Symphony adds casual concerts

The Richmond Symphony has added two casual concerts at Richmond CenterStage’s Gottwald Playhouse to its 2012-13 schedule.

The new “rush-hour” concerts, led and hosted by Steven Smith, the orchestra’s music director, will be one-hour Thursday evening previews of Metro Collection programs in October and February. The full programs are staged on Sunday afternoons at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland.

The first rush-hour concert, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 4, will feature music by Kodály, Britten and Haydn, to be performed in full at 3 p.m. Oct. 7 at Randolph-Macon. The second, focusing on Bach’s “Brandenburg” concertos and modern echoes of those works, will be at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 21; the full program will be at 3 p.m. Feb. 24 in Ashland.

Tickets for the rush-hour concerts are $20 for adults, $10 for children.

For more information, visit the Richmond Symphony’s website, www.richmondsymphony.com

Lyric Opera delays season opener

Lyric Opera Virginia, the company launched last year by Peter Mark after his dismissal from Virginia Opera, has put off the opening production of its second season, a “grand opera” staging of Puccini’s “The Girl of the Golden West,” apparently because of financial constraints.

The Puccini, which was to have been presented next month, has been rescheduled for September 2013. LOV’s two other 2012-13 productions, the Broadway musical “Camelot” in January and a “jewel-box” (truncated) version of Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet” in April, are still scheduled for performances in Virginia Beach, Richmond and Newport News.

Interviewed by Teresa Annas of The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk), Joseph Walsh, LOV’s general director, was not specific about the company’s financial condition, but observed that “[i]t’s not easy to start a new arts organization in this economy” . . .

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/08/lyric-opera-postpones-opening-show-due-finances

Review: Richmond Chamber Players

Aug. 19, Bon Air Presbyterian Church

The Hungarian Ernő Dohnányi is one of those composers who fell through the cracks. A romantic whose life and career coincided with the rise of modernism, Dohnányi is typically cast as the
backward-looking contemporary of Bela Bartók and Zoltan Kodály; while they blazed new harmonic and stylistic trails and established a Hungarian musical identity, Dohnányi recycled the Germanic idioms of Brahms and Wagner (and was known for most of his life by the German version of his name, Ernst von Dohnányi).

The Richmond Chamber Players put Dohnányi’s reputation to the test by reviving one of his most substantial works, the Sextet (1935) for piano, strings and winds. Sure enough, the piece echoes earlier times – who would guess that it’s contemporaneous with Berg’s Violin Concerto and Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony? – and speaks in a decidedly Teutonic accent when, as in its first movement, it aspires to “serious” expression and form. A less dated Dohnányi emerges in the piece’s later and lighter movements, especially the percolating finale, which evoke the phrasing and rhythms of folk and popular music.

In this performance, pianist John Walter, violinist Susy Yim, violist Stephen Schmidt, cellist Neal Cary, clarinetist David Niethamer and French horn player James Ferree nicely conveyed the Brahmsian weight of the first movement and the Wagnerian stream-of-melodic-consciousness of the intermezzo. Ferree, solo and in combination with Niethamer and Walter, tonally “bronzed” these sections. Walter and the string players were the animators and colorists of the brief allegro con sentimento third movement and finale. It was a persuasive reading of a not entirely persuasive work.

Late-late-romantics who wrote memorable tunes – Rachmaninoff, Puccini, Sibelius, Richard Strauss, Erich Korngold – thrived. Those less gifted in spinning melody, like Dohnányi, have sunk into obscurity.

This third program of the Chamber Players’ Interlude 2012 concerts opened with two sharply contrasting sets of miniatures: Schumann’s “Three Romances,” Op. 94, in the version for oboe and piano, and Karel Husa’s “Évocations de Slovaquie” for clarinet, viola and piano.

Oboist Gustav Highstein, with discreet but expressive and spontaneous-sounding support from pianist Walter, played up the yearning qualities of the Schumann romances in his phrasing, and their bittersweet character in his lyrical but focused tone.

Clarinetist Niethamer was the leading voice in the Husa set, from the lengthy soliloquy launching “The Mountains” to the almost squealing frenzy of the concluding dance. Violist Schmidt got in some enticingly colorful and crunchy licks in the Husa.

The Richmond Chamber Players’ Interlude 2012 series concludes with a program of Mozart, Copland, Rick Sowash and William Grant Still at 3 p.m. Aug. 26 at Bon Air Presbyterian Church, 9201 W. Huguenot Road. Tickets: $18. Details: (804) 272-7514.

