2005-06 Festival Series schedule announced

With five of six artists and ensembles making their local debuts, the 26th season of the BGSU Festival Series will offer both fresh and traditional talent to northwest Ohio audiences.

The series opens on Sept. 23 with a performance by the River City Brass Band. Since 1981, the band has offered a concert experience with a combination of stunning virtuosity, masterful programming and lighthearted fun. Built upon the longstanding tradition of brass bands popularized in Great Britain and the United States, the 28-member ensemble performs a wide repertoire of American tunes, from Big Band swing and jazz to music from Broadway and Hollywood, and toe-tapping traditional marches.

Cantus will perform on Oct. 20, with one of the freshest and most engaging sounds in choral music today. From art songs to folk songs, from Smokey Robinson to Richard Strauss, the group's brilliant sound, innovative programming and heartfelt singing have garnered the highest praise from critics and audiences alike. The all-male vocal ensemble will present the Louise F. Rees Memorial Concert in the series and conduct a two-day community miniresidency while in Bowling Green.

On Jan. 13, Time for Three will make its first series appearance. The founding members, violinists Zachary De Pue (a native of Bowling Green) and Nicolas Kendall, and double bassist Ranaan Meyer, came together while enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music. What started as a trio of exciting young string musicians who played together for fun in their spare time has evolved into a charismatic ensemble that draws on its reputation for having limitless enthusiasm and no musical boundaries.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo returns to campus on Feb. 2. Dancing the fine line between high art and high camp, "the trocks" have delighted audiences around the world. Parodying classical works from "Swan Lake" to "Giselle," the performers combine a loving knowledge of dance with a wicked comedic sensibility. The humorous sight of male bodies delicately balancing in toe shoes as swans, sylphs and water sprites delights, amuses and serves the company's original purpose: to bring the pleasure of dance to all.

On March 2, the series presents the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, led by Ivor Bolton with solo pianist Stephen Hough, in the Lois M. Nitschke Memorial Concert. Founded in 1841 by the citizens of Salzburg and Mozart's widow, Constanze, the "Cathedral Music Association and Mozarteum" was renamed the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg in 1908. Today, the 91-member ensemble averages 130 performances a year, including the Salzburg Festival and as the opera orchestra of the Salzburg Theater. Hough, known for illuminating the essence of the music he performs, will be featured in Mozart's "Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467."

The series concludes on April 7 with the Kenny Barron Quartet. Throughout his career, Kenny Barron has been the pianist of choice for some of jazz's greatest musicians. Recognized the world over as a master of performance and composition, his ability to mesmerize audiences with his elegant playing, sensitive melodies and infectious rhythms inspired the Los Angeles Times to name him "one of the top jazz pianists in the world."

All Festival Series performances begin at 8 p.m. in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.
Subscription prices for adults are $70 for the main floor/balcony, $100 for main floor and $130 for mezzanine seats. Student subscriptions are $50, $75 and $100. Subscriptions may be charged using MasterCard, Visa or Discover.

Tickets can be ordered by calling the Moore Musical Arts Center box office at 2-8171.