Chorale to end season with slice of Americana

5/30/2013

For the grand finale of its 2012-2013 season, Masterworks Chorale will present American Collage, a glorious artistic compound of folk songs, jazz, bluegrass, dance, and musical theater, at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Valentine Theatre.

Joining Masterworks will be Ballet Theatre of Toledo, led by Nigel Burgoine, the other veteran group in this local project to highlight the area’s rich artistic milieu.

Also on the program will be singer Kim Buehler, a founding member of the vocal jazz ensemble 6th Edition and voice faculty at the University Toledo. Buehler is a well-known chanteuse at area music clubs and has performed in UT opera productions and with the Zen Arts Ensemble.

Together Again, a folk and bluegrass group is scheduled to perform.

This concert also will mark the exit for artistic director and conductor Donna Tozer Wipfli, who has led the chorale for 23 years.

Tickets for the concert are $12-35 at 419-242-2787 or www.valentinetheatre.com.

The University of Toledo will launch its 19th annual Summer Sings series at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the UT Center for the Performing Arts. At all three events, local singers will join to read then perform for each other one major work from the choral literature.

Mark Munson will be conducting next week’s sing, which will be Verdi’s Requiem -- a good warm-up for next winter, when the Toledo Symphony and Bowling Green State University choruses Munson leads, will perform the huge work.

Outgoing Masterworks Chorale conductor Donna Tozer Wipfli will lead the group in John Rutter’s Requiem on June 18.

And Summer Sings organizer Stephen Hodge will conduct the youthful and charming Missa Brevis in C Major, KV 220, by Mozart during the June 18 session.

No auditions are necessary and music will be provided. Participants can begin registration at 6:15 p.m. each session. Cost per sing is $9 but signing up for all three is $25.

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The Detroit Institute of Arts will launch its summer series of musical events with a Friday Night Live performance at 7 and 8:30 p.m. June 7 in the Kresge Court. There, Paul Keller’s At Sundown Quartet will explore jazz styles, aided and abetted by singer Sarah D’Angelo.

Violinist Gabe Bolkosky and pianist Michelle Cooker will hold court during a Sunday Music Bar at 1 and 3 p.m. June 9 in the Rivera Court on the main floor.

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The City of Toledo will present Summer Concerts in Ottawa Park, July 6-Aug. 10 in the woodsy Glyn M. Smith Amphitheater in Ottawa Park. Performers will include the Chardon Polka Band, the Las Vegas-style show of East River Drive, swing music by Night Session, and Latin sounds by Los Harmanos Villegas.

Concerts start at 6 p.m. and are free to the public. The amphitheater is near the police substation and Police Museum off Kenwood Boulevard.

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BGSU has announced its Festival Series of guest performances for the 2013-2014 season, with a mix of classical music, a multi-arts celebration of local creativity, and theater. All performances take place in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.

The series launches Sept. 28 with the first Northwest Ohio appearance of From the Top, the young artist series by National Public Radio.

Arts X is the title of the Dec. 6 event, when BGSU’s first large-scale collaboration among the College of Musical Arts, School of Art, and departments of theater, creative writing, and dance takes shape. The Festival showcase, titled Wonderland, is part of a multi-day celebration.

Pianist Jeremy Denk will be on campus to teach and perform on the third concert, Feb. 15. And the series will conclude April 5 with the Improvised Shakespeare Company, a Chicago-based troupe which will create a fully improvised play in Elizabethan style right in front of the audience.

Series tickets range from $58-147 online or by at 419-372-8171. Individual event tickets will be available in August.

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Single tickets for concerts at the Blossom Music Festival are now on sale for this summer’s season, opening July 3 at Blossom, just north of Akron. Early concerts include the opener at 8 p.m. July 3 with the Blossom Festival Band in A Salute to America, with Loras John Schissel on the podium. The first of the Cleveland Orchestra appearances at the outdoor stage will bring music director Franz Welser-Most to lead works by Richard Strauss and Shostakovich, with debuting soprano Luba Orgonasova on July 5 at 8 p.m. Welser-Most also will lead music by Beethoven with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet performing Liszt’s Totentanz, all on July 6 at 8 p.m.

For tickets call216-231-7463 or visit www.clevelandorchestra.com.

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