A preview of music, film, theater, dance and more

Surprising pairing

Rising jazz star Jimmy Farace will celebrate the release of his album “Hours Fly, Flowers Die” with two sets on March 29 at Constellation in Chicago. The show and album both feature Farace’s velvety baritone sax backed by the distinctive combination of a jazz rhythm section and a classical string quartet. Based on Henry Van Dyke’s poem “For Katrina’s Sundial,” the eight compositions are bound together “by themes of nostalgia and the passage of time,” Farace says. Joining Farace on stage will be pianist Julius Tucker, drummer Dana Hall, Grammy Award-winning bassist Clark Sommers and the KAIA String Quartet. For more, click here.

Operatic gold

Lyric Opera of Chicago will stage “La bohème” from March 15 to April 12. Giacomo Puccini’s timeless tale of love and loss chronicles the antics and passions of a spirited but destitute collective of artists, philosophers and musicians in 19th-century Paris. Featuring boisterous action, a heartbreaking outcome and a cavalcade of iconic arias by the ardent poet Rodolfo, the fragile seamstress Mimì and the good-hearted party-girl Musetta, “La bohème” is one of the most frequently performed operas in the world. This year’s run will feature sopranos Ailyn Pérez and Gabriella Reyes, baritone Will Liverman, and tenor Pene Pati in his Lyric debut. For more, click here.

Soaring to new heights

Giordano Dance Chicago wraps up its 2024-25 season in Chicago with a pair of performances and a gala celebration in April at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park. The program, “SOARING: Life, Light, and Legacy,” will celebrate Nan Giordano’s 40 years at the helm of the famed troupe and memorialize her son, Keenan Giordano Casey, who passed away unexpectedly in October. Performances on April 4 and 5 will be capped by an April 6 gala. The program will feature three new works: a full-company performance by Emmy Award-winning Resident Choreographer Al Blackstone, a solo by Nan Giordano and Associate Artistic Director Cesar G. Salinas created for company dancer Erina Ueda, and a special tribute to Giordano Casey created by Nan, Cesar Salinas and the GDC dancers. Popular works from Giordano Dance Chicago’s repertoire will complete the program. For more, click here.

Guitar icon

Legendary guitarist Al Di Meola will take to the Des Plaines Theatre stage for an 8 p.m. show on April 11. By melding elements of jazz, rock, flamenco and world music, Di Meola became one of the architects of jazz fusion. A prolific composer and prodigious six-string talent, Di Meola has amassed more than 20 albums as a leader while collaborating on a dozen or so others. He has performed with the likes of Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke in the fusion supergroup Return to Forever, and Clarke and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty in “The Rite of Strings.” For more, click here.

Portrait of a survivor

Italian Film Festival USA will screen the documentary “Liliana” at 7 p.m. on April 16 at the 225-seat auditorium of the Northbrook Public Library. Directed by Ruggero Gabbai, the film sheds light on the tragedy and triumph of Liliana Segre, an Auschwitz survivor whose father and grandfather perished in the Nazi death camp. After decades of silence, she started to speak to the public in the 1990s, especially young students, about her experience. In 2018, Italian President Sergio Mattarella named her senator-for-life. For more, click here.

Sympathetic soul

Singer-songwriter Alessia Cara will bring her soulful R&B sound to the Auditorium Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on April 18. Born Alessia Caracciolo on July 11, 1996, in Mississauga, Ontario, Cara is of Calabrian descent. Since posting covers of songs on YouTube when she was 13, she has amassed billions of streams, earned multi-platinum certifications worldwide, and made history as the first Canadian to win Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards. Songs about the highs and lows of young adulthood have fueled her four albums, including “Love & Hyperbole,” which was released on Valentine’s Day 2025. For more, click here.

Mythic collection

“Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection” will be on display at the Art Institute of Chicago through June. From large-scale figures of gods and goddesses to busts of emperors and magnificent funerary monuments, the exhibition brings 58 rarely-seen sculptures to North America for the first time. The Torlonia Collection is the largest private collection of Roman marble sculptures in Italy. Nearly half of the sculptures in the traveling exhibit have not been publicly displayed in more than 70 years and have been newly cleaned, conserved and studied specifically for the purpose. For more, click here.

Giving tree

A pair of Italian Americans teamed up with several other local artists to transform the remains of a 200-year-old elm tree into a work of art. Rising up from the grounds of Ragdale in Lake Forest, “Diversity of Birds” was created by Jyl Bonaguro and Mia Capodilupo and fellow artists Margot McMahon, Anthony Heinz May, Nicole Beck, Julia Sulmasy, and Fredy Hauman Mallqui. Located at 1260 N. Green Bay Road, Ragdale is an artist residency program and community (ragdale.org). The Ragdale Tree Project was spearheaded by Chicago Sculpture International (chicagosculpture.org). The CSI has collaborated with the Chicago Park District to create more than 50 public sculptures from dead and dying trees. For more about Chicago Sculpture International, click here. For more about The Ragdale Tree Project, click here.

Sumptuous showcase

European history buffs will have a field day at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Deering Family Galleries of Medieval and Renaissance Art, Arms and Armor. Unveiled in 2017, the expansive exhibit showcases nearly 700 objects from the museum’s rich holdings of art from 1200 to 1600 as well as an extensive arms and armor collection. Among the Italian items on display are a terra-cotta altarpiece by Florentine Benedetto Buglioni, works of art for the bedchambers of Tuscany’s merchant elite, and a tempera-on-panel diptych of the Virgin and Child Enthroned and the Crucifixion (pictured). For more, click here.