U of A choir hones in on 'home' in Tucson homeless benefit concert

The notion of “home” is the theme of a concert on Sunday, Oct. 22, to raise money for Tucson’s unhoused.

The University of Arizona Symphonic Choir will perform works by Tucson composers Ulysses Kay, a Tucson native and UA alumnus who specialized in choral and symphonic works; and 2021 UA grad Emily Drum, who specializes in a capella pop, during a multimedia concert that focuses on the themes of home.

The event, at 3 p.m. Sunday at First United Methodist Church, 915 E. Fourth St., will feature guitarist José Luis Puerta and art work by Tucson muralist Joe Pagac. An original painting by Pagac will be auctioned off during the performance, with proceeds supporting Tucson families and individuals experiencing homelessness.

Guests from Tucson’s Housing First program have been invited, said organizer Elizabeth Schauer, who conducts the UA choir with assistant conductor Dane Carten.

Sunday’s program also will include music by Enya, Thomas A. Dorsey, Reena Esmail and Harry Belafonte.

Admission is free, but an optional offering will benefit Tucson’s unhoused. For more information, visit music.arizona.edu.

The concert is one of several classical music events this weekend.

Civic Orchestra opens 48th season

The Civic Orchestra of Tucson is coming off its summer hiatus with the first concert of its 48th season.

This weekend’s “Symphonic Potpourri” will feature 12-year-old violin soloist Ayla Moreno, winner of the community orchestra’s annual young artist competition, performing the first movement of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 2.

Music Director Keun Oh bookended the season opener with Grieg’s “Peter Gynt” Suite No. 1, arguably the Norwegian composer’s most popular work aside from his Piano Concerto, and Brahms’ serene Symphony No. 2 in D major, which takes up the second half of the concert.

Oh slipped in Copland’s frolicking “Evening Waltz and Hoedown” from his ballet “Rodeo” in the middle.

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The orchestra will perform the concert at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, at Sahuarita District Auditorium, 350 W. Sahuarita Road in Sahuarita; and 3 p.m. Sunday at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive. Admission is free. For more information, visit cotmusic.org.

Piano phenom to make Tucson stop

Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev was just 13 when he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in 2014.

It didn’t take him long to shake the youthful accolades from international critics and land in the conversation as one of the leading pianists of his generation. The Austrian newspaper Der Standard dubbed Malofeev the leader of “a world piano revolution” when he debuted at Vienna’s storied Musikverein.

We get to see this for ourselves when Malofeev plays Arizona Friends of Chamber Music’s Piano & Friends series on Sunday, Oct. 22.

Malofeev’s program features Handel’s Suite in B-flat Major and Purcell’s “Ground” in C minor alongside Baroque composer George Muffat’s “Passacaglia” in G minor from “Apparatus Musico-Organisticu.” He also will perform Bach’s A-minor Organ Concerto No. 2 and Polish-born Soviet composer Mieczyslaw Weinbert’s Piano Sonata No. 4 in B minor.

Tickets for Sunday’s 3 p.m. concert at Leo Rich Theater, 260 S. Church Ave., are $45, $12 for students through arizonachambermusic.org. You can also view the concert on a live stream for $45.

Tucson conductor leads Sierra Vista Symphony

Tucson conductor Toru Tagawa will lead the Sierra Vista Symphony in its fall concert “Rhapsody,” featuring Gershwin’s iconic “Rhapsody in Blue” on a program that also includes Engelbert Humperdinck’s prelude to the opera “Hansel and Gretel.”

The concert Saturday, Oct. 21, at Buena High School’s Klein Center for the Performing Arts opens the orchestra’s 2023-24 season, which includes three formal concerts, a children’s concert and a free concert in the park next June.

Tagawa, who has led the symphony since 2016, opens the concert with Humperdinck’s soft and melodic prelude before delving into Mussorgsky’s more dramatic and exciting “Night on Bald Mountain.” Fun fact: Mussorgsky’s tone poem depicting a witches’ sabbath on Bald Mountain on St. John’s Eve was used in Walt Disney’s 1940 animated classic “Fantasia.”

Gershwin’s jazzy “Rhapsody in Blue,” which ushered in and defined the Jazz Age, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 featuring Tucson pianist Fanya Lin, rounds out the program.

Saturday’s concert begins at 7 p.m. at Klein Center, 5225 Buena School Blvd. Tickets are $10-$30 through sierravistasymphony.org.

In addition to the Sierra Vista Symphony, Tagawa founded and directs the Tucson Repertory Orchestra and is the orchestra director at Canyon del Oro High School.