DubuqueFest Fine Arts Festival celebrates its 34th year as Iowa's oldest all arts festival held in the heart of historic downtown Dubuque, May 20-22. Under the direction of collaborative partners, musician and promoter Aaron Hefel, and arts administrator and culture advocate Paula Neuhaus, the weekend is packed full of free music, art, and culture for all ages. The Dubuque County Fine Arts Society, a non-profit arts organization, launched the multi-faceted all arts festival in 1977 to promote the arts and to revitalize the downtown area by community building through arts and culture development. After 34 years of success DubuqueFest honors great traditions and adds contemporary twists.

The weekend features a fine art fair, live music and performances on two stages, children's hands-on art activities, an Old House Tour by the Old Home Enthusiasts, a book release and reading by the Dubuque Area Writers Guild, a community chalk mural project and a community interactive painting kiosk, pottery demonstrations, an antique car show, an original one act play, dance performances, and music, music, music.

All events are free and open to the public. (The Old House Tour is a ticketed event.) Here are some highlights of what the weekend offers. For a full schedule of events visit www.dubuquefest.org.

Fine Art Fair
Saturday, 10am-5pm & Sunday, 10am-4pm in Washington Park
DubuqueFest 's annual juried fine art fair features the work of 70 artists and artisans from throughout the region offering the very best in fine art and fine craft. Meet the artists, learn about their process and invest in handcrafted on-of-a-kind pieces. With a wide selection of paintings, ceramics, hand-blown and fused glass, free from concrete sculpture, photography, letterpress work, fiber and fabric art, jewelry, slate work, hand-turned wood bowls, wearable art, calligraphy, custom leather footwear, stained glass, book art, clocks, and more this fair has original work for everyone.

Children's Creation Station: Let your creativity soar!
Saturday, 10am-5pm & Sunday, 10am-4pm in Washington Park
The Children's Creation Station will host a celebration of cultures through kites! Parents and children are invited to use recycled materials & paint to assemble and take home their own kite. Examples of kites from all over the world will be on display to inspire young artists to put their own creative spin on this traditional art form. The DubuqueFest Annual Children's Creation Station is made possible by a community partnership grant from McGraw-Hill Companies. Volunteers from McGraw-Hill, the Dubuque Art Center's Residency Program, DubuqueFest Committee members, and friends of the Dubuque County Fine Arts Society help staff the tent. Don't forget to pick up your DubuqueFest interactive map that young people can use to navigate a fine art fair. Look for the kites and make your way to the fun!

Community Chalk Collaborative Illustration
Saturday, 11am-2pm in the Town Clock Plaza
Join artists from Dubuque Art Center's Residency Program as they lead you in creating a collaborative illustration that explores community creativity. This sidewalk mural invites everyone to be an artist!

Dubuque Area Writers Guild Annual Book Release Reception: Youth Gallery
Friday, 6pm at Dubuque Museum of Art
The Dubuque Area Writers Guild invites you to the reading & release reception for Youth Gallery, an anthology of original work featuring local writers and artists under the age of 18. Celebrate an evening of words, refreshments, readings by selected contributors, and music. Books will be available for purchase at the reception, and at the art fair information booth in Washington Park throughout the weekend.

Interactive Painting Kiosk
Saturday, 11am-4pm in Washington Park
Join artists from Maquoketa Art Experience's resident artist program in crating a collaborative community painting.

Antique & Vintage Car Display
Saturday & Sunday, 12-4pm
Tri-State Antique Car Club and Main Street Cruisers will have their classic cars on display. The owners of these beauties will be on hand to tell you all about the refurbishing and collecting of classic cars. Take photos and ask question but this is the kind of art you don't touch without asking!

Amusements for Children by LT Amusements
Saturday & Sunday 10 am-4 pm
7th Street & Washington Park
Climbing wall, bouncing castle, super slide, and more!

