Baltimore Chamber Orchestra

Anyone who thinks drug-induced musical dreams are exclusive to 1960s rock-'n'-rollers doesn't know classical music very well.For sitting at the core of the symphonic repertoire is Hector Berlioz's immensely colorful "Symphonie Fantastique," the five-movement tale of a fixated lover and his opium-inspired dream gone bad.With its hair-raising "March to the Scaffold" and a phantasmagoric "Witches Sabbath" punctuated by the sounds of demons, sorcerers and...

Guitarist Sharon Isbin has been famous so long it comes as something of a shock to realize she's only 41. But that's what happens when you become famous at the precocious age of 17. When fame often seems to be limited to a matter of minutes, a quarter-century of it is nearly an eternity.But Isbin has not merely achieved fame, she's earned the love of those hard-to-please creatures known as composers. They love her because she is among the few virtuosos who is as interested in new music as the classics.

With the exception of Yo-Yo Ma and less than a handful of others, Baltimore concertgoers do not get to hear many visiting cellists. That makes tomorrow evening's concert by the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and music director Anne Harrigan all the more intriguing.The concert's guest soloist will be the young American cellist Wendy Warner, who will perform Saint-Saens' A Minor Concerto.Warner first made headlines in the music business in 1990 when the then 18-year-old cellist won first prize in Paris at the International Rostropovich Competition.

The Baltimore Chamber Orchestra ended its season Wednesday with a theatrical flourish, playing to a full house at Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium. The program featured two actors and musical works with a dramatic connection.Of course, that means Shakespeare, who has inspired more music than any other playwright. As an opener, the actors -- Wendy Salkind and Michael A. Stebbins of the Maryland Stage Company -- performed three of the sonnets: No. 18, the very familiar "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

The Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and its music director, Anne Harrigan, took what sounded like a giant step last night in their first concert of the season in Kraushaar Auditorium.The single most impressive thing on the program was a performance of Shostakovich's Piano No. 1 for piano, trumpet and strings that featured Valentina Lisitsa, a 26-year-old pianist from Kiev, who is now living in Miami Beach.To put it simply, Lisitsa is a gigantic talent. She has infallible TC fingers, imagination and a control of dynamics -- from the softest to the loudest sounds -- little short of electrifying.

When most cellists name their favorite cello-and-orchestra work, they usually don't mention the demonstrative, audience-pleasing concerto by Antonin Dvorak, but the inward-looking one of Robert Schumann. This piece requires an interpreter who can draw from a deep well of fantasy and who is fearless emotionally.To those familiar with her playing, Gita Roche seems like a good bet to match Schumann's challenges. The popular young cellist will perform the work with conductor Ann Harrigan and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra on Wednesday.

A university professor, a college student and a free-lance script reader for Center Stage are the top winners in Artscape's 1995 Literary Arts Awards.Anne Marie Drew, associate professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy, won the short story award for "The Good Witch's Dress." Towson resident Alicia Rabins, a student at Barnard College, won the poetry award for her collection "The Girl Who Wants to Be a Landscape." Baltimorean Stanley Krohmer, who received his master's degree in drama from Johns Hopkins University last year, won the one-act play-writing award for "Premonition."

The Walters Art Gallery will present the only East Coast showing of "Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven," a major exhibition of post-impressionist paintings.The show, which features more than 100 works of art from a private European collection, will run at the Walters from Nov. 20 to Jan. 7. It is the most comprehensive show of Pont-Aven art ever to visit the United States.This style of painting was developed by Paul Gauguin and other late-19th-century artists who were dissatisfied with the limitations of impressionism.

Last week Stephen Prutsman brought a Friedberg Hall audience to its feet in cheers with a triumphant performance in what may be the most technically fearsome piano concerto in the repertory, Prokofiev's Concerto No. 2. Tonight in Kraushaar Auditorium with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and conductor Anne Harrigan, however, the young pianist will perform what he calls a "genuinely scary piece," Mozart's Concerto No. 15.What? The Mozart, which was composed for the fortepiano, the modern piano's fragile ancestor, more difficult than the Prokofiev, with percussive demands that chal-lenge to the utmost the modern instrument's cast-iron frame and steel strings?

Women in MusicIt was encouraging to read James Roos' nationally syndicated May 20 article, "Women have a hand in classical music,"Women are finally beginning to be more widely recognized for their accomplishments as composers and conductors of classical music. As a point of interest, the two conductors pictured in the article are known to Baltimore audiences.Catherine Comet was formerly the associate conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Kate Tamarkin was the conductor of the Women Composers Orchestra during its 1988-1989 season.

