See Hear Do: Rad Roundup

Desert Oasis: Passage of Time and Places features the work of Bulgaria-born but Las Vegas-residing artist Valentin Yordanov. You may have seen his work around town, from Meow Wolf to Downtown Summerlin. His work is largely abstract and geometrical in nature, and here it’s inspired by Las Vegas, both the city part and the natural part at its boundaries, and there’s a slew of other subjects referenced in the work as well, all clearly interconnected. And, like Vegas, it’s very bright and eye-catching -- but honestly, that’s where the explicit Vegas connections stop. It’s definitely looking at the valley through a different lens.


Note: Gallery is open M-F and closed Sat-Sun.

Much of this exhibit is his metal and ceramic vessels, some which look like large gemstone-shaped planters, others look like metal cones, some of them actually holding plants. Luis incorporated found objects and, according to the exhibit preview, the works bridge contemporary design and the visual style known as brutalism. They’re industrial-looking, but they’re also literally holding plants. If you spotted a theme for this month’s art picks, there’s a marriage of the man-made and the natural world in this exhibition, and like a lot of great art, it projects juxtaposition until it doesn’t.

Note: Available through March 31.

Las Vegas Philharmonic artistic consultant Leonard Slatkin will be on the conductor’s box -- since Donato Cabrera laft last May, the Phil has been rotating guest conductors. It’s Leonard’s turn, and the big number of his three-number show is Dimitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, opus 47. He and the Phil will also perform works by Giuseppe Verdi and Mark Adamo.
Get there early at 6:30, and you’ll get a lecture — we mean the good kind — by Slatkin.

This well-regarded jazz act has crossover appeal; they initially rose to prominence outside jazz circles with their covers of classic and/or alternative rock chestnuts, like Nirvana, Radiohead, Rush, Black Sabbath. But you wanna see them for their original music, which i includes an album they released earlier this year, Complex Emotions. Not easily defineable or even describable, but they find a happy medium between traditional and experimental jazz, with clear rock influences here and there. If you like jazz that tiptoes over the usual genre boundaries but still sounds like jazz, this is a must gig for you.

As you know, it’s women’s history month, and Clark County Las Vegas Library District has a number of events celebrating it. This is the final one, at the West Charleston Library lecture hall, featuring the Nevada Chamber Orchestra. Naturally, the show will celebrate six women composers and their work, including Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Florence Price, and Soon Hee Newbold. The Chamber Orchestra is a nonprofit ensemble that’s as education-minded as it is culturally-minded, and it usually plays roughly two shows a season. Some shows are smaller ensembles, and others use the full 44 members. If you’ve never heard of them until now, this sounds like a good introduction.

Note: Seating will be first-come, first-served.

The magazine featured in NSFW is a men’s magazine, which lends itself to certain stereotypes, especially in their depiction of women. And it’s not doing well for many reasons. It’s told through the stories of three magazine employees, and in the course of action, there’s commentary -- this is A Public Fit, of course there’s pertinent social commentary — involving sexism, the precarious state of the media, power, corporate culture, and representation. If that sounds super-serious to you, fret not: This is a comedy!

Ever been to a festival at Desert Breeze Park near Spring Valley and the Lakes? They have a few regularly on the calendar. Some folks growing up here might have attended an Extreme Thing rock concert there over the years. Last year there was Paws in the Park, a dog-centric festival. This month, there’s Tacos and Tamales, which celebrates Mexican food and culture, lucha libre wrestling, games, live painters and more. That event will make the debut of the park’s new Event Center, which basically dedicates space expressly for events. By space, we mean a 12 acre fenced venue with nearly 6 acres of grass. This also means important production infrastructure like facilities for the talent, a box office, power for stage amps, and more. It’s a pain to set up a whole festival in a park without the necessary things built into the area, so this solves that problem for a park that host events literally year round.

If the last name sounds familiar, that’s because she’s the daughter of renowned folk singers Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, as she’s the brother of singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, who has one of the most unique voices in modern music. Martha, herself a singer-songwriter who sings and plays guitar, has established a very noteworthy career on her own. For this tour -- which includes Myron’s -- she’s celebrating the 20th anniversary of her acclaimed self-titled album, which famously has a very profane song about her father on it, and features her brother and mother as well. She and her band are expected to play the album in full at Myron’s.

This is one of those music bookings that still surprises music fans even though the six-decade German electronic act has actually performed here once 11 years ago -- it was a 3D show, in fact, at the Chelsea. Great show, and it’s great they’re coming back. Kraftwerk is one of those acts audiophiles love and music fans who are unfamiliar will listen and go, hey, where I have I heard that before? This is a pioneering act in electronic music, and not only do a ton of artists take inspiration from it, but it is also frequently sampled and covered.