Review: Richmond Chamber Players

Aug. 5, Bon Air Presbyterian Church

The Richmond Chamber Players opened their 2012 Interlude series with a program of rarely performed works from the early 20th century. Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Erwin Schulhoff and Charles M. Loeffler made for an enticing mix of styles and instrumental configurations – but not, apparently, enough enticement to attract a large audience.

Tenor Tracey Welborn, who sang Vaughan Williams’ “Ten Blake Songs” in the Chamber Players’ 2010 series, returned to perform the composer’s earlier, better-known song cycle “On Wenlock Edge.” A 1909 setting of six poems from A.E. Housman’s “A Shropshire Lad,” a somber collection meditating on the dead of the Boer War – and, from our latter-day perspective, anticipating the much greater carnage of World War I – the set vocally veers between almost whispered nostalgia and near-operatic bursts of passion, pain and yearning.

Welborn’s delivery of the Housman verses was spot-on emotionally, and well-communicated through excellent diction and expressive judgment. His contrast of voices was especially telling in “Is my team ploughing.” The accompanying ensemble – pianist John Walter, violinists Susy Yim and Catherine Cary, violist Stephen Schmidt and cellist Neal Cary – overbalanced Welborn in the early going, but fairly quickly adjusted its projection to complement the singer.

The string players opened the program with “Five Pieces for String Quartet” (1923) by Schulhoff, a Czech-German Jew who was one of the more venturesome young composers of Central Europe in the years between the world wars. After the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia, Schulhoff was interned in a concentration camp, where he died in 1942.

His “Five Pieces” is a set of five dance movements evoking the baroque suite but stylistically and expressively couched in the language of moderns such as Stravinsky and Bartók; like much of the art-music of the 1920s, the set is enlivened by the rhythms and accents of jazz and popular dances such as the tango.

It sounds to be challenging fun for string musicians. These musicians met its challenges and appeared to be enjoying themselves – especially Schmidt, whose viola was the rhythmic driver and the source of a lot of Schulhoff’s more interesting voicings and tone colors.

Pianist Walter (artistic director of the ensemble) was joined by violist Schmidt and oboist Gustav Highstein in “Two Rhapsodies” (1901) by Loeffler, an Alsatian violinist (assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony for many years) who became the most prominent American composer influenced by French impressionism.

In these two longish tone poems, inspired by “The Pond” and “The Bagpipe” by the French symbolist poet Maurice Rollinar, the impressions are dark, at times almost claustrophobic, thanks in part to the rather spooky subjects and atmospherics of the poems (read by Walter before the performance), and in part to scoring in which the piano’s lower registers reinforce the dusky hue of the viola.

The form (or formlessness) of the rhapsody, the language of impressionism and the expressive inclinations of composers active around the turn of the 20th century, are an invitation to garrulous, meandering writing. Loeffler’s rhapsodies overwork their materials and moods, and overstay their welcome.

Walter, Schmidt and Highstein played the pieces with concentration and pointed expressiveness. The bagpipe effects produced by the oboe and viola were tangy ear candy.

The Richmond Chamber Players Interlude 2012 series continues, with works by Beethoven, Dvořák and Janáček, at 3 p.m. Aug. 12 at Bon Air Presbyterian Church, 9201 W. Huguenot Road. Tickets: $18. Details: (804) 272-7514.

Dudamel, Bolívar Orchestra online

Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony (No. 3) and “Egmont” Overture and Benjamin Britten’s “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” in a concert at 7:30 p.m. BST (2:30 p.m. EDT)
June 23 at Royal Festival Hall in London.

The Guardian is live-streaming the performance here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/interactive/2012/jun/21/simon-bolivar-symphony-orchestra-live-stream

A June 26 London concert by Dudamel and the Bolívar also can be seen and heard online on the website of the British newspaper.

WNO taps Richmond composer

“The Tao of Mohammed Ali (a Ghost Story)” by the Richmond-based composer D.J. Sparr and librettist Davis Miller will be introduced in June 2013 by the Washington National Opera as part of its American Opera Initiative.

The hour-long work tells the story of a reporter’s first encounter with the great boxer, which proves to be a transformative experience. A fully staged performance will be presented in the Terrace Theater of Washington’s Kennedy Center, with a cast and creative team to be named later. Open workshops will be held during the opera’s process of development.

In November, the American Opera Initiative will stage performances of three 20-minute operas by young composers and librettists. They, as well as Sparr and Miller, will be mentored by Jake Heggie, composer of “Dead Man Walking” and “Moby-Dick;” librettist Mark Campbell, who provided the texts for Ricky Ian Gordon’s Civil War song cycle “Rappahannock County” and Kevin Puts’ opera “Silent Night,” winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for music; and Anne Manson, who conducts the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and has led many performances of contemporary opera.

