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This week, see Grammy- and Tony-winning artist Audra McDonald at Stanford Live, catch singer-songwriter Evan Brau in Redwood City and enjoy a jazz concert fundraiser for San Francisco Symphony at The Guild. Plus make art and take part in activities at Palo Alto Art Center’s Spring Family Day and learn about an artwork created on an astronomical scale with a new exhibit at Stanford’s Anderson Collection.
Audra McDonald
“Accomplished” barely scratches the surface of the résumé of singer, actress and activist Audra McDonald. Over the course of her career, she’s won six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and an Emmy, and even received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama. She’s been on Broadway, in movies and on television, sings with operas and orchestras, appears on many recordings, and is an advocate for social justice. And her glorious soprano voice will be heard this week at Stanford when she performs a concert of musical theater favorites, American classics and contemporary pieces.
March 22, 8 p.m., Bing Concert Hall, 327 Lasuen St., Stanford, tickets start at $95, live.stanford.edu.
An acoustic evening with Evan Brau
Los Angeles singer-songwriter Evan Brau is a chameleon of genres. Frontman for the bands Munkafust, Outer Reef and Undergreen, Brau has also pursued a solo career. Many of the songs on his album “Cosmic Cowboy” draw heavily on classic country influences, with playful, tongue-in-cheek lyrics. But the album “Me and Ricardo Vol. 1,” a collaboration with Brau’s longtime mentor, Richard Rudolph, highlights a wide range of pop/rock, from soulful meditations to soaring alt-rock tracks, with touches of funk and reggae. Likewise, his instrumentals encompass everything from dreamy melodies to lively romps. Brau performs an intimate, acoustic evening at Redwood City’s Sound Union.
March 23, 8 p.m., at Sound Union, 2625 Broadway Redwood City, $25, eventbrite.com.
Spring Family Day
Spring is in the air, and the Palo Alto Art Center is celebrating with its Spring Family Day, an afternoon of family-friendly, food-themed art activities in conjunction with its “In Feast or Famine” exhibition. The schedule includes activities such as DIY recycled produce prints, dish art and a mini pot decorating station; “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” storytime led by a Palo Alto librarian, and an upcycled art project that will become part of a citizen art installation for Earth Day.
March 24, 2-4:30 p.m., Palo Alto Art Center, 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto, free, cityofpaloalto.org.
Jazz@The Guild
The Mid-Peninsula League of the San Francisco Symphony holds a benefit jazz concert that offers the best of two musical worlds. The concert showcases a jazz quartet featuring Scott Pingel on bass, Edward Stephan on timpani and drums, Mike Olmas on trumpet, and Adam Schulman on piano. Pingel and Stephan are both principal players with the San Francisco Symphony, but also have well-honed jazz chops. Olmas and Schulam are well-known in the Bay Area jazz community. The ensemble performs a program of classical jazz at this event to raise funds for the SF Symphony’s community engagement and education programs. To make the evening that much sweeter, guests can enjoy desserts at intermission.
March 24, 7:30 p.m. at The Guild, 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, $75-$200, guildtheatre.com.
‘Stellar Axis: Antarctica‘
In 2006, artist Lita Albuquerque led a team that created a work truly astronomical in scale. Albuquerque and her team journeyed to a spot near the South Pole to create an installation that would track the Earth’s rotation. For the piece, “Stellar Axis: Antarctica,” Albuquerque placed 99 blue spheres in the snow, corresponding to the positions of 99 stars in the Antarctic sky. The spheres’ placement would slowly trace an invisible spiral as the Earth moved along its orbit, according to a description of the work. The Anderson Collection at Stanford is showing one of the surviving spheres, plus videos and photos from Albuquerque’s time in Antarctica and a signature painting. Albuquerque herself will be on hand April 24 for a lecture about the piece.
March 27-Aug. 18 at the Anderson Collection, 314 Lomita Drive, Stanford, free, anderson.stanford.edu.