Perrysburg Symphony opens season Saturday

Sandra Clark, principal horn of the Toledo Symphony.

The Perrysburg Symphony Orchestra will launch its season with a 3 p.m. concert Saturday at the Owens Community College Center for Performing Arts Theatre. New music director Robert Mirakian will conduct major works by Beethoven -- Symphony No. 3, (Eroica) -- and Tchaikovsky -- Symphony No. 5.

"I'm thrilled to be working with such a talented and passionate group of musicians," said Mirakian, of his new affiliation. "They truly love preparing this music and sharing it with the community."

The orchestra marked its golden anniversary last year and has three concerts planned for the 2012-2013 season. Today a professional community orchestra, it began as an all-volunteer group in 1961.

Mirakian holds a master's degree in conducting from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and is completing his doctorate at Indiana University. He graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College, where he was music director of the chamber orchestra and established the first summer orchestra. He is a cellist and assistant conductor of the Toledo Opera.

Tickets for the concert are $5-$10 at the door. A child-friendly instrument "petting zoo" will begin one hour before the concert.

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Sandra Clark, principal horn of the Toledo Symphony, will be featured soloist in the first of the Mozart and More concert series at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Franciscan Center at Lourdes University. Resident conductor Jeffrey Pollock will lead a Mozart-free program beginning with Beethoven's Coriolan Overture and ending with Haydn's Symphony No. 4.

Clark, who holds the Sara Jane and William DeHoff Chair, will take the spotlight to perform the Richard Strauss Horn Concerto No. 1 with the Toledo Symphony players. A native of Northern California, Clark has been in the TSO horn section since 1990. She also gives recitals locally and in Cincinnati, California, and New Mexico, and won the Fischoff National Chamber Music competition.

Tickets are $30-$35 at the door or at 419-246-8000 or www.toledosymphony.com.

More symphony activities this weekend and next week include the Halloween Spooktacular at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle. Pollock will lead a costumed orchestra, and students from the Toledo School for the Arts will be involved to add to the holiday spirit(s). Expect music from the dark side and lots of surprises. Tickets are $20-$25 at the door or in advance.

Pollock also leads symphony small ensembles in a music reading session of works by Bowling Green State University students from 3:30-6 p.m. Tuesday in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center. Students in the BGSU graduate composition program had works selected by the faculty for this reading.

Last but not least, Pollock and the symphony will perform the second KeyBank Pops concert at 8 p.m. Nov. 3 in Stranahan Hall. Joining the orchestra will be the Soldier's Chorus of the U.S. Army Field Band. On the program will be America-centric music by Smith, Sousa, Willson, Rodgers, and Miller. Tickets for the Saturday show are $24-$48 at the hall or in advance.

The same program is set to begin a day earlier, at 8 p.m. Nov. 2, in Winebrenner Hall on the University of Findlay campus. Veterans will be admitted free of charge. Tickets are $10-$25 at the door or at 419-334-5335 or boxoffice@findlay.edu.

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BGSU and the University of Toledo have some frightful musical plans for kids of all ages at concerts coming during the Halloween season. The UT Halloween Spooktacular concert is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday in Doermann Theater in University Hall. Students and faculty will conspire to set the proper mood for this season of ghosts and goblins at this free event.

BGSU's faculty and students have scary sounds in mind for a free concert at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Bryan Hall.

Not so scary will be the opening of the BGSU Opera Theater's Purcell festival, productions of Henry Purcell's opera, Dioclesia, plus an act from the composer's more famous opera, Dido and Aeneas, starting at 8 p.m. Nov. 2 in the Donnell Theatre of the Wolfe Center for the Arts. The program is to repeat at 8 p.m. Nov. 4. Tickets for either production are $9-$12 at the door or at 419-372-8171.

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The Metropolitan Opera's new season advances with the Live in HD screening of Verdi's drama Otello at 12:55 p.m. Saturday in both the Franklin Park and Fallen Timbers Rave Cinema complexes. Johan Botha will sing the title role with soprano Renee Fleming as Desdemona. Semyon Bychkov will conduct this 3 1/2-hour event. Tickets are $20-$24 at the box office. An encore screening is set for Nov. 24.

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The Toledo Ballet announces receipt of a $5,000 grant from Toledo Community Foundation to provide dance instruction for young women who are clients of Second Chance, a nonprofit organization serving former prostitutes. Classes will be held at the Toledo Ballet headquarters at Franklin Park Mall and at Second Chance.

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Kudos to pianists Valrie Kantorski and Ann Pope, of the Kantorski-Pope Piano Duo, for being selected as Steinway Ensemble Artists by the venerable piano maker. Kantorski, who teaches in Toledo and is the pianist for the Toledo Symphony, and Pope, formerly of the BGSU music faculty, who now teaches and performs in Chattanooga, Tenn., have performed together since 1988. The duo was awarded the Virginia E. Schrader Residency by the Toledo Museum of Art some years ago, and have been on the Touring Artists Program of the Ohio Arts Council.

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The deadline for submission of cover designs for the Ballet Theatre of Toledo's coming productions of The Nutcracker is drawing near. Submissions by students ages 8-16 will be accepted on or before Nov. 1 at Ballet Theatre of Toledo headquarters, 1124 Corporate Dr., Holland.

Contenders can download the competition page at www.ballettheatreoftoledo.org and make a drawing within an 8-by-5-inch frame. Entries will be judged by local media and dance personalities. Winners will receive four tickets to one of the productions at the Valentine Theatre or the Sandusky State Theatre, and will be presented on stage.

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