Jazz Ambassadors are special draw for Findlay concerts

6/10/2010

The 59th season of Findlay's Riverside Summer Concert Series will kick off at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Riverside Park Allen P. Dudley Memorial Band Shell and Dick Daughtery Plaza. On the schedule are 11 concerts highlighting local performances.

The free public series begins next week with performers from Night Jazz, a local presenter, and continues through Aug. 11.

The complete schedule includes the Fostoria Community Band on June 23; the United States Army Field Band Jazz Ambassadors on June 25 (a special event); the Millstream Singers, June 30; the Findlay Civic Concert Band, July 7, 14, and 21; the Fostoria Lake Plains Barbershop Quartet July 28; Pantasia Steel Drum Band on Aug. 4, and the Cottonwood Jam String Band, Aug. 11.

During the June 30 show, the Flag City Award will be presented just before the concert to one individual and one group which promote patriotic displays in the Findlay/Hancock County area.

Concert-goers may sit in bleachers or on benches or bring their own chairs and blankets. Hancock Friends of the Parks will offer free popcorn before the Wednesday show and on July 14 and July 28. For further information and a list of local business and governmental sponsors, check www.HancockParks.com.

The Clarence Smith Community Chorus will present a Broadway/Jazz Spectacular concert at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Maumee Indoor Theatre, 601 Conant St., at the Anthony Wayne Trail. Appearing with the chorus will be dancer Charlotte Boyd, actress Sylvia Carter, and saxophonist CJ Manning.

The chorus will trade its customary programming for solo, ensemble, and chorus renditions of music from Broadway hits of yesterday and today. Tickets are $15-$18 in advance at www.cscchorus.com or $17-$20 at the door.

Sauder Village will open its summer season of special activities with a Gospel Concert at 1 p.m. Saturday in Founders' Hall on the sprawling campus of this Archbold, Ohio, historic destination. Performers will include pianist Jim Stewart, Unity, a mixed-voice Southern gospel quartet from Bluffton, Ind., and Hearts in Praise, a male Southern gospel group started at First Baptist Church in Canton, Ohio.

Admission is included with the cost of entering the recreated early-Ohio village at 22611 State Rt. 2, Archbold. Tickets to experience the village (open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-4 p.m. Sunday) are $7.50-$14.50, with discounts for seniors and military. For more information, visit the Sauder Web site, saudervillage.org.

Session Number Two of the University of Toledo Summer Sings will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Center for Performing Arts Recital Hall. Bowling Green State University choral conductor Mark Munson will lead the ad hoc choir through rehearsal and performance of Johannes Brahms' “A German Requiem.”

Scores and accompaniment are provided, with refreshments served following the performance. Cost per session is $9. Registration opens at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. For more information, contact Mae Jo Ritchie, 4549 282rd St., Toledo, 43611, or Stephen Hodge at shodge@pop3.utoledo.edu.

Like a little “scream” with your coffee? Want to dance down the Yellow Brick Road with Dorothy? The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will perform live the original score to Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller, Psycho, at 8 p.m. June 18. On June 19 the DSO will perform the original score to The Wizard of Oz. Both concerts will take place in Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center, 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit.

Tickets are $19-$65 at detroitsymphony.com/tickets

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The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival continues its 2010 season with an 8 p.m. performance Friday in Kerrytown Concert House by pianist Awadagin Pratt plus the Harlem String Quartet and Trio Lausanne. On the program will be selected piano works by Schumann and Chopin, a string quartet by Urial Vanchestein, and Brahms' Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8.

A second concert at 8 p.m. June 18 will present pianists James Tocco and Pei-Shan Lee, violinist Yehonatan Berick, cellist Paul Katze, soprano Lauren Skuce, and the Jasper Quartet. That program will comprise Chopin's Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 8; Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs, and the Robert Schumann String Quartet in A major, Op. 41, No. 3. Kerrytown is at 415 North Fourth Ave., Ann Arbor. Tickets for either of the two events are $15-$30 at kerrytownconcerthouse.com or 734-769-2999.

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The Ann Arbor Opera Theatre will present Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at 7:30 p.m. June 17-19 and 2 p.m. June 20 in the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre of the University of Michigan League, 911 North University Ave., Ann Arbor. Tickets are $15-$40 at 734-763-8587 or the Michigan Union Ticket Office. Children ages 8-12 are admitted free when accompanied by an adult.

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Summer encores of the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series will begin at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Rave Maumee 18 Theatres, 1360 Conant St., with Verdi's Aida starring Violeta Urmana in the title role, with Johan Botha as Radames.

Daniel Gatti conducts this popular work. On June 23, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, starring Anna Netrebko, Isabel Leonard, Roberto Alagna, and Nathan Gunn, conducted by Placido Domingo, will be running. Tickets are $12.50 at the door.

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The Ohio Light Opera Co. will begin its summer season with a revival of the 1953 Broadway hit, Kismet, the musical set to lush music of Alexander Borodin, at 7:30 p.m. June 19 in Freedlander Theatre on the campus of Wooster College, Wooster, Ohio. In each of the coming weeks a new production will enter the repertory schedule.

Individual tickets are $10-45 at 330-263-2345 or at ohiolightopera.org.

Information for News of Music should be sent to svallongo@theblade.com at least two weeks ahead of the event.

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The Toledo Symphony Orchestra League reports on yet another successful Showcase of the Arts Program, a student musical enrichment experience. This year, some 1,550 K-12 public and private students in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan participated in activities based on the theme, “Building an Orchestra.” Students listened to music by Richard Strauss, Leonard Bernstein, Giacomo Rossini, and Gustav Holst, then reacted through a variety of artistic expressions. An exhibition of their works was held in April. For information on next year's showcase, contact Jessica Aeschliman at the TSO, 419-418-0022.

Information for News of Music should be sent to svallongo@theblade.com at least two weeks ahead of the event.