Concert Hall

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.

THE SOUND of music can be a powerful instrument. Joshua's mighty trumpet reverberated so fiercely it brought down the walls of ancient Jericho. Dramatist William Congreve declared, "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak."Now for the big test: Can music transcend the barriers that separate Baltimore from Montgomery County and bring these two crucial regions of Maryland closer together?Thanks to a commitment this week from Gov. Parris N. Glendening, a sparkling 2,000-seat concert hall will be built on the grounds of Strathmore Hall along Rockville Pike, giving Montgomery countians a long-overdue focal point for top-caliber cultural activities and giving the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra a much-needed second home.

With a new $50 million home planned for Montgomery County, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra may trim its Baltimore performance schedule while building support in a new and affluent community -- steps that BSO administrators say are necessary in the competitive world of classical music.The new 2,000-seat concert hall planned for Rockville will provide the BSO with a venue in which to present a broader menu of summer concerts and a chance to rival the visibility of the National Symphony headquartered nearby in Washington's Kennedy Center.

Baltimore City Councilman John L. Cain lost the battle with a Fells Point rock hall last week, but has fired a new volley in the PTC zoning war: a bill to ban new concert halls from city neighborhoods.Cain, a 1st District Democrat, introduced a bill this week prohibiting such concert halls from moving into industrial neighborhoods.Cain's bill was introduced one week after the city Board of Municipal Zoning Appeals voted 5-0 to allow Damian Bohager, operator of Bohager's Bar and Grill at 515 S. Eden St. in Fells Point, to keep his concert stage despite complaints from neighbors.

SYMPHONIC MUSIC, it turns out, could prove a potent political weapon. It could achieve what mere mortal officeholders have failed to accomplish: a unity of purpose for Maryland's impoverished urban center (Baltimore) and Maryland's most affluent suburban county (Montgomery).What promises to bring the two groups together is a planned $50 million concert hall on the grounds of Strathmore Hall near Rockville, Montgomery's county seat. It would serve as a "second home" for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, giving culturally underserved residents of this Washington suburb a world-class orchestra and musical events year-round.

WITH 11 institutions, the University of Maryland system has constructed literally hundreds of academic buildings and more than a few theaters.But it has never built anything quite like the $107 million Maryland Center for the Performing Arts, for which administrators will break ground Saturday in College Park.Set to open in 1999, this sprawling "campus within a campus" will be a magnet for performing artists of various disciplines, students and professionals. It also will be the third-largest facility at the University of Maryland College Park, behind the McKeldin Library and the Chemistry Building.

It's the splat of clay on hard wooden tables. The tapping of shoes on a floor. The smell of acrylic paint seeping from beneath studio doors and the paintings that hang on every wall.It is Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, housed in a redbrick building nestled between quaint pastel homes in Annapolis. Sculpture and dance, music and painting blossom in classrooms where high school students once studied algebra and biology, English and history."It's a place where the arts come alive," said Ellen O. Moyer, an Annapolis alderwoman who was one of Maryland Hall's founding members.

Winner's recitalBarrie Cooper won this year's William Marbury Violin Competition at the Peabody Institute. Part of her prize is her public recital in Friedberg Concert Hall on Tuesday evening.Her interesting program includes Franck's popular A Major Sonata and Saint-Saens "Introduction and Rondo," as well as music by Korngold and Leclain.The concert hall is at 1 E. Mount Vernon Place. The performance is at 7: 30 p.m. Tuesday. Admission is free. Call (410) 659-8124 for more information.Pub Date: 4/04/96

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.

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.