To complement Tacoma Art Museum’s current exhibition of Mexican folk art, Trío Lucero del Norte will play son huasteco and other traditional dances from the Huasteca region of Mexico this Sunday afternoon. Ticket price includes gallery admission. 2 p.m. Jan. 7. $15/$10 members/$5 students. Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. 253-272-4258, www.tacomaartmuseum.org
Saxophonist Patrick Lamb at Jazz LIVE at Marine View
The Jazz LIVE at Marine View concert this month features saxophonist Patrick Lamb, whose music fuses funk, soul, R&B and jazz. He’ll be backed by a …
Violist Heather Bentley, soloist with the Northwest Sinfonietta. Courtesy photo.
Northwest Sinfonietta contrasts Mozart and Salieri
The Northwest Sinfonietta chamber orchestra debunks the legend of infamous classical-era rivals Mozart and Salieri in a concert featuring both composers this weekend, with soloists Adam LaMotte on violin and Heather Bentley on viola. Also on the program: Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings.” 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11 (Seattle), 12 (Tacoma) and 2 p.m. Nov. 13 (Puyallup.) $19-$49/$10 student rush. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle; Rialto Theater, 310 S. 9th St., Tacoma; Pioneer Park Pavilion, 330 S. Meridian Ave., Puyallup. 888-356-6040, www.northwestsinfonietta.org
String quartet concert at UPS
Maria Sampen and Tim Christie (violin), Joyce Ramée (viola) and David Requiro (cello) will play string quartets by Beethoven, Copland and Brahms tonight as part of the University of Puget Sound’s Jacobsen concert series. 7:30 p.m. tonight. $12.50/$8.50/free for UPS students. Schneebeck Concert Hall, UPS, 1500 N. Union Ave., Tacoma. 253-879-3419, ups.universitytickets.com, www.pugetsound.edu
Take the Prairie Line tour for art
The City of Tacoma is busy planning installation art for the proposed $5.83 million Prairie Line Trail downtown, a 2013 rails-to-trails project which will run along the former railway line that connected Tacoma to the rest of America in the 19th century. Find out what’ll be there (and see some temporary art) this Saturday on a free tour. 2 p.m. Nov. 12. Free. Begins Tollefson Plaza, 1700 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. www.cityoftacoma.org
William Doppman plays for Second City series
The next Second City Chamber Series concert features organization co-founder and pianist William Doppman in recital, playing Schubert. 4 p.m. Nov. 13. $20/$10. First Lutheran Church, 524 S. I St., Tacoma. 253-572-TUNE, www.scchamberseries.org Read more »
It’s a sad day in Tacoma when a world-class string quartet performs terrific music worth six standing ovations to an audience of 63. That, unfortunately, was the case last Friday night for the opening of the Second City Chamber Series season – a riveting performance of Transylvania-themed music by the Carpe Diem quartet (plus local bassist Chris Burns) in the Annie Wright School Great Hall, only half-full.
With the kind of incredibly unity of thought, emotion and sound that only a top-notch chamber group can attain, the nationally-based Carpe Diem (replacing the previously-booked Odeon) spent the night on the classical end of their indie-rock-classical reputation to whirl their way through a program of Eastern European music. Themed around Transylvania and “Castelul Dracul,” the evening went from the romantic Gypsy virtuosity of Grigoras Dinicu and Vittorio Monti to the Brahmsian Ernö Dohnányi and folk-modernist Zoltán Kodály, right up to the campy Hollywood humor of American composer Jon Deak. From start to finish, the playing was impeccable. Read more »
Savannah Fuentes (front) and Saray Munoz, flamenco artists. Courtesy photo.
