PEACH WEEKENDER

Music Under the Stars series launches July 20

7/3/2014
BY SALLY VALLONGO
SPECIAL TO THE BLADE
  • wallace-jpg

    DePue

  • Music Under the Stars concerts start at 7:30 p.m., with the first one set for July 20.
    Music Under the Stars concerts start at 7:30 p.m., with the first one set for July 20.

    July will kick off with a Fourth of July bang, as usual, and wind up with a musical flourish as the Toledo Symphony opens its 2014 Music Under the Stars concerts in the Toledo Zoo Amphitheatre.

    A 60-plus year tradition, these Toledo Concert Band events showcase some of the area’s most popular performing groups.

    “The Zoo is proud to welcome Music under the Stars back for another season,” said zoo executive director Jeff Sailer.

    Concerts start at 7:30 p.m., with the first one set for July 20. Three more performances will run through Aug. 10. Conductors Robert Mirakian and Bruce Moss will return on alternate weekends to lead the Zoo Band.

    The theme of the first concert will be “Oh, The Places You Will Go,” with a Dr. Seuss angle. Special guests will include a large flute choir coordinated by Amy Heritage of the Toledo Symphony.

    Scheduled to appear in later concerts will be Glass City Steel, Ballet Theatre of Toledo, and the Off Broadway Dance Co.

    The main sponsor this year is Mercy, with additional support from The Andersons, Healthcare REIT, the Taylor Automotive Family, WLMB-TV, and Dana.

    Mercy CEO Imran Andrabi said each Music Under the Stars concert “not only enriches lives, it truly enhances the overall health and well-being of the community.”

    Admission is free. Parking at the zoo is free to members and $6 for everyone else ($15 for buses and campers).

    Once again, TARTA Stars Shuttles will make even the travel to and from the zoo a fun community event. Cost is $1 per person each way. Buses leave one hour before the show starts.

    Locations for pick-up and drop-off are Centennial Terrace, 5773 Centennial Rd., Sylvania: main parking lot; Franklin Park Mall: shelter on Royer Road near Kohl’s; St. Luke’s Hospital, 5901 Monclova Rd., Maumee; Miracle Mile Shopping Center: near bus shelter, and Kroger Store, 8730 Waterville-Swanton Rd., Waterville.

    For more information on shuttle service, check www.tarta.com/​rider-services/​stars-shuttle.

    The Toledo Symphony will start its outdoor concert season on Friday with its annual Independence Day Concert, 2-3:30 p.m. at the Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, the nation’s first presidential library and museum.

    The setting will be in Spiegel Grove, the charming homestead of the Rutherford B. Hayes family.

    Admission is free, with support from Crown Battery and Mosser Construction.

    Bruce Moss will lead the program, which is to include a new selection of songs with patriotic messages. Veterans will be urged to stand up as their branch is honored musically.

    Performance of the signature work on the program, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, will be enhanced with costumed Civil War re-enactors from Gillmor Ordinance, who will fire the cannons on cue.

    Parking also is free, but seating is not provided, so blankets and/or lawn chairs are in order.

    The sponsors would love to see lots of red, white, and blue in the audience.

    The Hayes Museum will be open from noon-5 p.m. for a total 4th of July experience. The new Johnson Island exhibit will be open for viewing. Admission to the exhibit is included in museum entry: $3-$7.50, with children under 6 allowed in for free.

    The museum and park are at the corner of Hayes and Buckland avenues in Fremont.

    The University of Toledo Summer Choir will sing its collective 60-voice heart out at an 8 p.m. recital July 10 in the Center for Performing Arts Recital Hall. Director Steve Hodge will conduct a varied program with music by George Gershwin and Richard Rodgers, as well as a medley from the musical The Fantasticks.

    Selected soloists will include Thom Sneed, vocal director at Clay High School; UT graduate Carolyn Cupp, and Craig Whitaker of Craig’s Keyboards.

    The concert is free with a reception to follow.

    The busy Maumee Community Band will be playing all around town this week, starting tonight at 6 on Conant Street at the Wayne Street cross during pre-fireworks festivities. Expect patriotic music to fill the air as Kevin Heidbreder conducts.

    On Saturday, the band will perform during the Sesquicentennial Celebration of the Village of Whitehouse. Music starts at 1:30 p.m. at 6751 Providence St.

    Finally, the really big show will begin at 7 p.m. July 15 at the Maumee branch, Toledo-Lucas County Public Library, 501 River Rd. Take blankets and/​or lawn chairs for comfy seating.

    All three events are free.

    Alfredo’s Studio of Dance presents Stage to Screen Showcase, a dance demonstration and open dance night, from 7-10 p.m. July 12 at its studios, 5224 Renwyck Dr. Admission is $15. Refreshments will be available. For more information call 419-536-3423.

    The Singleton Piano Trio will perform in a 4 p.m. recital July 13 at Sylvania United Church of Christ, 7240 Erie St., Sylvania. Performers are Philip and Edgar A. Singleton, accompanied by Lynn Singleton. The string players will be performing on violin and cello, instruments made by Sylvania resident Edgar B. Singleton.

    The concert is free and will benefit the BeInstrumental Foundation, bringing education, mentoring, and financial resources to under-served children in this area. For more information please contact the church at 419-882-0048.

    DePue
    DePue

    Let’s hear it (again) for Wallace DePue, Sr., a Bowling Green composer, founder of a renowned musical dynasty (sons Alex, Wallace, Jr., Jason, and Zachary are famed fiddlers), music marketer, and newly minted Gold Medalist in the Boston Metro Opera’s International Contempo Festival contest.

    “As I paid my entrance fee to the competition,” DePue wrote to his son, Alex, “my attitude was that I had just purchased another rejection notice; I own a collection of them.”

    Instead, he took the Gold Medal for his opera Something Special, which will be performed in an upcoming Boston Metro Opera production season and become part of the company’s standard repertory. The same work, which falls in the composer’s category “barbershopera,” won a Special Award.

    And, his score for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which was performed at Bowling Green State University while he was still teaching, won honorable mention.

    DePue, a retired Distinguished Teacher from BGSU, is a tireless writer of music, from solos to operas, and has his own publishing house, Picardie Court Publications.

    It’s almost time to say adios to the Greater Toledo International Youth Orchestra, which is to fly to Spain for a string of performances and some sightseeing on Tuesday. With founder-director Yang Kun Song, 13 of the 45 members will spend time in Toledo, Spain, through the Municipal School of Music.

    Then they are to travel through the south of the country, winding up in Segovia. There, the ensemble will be the opening act for its weeklong International Music Festival.

    Send News of Music items to svallongo@theblade.com.