With $10 million in expansion and improvements, the BankPlus Amphitheater at Snowden Grove prepares for its reopening on Thursday with a concert by Better Than Ezra.

After two canceled pandemic years and a weird year at Liberty Park, Memphis in May International Festival is heading back Downtown to its longtime home at Tom Lee Park. And we’ve got your survival guide with need-to-know info for the month’s festivities.

Other scheduled acts include Lake Street Dive, Band of Horses, Tash Sultana, The War and Treaty, Devon Gilfillian and Larkin Poe.

“This opera is about empathy. It is about understanding other people’s sacrifice. It is about understanding our responsibility to them, and to each other. It is about things that we forget at our own peril, be it in war, pandemic, our family, our city, our country or the world.”

Zach Myers, lead guitarist for multi-platinum modern rock band Shinedown and Memphis Grizzlies season-ticket holder, will leave his usual perch in section 113 and instead take the stage at FedExForum Friday, April 21, finally playing the arena he’s visited countless times in the past.

“With a country format moving to the 99.7 spot on the FM dial, a station that set the tone for our youth is disappearing like our hearing and our memories.”

Free concerts return to the Overton Park Shell next month, with the 2023 Orion Free Music Concert Series continuing into October.

Starting in the late 1960s, FM 100 played rock and roll, drastically out of character for what FM radio was everywhere else in the nation.

Because of the NBA playoff scheduling, R&B star Lizzo’s date with Memphis will get a new one. 

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NBA releases Grizzlies vs. Lakers series schedule

A festival with the aim of providing career-building opportunities for Memphis artists, creatives and entrepreneurs is back for its second year.

“The acoustics are fantastic in the planetarium,” said MoSH’s executive director.

The five remaining performances by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra range from the Sunset Symphony to “Brahms: A People’s Requiem.”

This week, Marc Cohn and Shawn Colvin are walking in Memphis (er, well, Germantown), MoSH offers a look behind the scenes and Wiseacre hosts a weird beer festival.

Melvin Purdy named the Memphis hot wing restaurant equivalent of some the NBA’s best point guards. Plus, a Southaven native creates music for Amazon’s “Swarm” series.

Memphis rapper NLE Choppa returned to his hometown to place a spotlight on veteran and up and coming local DJs.

The boom of Taiko drums, intricate kimonos and koi windsock crafting were just some elements of Japanese arts and culture displayed at Memphis Botanic Garden’s Cherry Blossom Picnic.

Bill Nye dances to a song from a Memphis rapper and another debuts an Apple Music short documentary.

Priscilla Presley is challenging a document that would make her granddaughter, 33-year-old actress Riley Keough, the sole trustee to what’s left of the family’s stake in Elvis’ empire. 

Aisha Stephens, 35, of Syracuse, New York, died after being injured in a stampede after a weekend concert by the rapper GloRilla in western New York state.

Clinks of glockenspiels and bombastic symphonic tunes roared from the Snowden School gym as members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra joined the entire student body for the school’s third Orff Music Side by Side concert.

Better Than Ezra will headline a grand opening show as BankPlus Amphitheater christens its new season and renovated venue in April. The number of seats has more than doubled for a total of 9,800.

What started as a grassroots music television network in Memphis almost a decade ago grew into an international hub for Americana music. But now DittyTV plans to expand its global reach even more. 

WYXR’s “Stereo Sessions” gatherings return Wednesday, March 8, at 6 p.m. with an album from New Zealand Trading Company, whose “legacy continues as a missing puzzle piece that links the heritage of two communities that aren’t as disparate as it may seem.”

Rochester Mayor Malik Evans called the fatal stampede “a tragedy of epic proportions” and promised a thorough investigation.

For more than two decades, the record label has developed artists, produced songs and released dozens of records. But the sale will allow it to work with a broader base of artists.