PEACH WEEKENDER

Music: Groups celebrate the holiday season with music

‘Messiah’ will be performed at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle.

One of the busiest performance weekends of the year starts Friday with choral and orchestral concerts plus solo recitals and an arts extravaganza.

Family-oriented, collaborative entertainment is offered in a new format this year by the Toledo Symphony, which will perform Christmas at the Peristyle at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Toledo Museum of Art.

Symphony musicians will perform a wide variety of holiday favorites, carols will be sung by the Toledo Opera Chorus, and young students from the Toledo Symphony School of Music will perform on stage.

Even Santa Claus is coming to spread holiday cheer. Break out those Christmas sweaters or just put on clean sweats — the atmosphere is casual. Tickets for students and children are $10.

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Masterworks Chorale will present its holiday concerts, Mary & the Angels, at 8 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday in Epworth United Methodist Church, 4855 W. Central Ave. Leading the group will be new artistic director Timothy Cloeter, who was named to the post last summer upon the retirement of Donna Tozer Wipfli.

An assistant professor of choral music at BGSU, Cloeter says taking up leadership of Masterworks satisfies a longtime dream. The program planned focuses on an ancient sacred music form called O Magnum Mysterium. The choir will sing versions by Tomas Luis de Victoria, Morten Lauridsen, and Francois Poulenc.

Tickets at $20-$25 are available at the door or in advance at 419-242-2787.

On Sunday at 2 p.m. the Toledo Choral Society and its new director, Richard Napierala, will join with the BGSU Chorus, Toledo Symphony, and soloists to perform Handel’s great oratorio, Messiah.

Napierala, a Toledo native with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Toledo, joined Toledo’s oldest choir last year. Soloists will be Katie Calcamuggio, Cheryl Babb, Kevin Foos, and Richard Mathey. Tickets are $35 at www.toledosymphony.com, 419-246-8000 or at the door.

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For the Perrysburg Symphony Chorale, another venerable singing group, this weekend’s performance, Holiday Cheer at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in St. Rose Church, 214 E. Front St., Perrysburg, will be a farewell for conductor Wayne Anthony. A family-oriented program of favorite popular Christmas music, including sing-alongs, is planned. Admission is free with a freewill offering to be collected.

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College campuses are buzzing with holiday music and art before students depart for winter break.

At Bowling Green State University, which merges its ongoing collaborative ArtX series into a creative fusion running from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday in the Wolfe Center for the Arts, Kobacker Hall, and the Fine Arts Center.

One of the highlights is being called Cinema Optique, an immersive experience visitors can track indoors and out thanks to a football field-sized video screen laid out on the sloping south wall of the Wolfe Center.

No doubt visitors will still want to go indoors, and there they will find exhibits, hands-on activities, a film premiere, and concert.

The 7 p.m. performance in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center will star soprano Kisma Jordan with the BG Philharmonia, Wind Symphony Brass, Choral Society, and other performers in a holiday-themed performance.

Tickets are available at bgsu.edu/​cultural_arts/​festival_series.html or by calling the box office at 419-372-8171.

At the University of Toledo, the Men’s and Women’s Choruses will perform their annual Holiday Concert at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Center for Performing Arts Recital Hall. Stephen Hodge will conduct a seasonal program for this free public event.

Following that performance at 7 p.m. will be the UT Concert Chorale and Da Capo Vocal Ensemble, a seasonal program presented free to the public.

At 8 p.m., student-created plays will be presented in the Center Theatre of the CPA. Tickets for this show are $35 at the door.

The UT Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble will perform holiday favorites at 3 p.m. Sunday in Doermann Theater of University Hall. Robert Mirakian will conduct. Admission is free.

Lourdes University’s music department will offer Carols for Christmas, its annual holiday concert, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in the Franciscan Center Theatre. Performers will be the LU Chorus, Good Company Ensemble, and the new Sonic 5 student vocal ensemble.

Karen T. Biscay will direct with accompaniment by Olga Topuzova Meade and the Maumee Community Band, led by Kevin Heidbreder.

On the free program will be nine English carols from the 1416 Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols — with harpist Julie Buzzelli — plus lighter seasonal songs. The Maumee band will perform favorites including a Polar Express medley and new holiday carol arrangements.

Owens Community College will present its Holiday Band Concert at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Center for Performing Arts Theater. William Dais will conduct the concert, a benefit for St. Paul’s Community Center. Ragtime Rick will narrate Clement Moore’s poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas, and will provide background music during the freewill collection.

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Jason Farnham, pianist and raconteur, will hold forth in a 7:30 p.m. concert Saturday in the Pemberville Opera House. Tickets are $10 at the door or in advance at Beeker’s General Store. For more information call 419-287-4848.

Kerrytown Concert House will present its Annual Croissant Concert at 11 a.m. Saturday in the historic venue, 415 N. Fourth Ave., Ann Arbor.

Performers will be Today’s Brass Quintet: Mitchell Wechsler and Jean Moorehead Libs, trumpets; Brian Robson, trombone, Alan Taplin, French horn, and Joseph DeMarsh, tuba.

Tickets are $10-$30 at www.kerrytownconcerthouse.com or 734-764-2999.

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Pianist Corey Pappas and violinist Adam Murphy will perform in a free program at 7 p.m. Dec. 13 in Wildwood Preserve Metropark's Manor House, during its annual Christmas open house.

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The Tecumseh Pops Orchestra and Community Chorus will present Christmas and All That Jazz at 4 p.m. Sunday in the Tecumseh Center for the Arts, 400 Maumee St.

Opening for the groups will be the Tecumseh High School Chamber Orchestra at 3:30 p.m.

A collaborative production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker is planned for the Tecumseh arts spot Dec. 12-14.

Curtain is at 7:30 each night, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Dec. 14.

For tickets and information call 5174236617 or www.theTCA.org.

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The Tower Brass will perform a free seasonal program at 7 p.m. Sunday in Community of Christ Lutheran Church, 6517 Finzel Rd., Whitehouse. Members are Bernice Schwartz, Brian Bushong, Charles Saenz, Dan Saygers, and David Saygers.

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A barbershop Christmas will be presented by the Pride of Toledo Chorus,part of the Sweet Adelines, at 3 and 6 p.m. Sunday in Living Hope Church, 4620 Glendale Ave. Tickets are $5 at the door.

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St. Tim’s Discovers will continue with a free service of Lessons and Carols starting at 7 p.m. Sunday in the St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, 781 East Boundary.

Joining the Canterbury Singers and their director, James Metzler, will be organist Lyle Hecklinger and harpist Nancy Lendrim.

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