PEACH WEEKENDER

Music: UT to present opera, jazz, and dance music

Pianist Theresa McCollough will teach a master class and perform this weekend at the University of Toledo.

American opera, Russian dance music, and lots of jazz are on tap at the University of Toledo over the next nine days.

This weekend, guest pianist Theresa McCollough will be on campus for the Dorothy MacKenzie Price Piano Series. She’ll lead a master class at 10 a.m. Saturday, then star in a recital at 3 p.m. Sunday, both in the UT Center for Performing Arts Recital Hall. Both events are free.

McCollough, renowned internationally for innovative and expressive programs, is a specialist in contemporary music. She frequently commissions and premieres works by composers including Lou Harrison, Joan Tower, Alex Shapiro, Zhou Long, and others.

Her UT program, titled “Folksongs, Rituals, and Rites of Passage,” will comprise American-themed music by Frederic Rzewski and Tobias Picker, plus Igor Stravinsky’s landmark Rite of Spring, which is marking its centennial.

Joining McCollough onstage for the Stravinsky, in an arrangement for two pianos, will be Michael Boyd, UT piano professor. The Toledo Piano Teachers Association, which supports the Price series, will provide refreshments and hospitality for both weekend events.

The following weekend will bring a rarely-performed American opera, Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land, in three shows by the UT Opera Ensemble. The UT Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Mirakian, will play Copland’s 1955 score, written for a libretto by Horace Everett. The Copland opera was inspired by photography of American great Walker Evans, who found in the Great Depression and James Agee’s poetry rich subject matter for his work.

Denise Ritter Bernardini, who is directing the opera, says, “Part of the reason we chose it is because of its Midwest setting and its accessibility for young singers.”

Opening night will be 7:30 p.m. Nov. 22 plus Nov. 23 with a final performance at 3 p.m. Nov. 24, all in the renovated Doermann Theatre, University Hall. Tickets are $8-$10 at www.utoledo.edu/​boxoffice or 419-530-2375.

Between the weekend events will come a jazz show by UT’s GuitArkestra and its Vocalstra at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the UT Recital Hall. Tickets are $3-$5 at the door.

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This weekend is filled with music, headlined by the 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday Toledo Symphony Classics Series concerts in the Peristyle, where a celebration of the Four Seasons — Vivaldi’s seminal composition and a tribute work by Astor Piazzolla — will feature violinists Kirk Toth and Merwin Siu plus dancers from the Ballroom Company.

A very different experience will be presented at 7 p.m. on Friday and again at 2 p.m. on Sunday, when the Perrysburg Symphony Chorale performs concerts focusing on Baroque choral music.

The Friday concert is at Trinity Episcopal Church, 316 Adams St. The Sunday program will be in First Methodist Church, 200 West Second St., Perrysburg.

Wayne Anthony will conduct music by Buxtehude, Vivaldi, Pachelbel, and Telemann. Joining the regular singers will be vocalists from Perrysburg High School. Tickets for either show are $8-$10 at the door.

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The Greater Toledo International Youth Orchestra will step out in its latest incarnation in a 7 p.m. concert Sunday at Westgate Chapel, 2500 Wilford Dr. Conducted by founder Yang Kun Song, the 45-member group, which comprises players from southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio, will perform a diverse and international program, ranging from small ensembles — a cello choir among them — to full orchestra with soloists.

David Oliver will share conducting duties of the group whose ages range from 9 to 17, plus area professionals sitting in. Tickets will be $7-$10 at the door.

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Bowling Green State University’s College of Musical Arts rolls on with a concert performance by the Falcon Marching Band at 3 p.m. on Sunday in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center. On the program is music from the football field, a collection of half-time hits.

For ticket information call 419-372-2181 or visit www.bgsu.edu/​arts.

Slightly less bombastic will be a Faculty Artist Series Showcase at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Toledo Museum of Art Great Gallery. There, violist Matthew McBride-Daline, clarinetist Kevin Schempf, cellist Alan Smith, and pianist Thomas Rosenkranz, plus the BGSU Graduate String Quartet, will play amid great European paintings.

Rosenkranz will be busy Sunday. Following the chamber concert, he’ll lead a collective of improvisers called the Combustible Arts Ensemble in a free program at 8 p.m. in Bryan Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.

One more BGSU offering, from the Music at the Forefront Series, will bring violist Nadia Sirota to the Clazel Theater, 127 North Main St., for a concert at 8 p.m. on Monday. On her program will be music by Nico Muhly, Marcos Balter, Judd Greenstein, and Sirota's albums.

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Fayette Opera House will continue its 2013-2014 series, Passport to Entertainment, with a chamber music concert at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Ginnivan Auditorium of the historic hall, 105 East Main St., Fayette.

Performers will be a trio of pianist Jay Krasnow, violinist Elena Kraineva, and vocalist Bronson Peshlakai. Krasnow, a Cleveland area musician, performs on many keyboards and composes music; Kraineva performs internationally, and Peshlakai is an organist, singer, and journalist. Tickets are $10-$12.

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There’s even more good classical performance in Ann Arbor this weekend, when University Musical Society presents the San Francisco Symphony with its principal conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas, at 8 p.m. on Saturday in Hill Auditorium. Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 comprises the entire program. Tickets are $10-$85 at www.ums.org or 734-764-2538.

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The Toledo School for the Arts will present Classics for Percussion at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the Attic Theater of the school, 333 14th St.

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