The gulf between conservatory training and the professional music world can be sizable and daunting. The National Orchestral Institute, a project of the University of Maryland School of Music, helps bridge that gulf. Students and recent grads receive four weeks of intensive workshops with players from major orchestras and give several public concerts.
Over its 21 years, the NOI's track record has been validated by the roster of alumni now holding positions in such ensembles as the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony.
The 2009 institute, held at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park, will include four free chamber music concerts (faculty members will be featured in the first one at 8 p.m. Thursday), and a conductor-less chamber orchestra program (8 p.m. Saturday) with works by Mozart, Strauss, Bartok and Carter.
The NOI Philharmonic will give three concerts. Michael Sterns conducts a program of Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Ravel and Revueltas (June 13); Eri Klas leads the orchestra in Brahms, Strauss and Gershwin (June 20); and James Ross conducts Janacek, Ades and Tchaikovsky (June 27).
For more information, call 301-405-2787 or go to claricesmithcenter.umd.edu.
'Glass Menagerie'
In 1944, The Glass Menagerie sent Tennessee Williams to the forefront of American playwrights. With its indelible characters - the past-obsessed Amanda, her glass animal-collecting daughter Laura and bored son Tom, and an enticing "gentleman caller" - the play enjoyed success on Broadway and in film.
Last weekend, the Olney Theatre opened a production of The Glass Menagerie directed by the head of the company, Jim Petosa. The cast includes Paula Langton, Michael Kaye, Briel Banks and Jeffries Thaiss. Performances continue through July 5. For more information, call 301-924-3400 or go to olneytheatre.org.
Changes at Walters
A portion of the Walters Art Museum's 19th-century collection will be closed June 15 to July 10 to allow for refurbishing and a new installation. Some items in this fourth-floor area will be taken down and readied for a tour, Masterpieces from the Walters Art Museum, that will be seen in Santa Barbara, Calif., Austin, Tex., and Sarasota, Fla., during 2010 and 2011.
On July 11, the space will reopen with a display of holdings from the Walters, including works by the Barbizon school and several 19th-century Spanish pieces by the likes of Raimundo de Madrazo, Jos? Villegas Cordero and Jos? Jim?nez Aranda.
For more information, call 410-547-9000 or go to thewalters.org.
Mercadante opera
This turns out to be opera-in-concert week in the region. On Sunday evening, Washington Concert Opera closed its season with quite a rarity, Saverio Mercadante's Il Giuramento from 1837, at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium. And on Tuesday evening, Washington National Opera brings a concert version of Puccini's Turandot to Baltimore's Lyric Opera House.
Performing theatrical works without their theatricality has obvious drawbacks, but, whether the piece in question is well-known or obscure, there's something to be said for moving the music to center stage. When an opera has as messy a plot as Il Giuramento, the concert format may even be the preferable way to go.
The story (more or less the same one that inspired Ponchielli's La Gioconda 40 years later) revolves around Elaisa, who falls for Viscardo, who loves Bianca, who is unhappily married to Manfredo. It ends with an unnecessary death and some hard lessons learned.
Mercadante is historically important as a kind of bridge between the Rossini-Donizetti-Bellini triumvirate and the mighty Verdi, and Il Giuramento is generally hailed as his masterpiece. It certainly abounds in tunefulness and vivid orchestration. If there is also a workmanlike quality to some passages, the craftsmanship is never in doubt. At its best - an enchanting soprano/mezzo duet, for example - the music really soars.
Washington Concert Opera artistic director Antony Walker might have taken a little more time with that music (he seems to prefer keeping everything on a tight rhythmic leash), but the conductor's drive and intensity paid off.
Soprano Elizabeth Futral (Elaisa) offered gleaming tone and ardent phrasing. Krisztina Szabo (Bianca) used her light mezzo with stylistic flair. Donnie Ray Albert's rich baritone and communicative power filled out Manfredo's music handsomely. James Valenti (Viscardo) encountered some strain, but shaped his lines eloquently. For the most part, chorus and orchestra came through in firm shape.
It's disappointing to note that next season's WCO lineup lists standard fare - Gounod's Faust and Rossini's La Cenerentola - rather than more discoveries like Il Giuramento. The music-making, though, is bound to be as dynamic as ever.
For more information on the 2009-2010 season, call 202-364-5826 or go to concertopera.org.
Kashmir in focus
Six photographers based in the United Arab Emirates, including Baltimore native Carl L.C. Abrams, spent time in Kashmir focusing their cameras on the Himalayan country and its people. The resulting exhibit, Kashmir Through the Lens, receives its first U.S. showing at the Creative Alliance Gallery, where it will run from Wednesday through June 27.
In conjunction with the exhibit, Abrams and his colleagues - Henry D'Silva, Shahid Hashmi, Abdul Nasser, Sujin Balakumaran - will lead photography workshops for Baltimore students and visit local schools.
Proceeds from the exhibit will benefit UNICEF. For more information, call 410-276-1651 or go to creativealliance.org.