Highlights of the Live Music on The Town Clock Main stage
Friday & Saturday 5 pm-10 pm
Live music on two stages all weekend long. The Town Clock Main stage offers local, regional, and national touring acts while the Washington Park Gazebo features the unplugged work by area musicians from 10 am-4pm on Saturday and Sunday. Visit www.dubuquefest.org for the full schedule for both stages.

Friday, May 20
Miles Nielsen & The Rusted Hearts
8:00 p.m. @ the Town Clock

A musical brew that Miles himself calls "Beatle-esque Cosmic Americana." A rich and layered sound that seamlessly blends Alternative Country and Blue-Eyed Soul, some Pop and Rock, and Tin Pan Alley song-craft.

The Right Now
6:30 p.m. @ the Town Clock
This Chicago soul funk group mixes a bit of blues with an upfront bass section and retro soul. Singer Stefanie Berecz's voice is one of the most celebrated in the Windy City as it leaps from the rooftops with tense restraint.

The Fast Clydes
5 p.m. @ the Town Clock
This local trio of handsome devils rock as sweet as they look. Cookin' up classic Rockabilly hits, these cats are gonna kick off the festival by rockin' this town inside out. Bring your dancing shoes!

Saturday, May 21
William Elliott Whitmore
8:30 p.m. @ the Town Clock
With a voice that sounds like the reincarnation of an old gospel preacher from the 1920s and a fascination with sin, death, and redemption to match, William Elliott Whitmore is one of the most unique artists to emerge on the Americana scene in years. Whitmore takes the DubuqueFest stage just weeks after finishing a tour with Chris Cornell!

James Leg
7:30 p.m. @ the Town Clock
James Leg is the alter ego of John Wesley Meyers, keyboard man and vocalist for the southern blues duo Black Diamond Heavies. Pounding out southern blues mixed with his own hot and rockin' soul stylings many call him a "keyboard crazy" among the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis & Little Richard, but Leg's howlin', growlin' vocals are in a league of their own. Wear layers...this show is gonna make you sweat!

Starlicker
6:00 p.m. @ the Town Clock
Deeply rooted in the Chicago and International avant-garde and post rock scenes this trio expels sound with pervading energy and other-worldy delicacy. Starlicker is a unique trio, blending the origins of sound with imperative immediacy and sublime power. A must see!

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Quad Cities band - Three Years Hollow - has been voted into the Top 10 Finalists to play the World's Largest Music Festival, Summerfest in Milwaukee in July.  Band members are from the Quad Cities, Geneseo and Milan, Illinois.

The band is competing in the Briggs & Stratton Battle of the Bands, an international online contest on Facebook at briggsbattleofthebands.com.  The Top 10 Finalists are currently being narrowed to the top three and online voting will re-open to determine a winner starting on May 13.

Davenport, IA - April 18, 2011 - On the heals of our exciting residency with violinist Midori and our best selling concert in over a decade, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce that the Board of Trustees has elected to renew the contract for Music Director Mark Russell Smith. Since Maestro Smith's arrival in 2008, the QCSO has witnessed season ticket sales climbing more than 25%.  Mark Russell Smith plays a critical role as the artistic leader of our organization and is key to maintaining this positive momentum. Maestro Smith has expressed gratitude for the privilege of serving as the orchestra's Music Director through the 100th Anniversary season, which will occur in 2014-15.

Bio:
Whether conducting contemporary masterpieces or bringing fresh insights to the symphonies of Mozart, Beethoven or Brahms, Mark Russell Smith demonstrates consummate musicianship and enthusiastic commitment to the art of music-making: qualities that have endeared him to audiences and musicians alike.  In June of 2007, Smith was appointed Director of New Music Projects of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Minnesota, a combined post that enabled him to bring his commitment for excellence and passion for education to new audiences.  In March of 2008, he was named Music Director and Conductor of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, effective September, 2008. As Music Director of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, a position he held from 1999 to 2009, Smith was praised for his innovative and approachable programming and is widely credited with fostering the orchestras unprecedented artistic growth.