The recession - or is it the Great Depression II? - continues to take its toll on the local arts scene. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra laid off five of its 67 administrative employees and changed one full-time position to part-time yesterday in an effort to reduce expenditures. Those moves, along with a decision not to fill certain open staff positions, will save the BSO about $500,000. "We can see that the economic downturn is going to be a lot more prolonged than we had expected," president/CEO Paul Meecham said.

After 58 years and more than 200 productions, the Baltimore Opera Company will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-law protection today amid dwindling ticket sales and contributions. The remaining two productions of the 2008-2009 season, Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Gershwin's Porgy and Bess have been canceled. Ticket-holders will not receive refunds. Singers engaged for next season are being released from their contracts, but the company plans to continue fundraising in an effort to resume productions in the future.

Music lovers have a lot to be grateful for in this area: An orchestra of international standing, along with several smaller ensembles, all producing remarkably effective performances on a regular basis. A fine, full-sized opera company, along with some of more modest dimensions, all trying to serve the vocal art with distinction. Excellent choral and chamber groups. A vibrant, history-rich conservatory. And much more. But, on this Thanksgiving Day, the gratitude mingles with trepidation.

As the Baltimore Opera Company rehearsed last month for the production of Bellini's Norma , it faced a serious problem: Its available cash had dried up. With rumors spreading about the company folding, a board member ensured that the show would open - by making a personal guarantee to cover the cast's salaries. Norma went on as scheduled - the final performance is today - but the remainder of this season, and beyond, depends on the company's making a major fiscal turnaround. Already this year, ticket sales fell $200,000 short of the goal for Verdi's Aida, normally a very popular work at the box office.

Decades ago, in the dark ages of the cassette tape, the question was: Is it live or is it Memorex? In the future, the question might be: Is it live or is it Fauxharmonic? The Baltimore Chamber Orchestra's next program will let audiences hear the premiere of a new work for strings performed both by live musicians and a digitally created ensemble. The wryly named Fauxharmonic Orchestra uses digital versions of musical notes to replicate conventional instruments, a technology that may have applications in the future for bringing nearly real orchestral music to out-of-the-way places.

POP MUSIC Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt The lived-in, rustic sounds of Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt are an ideal complement to the crisp fall weather. The show pairs the acclaimed artists, who will be backed by all-acoustic instrumentation. See them at 8 p.m. Sunday at Warner Theatre, 13th Street between E and F streets Northwest, Washington. Tickets are $69.50 and are available through Ticketmaster by calling 410-547-7328 or going to ticketmaster.com. Rashod D. Ollison FILM 'Happy-Go-Lucky' Be the first on your block to see one of the best movies of the year: Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, a portrait of an incorrigible optimist who brings the same cheerful inventiveness to the tykes she teaches in primary school and to a dour, troubled driving instructor (with, of course, opposite results)

Next Sunday afternoon, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra opens its 26th season under the baton of music director Markand Thakar with a concert at Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium. The program, in collaboration with the Handel Choir of Baltimore, includes favorites by Mozart, Vaughan Williams and Faure. Thakar, who also conducts the symphony orchestra and opera in Duluth, Minn., lives with his wife Victoria, professor of viola at the Peabody Conservatory, and son Oliver, in Owings Mills.

Free Fall Baltimore, the annual collection of no-charge arts and entertainment, will return for a third go-round in October, city officials said yesterday. The celebration includes more than 300 free events scattered throughout the month, at more than 70 museums and cultural institutions. Participants range from large museums to tiny theater companies and arts collectives. They include Center Stage, the Baltimore Public Works Museum, the Baltimore Improv Group, the Maryland Film Festival, the Baltimore Women's Film Festival, the Theatre Project, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and the Baltimore Streetcar Museum.

Jonathan Leshnoff has been the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra's composer-in-residence for two years, but his works have been featured every season since 2005. His trombone concerto will be performed in October, and he will have a CD coming out in February, featuring his violin concerto. "With an orchestra, you have an infinite amount of colors to play with," said Leshnoff. "It's like being a kid in a toy store. It's an infinite amount of fun and exhilaration." "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury I find it curious how this novel, written in the 1950s, speaks so directly to me today.

FESTIVALS GET WIFF IT / / 10 a.m.-6 p.m. today. Reedbird Park, 201 Reedbird Ave. Free. 410-962-7070 or getwiffit.com. ....................... Get your fill of Wiffle ball at this tournament and fun fest, which features pro demonstrations, vendors, food and drinks for sale, live music, face painting, games, contests and more. Watch as high school, college, adult and professional teams compete to win their division tournament games. You can also listen to local performers Jade Fox, Pasadena and Pikesvillain and test your luck with a variety of interactive games.