two emotionally damaged adult children. Bringing your mom is optional.