As a guest conductor, Smith enjoys a burgeoning international reputation that has already brought him engagements and re-engagements with prestigious American orchestras, including the St. Louis Symphony, the Houston Symphony and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. With the Minnesota Orchestra, he made his critically-acclaimed Sommerfest debut in 2006 and made his subscription series debut in March of 2009.   In November 2007, he returned to his alma mater to lead the Symphony Orchestra of The Curtis Institute of Music in Verizon Hall, and will lead the orchestra on tour in China and Korea in the fall of 2011. Smith's debut at the Nomus Music Music Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia was met with critical and audience acclaim and led to immediate reengagement. Other recent and upcoming appearances include the Minnesota Orchestra, Santa Barbara Symphony, Brazils Orquestra Sinfoniea da USP, the Hartford Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Xalapa, the Phoenix Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the Eugene Symphony, the Curtis Opera Theatre, the Jacksonville Symphony, the Berkshire Choral Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, the Tulsa Philharmonic, Orchestra London (Ontario), and the European Center for Opera and Vocal Art in Ghent, Belgium.

A champion of the music of our time, Smith led the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's Engine 408 series, working closely with living composers and added his unique perspective to enhance that orchestra's great tradition of fostering new works. He has collaborated with YoYo Ma and members of the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota in Hun Qiao (Bridge of Souls), a concert of remembrance and reconciliation featuring world premieres by Korean, Japanese, Chinese and American composers. A firm believer in the use of technical innovation to reach world-wide audiences, he debuted in 2002 with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, conducting the final round of the first Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition, where he led six concerto performances that were streamed live over the Internet. He has led the Minnesota Orchestra in the competition's final round since 2004 and returns each summer.

Smith grew up in a musical family in Phoenix, Arizona where he began the serious study of conducting while still in his teens. He is a graduate in cello performance of the Juilliard School, where he studied with Claus Adam, and of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied conducting with Max Rudolf and Otto-Werner Mueller. While at Curtis, Smith was first prize winner in the National Repertory Orchestra Conductors Competition, and upon graduation, was named Assistant Conductor of the Opera Company of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Singers. From 1989 to 1994, Smith served as Associate Conductor of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and from 1992 through 1999 served as Music Director of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra. His dynamic personality, creative programming, and focus on outreach helped revitalize the Springfield (MA) Symphony, where he served as Music Director from 1995 through 2000.

Smith resides in Minneapolis, where his wife, Ellen Dinwiddie Smith, is a horn player with the Minnesota Orchestra. They have two sons, Alexander and Noah.

Quad City Choral Arts, under the direction of Jon Hurty will present a Spring Choral Collage Concert on Sunday, May 1 at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, IA. Tickets are $10.00 ($7.00 for seniors; student with ID are free) and can be purchased at the door.

The concert includes works that are from the Renaissance through the 20^th century. Composers included on the concert are Palestrina, Byrd, Victoria, Mahler, Paulus, Gawthrop, Bertaux, Lightfoot, Naplan, Lekberg, Barnum, Mulholland, and Thompson.

The Augustana Youth Choir, under the direction of Mary Tallitsch, will also make a special guest appearance on the concert. They will be performing the works that they will be singing at Carnegie Hall at the end of May. This will be one of the few opportunities for the community to hear this fine choir of young local singers before their Carnegie Hall debut performance.

The Augustana Youth Choir will be presenting three solo works that feature the beautiful and refined sound of this treble voice ensemble. They will also be combining with the Choral Arts Ensemble for one piece - Wake Up in the Morning by Stephen Paulus. This work includes parts for youth choir, adult choir and Orff instruments.

A highlight of the concert will be a performance of Gustav Mahler's Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, sung by Quad City Choral Arts. This work is a transcription of the original work for orchestra and soprano voice and is transcribed for 16-part choir. The work is sung in remembrance of the 100^th anniversary of Mahler's death. Mahler died in May of 1911 in Vienna, Austria.