toledoblade.com --

"One Singular Sensation," a benefit for the historic Valentine Theatre, 419 Adams St., will bring world-renowned pianist/composer/conductor Marvin Hamlisch back to Toledo for a 7 p.m. performance Oct. 2.

Winner of Grammy, Oscar, Tony, Emmy, and Pulitzer prizes for his writing for stage and screen, Hamlisch will play and introduce music he has written for Broadway and Hollywood. A gala reception and party will follow.

As charming as he is talented, Hamlisch won over Toledoans hearts - again - appearing on the Toledo Symphony Pops program in the spring of 2008 at the Stranahan Theater. In many ways still the wunderkind he was when he enrolled at age 7 in New York's prestigious Juilliard School - the youngest person ever accepted - he switched from performing to composition and began a stellar career that has now led him into conducting.

His score for A Chorus Line won the Pulitzer, and his compositions for movies including The Way We Were, The Sting, Ordinary People, and several Woody Allen films rocketed him to fame. Ever gallant, Hamlisch also includes works by other American composers in his programming.

Tickets starting at $175 are available through the Valentine Theatre, 419-242-2787 or www.valentinetheatre.com.

Sylvania choir

The choir program of Sylvania Northview High School will present a free Quartet Showcase at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Little Theater of the high school, 5403 Silica Dr., Sylvania. Student quartets will sing a variety of music styles, from traditional barbershop to contemporary music. Guest performers will include Prestige, the Bowling Green State University student quartet, which won fourth place in the 2009 Bank of America Collegiate Quartet Contest.

BGSU will present "When Music Sings, the Brain Listens and the Heart Modulates," by visiting specialists Prisca Benoit, pianist, and Dr. Kamal Chemali, a Cleveland Clinic neurologist, at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Bryan Recital Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.

Performing works by Brahms, Chopin, Scarlatti, and Rachmaninoff, Benoit, who is on the music faculty of the Paris National Superior Conservatory, will provide examples music as Chemali describes how music affects the autonomic nervous system. The event is free to the public.

Benoit will present a free public master class from 10:30-12:30 Oct. 1 in Bryan Hall.

The BGSU Wind Symphony and bands including the Jazz Lab group will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 2 in Kobacker Hall Lab.

Also at BGSU, the first of the Young People's Concert Series will be presented at 11 a.m. Oct. 3 in Bryan Hall. "Clarinet Collage," the program planned, will feature all members of the clarinet family in music and story geared for children 5 years and older. Tickets are $1-$2 at the door.

A Faculty Artist Series recital at 3 p.m. Oct. 4 will present violinist Penny Thompson Kruse and pianist Thomas Rosenkranz playing works by Adams, Ewazen, and Foss. Trumpeter Charles Saenz will assist in this free, public program.

Dance presentation

Dancer/choreographer/director Donald McKayle will be in residence at Ohio Northern University Oct. 3-4 during the Choreography Showcase to be held in the Freed Center. McKayle studied and danced with Martha Graham and has performed with the late Merce Cunningham, Anna Sokolow, and Charles Wiedman.

The signature work of McKayle's long career, "Games," will be performed at 8 p.m. Oct. 3 and 2 p.m. Oct. 4. Also on the program will be new choreography by seven ONU students. Before the Oct. 3 performance a discussion is planned at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $8-25 at 419-772-1900 or www.freedcenter.com.

West African dance

The ALMA Dance Experience begins its fall session of classes and events this weekend. Soul Djembe drumming will be taught at Integration Yoga Studio, 4633 West Bancroft St., and the 577 Foundation, 577 East Front St., Perrysburg. Introduction to West African dance is being taught at the Bancroft studio. For more information and a complete schedule call 419-381-4755.

Organists

The Toledo Chapter, American Guild of Organists announces its annual scholarship auditions for students grades seven to 12 at 2 p.m. Oct. 11 in Community of Christ Lutheran Church, 6517 Finzel Rd., Whitehouse. Amounts of up to $500 for continued study with AGO members will be awarded at the discretion of judges for excellence in performance.

Applicants will be expected to perform two prepared works totaling up to 10 minutes, plus a hymn of their choice and a hymn to sight-read. First-time auditioners may perform on the piano. Applications are due by Oct. 1 and must include a general form plus a letter of recommendation from teacher, pastor, or church musician. All inquiries and applications should go to Pam Davis, 419-472-1003.

First place

Elainie Lillios, associate professor of music at BGSU, has won first prize for her composition, "Veiled Resonance," for soprano saxophone and live electronics in the 36th annual Bourges International Competition in France. Lillios based her award-winning work on a poem by Wallace Stevens, "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird."

Commissioned by saxophonist Steve Duke of Northern Illinois University, the work was composed during a 2008 sabbatical taken by Lillios.

The prize includes 2,500 Euros and a performance of the work during the International Festival Synthese in France next spring. Lillios is one of only nine Americans to win the big prize in the history of the contest.

Symphony concert

The Toledo Symphony will perform a regional concert at 4 p.m. Oct. 4 in the Tecumseh Civic Auditorium, 400 North Maumee St., Tecumseh, Mich. Chelsea Tipton II will lead the group in a program of Broadway tunes, popular favorites, and film score excerpts. Keith Hoyt, singer and Frank Sinatra impersonator, will be special guest during the concert. Tickets are $22-$26 at 517-423-6617.

Items for News of Music should be sent to svallongo@theblade.com at least two weeks before the event.

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