Conductor Robert Wood of UrbanArias also will work with the composers and librettists during workshops in October. WNO Artistic Advisor Francesca Zambello will mentor directors and designers for the four operas.

Sparr, a former composer-in-residence with the Richmond Symphony’s Education and Community Engagement program, currently is Young American Composer-in-Residence with the California Symphony Orchestra. His wife, Kimberly Sparr, is the Richmond Symphony’s assistant principal violist.

UR Modlin Center 2012-13

A fall Philip Glass Festival, a return engagement by the Takács Quartet for a two-concert cycle of the six Bartók string quartets, the local debut of pianist Simone Dinnerstein in a recital centered on Bach and a homecoming for baritone Matthew Worth highlight the 2012-13 season of the Modlin Arts Center at the University of Richmond.

In its ninth season in residence at UR, the new-music sextet eighth blackbird will perform in the first concert of the Glass festival, sample the works of the highly regarded contemporary composer Nico Muhly, participate in the Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival and a John Cage centennial concert, and give musical demonstrations during UR’s Neumann Lecture on Music, “Music and the Brain,” by Craig Wright of Yale University.

Glass, whose 75th birthday is being celebrated worldwide this year, will speak on “Collaboration and the Creative Process” and perform with violinist Tim Fain. The Glass festival also will feature screenings of “Koyaanisqatsi” and Jean Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast,” for which Glass wrote musical scores, and Scott Hicks’ documentary “Glass: a Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts.”


Worth, a UR alumnus (class of 2000) whose opera career has included two starring roles with Virginia Opera in recent seasons, will return for a recital of American theater and art songs.

Other classical attractions in the coming Modlin season include the Shanghai Quartet with violist Paul Neubauer and a first Richmond performance by France’s celebrated Ebène Quartet.

Artists from the UR Music Department and guests will present two programs marking the centenary of the pioneering American modernist and musical experimenter John Cage, performances of Brahms’ “Liebeslieder Waltzes” and Schubert’s “Die Winterreise,” an all-American program by the UR Symphony Orchestra featuring pianist Charles Staples playing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and an Earth Day outdoor performance of John Luther Adams’ “Inuksuit” (“Stone Marker”) for 99 percussionists.

Jazz, folk and world-music performers booked for 2012-13 include singer Judy Collins, the Portuguese fado singer Ana Moura, a “Retro Roots Tour” starring Virginia bluegrass master Ralph Stanley and his Clinch Mountain Boys, jazz bassist Ben Williams and Sound Effect, a “Spirituals to Funk” show by New Orleans pianist-singer Dr. John and the Blind Boys of Alabama, the pipes and drums of Scotland’s Black Watch 3rd Batallion and a reunion of pop singer-guitarist John Sebastian and folk-jazz mandolinist David Grisman.

A stellar dance lineup will be headlined by the Mark Morris Dance Group, Jessica Lang Dance and the Russian National Ballet in Tchaikovsky’s “The Sleeping Beauty.”

Among the coming season’s touring theatrical attractions are L.A. Theatre Works’ production of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” “Cirque Chinois” by the National Circus of the People’s Republic of China, The Acting Company’s production of John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” and the martial arts ballet of the Shaolin Warriors.

For a brochure detailing the season and ticket-subscription information, call the Modlin Center box office at (804) 289-8980 or visit http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Attractions and single-ticket prices in the 2012-13 Modlin Center season:

Sept. 6 (2 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Live Telecast: Royal National Theatre, London, in “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” ($14).

Sept. 9 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Del McCoury Band with Chatham County Line ($38).

Sept. 10 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Anne O’Byrne, soprano; Jennifer Cable, mezzo-soprano; Reginald Potts, tenor; Christopher Lindbloom, bass; Paul Hanson & Joanne Kong, pianos. Brahms: “Liebeslieder Waltzes” (free).

Sept. 12 (7:30 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – Lecture: Jessica Lang ($15).

Sept. 14 (7:30 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – Jessica Lang Dance ($36).

Sept. 16 (3 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Philip Glass Festival: Film: Scott Hicks’ “Glass: a Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts” ($5).

Sept. 19 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Philip Glass Festival: eighth blackbird. Glass: “Arabesque in memorium,” “Einstein on the Beach” (excerpt), “Mad Rush;” Derek Bermel: “Tied Shifts;” Tom Johnson: “Counting Duets;” Nico Muhly: “Doublespeak;” John Cage: “Living Room Music;” Mayke Nas: “Anyone can do it;” Andy Akiho: “erase” ($20).

