A season’s final selections

Music

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s season comes to a cosmic conclusion with their final Pops show: Sci-Fi Spectacular. Conducted by Jack Everly and narrated by George Takei – the original Mr. Sulu himself – the concert will feature music from sci-fi classics including Star Wars, Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Also performing are the MSO Chorus and guest soprano Kristen Plumley. Concerts are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets range from $25 to $102, and can be purchased at (414) 291-7605 or the MSO website.

Present Music ends its 2011-12 season with Love, a concert that gathers contemporary compositions exploring all aspects of love. The centerpiece is a newly commissioned work by Grammy Award-winner Michael Daugherty called The Labyrinth of Love, a piece that weaves in the words and poetry of women from across the ages, including Sappho, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Elizabeth Taylor. Also included in the evening’s program is Michael Gordon’s ac/dc, Bright Sheng’s Kazakhstan Love Song and a collection of songs performed by Milwaukee chanteuse Robin Pluer. The concert begins Friday, June 15 at Turner Hall at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are $35, $25 or $15, with half-price tickets for students. Call (414) 271-0711 or visit Present Music’s online box office to order.

The Fine Arts Quartet gears up for another Summer Evening of Music this weekend. This week, they’ll play quartets by Haydn, Erno Dohnányi and Beethoven, sans guest artists. The concert begins Sunday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m. As always, tickets are free, but should be reserved at (414) 229-4308.

The Lakefront Festival of the Arts, now in its 50th year, runs Friday to Sunday at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Photo credit Front Room Photography.

Visual Art

This weekend, the Lakefront Festival of Arts celebrates its 50th year as one of Milwaukee’s premier arts festivals. While the festival began as a small gathering in 1963, it’s now ballooned to feature over 180 jury-selected artists, live music and performances, gourmet food, a wine garden and a silent auction of work donated by festival artists, all at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Festival hours are 12 to 11 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday; admission is $8 in advance or $15 at the door, and comes with MAM admission included. Visit the festival’s website to order or for more information.

Thursday, the Milwaukee Historical Society opens Milwaukee in Miniature, an exhibit of 16 scale models of Milwaukee buildings, circa the turn of the 20th century. The models are all the work of the late Ferdinand Aumueller, a Milwaukee resident who donated the models to the Historical Society decades ago. The exhibit will open Thursday with a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and run through the end of the year. Admission is $8; RSVP to Amanda Koehler, 414-273-7487.

Melanie Parke’s “Yellow Table” perfectly fits the summery theme of her Tory Folliard exhibition, running through Sept. 1.

The Tory Folliard Gallery presents a solo show by Melanie Parke, an Art Institute of Chicago grad specializing in creating still lifes with textured surfaces and bright colors, beginning June 15. The exhibition, Landscapes and Still Lifes, is a collection of oil paintings chosen for their summery feel. The show runs through Sept. 1.

Theater

Nothing opens in Milwaukee this week, but in Spring Green American Players Theatre launches its summer season on both of its stages. At the outdoor Up-the-Hill Theatre, Shakespeare’s comedy/romance of mistaken identity Twelfth Night will play. At the intimate Touchstone Theatre, APT stages Heroes, a play about three WWI vets attempting to stage an escape from the French military hospital they’ve been placed in. Both shows open June 16; Heroes runs through Sept. 27, Twelfth Night through Oct. 7. See APT’s website for a full list of production dates and times. Tickets range from $42 to $66 and can be purchased at (608) 588-2361 or APT’s online box office.

Special Events

The Marcus Center will host a Flag Day celebration, “Honoring the Dead by Serving the Living,” today at 11:30 a.m. The event will include a speech by keynote speaker Pfc. Alan Jermaine Lewis and a performance by the 1st Brigade Band, a Civil War-style brass band. The celebration is free, and food and beverages will be available for purchase.

Polish Fest comes to the Summerfest grounds this weekend, celebrating its 31st year in Milwaukee. The festival features a wide spread of ethnic food, vodka and spirits tastings, a plethora of polka performers, the 14th annual Chopin Youth Piano Competition, and a Polish Mass Sunday at 10:15 a.m. Festival hours are 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. Friday and Saturday and 12 to 10 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $12 at the door, or $10 for advance orders and seniors; Friday offers a 50-cent special: Tickets purchased before 5 p.m. are only 50 cents, while tickets after that are only $5. To order, or for more information on events, visit the Polish Center of Wisconsin, 6941 S. 68th St., Franklin, WI; call (414) 529-2140; or visit Polish Fest’s website.

Ongoing

Alchemist Theatre: Help Wanted, through June 23

Boulevard Theatre: Cowboy Versus Samurai, through June 24

Fireside Theatre: Legally Blonde, through July 1

Angry Young Men, Ltd.: Full-Frontal Puppetry, June 15-16, July 13-14, 19-20 at Soulstice Theatre

Marcus Center: Packer Fans from Outer Space, through July 22