Troupe to present traditional Irish music, dance

Georg Klaas will solo with the Toledo Symphony in this weekend's Classics Concerts.

Editor's note: This version corrects that Soprano Margaret Barron be at the Toledo Museum of Art in a program titled Virtue, Violence, Vengeance: Heroines in Opera, at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Celtic Nights will perform Sunday at the Valentine Theatre.

Let this winter continue to bluster and blow outside. Inside the Valentine Theatre on Sunday all will be warm, welcoming, and lively as Celtic Nights, a traveling troubadour troupe from the land of Erin, offers its take on traditional Irish song, dance, music, and story.

The 7 p.m. family-friendly concert promises a two-hour journey through culture and history by a dozen singers and dancers accompanied by 12 musicians. Audience involvement is part of the show, so lace up those step-dancing shoes, plaster on a fine smile, and be prepared.

There are still some tickets left at $26-$42 at the Valentine, 419-242-2787 or www.valentinetheatre.com.

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Georg Klaas will solo with the Toledo Symphony in this weekend's Classics Concerts.

The Toledo Symphony will present its Classics VI concerts at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle. Guest conductor Jacques Lacombe is slated to lead Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, a musical tribute to the Baroque composer Francois Couperin, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (Pastorale).

Stepping up from his mid-orchestra seat as the symphony’s principal clarinetist, Georg Klaas will perform Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.

As principal clarinet since 2001, Klaas holds the Clement O. Miniger Foundation endowed chair. He studied clarinet at Indiana University and UCLA, where he won the Mitchell Lurie Award. Klaas is on the faculty of Ohio Northern University.

Tickets are $20-$52 at 419-246-8000 or www.toledosymphony.com.

Looking ahead, the orchestra will perform Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2 at 4 p.m. March 10 in Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral, 2535 Collingwood Blvd. Principal conductor Stefan Sanderling will lead this ongoing series, which each year focuses on one of the massive works by Bruckner in the rich and sonorous setting of the church.

Last year Sanderling was awarded the Bruckner Medal for his attention to the German composer’s works.

Tickets for this concert, presented in conjunction with the Cathedral Music series at Rosary, are $35 at the Toledo Symphony office or at the door.

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Broadway songs, light classics, and patriotic numbers are on the program for the Owens Community College Winter Pops Benefit Concert, to begin at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in the Mainstage Theatre of the OCC Center for Fine and Performing Arts. Admission is free, but proceeds from a free-will offering will go to help the Cherry Street Mission.

William Dais will lead the Owens Concert Band in a lively program. Special appearances will include xylophonist Michael Sander and painter Kevin Schroeder. Schroeder will paint a Disney-themed mural on stage during one number. The two men are sharing the position of interim chair of the Owens arts program. Free refreshments follow the concert.

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Soprano Margaret Barron will delve into the message behind one of the Toledo Museum of Art’s great paintings in a program titled Virtue, Violence, Vengeance: Heroines in Opera, at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Great Gallery. Inspiring Barron’s musical scholarship is The Virtue of Lucretia, by 18th century Italian artist Giuseppe Cades. The work was added to the museum in 2000.

Barron’s offerings include arias from Verdi’s operas Aida and Otello, plus Puccini’s Tosca. Pianist Tim Cheek will accompany the singer and George Shirley will provide narration. Admission to the performance is free.

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The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD Series continues with a screening of Wagner’s Parsifal at noon Saturday in Franklin Park and Fallen Timbers Rave Cinemas. Daniele Gatti will conduct the Met orchestra with soloists Katarina Dalayman, Jonas Kaufmann, Peter Mattei, Evgeny Nikitin, and Rene Pape.

This new Met production by Francois Girard will run five-plus hours. Tickets are $22-$24 at the cinema box office.

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Singers wanted: The Christian Festival Choir invites local vocalists to join in preparation for the annual spring concert, “Exaltation 2013, Amazing Love, Amazing Grace” on April 27 and 28 at Springfield High School. Rehearsals are held 9 a.m.-noon each Saturday at Calvary Assembly of God, 1360 Conant St., Maumee. Traditional and contemporary music is conducted by Pat Finnigan. For more information check online at www.toledoexaltation.org or call 419-865-5795 or 419-260-8284.

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Mu Phi Epsilon’s Toledo chapter will host the Great Lakes District Conference of the international music fraternity on Saturday at the University of Toledo Center for Performing Arts Recital Hall. A free 1 p.m. concert will present members performing on harp, piano, and voice. Workshops and lectures are also on the schedule.

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Monday Musicale announces its monthly performance during its centennial year, free to the public, at 1 p.m. Monday at Epworth United Methodist Church. 3077 Valleyview Dr. at Central Avenue. Performers will be vocalists Christianne Manne, organists Pamela Stover and Anne Doerfler, oboist Ed Bloedow, and pianist Norma Kelling.

Send items for News of Music to svallongo@theblade.com at least two weeks ahead of the event.