Art, culture and recreation will be the focus for the first of four panel discussions presented by the Citizens Planning and Housing Association on Baltimore as "The Multi-Ethnic City."
The discussion will be held Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the National Aquarium. Moderators are jazz singer Ethel Ennis and her husband, Earl Arnett, a writer and teacher. Panelists are Marcellus Alexander, president and general manager of WJZ-TV (Channel 13); Hope Quackenbush, managing director of the Mechanic Theater; Jean Boone, community affairs manager of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Chris Delaporte, former commissioner of the city's Department of Parks and Recreation; and Oletha Devane, an artist and arts presenter.
The series is designed to present a dialogue on the opportunities and problems that exist in an ethnically and racially diverse city.
The schedule for the remainder of the series is:
*Education: March 20, Morgan State University, moderated by Calvin W. Burnett, president of Coppin State College.
*Economic development: April 3, Arena Players, moderated by Parren Mitchell, former U.S. congressman.
*Politics: May 1, Preston Room, 25 W. Preston St., moderated by Thomas J. D'Alesandro III, former mayor of Baltimore.
Tickets are $3 for each forum or $10 for the entire series. Tickets to the first forum include a free tour of the aquarium.
4( For more information, call 539-1369.
BSO anniversary events
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's 75th anniversary celebration, which culminates Feb. 11 with a concert re-creating the opening program played in 1916, gets under way today with the annual fund phonathon from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall lobby. Pledges can be made by calling 783-8019. Also today, a Favorites concert, featuring works by Schubert, Szymanowski and Mussorgsky, will be presented at 3 p.m.
Other anniversary week events include performances at noon tomorrow by a trombone quartet at the Lexington Market and by string ensembles at the State Office Building (201 W. Preston St.) and the Towson Courts Building (Chesapeake and Bosley avenues).
Tiny tots concerts will be held Tuesday and Saturday mornings at the Meyerhoff and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings at Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium.
For ticket information call 783-8000.
Literary press concert
A new music concert sponsored by a literary press? That's what will happen Friday at 8 p.m. at the BAUhouse, 1713 N. Charles St., when Tropos Press stages a concert by nationally known percussionists and composers Brian Johnson and Tom Goldstein.
The duo is scheduled to perform "Genderang Senja," a piece for tom-toms, wood bars and brake drums by Indonesian composer Ben Pasiribu; "Songs I-IX" for actor/percussionist by Stuart S. Smith, local composer and UMBC music professor; and a selection of snare drum solos.
"It seems kind of unusual, seeing as we're looked upon as a traditional literary press," concedes David Beaudouin, president of the Baltimore-based non-profit publishing house. "But I'm always interested by what forms text can take. The combination of text and music is a feature of a lot of these new music works. . . . This [concert] is another medium for exploring relationships between the literary arts and the aural arts."
Tickets are $5. For more information, call 659-5520.
Auditions
The following auditions are coming up:
*The Spotlighters, 817 St. Paul St., tomorrow and Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. for David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow." Needed are two men and one woman. Call 435-7697.
*Phoenix Festival Theater, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and next Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., for a musical revue and "Anything Goes," in the Chesapeake Theater of Harford Community College. Call 836-4217 or 879-8920, Ext. 217.
*Goucher College, next Sunday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., for a ballet by Violette Verdy, former principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet, at Todd Dance Studio in Lilian Welsh Hall. Needed are high intermediate and advanced dancers of all ages. Call 337-6390.