Toledo Concert Band, ballet to take stage at zoo

7/11/2013
BY SALLY VALLONGO
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Toledo’s weather hasn’t been conducive to outdoor concerts this season. But most events go on rain or shine. Such was the case with the first Music Under the Stars performance last weekend in the Toledo Zoo amphitheatre. The second in that series is set for 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Again, the Toledo Concert Band will fill the big outdoor stage and perform music selected to address the question, What’s in a Word?

Bruce Moss, director of bands at Bowling Green State University, will be conducting, and Jerry Anderson, longtime anchor at WTOL-TV, Channel 11, will do the announcer’s honors.

Appearing with the band will be dancers from the Cassandra School of Ballet. “This will mark our 32nd year of dancing out at the zoo amphitheatre,” said company founder and artistic director Cassandra Macino.

“We will be dancing to a contemporary piece, ‘Let Them Praise,’ with music by Twila Paris and ‘Bugler’s Holiday,’ with music by Leroy Anderson,” added Macino, whose company just celebrated its 40th anniversary.

Admission is free with parking fees for using the Toledo Zoo lots. TARTA will run its shuttle service from five suburban locations with fare $1 each way, per person.

More outdoor music is coming at Maumee Bay State Park, 1400 State Park Rd., Oregon.

A Band by the Bay concert featuring the Toledo Concert Band is set for 7 p.m. Saturday in the outdoor amphitheater just off Lake Erie. Samuel P. Szor will conduct, with Gordon Ward stepping up as commentator.

This program will begin with Toledo Alive, a work by Sylvania composer David Jex, followed by patriotic selections by John Philip Sousa, David Smith, and Morton Gould, among others. Admission is free.

The North Coast Concert Band will be in concert at 3 p.m. Sunday at the park. Director William Woycitzky, of Elmore, and Will Kish, from Norwalk, will share conducting duties for a program of all-American favorites.

Free to the public through support from local businesses, this concert is part of the NCCB’s busy summer performance schedule.

July 18 is another Music at the Market series concert. Presented by the city of Perrysburg, local businesses, and the Perrysburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, the free event starts at 7 p.m. in the Commodore Schoolyard, Louisiana and Indiana avenues. No rain dates here; the concert’s bad-weather venue is the Commodore Building, 140 E. Indiana Ave., Perrysburg.

On deck next week is 6th Edition, a vocal ensemble of accomplished local singers, including Kim Buehler, Lisa Young, Lori LeFevre, John Johnson, and Kevin Eikum. Their repertoire crosses many genres, from jazz standards to Stevie Wonder.

Something just for the young — and young-at-heart — will be free shows by Zak Morgan presented by the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library at three branches on July 18. Morgan will deliver his brand of music and poetry at 10:30 a.m. at the Maumee branch, 501 River Rd., Maumee; at 2 p.m. at Sanger branch, 3030 W. Central Ave., and at 4 p.m. at Washington branch, 5560 Harvest Lane.

Drive into Lenawee County to Chelsea, Mich., and enjoy one of its summer concert series, Sounds and Sights on Thursday Nights, a street fair with myriad musical acts from 6:30-8:30 along the quaint downtown streets.

What was to have been a benefit for longtime local performer and teacher Sue Sgro has become a memorial. The devoted violinist and pianist, a Toledo native whose careful and dedicated teaching helped create an entire generation of new and accomplished musicians, died July 6 in Hospice of Northwest Ohio.

Now, her friends and fellow musicians will dedicate to her memory the concert at 3 p.m. Sunday in Church of St. Andrew United Methodist, 3620 Heatherdowns Blvd.

Organized by Karen Biscay, assistant professor of music at Lourdes University, where Sgro was an adjunct instructor, with assistance from Michael Biscay and many local musicians, the program will include a generous sampling of chamber and solo music.

On the program will be the Moody Flutes and Strings of Choice ensembles, plus Alice Petersen and Norma Kelling, violin and piano; Bonnie Rowe and Gladys Rudolph, oboe and piano, and Kathy Price and Mark Bixel, piano four hands.

Also performing will be Karen Biscay, voice, and Theresa Linares, piano; Linares with Donald Jackson, recorder, and Sandy Kellogg, piano; soprano Gwen Senerius and pianist Denise Mathias; flutist Connie Alleshouse, violinist Cecilia Johnson, and Kelling, piano and organ. Other participants are Olga Topuzova-Meade, piano; Ed Bloedow, oboe with Topuzova-Meade; singer Sasha Meade with Bloedow and Topuzova-Meade; and a vocal quartet comprising Senerius, both Biscays, and Bloedow.

Memorial gifts may be made during the collection.

Jazz on the Maumee continues to showcase local and guest artists in a welcoming downtown setting, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. each Wednesday at the Best Western Premier Grand Plaza Hotel (next door to Fifth Third Bank headquarters) on the Maumee River.

Presented by the Art Tatum Jazz Society and the hotel, the evening events offer free valet parking and a grazing buffet. Next week’s evening, Jazz Jam, will celebrate this series’ first anniversary with a host of performers. Cover is $15 with reduced rates for students and jazz society members.

The ALMA Dance Experience announces the return of Idy Ciss of Chicago’s Muntu Dance Theatre and Les Ballets Africains to teach West African dance in a workshop from 10:30 a.m. to noon July 20 at the ALMA headquarters, the former Martin School, 10 N. Holland-Sylvania Rd., Studio 205.

Class fee is $15 in advance and $20 at the door. To register, visit www.almadancetoledo.com or call company founder Allison Kodeih at 419-810-2800 or almadance03@hotmail.com.

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