Grammy-winning jazz ensemble to perform at BGSU

The New York Voices will perform at Bowling Green State University's Moore Musical Arts Center Nov. 19.

The New York Voices, a Grammy Award-winning vocal jazz ensemble, will perform at 8 p.m. Nov. 19 in Kobacker Hall of the Bowling Green State University Moore Musical Arts Center. It will not be their first time on the BGSU campus, but it will be their first mainstage performance.

Singers Kim Nazarian, Darmon Meader, Peter Eldridge, and Lauren Kinhan have brought their distinctive way with four-part singing to Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Montreal, and Zurich. The group was started in 1987 by graduates of Ithaca College, and has maintained a busy performing, recording, and teaching schedule ever since.

The New York Voices has collaborated with the BGSU College of Musical Arts to run a summertime vocal jazz camp, a six-day intensive program which draws people from eight countries and a wide range of ages.

Tickets are $17-$36 at the Moore box office, 419-372-8171 or www.bgsu.edu/festival series.

This weekend will offer a chance to sample some of the best music BGSU has to offer. On Saturday, the Men's Chorus will perform at 8 p.m. in Kobacker Hall. The program will include sacred and secular music prepared for a nine-concert tour which has just ended.

This 70-voice select choir is directed by Timothy Cloeter. Saturday's program will include music by Poulenc, Wagner, Nowlin, Russian folksongs and barbershop numbers.

On Sunday at 3 p.m., the Falcon Marching Band will leave the marching outside but bring the Sounds of the Stadium indoors for a performance in Kobacker Hall.

Both events are ticketed. For information, call 419-372-8171.

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Pianist William Wellborn will be on the University of Toledo campus this weekend for the second event in the Dorothy MacKenzie Price Piano Recital series in the Center for Performing Arts. This is a repeat visit for Wellborn in this series, which offers a free master class for pianists at 10 a.m. Saturday in the UT Center for Performing Arts and a free 3 p.m. concert on Sunday in the CPA Recital Hall.

A faculty member at the San Francisco Conservatory and an internationally known expert on music by Franz Liszt, Wellborn will perform a program featuring this year's honored composer as well as works by Bach and Haydn.

The UT Jazz Lab Band and Jon Hendricks' Vocalstra will perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the CPA Recital Hall. Tickets are $3-$5 at the door.

The High School Honors Choir will give a concert at 8 p.m. Nov. 19 in Doermann Theater of University Hall. Tickets are $3-$5 at the door.

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Kirill Gerstein, a pianist of international renown -- and a local fave -- will return to the Peristyle for concerts in the Toledo Symphony Classics Series at 8 p.m. Nov. 17 and 18. Guest conductor Gregory Vajda will lead the symphony in music by Rachmaninoff, Weber, and Prangcharoen. Gerstein will perform the "Rach" concertos No. 1 and No. 4.

Tickets are $20-$50 at 419-246-8000 or www.toledosymphony.com.

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For its Gift of Music series, Gesu Church, 2049 Parkside Blvd., will present the 100-voice Toledo Interfaith Mass Choir in a free performance at 6 p.m. Sunday in the sanctuary. Derrick Roberts conducts the chorus, which performs for special occasions and services in the area.

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Owens Community College has launched its fourth annual Creative Noises Series with performances by faculty, students, and guest artists through Dec. 4. A project of the Owens music business portfolio class, the series will be presented in the Center for Fine and Performing Arts on the Perrysburg Township campus.

A 2 p.m. concert on Tuesday will feature the Owens Jazz Express in a diverse program of styles. The Owens Choir is to perform at 2 p.m. Wednesday in a preview of an upcoming concert. On the same day, harpist Denise Grupp-Verbon will play solo and duet works (with harpist Judy Riley) at 6 p.m. And on Nov. 17, the Owens Pop Music Ensemble will take the stage for a 2 p.m. concert.

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The next Live in HD production of the Metropolitan Opera will be Satyagraha, the Philip Glass opera based on the early, formative years of Mohandas K. Gandhi. With text adapted from the ancient Indian epic, the Bhagavad Gita, the work features Richard Croft as the Mahatma and improvisational puppetry by The Skills Ensemble.

Screening begins at 12:55 p.m. and runs 4 hours, 10 minutes on Nov. 19 in Rave Motion Pictures Fallen Timbers, 2300 W. Village Dr., Maumee. Tickets are $16-$24 at the box office.

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More opera beckons in Ann Arbor and Detroit, where the Michigan Opera Theatre presents Mozart's romp, The Marriage of Figaro, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Nov. 16, 18, and 19, with a 2:30 p.m. matinee Nov. 20 in the Detroit Opera House, 1526 Madison St., downtown Detroit.

Corey McKern will sing the role of Count Almaviva, with Grazia Doronzio as Susanna; Mario Corrado is staging the production.

For ticket information, call 313-237-7464.

The University of Michigan Opera Theatre presents Verdi's great comedy, Falstaff, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the Power Center, 121 N. Fletcher St., Ann Arbor. Toledo favorite Scott Bearden will take the title role in this production directed by Joshua Major, with the University Symphony Orchestra. Kimwana Doner will portray Mistress Alice, and Carl Frank will play Ford.

Tickets are $10-$26 at University Musical Society, 734-764-2538.

The sudden rescheduling of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, which was to perform Saturday in Rackham, was necessitated by the health of the principal violinist's wife. The new date for this concert is 7:30 p.m. April 5 in Rackham.

A staged version of Verdi's Rigoletto by the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra is set for 8 p.m. Saturday in the Michigan Theatre, 603 E. Liberty Street. Maestro Arie Lipsky will conduct the orchestra with narrator Stephen West setting the dramatic stage and soloists Sarah Hibbard, Lauren Skuce, Vale Rideout, and Thomas Hall singing major musical numbers. The evening will begin with a performance of Debussy's tone poem, La Mer.

Tickets are $10-$55 at 734-994-4801.

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Cellist Robert deMaine will be in the spotlight at the Kerrytown Concert House at 4 p.m. Sunday, with pianist Pauline Martin. DeMaine, principal cellist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Martin, director of the Pro Mozart Society of Greater Detroit, will perform music by Beethoven, Schumann, Prokofiev, and deMaine's own compositions.

Tickets are $10-$25 at 734-769-2999 or at the door. Kerrytown, a repurposed historic building near the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market, is at 415 N. Fourth Ave.

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