Music: The Cleveland Orchestra wraps up its third and final week of residency in Miami with two performances by the fine Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter, who will perform the Chopin Concerto No. 2 (in F minor, Op. 21) with conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy. Also on the program is the Romeo and Juliet suite from Prokofiev’s ballet score. 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday night. Tickets: $40-$165. At the Knight Concert Hall, Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami. Call 305-949-6722 or visit www.arshtcenter.org.
Also tonight, the Atlantic Classical Orchestra plays its last of three concerts this weekend, featuring English pianist Tom Poster in the Schumann Piano Concerto (in A minor, Op. 54). Conductor Stewart Robertson has also planned an adventurous rest of the program including Pomo Canyon Air, by American composer Paul Dooley, and a finished version of the Schubert Unfinished Symphony (No. 8 in B minor, D. 759). 8 p.m., Lyric Theatre, Stuart. Call 772-286-7827 or visit www.lyrictheatre.com.
In addition, the Seraphic Fire concert choir continues its latest concert series with the Handel oratorio Israel in Egypt, timed to coincide with Passover. This is a marvelous work, and refreshing to hear after all those Messiahs at Christmastime. 7:30 p.m. today at the First United Methodist Church of in Coral Gables; 8 p.m. Saturday at All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale; and 4 p.m. Sunday at Temple Emanu-El in Miami Beach. Call 305-285-9060 or visit www.seraphicfire.org.
Upcoming in the days ahead are two other pianists: Lang Lang, who is one of the best-known of all contemporary pianists to general audiences, plays Wednesday and Thursday at the Kravis Center with the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra under the fine conductor Christoph Eschenbach. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, Lang plays the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 (in C, Op. 26); at 2 p.m. Thursday, he performs the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 17 (in G, K. 453). Wednesday’s concerts also include the Prokofiev Classical Symphony (No. 1 in D), and the Brahms Second Symphony (in D, Op. 73). On Thursday, it’s two works by Beethoven: the Leonore Overture No. 3 and the Symphony No. 7 (in A, Op. 92). Tickets: $25-$85. Call 832-7469 or visit www.kravis.org.
And then it’s the turn of Xiayin Wang, who appears Wednesday at the Lyric Theatre in Stuart, and on the following Wednesday (April 7) at the Miniaci Center at Nova Southeastern University in Davie. Wang will play selections from Richard Danielpour’s Enchanted Garden, written for Wang, as well as Haydn (Sonata No. 52 in E-flat), Chopin (Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1), Debussy (L’Isle Joyeuse), Ravel (La Valse), J.S. Bach’s arrangement (BWV 974) of an oboe concerto by Alessandro Marcello, and two arrangements of Chinese popular songs (Celebrating Our New Life and Autumn Moon Over the Calm Lake). 7 p.m. Wednesday, Lyric Theatre, Stuart. Tickets: $30. Call 772-286-7827 or visit www.lyrictheatre.com. – G. Stepanich
Art: At Studio 1608 in West Palm Beach, a group show titled Right Here, Right Now features 75 artists and opens Saturday night for a brief run. Produced by photographer Montana Pritchard, the venue will display sculptures by local legend and former Palm Beach State College professor Reuben Hale and huge sculptures by Susan Phipps Cochran, along with the kinetic sculptures of Elayna Toby Singer and photographs by Barry Seidman. The show, which opens from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, runs through April 2. Studio 1608 is located at 1608 S. Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach, just a couple blocks south of the Norton Museum of Art. For more information visit www.studio1608exhibition.com, or call Montana Pritchard at (561) 659-5940.
Meanwhile. an exciting new art program in the town of Lake Park debuts Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with the Art in the Park Festival. Artists working in various mediums from painting to sculpture to fine crafts will be displaying their works on Park Avenue. For more information, call (561) 881-3338. – K. Deits
Theater: Continuing through Sunday, multiple Carbonell Award-winning actress Kim Cozort will be playing reclusive poetess Emily Dickinson in William Luce’s The Belle of Amherst, the one-woman biographical play that Julie Harris originated. The play is being produced by the new Burt Reynolds’ Under-the-Bridge Players at the Burt Reynolds Institute & Museum in Jupiter, at Indiantown Road and U.S. 1. Directing Cozort will be the company’s executive director Kenneth Kay, who happens to be married to her. By his count, this is the 30th time he has directed her, so that must mean their marriage can survive anything. Tickets are $25 ($12 for students), call (561) 743-9955 for reservations. – H. Erstein
Film: Ben Stiller is usually associated with nerdy comedies such as Meet the Parents and Zoolander, but in his new film, Greenberg, he tackles a dramatic role as a New Yorker who has spent time in a mental institution. Trying to escape his past in California, Stiller gives an impressive performance even though his character is actively annoying, house-sitting for his older, more affluent brother who leaves on vacation, and launching an affair with his brother’s socially inept household assistant (Greta Gerwig). The movie is ultimately about accepting our failures in life, probably not a theme that will interest Stiller’s fan base. It is, however, an obsession of director/writer Noah Baumbach, who previously made the terrific The Squid and the Whale and the far less satisfying Margot at the Wedding. Greenberg has its flaws, but is worth seeking out for Stiller’s performance. Beginning this weekend at area theaters. – H. Erstein