Sept. 21 (7:30 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – Red Baraat ($20).

Sept. 22 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Re-broadcast: Royal National Theatre, London, in “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” ($14).

Sept. 23 (3 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Philip Glass Festival. Film: “Koyaanisqatsi” ($5).

Sept. 28 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – UR Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, Schola Cantorum and Women’s Chorale. Family Weekend Concert, program TBA (free).

Oct. 1 (7 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Philip Glass Festival: Film: Jean Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast” ($5).

Oct. 4 (7:30 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – Philip Glass Festival: Lecture by Philip Glass: “Collaboration and the Creative Process” ($34).

Oct. 4-6 (7:30 p.m.), Oct. 7 (2 p.m., Cousins Studio Theater) – UR Theater in “blu” ($15).

Oct. 5 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Philip Glass Festival: Philip Glass, keyboards, and Tim Fain, violin. Works by Glass TBA ($38).

Oct. 11 (2 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Telecast: Royal National Theatre, London, in “The Last of the Haussmans” ($14).

Oct. 12 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Re-broadcast: Royal National Theatre, London, in “The Last of the Haussmans” ($14).

Oct. 17 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – David Esleck Trio. Jazz program TBA (free).

Oct. 18 (7:30 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – National Circus of the People’s Republic of China in “Cirque Chnois” ($36).

Oct. 19 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Mike Birbiglia in “My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend” ($34).

Oct. 21 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Buika ($34).

Oct. 24 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – L.A. Theatre Works in “Pride and Prejudice” ($36).

Oct. 26 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Simone Dinnerstein, piano. Bach: partitas Nos. 1 and 2; Schumann: “Kinderszenen;” Chopin: Nocturne in D flat major, Op. 27, No. 2; Brahms: Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 2; Felsenfeld: “The Cohen Variations” ($36).

Oct. 28 (3 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – UR Schola Cantorum and Women’s Chorale, Jeffrey Riehl & David Pedersen directing. American works TBA (free).

Nov. 2-3 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival: eighth blackbird, other artists TBA. Programs TBA (free).

Nov. 4 (3 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Family Arts Day, featuring eighth blackbird in Saint-Saëns’ “Carnival of the Animals” ($15).

Nov. 5 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Jake Shimabukuro, ukulele ($32).

Nov. 8 (7:30 p.m., Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage) – Shaolin Warriors ($30-$38).

Nov. 11 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – UR Wind Ensemble, David Niethamer directing. Gordon Jacobs: “William Byrd Suite;” other works TBA (free).

Nov. 13 (7:30 p.m., Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage) – “Spirituals to Funk,” starring Dr. John and The Blind Boys of Alabama ($34-$42).

Nov. 15 (2 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Telecast: Royal National Theatre, London, in “Timon of Athens” ($14).

Nov. 15-17 (7:30 p.m.), Nov. 18 (2 p.m., Cousins Studio Theater) – UR Theater in “The Learned Ladies” ($15).

Nov. 16 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Re-broadcast: Royal National Theatre, London, in “Timon of Athens” ($14).

Nov. 18 (3 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Global Sounds, Andrew McGraw & Paul Yoon directing (free).

Nov. 19 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – UR Jazz Ensemble and Contemporary Combos, Mike Davison directing (free).

Nov. 26 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Anna Kijanowska, piano. Works TBA by Szymanowski, Chopin, Lei Liang, others (free).

Nov. 28 (7:30 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – Philadanco ($36).

Nov. 30 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent holiday bluegrass concert ($36).

Dec. 2 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Julian Lage Group. Jazz program TBA ($32).

Dec. 3 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – UR Chamber Ensembles. Program TBA (free).

Dec. 5 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – UR Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Kordzaia conducting. Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 (first movement) (Richuan Hu, piano); Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 (free).

Dec. 6 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – UR Jazz Ensemble, Mike Davison directing, with guest artists TBA. “From the Big Easy to the Big Apple: a Celebration of the Manbo” (free).

Dec. 9 (5 and 8 p.m., Cannon Memorial Chapel) – UR Schola Cantorum and Women’s Chorale, Jeffrey Riehl & David Pedersen directing. 39th Annual Christmas Candlelight Services (free).

Jan. 17 (2 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Telecast: Royal National Theatre, London, in “The Count of Monte Cristo” ($14).

Jan. 17-18 (7:30 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – Mark Morris Dance Group ($40).

Jan. 19 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Re-broadcast: Royal National Theatre, London, in “The Count of Monte Cristo” ($14).

