Perform

The contract negotiations between the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and its musicians have ended on the right note - with a two-year agreement that upholds the artistic quality and integrity of the orchestra while allowing management to live within its means and rebuild its fundraising network. The musicians made concessions - they will get no raise in the first year of the contract and have given up two weeks of pay as well. But in exchange, management retained a full-season schedule - a critical measure of the orchestra's national standing - and it agreed to restore positions and salary increases that musicians sacrificed in the past.

Consider this our encore applause for Macklemore's performance at Preakness. This weekend, the self-made Seattle rapper took the stage at the Triple Crown's second jewel and delivered a set that included his two most recognizable songs -- "Thrift Shop" and "Can't Hold Us" -- but also the song "Same Love," in which he stands up for same-sex marriage and gay rights in an unabashedly forward way. Here's a link to the song's video on YouTube....

This year's Maryland State Fair has become the go-to event of the summer with just two words: Justin Bieber. The teen pop music sensation will perform at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium on Sept. 5, as part of the new tour dates recently added to his "Justin Bieber My World 2.0" tour. Also scheduled to perform at this year's fair are country music star Gretchen Wilson on Aug. 27 and former Poison frontman Bret Michaels on Sept. 1. All concerts start at 7 p.m., and tickets go on sale June 12. The fair runs Aug. 27 to Sept.

Albert Hall, a professional opera singer and choirmaster who began his singing career during his student days at City College, died May 13 from colon cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The Towson resident was 89. The son of a plumber and a homemaker, Albert Hall was born in Baltimore and raised on Rose Street. It was while he was attending City College in the late 1930s that he came to the attention of Blanche F. Bowlsbey, the legendary music teacher whom her students fondly called "Mrs.

There is so much going on in Western Howard County this weekend, so you won't have to go far to entertain your valentine.Students in the Glenwood Drama Learning Center supported by the Glenwood PTSA will perform Rogers and Hammerstein's "Carousel" on Saturday.The cast is led by Jenna Bythrow and Amanda Strandquist as Julie; Amanda Garrett and Michelle Barry as Carrie; Trey Hunt and Gabriel Martinez as Billy; Effie Harrison and Samantha Johnston as Jigger, and Gene Granger as Enoch Snow.Also performing are Ali Privitera and Melanie Dubin as Mrs. Mullins, Kelly Frey and Katie Frederick as Aunt Nettie; Monica D'Angelo and Katy Vance as Louise; and Andrea Gonzales and Jackie Burke as Star Keeper.

Candlelight Concerts will present the Paris Piano Trio at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Smith Theatre at Howard Community College. The trio, known in Europe as "Les Musiciens," will perform pieces by Haydn, Chausson and Schubert. Although violinist Regis Pasquier, cellist Roland Pidoux and pianist Jean-Claude Pennetier are renowned soloists, they connected over their common love of chamber music while students at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris. Each graduated from the conservatory with top honors and became a professor there.

O'Malley's March, the band featuring Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, is one of 25 musical groups performing at the annual Towsontown Spring Festival this weekend. The festival, sponsored by the Towson Business Association, will be held on the streets surrounding the Washington Avenue courthouse in downtown Towson from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. tomorrow and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday "We've all been cooped up all winter, and this will be a great time to get out and see your neighbors. It's a wonderful activity for the whole community," said Suzan Doordan, executive director of the Towson Business Association.

More than 100 dance students at Glen Burnie High School will take to the school stage at 7 p.m. today in a program that ranges nTCfrom ballet, tap and jazz to '50s and Caribbean dance styles.The dancers are under the direction of teacher Diane Rosso.Highlights will include solo performances by five of Rosso's senior students: Kristen King, Wendy Robinson, Amber Hughes, Brianne Burkhead and Christine DeGuzman.A group of school sports stars will perform two dances, "Cool" from "West Side Story" and a perennial audience favorite, Rosso's "Dances for the Athlete."

HAMMOND HIGH drama teacher Mary Jane Sasser and her talented students are putting on "The Crucible" as their fall production.It promises to be a moving production. The play is a wrenching examination of the Salem witch trials of the 1600s. Those lucky enough to get the coveted on-stage seating will feel as if they are there in Salem.The students are down to the final week before the performance. While the technical crew and the actors put the final polish on their performances, it's a good time to note that without the efforts of the large and varied crews, this and other plays would not be as compelling or successful.

The Kwahadi Indian Dancers of Amarillo, Texas, will perform at 7:30 p.m. July 25 at Glen Burnie High School, 7550 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd. The dance troupe, with a cast of more than 40 Boy Scouts ages 11 to 18, is known for its interpretations of Native American art and culture. The troupe will perform the shield dance, which highlights the importance of teachings from elders, the flag or soldier-honoring dance, which salutes those who have preserved freedom, and the belt dance, honoring the families.

