UT's Price Piano Series opens with free recital Oct. 7

9/27/2012

The University of Toledo will launch its Dorothy MacKenzie Price Piano Series with a free recital by Ryan Behan at 3 p.m. Oct. 7 in the Center for the Visual and Performing Arts Recital Hall on campus. The series has grown to four concerts through the 2012-2013 season.

Behan, a Toledo native, is on the Ohio State University piano faculty. He has degrees from Bowling Green State University, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and a doctorate in music from OSU. He is a busy recitalist and has won numerous performance competitions around the country.

In November, 2011, Behan played the dedicatory recital on the new Steinway grand given to the Valentine Theatre by Price, a beloved local benefactor of musical and educational enterprises. His program then was all works by Franz Liszt. His Oct. 7 program will include music by Beethoven, Debussy, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff.

He will lead a free public master class in the Recital Hall at 10 a.m. Oct. 6.

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The opening concert of the Toledo Symphony Blade Chamber Series, set to open at 7 p.m. Sunday in the Toledo Club, will offer a different program from that listed in News of Music last week, because one of the key players became ill.

The revised program will begin with Poulenc's Trio for Trumpet, Horn, and Trombone, played by Thaddeus Archer, Alan Taplin, and Garth Simmons.

Next will come Haydn's String Quartet No. 4, Op. 20, performed by Cheryl Trace, Jillienne Bowers, Timothy Zeithamel, and Renee Goubeaux. The final work remains the same as listed: Schubert's Piano Quintet, "The Trout."

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Toledo Opera's first production, La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini, is to open at 8 p.m. Oct. 5 and repeat at 2 p.m. Oct. 7 in the Valentine Theatre. James Meena will conduct the Toledo Symphony and the stage action, which is being directed by Michael Capasso. (A story on the opera will run in Sunday's Arts section.)

Tickets will start at $30, with reservations and information available at 419-255-7464 or www.toledoopera.org.

For a fine intro to this beloved Puccini work, don't miss a behind-the-scenes talk to be given by Capasso at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Registry Bistro, 425 Jefferson Ave. Titled "Beautiful Women, Duck Hunting, and Music," the talk will offer colorful details about the Italian composer. Entry is free. A wine reception will follow, with a $15 tab.

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BGSU will present a Guest Artist recital by Hammer/Klavier (piano and percussion) at 8 p.m. Sunday in Bryan Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center. Admission is free.

On Monday, BGSU kicks off a busy October with two free recitals at 8 p.m. Monday. Guest artist violinist David Gillham will perform in the Conrad Room inside the Wolfe Center for the Arts while Soundproof, another guest performer, will be in Bryan Recital Hall.

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World-renowned flutist Denis Bouriakov will perform a recital at 3 p.m. Oct. 7 in the Detroit Institute of Arts recital space. Bouriakov, principal flute of the Metropolitan Opera, is a native of Crimea, now part of Ukraine, and was garnering attention by age 10, unusual for a flutist (the flute requires as much breath support as a tuba), and began touring Europe to perform in his early teens.

He later studied with William Bennett at the Royal Academy of Music, winning honors there and performing with London orchestras.

Presented by the Southeast Michigan Flute Association to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the recital is free to members and regional residents. A group recital by area flutists including Penny Fisher, Amy Porter, Jeffery Zook, Emily Perryman, Lauren Erickson, Debbie Ash, and Holly Clemans, with David Gilliland on piano, will begin at 1 p.m. in the same venue.

For more information, contact Shelly Rouse-Freitag at president@semfa.org.

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Monday Musicale, a local performer's organization, will launch its 100th season with a concert at 1 p.m. Monday in Epworth United Methodist Church, 3077 Valleyview Dr. Performers will include jazz pianist Jim Gottron, composer and pianist Sr. Mary Krista Benda, and organist Anne Doerfler. This free event is open to the public; new members are welcome. A reception will follow the performance.

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A sizeable and appreciative audience welcomed the Chamber Choir of the Liszt School of Music from Weimar, Germany, to a fine example of beautiful a cappella singing in Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral, last Sunday. The event opened the Cathedral Concerts series most auspiciously.

Under the sure and sensitive direction of Jurgen Puschbeck, the ensemble of some 35 singers age 18 and older, offered an inspiring example of fine choral performance practice. The 75-minute program included sacred works by Brahms, Hovland, Bach, Hummel, Martin, and others.

Superb bassoonist Frank Forst, of the school's faculty, supplied tour de force accompaniment for the Hovland and several of Bertold Hummel's transcendant Marian Phantasies.

Asked not to applaud until the final number ended, the audience otherwise would have filled the soaring sanctuary with acclaim repeatedly, because the choir and its music were so impressive.

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