Diverse performances fill up the musical calendar

9/5/2013

Toth

Soloists and small ensembles providing a great variety of musical experiences help usher in the 2013-2014 performance season. (Don’t miss The Blade’s big Season of the Arts edition coming Sept. 15 with the full range of events.)

● Jazzman Ron Prebe will perform at an outdoor concert from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Gesu Church. 2049 Parkside Blvd. The concert is free. In case of rain, the event will be moved inside the church. Prebe is a popular jazz performer but also holds down the top musician post at St. Patrick of Heatherdowns Church.

● Pianist Cole Burger, an instructor at Bowling Green State University, will perform at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Moore Musical Arts Center’s Bryan Hall. Burger teaches and coordinates piano courses at BGSU. He has advanced degrees in piano performance and economics from Northwestern University and the University of Texas.

Also coming to BGSU for a Guest Artist recital will be pianist Nathan Hess, who will play at 8 p.m. Sept. 13 in Bryan Hall.

Hess is an assistant professor at Ithaca College, where he focuses on chamber music and piano performance. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and has performed widely in the New York region.

Admission is free to both events.

● A highlight of the current War of 1812 bicentennial celebration at the Toledo Museum of Art will be a special program of music from the time Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and his naval forces were plying Lake Erie.

Ohio State University students Katie Kuvin, soprano and flute; Katie Morell, clarinet, and Megan Rainey, piano, will perform 19th century music at 3 p.m. Sept. 14 in Gallery 28, where a special exhibition explores one of America’s turning points. Admission is free.

● The Tiffin University ProMusic Ensemble is set to perform from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Sept. 14 during the Jazzin’ Tiffin Festival in Rotary Park. Admission is free.

● The Toledo Symphony will open its season with the first Blade Chamber Series concert at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 in the Toledo Club. Works by Beethoven and LeClair are on the program.

The LeClair work for two violins will be played by Merwin Siu and Cheryl Trace to open the evening. Another pair, violinist Tea Prokes accompanied by guest pianist Robert Satterlee of BGSU, will unlock the Beethoven segment with Sonata No. 4.

Following intermission, a quartet comprising Kirk Toth and Siu, violins; violist Valentin Ragusitu, and cellist Martha Reikow will venture into one of Beethoven’s most famed and feared quartets — Op. 130. (If you saw the recent movie, A Late Quartet, that work is the signature piece, almost the fifth member of the fictional string quartet.)

Tickets for this popular series are $30-$35 at 419-246-8000 or www.toledosymphony.com.

Something new for symphony concertgoers on Sept. 15 will be the launch of a newly designed and formatted program booklet.

Ashley Mirakian, head of public relations at the Toledo Symphony, who shepherded the change, promises larger type, more background, and lots of extra features in the 64-page book.

● Irish tenor Daniel O’Donnell is due into town for 3 p.m. shows Sept. 14 and 15 at the Stranahan Theater. This will be his seventh appearance in Toledo in eight years. Producer of recordings which sell in the millions, O’Donnell earned an entry in Guiness Book of World Records for producing at least one album each year since 1988. For tickets and information, contact the Stranahan at 419-381-8851 or www.stranahantheater.org.

● Acoustic musician Nora Jane Struthers and her group, the Party Line, will be onstage for a 7:30 p.m. show Sept. 14 at the Tecumseh Center for the Arts, 400 N. Maumee St., Tecumseh, Mich.

Described as a traveling carnival of acoustic music, this Nashville-based band performs original songs by Struthers on fiddle, claw-hammer banjo, guitar, bass, drums, and vocal trio.

Tickets are $18-$20 at www.thetca.org or 517-423-6617.

● Auditions for the Tecumseh Center for the Arts production of The Nutcracker (Dec. 12, 13, 14) will be held Sunday from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at the center, 400 Maumee St., Tecumseh. The entrance is off the south parking lot at the rear of the building. Dancers age 8 and older who are enrolled in a ballet or pointe class may try out. Attire for girls is dark leotard and pink tights, hair in a bun.

For additional information on specific times, fees, and other details, call the Tecumseh Center for the Arts at 517-423-6617 or visit www.theTCA.org.

● High school-age organ students may apply to try out for scholarships through the American Guild of Organists, Toledo Chapter. Auditions will begin at 2 p.m. Sept. 29 at Monroe Street United Methodist Church, 3613 Monroe St.

The deadline for applications and letters of referral is Sept. 20. Send materials to Pam Davis, AGO Scholarship Auditions, 2403 Westbrook Dr., 43613. Each player must have two contrasting pieces prepared. Practice time up to an hour can be arranged with Davis.

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