Concert Hall

LINCOLN CENTER JAZZ ORCHESTRA WITH WYNTON MARSALIS / / May 2 / / Concert with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis and Odadaa (percussionists and dancers from Ghana) with their leader and drummer Yacub Addy, 8 p.m. at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Concert Hall, 2700 F St. N.W., Washington. $40-$85. 800-444-1324 or kennedy-center .org.

Noted New York artist Alfred Leslie will give a talk titled "Some New Work and Some Old History" at 7:30 tonight at Towson State University's concert hall.Leslie first became known in the 1950s as a member of the "second generation" of abstract expressionists in New York. In the 1960s, he switched to realism, producing monumental-sized portraits such as his own self-portrait -- 9-by-6 feet -- which is in the collection of New York's Whitney Museum. He has also worked in drawing, printmaking, filmmaking and other disciplines, and in 1960 was co-director of a well-known beat generation film called "Pull My Daisy.

Theodora Hanslowe, whose friends call her Teddy, returns Tuesday to her alma mater, Peabody Conservatory of Music, for a preview of her New York recital debut.Hanslowe, an award-winning mezzo, made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1994 as Rosina in "The Barber of Seville."For her Weill Recital Hall program later this spring, she has chosen songs by Henry Purcell, Arnold Schoenberg, Francis Poulenc and George Gershwin, and the second cycle of "Liederkreis" to poems of Joseph Eichendorff by Robert Schumann.

HENRY BRANT, 94 Avant-garde composer Henry Brant, an avant-garde composer whose works placed musicians throughout a concert hall - and sometimes throughout an entire city - died Saturday at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif. Over a career spanning half a century, Mr. Brant created exuberant works that took into account the acoustics of a performance space and musical styles from folk to classical.

The Ninth International Cello Festival, sponsored by Towson State University and the International Friends of Cello Association, begins today and will feature concerts, classes and lectures from some of the world's top cellists.Hungarian-born cellist Uri Vardi of Israel opens the festival with a concert at 8:15 p.m. in TSU's Fine Arts Concert Hall. The concert will feature works by Bach, Hindemith, Debussy, Avni and Beethoven. Mr. Vardi will give a master class tomorrow from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Fine Arts Room 392.All cellists are invited to participate in the festival by performing with the university's Cello Ensemble, under the direction of festival director Cecylia Barczyk, in the final concert March 19.Those interested in performing should attend "Cellomania," the group rehearsals for the concert.

In "Learning to live with the ringing" (Jan. 22), Tim Smith quotes Baltimore Symphony Orchestra director Marin Alsop as saying, "No one does these things [allows cell phones to ring during performances] intentionally. ... We have to try to be kind and humane. " Maestra Alsop is too kind. No one has to bring a cell phone into a concert hall or theater. Leave them home or in the glove compartment. Henry Cohen, Baltimore

On October 12, 2005, DR. MILDRED S. Mc KINNEY. Services will be held on Friday, October 21, 2005 at the Murphy Fine Arts Center, Gilliam Concert Hall (on the campus of Morgan State Univ.). 3 P.M., family hour. 3:30 P.M., Delta Sigma Theta, Omega Omega Ceremony. 4 P.M., memorial service. In lieu of flowers, the family request that donations be made to the Dr. Mildred S. Mc Kinney Endowed Scholarship Fund (at the Morgan State Univ. Foundation), Room 120, Truth Hall, 1700 E. Coldspring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251.

Steeltown, the Dundalk entertainment complex that was shuttered after bankruptcy proceedings earlier this year, has reopened with new management, new features and a new approach to the Baltimore music market."

A. Robert Kaufman arrived at Baltimore's Meyerhoff Symphony Hall Tuesday night to be honored for his decades-long battle for civil rights. But he left in handcuffs, charged with staging an illegal protest against a contributor to the concert hall who runs a company accused of discrimination.Kaufman, a 67-year-old Baltimorean who is running for mayor in this year's election, was attending the Meyerhoff's annual Martin Luther King Jr. concert as a guest of the concert hall. He was on a list to receive a certificate recognizing his contributions to the community as a civil rights activist with the NAACP, the Baltimore Rainbow Coalition, the City Wide Coalition and other organizations.

After two decades of dreaming and scouting for funds, "a virtual groundbreaking" for the $88.9 million, 2,000-seat Strathmore Hall Music Center in North Bethesda was held yesterday. Rain prevented an actual shoveling of earth on the pastoral setting on Rockville Pike just north of the Capital Beltway in Montgomery County. Instead, government officials, staffers, supporters and representatives of music organizations eager to use the new venue gamely crammed into Strathmore Hall, the 1902 former mansion, convent and school that currently houses exhibits, concerts and educational programs.