TOTS hosts visiting flamenco artists
Seattle flamenco dancer Savannah Fuentes is joined by Spanish singer Saray Munoz and gypsy guitarist Pedro Cortes in an all-ages show “3 Glorias Flamenco en Vivo” at Theater on the Square tomorrow. 8 p.m. Oct. 29. $25/$15/$12. TOTS, 915 Broadway, Tacoma. 253-591-5894,www.broadwaycenter.org
“As You Like It” at University of Puget Sound
Shakespeare’s romantic comedy “As You Like It” opens in a student production at University of Puget Sound tonight. The play with the famous quote ‘All the world’s a stage,’ “As You Like It” tells the story of banished lovers, family conflicts and unrequited love in a tangle of characters. 7:30 p.m. tonight, Oct. 29, Nov. 4 and 5; 4 p.m. Nov. 3 and 2 p.m. Nov. 5. $11/ $7 seniors, military personnel, students, and Puget Sound students, faculty, and staff. Norton Clapp Theater, Jones Hall, UPS, 1500 N. Warner St., Tacoma. 253.879.3419, ups.universitytickets.com
Hear Dracula’s chamber music at Annie Wright
The Second City Chamber Series presents “Castelul Dracul,” an evening of Transylvania-themed chamber music including Jon Deak’s “Lucy and the Count” (with the double-bass as Dracula), and works by Enescu and Bartók. 7:30 p.m. tonight. $32/$29/$10/children free. Great Hall, Annie Wright school, 827 N. Tacoma Ave., Tacoma. 253-572-TUNE, www.scchamberseries.org
Toy Boat Theatre reads Nick Stokes’ new play “Dusk”
A work by local playwright Nick Stokes gets a reading this weekend at Toy Boat Theatre. “Dusk” explores the effects of isolation from normal life on a husband and wife and their fight for survival. 7 p.m. Oct. 30, talkback afterward. Free. Toy Boat Theatre, 1314 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma. www.toyboattheatre.com
Last Thursday’s concert at Lakewold Gardens for the Second City Chamber Series was everything the classical era aspired to be: elegant, serene, harmonious and just a touch witty, thanks to a quartet of local string players.
Violinist Blayne Barnes (recently returned to Seattle from Minnesota) and Tacoma native/Minnesota cellist Diane Tremaine Kogle joined Tacomans Janis Upshall on violin and Mary Manning on viola to play music of Esterháza, the Austro-Hungarian court where Franz Joseph Haydn produced the bulk of his compositions. Like the Monticello-themed concert last month, the idea of pairing a beautiful classical music location with Lakewold’s …
Following on from the recently published Downtown On the Go Walk Tacoma maps, local poet Luke Smiraldo will lead a poetry walk around the brewery district, stopping at various locations to allow participants to write about their surroundings and take in the urban landscape. Journals, water and snacks supplied. Noon today. Free. Starts at University of Washington staircase, 1900 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. RSVP by July 18 to 253-682-1739 or dotg@tacomachamber.org
Shakov and Wooten at Sandpiper
Tacoma husband and wife team Valdimir Shakov and Chris Wooten show individual work at Sandpiper: Shakov’s silver gelatin photographs of shimmer-draped …
Tacoma’s Second City Chamber Series is a hidden gem – and even more so the two annual concerts in the Lakewold Gardens’ Wagner House. Where else around here can you hear fine chamber music so close you can see the performers breathe, and spend the intermission enjoying beautiful gardens or a glass of wine under an arbored terrace? Last week’s SCCS concert was a perfect fusion of the elegance of baroque music in a historic house and the coziness that comes from an audience of 50, most of whom know each other and the performers.
Playing on past successes, the Northwest Sinfonietta is revisiting Gypsy jazz in a fusion concert this weekend that features a new Django Reinhardt-inspired composition by director Christophe Chagnard for three jazz guitars and orchestra. Also on the program is Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto no. 1 with Mark Salman and Mahler’s 5th symphony Adagietto. 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12 (Seattle) and 13 (Tacoma), 2 p.m. Nov. 14 (Puyallup.) $19-$49. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle, 866-833-4747. Rialto Theater, 310 S. 9th St., Tacoma, 253-591-5894. Pioneer Park Pavilion, 330 S. Meridian, Puyallup, 800-838-3006. www.nwsinfonietta.org
