Disney with the Pops, Jazz at City Hall, Rumble at NKU

Erich Kunzel

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra is in the news this week, having been invited to participate in the Olympic Games in China this summer.
    The trip, supported by Edyth and Carl Lindner, will take conductor Erich Kunzel and the Pops to Beijing for the opening weekend of the games.  They will perform Aug. 9 at the National Centre for the Performing Arts for dignitaries associated with the games and an outdoor public concert Aug. 10 on the Olympic Grounds.
   Their program will include music written for past Olympic Games, traditional Chinese folk songs and, as the grand finale, Medley for Peace in the World arranged by Julie Spangler and Steven Reineke
   Joining the orchestra will be Broadway vocalists Steven Morgan and Michael Scott Lowe and a children's choir from Beijing.
   It will be the Pops’ second trip to China, having toured China and Singapore in 2005.  Kunzel has performed in China several times, first in 1999 when he guest conducted the China National Symphony in a symphonic pops concert in Beijing. In 2007, he guest conducted the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra.
   Closer to home, Kunzel and the Pops will close their 2007-08 season May 9-11 with music of Disney.
   Concerts are 8 p.m. May 9 and 10 and 3 p.m. May 11 at Music Hall.
   Vocal soloists will be Morgan, Lowe and Ashley Brown.

Ashley Brown

Brown, an alumna of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, is currently starring as Mary Poppins on Broadway.  Also performing will be the CCM musical theater department, Diana Lala stage director/choreographer; Winton Woods High School Chorus directed by David Bell; Lakota East High School Chorus,  Becky Huddilston-Simms, director; and the School for the Creative and Performing Arts Children's Choir, Laurie Wyant, director.
   Hear music from "Aladdin," "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," "Mary Poppins," "Tarzan," "Hercules," "Enchanted” and "The Lion King."
   Tickets are $23.75-$65, $10 for students, available at (513) 381-3300, or online at www.cincinnatipops.org.
   This weekend also marks the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra's season finale, a 50th anniversary, staged production of Bernstein’s "West Side Story," presented in conjunction with the Northern Kentucky University Department of Theatre and Dance.  Performances are 8 p.m. May 9 and 10 in Greaves Concert Hall at NKU.
    The production is unusual -- and required permission from the Bernstein estate -- in that the KSO will perform onstage along with the singers and dancers.
   The cast includes Matt Boart (Tony),

Matt Bogart

Denise Devlin (Maria), Matt Bohnert (Riff), Juan Carlos Diaz (Bernardo) and Gabrielle Stravelli (Anita).  KSO music director James R. Cassidy will conduct. Choreographer is Elizabeth Vosmeier.  Stage director is Gina Kleesattel.
   Tickets are $28 and $23, $18 for seniors, $10 for students.  Call (859) 431-6216, or order online at www.kyso.org.
   For a rare musical experience, especially in the halls of government, head for Cincinnati City Council Chambers May 9 at 7 p.m. for jazz violinist Zach Brock and his sextet Arrival/Departure.

Zach Brock

   “City Hall Gets Jazzed!” is the second of this season’s “Mayor’s 801 Plum Concerts” presented by Linton Music, a path-breaking series targeted at 20-40 year-olds that has so far offered hip hop, Latin jazz and alternative rock as chamber music for today.
   The evening begins with a happy hour at 5:30 p.m. catered by Cincinnati Cooks! The newly formed CSO Nouveau Chamber Players will provide pre-show entertainment.
  A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Brock has been called “the great bright hope for jazz violin” by the Chicago Tribune and “the one on whom to place  your bets in jazz” by Blue Note artist Patricia Barber.
    He is currently touring with jazz legend Stanley Clarke and in 2009 will make his international film debut as part of “Passion,” a documentary about Polish jazz violinist Zbigniew Seifert.
   Get to know Brock better at www.zachbrock.com.
   Tickets are $20 at the Cincinnati Arts Association ticket office in the Aronoff Center, call (513) 621-ARTS (2787) or visit www.cincinnatiarts.org