Marvin Hamlisch is symphony pops guest
NEWS OF MUSIC
The Toledo Symphony will wrap up its pops season with the dean of popular music, Marvin Hamlisch, at 8 p.m. May 24 in the Stranahan Theater. The award-winning composer for dozens of Hollywood movies, Broadway musicals including A Chorus Line, and special musical events, Hamlisch will lead the orchestra and perform at the keyboard. Joining Hamlisch will be tenor J. Mark McVey, a top voice on Broadway and originator of the role of Jean Valjean for Les Miserables. The duo plus the symphony will present a program covering classics and standards with lots of music from Broadway and Hollywood scores. Tickets are $22 to $60.
The symphony also will present the third Young People's concert, Music in Motion, at 9:45 and 11 a.m. May 22 in the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle. Resident conductor Chelsea Tipton II will lead the program of light classics by composers including Rimsky-Korsakov, Anderson, Joplin, Saint-Saens, and Rossini. Joining the musicians in a production of "Hoedown" from Aaron Copland's ballet, Rodeo, will be dancers from the Cassandra Ballet company. In the audience will be students from Toledo area schools who come with their classes in this symphony outreach program.
Information: 419-246-8000 or www.toledosymphony.com.
A memorial recital is planned for 1 to 4 p.m. May 25 in the Manor House of Wildwood Preserve Metropark. The event is in memory of Marissa Rose, a high school musician who died Nov. 20, 2007, in an accident. Fellow musicians from groups she performed in - including Toledo youth orchestras, the Ottawa Hills Flute Choir, Anthony Wayne bands, and St. Joan of Art Church - will perform vocal, piano, and instrumental numbers, joined by players from the Toledo and Lima symphonies and the Moody Flutes. The event is free to the public.
The Harp Gathering this weekend at Sauder Village in Archbold, will offer three days of workshops, displays, and performances. Highlights include a performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday by Denise and Michael Grupp-Verbon, harpist and guitarist respectively, joined by Frank Voltz in a program of jazz and gospel arrangements. Harpist-singers Timothy Harper and Pamela Bruner are to perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and, at 11:15 a.m. Sunday, the Harp Gathering Ensemble and jazz harpist Christa Grix will perform. All concerts are in the Sauder Heritage Inn. Tickets at the door are $15.
Bowling Green State University music professor emeritus Wallace DePue has been awarded a commission for a new work, "The Fiddler and the Dragon," by the Michigan Music Teachers Association. Featured in the work will be one of DePue's sons, Zachary, who is concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. The new piece will have its premiere at the annual MMTA convention.
Vladimir Ashkenazy will lead the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and guest pianist Luks Vondrcek in Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" at 10:45 a.m. and 8 p.m. May 23 and 8:30 p.m. May 24 in Orchestra Hall of the Max M. Fisher Music Center, 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit. Also on the program will be Prokofiev's "Autumnal" and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2. Tickets range from $23.50 to $63.50. Information: 313-576-5111 or www.detroitsymphony.com.
The National Endowment for the Arts has announced winners in its new Opera Honors program, designed to honor those who have made major contributions to opera in the United States. The winners are soprano Leontyne Price, composer Carlisle Floyd, administrator Richard Gaddes (Santa Fe Opera), and James Levine.
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