Quintet

Theatre on the Hill offers `Sister Mary' on summer nights Theatre on the Hill will present Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, the story of a well-intentioned, though slightly misguided nun and her former students, as a late-night summer performance. The Christopher Durang play highlights the life work of a teacher, Sister Mary, whose standards are too high for anyone to achieve except for her prize student, Thomas. When former students, feeling misled by her teachings, appear to confront Sister Mary, a dark, humorous glimpse of the effect of childhood experiences on the adult psyche is seen, culminating in a shocking ending.

Painters provide us with landscapes and seascapes. Leave it to five of the world's finest musicians to throw in a windscape as well. Windscape, which performs Saturday evening in Columbia under the aegis of Howard County's Candlelight Concert Society, is one of the most eminent woodwind quintets, a combination of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn. Created in 1994 by five of New York City's best, the quintet has spent the past decade charming and edifying audiences with thematic programs such as "Beethoven Comes to Vienna," "East Meets West: The Music of Japan and the Impressionists" and "The Fabulous Fifties."

Chamber music Chamber music fans can find some of the most involving performances -- in some of the finest acoustics to be heard in this region -- at Second Presbyterian Church. The annual "Chamber Music by Candlelight" series there, featuring members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, gets under way for another highly promising season with a typically enticing program. Mozart's gentle, exquisite Clarinet Quintet and Brahms' sweepingly passionate F minor Piano Quintet are the main items on the bill.

North American interest in Latin American music seems to be growing apace. Critics from Stuttgart, Germany, to Los Angeles have gushed over the Passion of St. Mark by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov, a viscerally exciting choral work that tells the story of Jesus' last days via samba rhythms, accordion melodies and bits of liberation theology, the better to bare the Latin soul. For choral music, there is the New York-based Americas Vocal Ensemble, a talented group of singers who regularly dish up evocative fare by South American composers such as Carlos Guastavino and Astor Piazzolla (of tango fame)

Americans love to sing in harmony - 28.5 million of them in 250,000 choirs and choruses. And more people participate in choral activity than in any other art form. So finds a national study, the first of its kind, just released by Chorus America, a service organization. The latest local manifestation of this vocal impulse is the Baltimore Masterworks Chorale, founded by members of the former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Sincerity, dedication and determination were easily heard in its debut Saturday night at Catonsville Presbyterian Church; seamless blend, purity of intonation and clarity of articulation were less plentiful.

The night Joseph Stalin died 50 years ago, his enemies, real and imagined, could breathe a little easier. Unfortunately, one of those who would have enjoyed greater peace of mind also died that same night - Sergei Prokofiev, who, like Dmitri Shostakovich, knew all too well about official disfavor during the Stalin era. On Tuesday, the Peabody Institute commemorated the exact semi-centennial of Prokofiev's death with a substantial, exceptionally well-played...

The First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ellicott City will present the fourth performance in its Artist Series Concert Season with the Barry Sames Jazz Quintet at 3 p.m. Sunday. Sames began his career while at Temple University in Philadelphia and has played at venues in South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Japan. He co-founded the five-piece band INSYNK, and brought his music into a church setting when he began composing and arranging jazz vespers in 1990. The Barry Sames Jazz Quintet plays a mixture of Latin-flavored, ethno-fusion improvisatory jazz and sacred music.

The mix -- or collision -- of the Old and New Worlds has generated lots of discussion and debate, lots of art and music. An inquisitive woodwind quintet from France called le concert impromptu is currently exploring some of the aural examples of this cultural clash in programs that range from a transcription of Antonin Dvorak's American Quartet to Frank Zappa's Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus. Among other composers being addressed on the tour by the Paris-based, decade-old group are Bela Bartok, Claude Debussy, Luciano Berio and John Cage.

Pro Musica Rara, noted for its commitment to historically authentic instruments, devotes most of its attention to the 17th and 18th centuries. This weekend, the focus will spread to the 19th with performances of Schumann's rapturous Piano Quintet and some pieces by Chopin using a newly built re-creation of a fortepiano much like the one Schumann and wife Clara owned. Pianist Edmund Battersby will be the featured artist. He will be joined in the Schumann work by Pro Musica regulars Greg Mulligan and Ivan Stefanovic (violins)

At first, no one paid much attention to the group of five when they erupted into song in the middle of Clyde's restaurant in Georgetown. But as the melody grew, diners began lifting their heads from their plates, poking one another and pointing - most with the same quizzical looks on their faces. "We're not used to getting music in here," said Cherie Calvert of Kensington, "just martinis." The colorful members of High Five, the night's impromptu entertainers, aren't used to being together without performing, either, regardless of where they are - they claim it's nearly impossible to refrain.