THE BEAT
Fischer's Fab 10
1. Witness the birth of a brand-new arts organization in central Ohio this weekend, as Opera Project Columbus presents its inaugural production, Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 21-22, at the Pontifical College Josephinum.
The one-act opera features local singers, including Heather Spence, Elise DesChamps and Carolyn Redman. Former Col-umbus Symphony Orchestra music director Alessandro Siciliani conducts.
The production will be performed in concert style.
The company was formed to provide an opportunity for singers and audiences in support of live, local opera.
Tickets are $30/$25. Visit www.operaprojectcolumbus.org.
2. The Columbus Symphony Orchestra marks its debut concerts in the Southern Theatre Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 21-23.
The program, themed “String Summit,” features three 20th-century masterworks highlighting orchestral strings, including Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and Barber’s dramatic Adagio for Strings. Completing the program is Bernstein’s Serenade, featuring the outstanding Rachel Barton Pine on violin.
Music director Jean-Marie Zeitouni conducts.
Tickets are $68-$28. Visit www.columbussymphony.com.
3. In a string summit of their own, six-stringers Andy McKee, Stephen Bennett and Antoine Dufour, masters of the fingerpick style of playing acoustic guitar, will joins forces for a Saturday, Oct. 22, concert at the Lincoln Theatre.
The Beat recommends some sort of makeshift facial device for those attending — the better to keep one’s jaw from continually dropping. That said, these three performers are not all about technique. Mastery of their instruments aside, McKee, Bennett and Dufour also offer up a listening experience for those who just want to hear good music and aren’t fretting (yeah, it’s a guitar pun) over the virtuosity.
Tickets are $25. Visit www.capa.com.
4. And continuing the “talented trio” theme, the Jefferson Signature Series presents Trio con brio Copenhagen Sunday, Oct. 23, in the auditorium at the Columbus Museum of Art.
Violinist Soo-jin Wong, cellist Soo-Kyung Wong and pianist Jens Elvekjaer make up the talented young ensemble, which does indeed make its home in Copenhagen. Each of the three members had played duo performances with each of the others before coming together as a trio.
The program includes works by Haydn, Ravel and Tchaikovsky. Tickets are $25/$18/$10. Visit www.Jefferson-Academy.org.
5. You might not have known it, but the heart of rock n’ roll is, in fact, still beating — at least, where ’80s pop-rock powerhouse Huey Lewis and the News is concerned.
The San Francisco-based group always had a bit of a throwback feel to it, and its latest project, Soulsville, is fully on board with that notion. Soulsville is a collection of some of Lewis and mates’ favorite tunes from artists on the legendary Memphis record label Stax — singers like Wilson Pickett, Johnny Taylor and Otis Redding.
They’ve taken the Soulsville show on the road, including a Sunday, Oct. 23, gig at the Midland Theatre in Newark. Tickets are $85-$55. Visit www.midlandtheatre.org.
6. Thrice proves an interesting dichotomy. The California quartet’s music often requires the listener to pay a little extra attention, and yet at the same time, makes the listener a little uncomfortable.
Somewhere in there, Thrice seems to have found a home, making intense heavy rock that never quite settles in.
Touring in support of the brand new Major/Minor, Thrice will play the Newport Music Hall Sunday, Oct. 23.
Tickets are $18/$20. Visit www.promowestlive.com.
7. If you dismiss CAPA’s presentation of Arts Power National Touring Theatre’s Laura Ingalls Wilder as a story that’s been told enough different ways, you’ll miss out on a treat of a live theatrical production with obvious appeal, especially to elementary school-age kids.
This musical for kids and families is the debut of CAPA’s Educational Series. It plays at 10 a.m. and noon Monday, Oct. 24. Tickets are $5. Call (614) 719-6764.
8. Expect a night chock full of sing-along choruses and earnest stories of love and whatnot as Skully’s Music Diner hosts a slate of young, attractive power-pop outfits Tuesday, Oct. 25.
Headlined by Mayday Parade, the bill also includes You Me at Six, We Are in the Crowd and There for Tomorrow.
Tickets are $16/$18. Visit www.skullys.org.
9. See if you can follow.
Acclaimed jazz guitarist Kevin Eubanks is probably best known for his role as bandleader on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. That’s a TV show. So before he joins the Columbus Jazz Orchestra in concerts Oct. 26-30 at the Southern Theatre, the CJO will perform a set of classic TV theme music, including I Love Lucy, M*A*S*H, Sanford and Son and others.
See how it makes perfectly good sense?
Did we mention how awesomely talented Mr. Eubanks is? (Despite his not being related to CJO founder Ray Eubanks — who is also awesome.) Dig his latest CD, Zen Food.
Tickets are $49/$14 ($15/$10 for students with valid ID at the door). Visit www.jazzartsgroup.org.
Additionally, the Columbus Youth Jazz Orchestra will perform one hour prior to the Sunday matinee show.
10. Ahh, the funk/soul R&B of the ’60s and ’70s — horns, harmonies and heat. That’s the spirit in which Sharon and Jones and the Dap-Kings makes its home. This stuff sounds vintage without being derivative, evocative without aping.
So if you were wondering where you were going to get your soul-music fix after Amy Winehouse’s passing, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings play the Newport Music Hall Thursday, Oct. 27.
Tickets are $25/ $27. Visit www.promowestlive.com.
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