Handlers used special massage techniques to soothe Goldencents' muscular frame and sudsy sponges to stimulate the shine and bloom on the Preakness competitor's chocolate-colored coat - while a sizable entourage seemed transfixed. Outside the Pimlico stables, a green oasis tucked inside urban Northwest Baltimore, a crowd had gathered around Goldencents. Photographers took pictures. A cluster of men, women and children from a sunrise tour stopped to stare. Security guards looked on. The list of helpers, assistants and advisers for Goldencents and the other Preakness all-stars is longer than Stacy Keibler's prep team on Oscar night - grooms, exercise riders, hot walkers, trainers, jockeys, veterinarians, stall muckers, chiropractors, ultrasound technicians and nutritionists.

In 2010, a blond-haired girl with a sweet smile stood before the "America's Got Talent" studio audience and millions of TV viewers. The 10-year-old proceeded to sing about asking her daddy to grant her request. So far, so normal. But if the words had an appropriately childlike nature, the music was anything but juvenile - it was the aria "O mio babbino caro" from Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi," ordinarily sung by sopranos who have at the very least reached their late teens, and who have gone through years of operatic training.

In the midst of the California heat wave, last night's episode of 'The Voice' was all about hot performances…literally. The fate of the competitors was left in the hands of the viewers, while the fate of the live audience, coaches and performers, all left with no a/c, rested in the hands of the people who spent the beginning of the live show fixing it. It made for good TV, as we watched last night to see who would bring the heat, and if the power...

Violinist Ellen Pendleton Troyer has struggled for years with the constraints of wearing evening attire for physical, sometimes-strenuous performances. And she considers herself luckier than her male counterparts, who have a stricter dress code of bow ties and evening jackets adorned with tails. "Our issues with the dress stem from a functionality standpoint," said Troyer, who plays first violin with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. "What we do is quite physical. There is a lot of sweating under the hot lights.

A new computing facility at the National Security Agency will help the country better defend against cyber attacks , agency officials and members of Congress said Monday. The High Performance Computing Center-2 will assist in "front-line defense against immediate threats" in cyberspace, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency and head of U.S. Cyber Command, said during a groundbreaking ceremony Monday at Fort Meade. The 600,000-square-foot facility, similar in function to an existing computer center, is scheduled to open in 2016.

Legg Mason Inc.'s compensation committee awarded CEO Joseph A. Sullivan options to purchase a half million shares of the company stock at $31.46 per share, the Baltimore-based money manager announced in a regulatory filing. The company said the options recognize Sullivan's promotion to CEO in February and are designed to be an incentive to build Legg's business. The options vest in 25 percent parcels. The first quarter will vest in May 2015, meaning Sullivan can purchase them after that date.

After more than a year of controversy, school officials yesterday decided folk singer Barry Louis Polisar is free once again to offer county students such sage advice as "Don't Stick Your Finger Up Your Nose."Under an agreement between Polisar and the Board of Education signed yesterday, parent-teacher associations and principals are freeto hire the performer for concerts and workshops. His books will remain on school library shelves."He was negotiating an agreement that I felt comfortable with," said Dennis Younger, the school system's executive director of curriculum.

Baltimore's most famous writer of the macabre -- Edgar Allan Poe -- died more than 147 years ago, but this weekend, a local actor who specializes in dramatizing his short stories is bringing him back to life.Wearing a brown, wavy wig and a green cravat, David Keltz -- partly into his Poe costume -- said yesterday he expects people as far away as France and Japan to come see him today as he performs his one-man show: "A Visit to the Haunted Palace," the finale of a weekendlong Poe birthday celebration.

Former Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold is doing his court-ordered community service hours at Anne Arundel County Food & Resource Bank in Crownsville, following his release from jail on convictions for misconduct in office. "He works in the front office for us," food bank Executive Director Bruce Michalec confirmed. He said he did not want to discuss specifics, but that Leopold completed a week of community service and is expected to be there 40 hours a week for his 400 hours of community service.

Maryland is moving to toughen regulations on the fast-growing medspa industry - a move designed to narrow a "loophole" and prevent deaths such as one last year following a liposuction treatment at a Timonium facility. Regulations being discussed by state officials would bar plastic surgeons from performing liposuction and other procedures in medspas and medical offices unless the facilities are inspected by the government or third-party accrediting bodies, Maryland Secretary of Health Joshua Sharfstein said.