Jan. 20 (1 and 3 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – Light Wire Theatre and Corbian Visual Arts and Dance in “The Ugly Duckling” and “The Tortoise and the Hare” ($15).

Jan. 23 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Paul Hanson, piano. Scriabin: Sonata No. 6; Schoenberg: “Five Pieces,” Op. 23; Ives: “Concord” Sonata (free).

Jan. 24 (7:30 p.m., Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage) – Pipes and Drums of The Black Watch 3rd Batallion with The Royal Regiments of Scotland and The Band of the Scots Guard ($30-$38).

Jan. 27 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Ben Williams and Sound Effect. Jazz program TBA ($20).

Jan. 30 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Paco Peña, guitar, in “Flamenco Viva” ($36).

Feb 3 (3 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Richard Becker, piano. Works TBA by Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, others (free).

Feb 4 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – James Weaver, baritone, and Joanne Kong, piano. Schubert: “Die Winterreise” (free).

Feb. 6 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – “Live at Birdland,” featuring The Birdland Big Band ($32).

Feb. 11 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Matthew Worth, baritone. Works by Barber, Bernstein, Blitzstein, other American composers ($34).

Feb. 13 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – “Retro Roots Tour,” starring Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys with The Seldom Scene and Jim Lauderdale ($36).

Feb. 14-16 (7:30 p.m.), Feb. 17 (2 p.m.) – UR Theater in “Production Studies III Showcase” (free; tickets required).

Feb. 18 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Neumann Lecture on Music: “Music and the Brain” by Craig Wright with eighth blackbird (free).

Feb. 24 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Shanghai Quartet with Paul Neubauer, viola. Brahms: Quintet in G major, Op. 111; other works TBA ($34).

March 1 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Judy Collins ($40).

March 1-2 (7:30 p.m.), March 3 (2 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – University Dancers in 28th annual spring concert ($15).

March 7-8 (7:30 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – Black Grace Dance Company ($40).

March 14-15 (7:30 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – Russian National Ballet in “The Sleeping Beauty” ($40).

March 16 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Danú ($36).

March 20 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – eighth blackbird with composer Nico Muhly. Works by Muhly, others TBA ($20).

March 21 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – “John Cage Centennial Concerts I,” with eighth blackbird, UR music, art, art history, theater, dance department members (free).

March 22-23 (7:30 p.m.), March 24 (2 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – Les 7 Doigts de la Main in “PSY” ($38).

March 24 (3 p.m.), Camp Concert Hall) – Richard Becker & Doris Wylee-Becker, pianos. Works TBA by Schubert, Brahms, Becker (free).

March 27 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – “John Cage Centennial Concerts II.” Paul Hanson, prepared piano. Cage: Sonatas and Interludes (free).

March 30 (7:30 p.m., Rhythm Hall, Richmond CenterStage) – “Salsa Mania,” featuring S.Y.O.T.O.S. and UR Jazz Ensemble and Contemporary Combos, Mike Davison directing ($17).

April 3 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Ana Moura ($34).

April 7 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Takács Quartet. Bartók: quartets Nos. 1, 3 and 5 ($38).

April 8 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Takács Quartet. Bartók: quartets Nos. 2, 4 and 6 ($38).

April 10 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – UR Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Kordzaia conducting. Gershwin: ‘Rhapsody in Blue” (Charles Staples, piano); Bernstein: “Candide” Overture; other American works TBA (free).

April 13 (3 p.m., Jenkins Greek Theater) – Global Sounds, Andrew McGraw & Paul Yoon directing (free).

April 14 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – UR Schola Cantorum and Women’s Chorale, Jeffrey Riehl & David Pedersen directing. Works TBA from the court of Louis XIV (free).

April 15 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – UR Jazz Ensemble and Contemporary Combos, Mike Davison directing (free).

April 17 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – UR Wind Ensemble, David Niethamer directing, with student soloists TBA. Program TBA (free).

April 18-20 (7:30 p.m.), April 20-21 (2 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – “Spring Awakening,” directed by Dorothy Holland ($15).

April 19 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – Ebène Quartet. Program TBA ($34).

April 21 (3 p.m., outdoor location TBA) – Earth Day concert. John Luther Adams: “Inuksuit” (“Stone Marker”) for 99 percussionists (performers TBA) (free).

April 22 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – UR Chamber Ensembles. Program TBA (free).

April 23 (7:30 p.m., Jepson Theatre) – The Acting Company in “Of Mice and Men” ($36).

April 27 (7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall) – John Sebastian and David Grisman ($36).