TALKING AT THE LIBRARY. Alfred Brendel, Barbara Cook, and Ishmael Reed are all scheduled to make appearances at the New York Public Library by the end of the month. There's a charge to attend the Brendel event, but the other two are free.

Widely recognized as a gifted intellect and one of the great living pianists, Alfred Brendel appears in conversation with the library's Paul Holdengraber (himself a great wit) at the main branch on Monday, February 13 at 7 pm. Expect a stimulating "evening of music and miscellany."

Veteran singing actress Barbara Cook commands audiences at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center as well as cabaret settings. Cook knows her craft: I remember seeing someone transformed by her rendition of "Send in the Clowns." She'll offer a public master class on the songs of Irving Berlin with six students at the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center on Tuesday, February 21, at 3 pm. Tickets will be distributed, one per person, on the day of performance starting at 1 pm. The event, simulcast at www.nypl.org/lpaprograms, is related to the library exhibition Irving Berlin's Broadway, which runs at the Vincent Astor Gallery from February 14-May 26, 2006.

Maverick writer Ishmael Reed reads his own work and Japanese Zen poetry with a jazz ensemble in Spoken Word for Peace with Ishamel Reed & Friends on Saturday, February 25, at 7 pm at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (enter at 103 West 135th Street).

Photo: David Marc Fischer