It's going to be quite a gala weekend in Annapolis, with a pair of "hometown boys" and a brassy exercise in musical time travel appearing atop the capital city's musical bill of fare.
The festivities begin tomorrow evening when Douglas Allanbrook, the 81-year-old composer, pianist, harpsichordist, scholar and tutor emeritus at St. John's College, will be honored at a concert commemorating his 50 years with the college.
The 8:15 p.m. program at Key Auditorium on the St. John's campus will include several Allanbrook works for voice and piano with mezzo-soprano D'Anna Fortunato, a faculty member at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music, doing the solo honors. The free concert is open to the public.
The recipient of an undergraduate degree from Harvard University, Allanbrook studied composition with Walter Piston and with the legendary French pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, who served as a mentor to Aaron Copland and just about every other American composer of consequence in the early and mid-20th century. Allanbrook's works have been performed by leading orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony. He recently released the album Songs of Love and Death.
"Douglas is a composer of extraordinary taste, elegance and intelligence," says Elliott Zuckerman, Allanbrook's St. John's colleague for 41 years. "He has had a profound effect on music at the college since he arrived, and he's still a great presence there for all of us."
Information: 410-626-2539.
Unleashing Chopin
At 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, the Annapolis Symphony will present the season's second Classic Series Concert at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.
Led by guest-conductor Arthur Post, who is now in his first season as music director and conductor of the San Juan Symphony, the ASO will perform the opening Fanfare from Paul Dukas' ballet score, La Peri, Cesar Franck's Symphony in D minor, and the 1st Piano Concerto of Frederic Chopin.
Unleashing Chopin's cascades of notes from the keyboard will be the Annapolis area's Brian Ganz, one of Maryland's busiest and best artists. Though Ganz has appeared with local ensembles such as the Columbia Orchestra and the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra, this will be his first performance with the ASO.
"I love this orchestra and I love this concerto," Ganz said, "so I'm happy to bring them together in front of a hometown crowd. I'm very excited about these concerts."
A resident of Crownsville, Ganz is a graduate of Baltimore's Peabody Institute, where he is a member of the piano faculty. A prize winner at the 1991 Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium, he has performed with the highly pedigreed orchestras of St. Louis, Baltimore and Washington.
Conductors seldom rush to select the two Chopin piano concertos, as the composer places the orchestra in the back seat, with the piano in front. But the orchestra accompanies self-effacingly in a glorious cause. Tickets range from $25 to $35. Reservations: 410-263-0907.
Venice in Annapolis
Venice saw more than its share of palmy days in the 16th century. Poised perfectly as a crossroads between east and west, the "Jewel of the Adriatic" parlayed its middleman trading profits into political power and a sense of pomp and pageantry second to none.
That love of ceremony inspired some of the most vital and inspiring music ever composed, much of it fanfares and sonatas composed for brass choirs placed antiphonally around Venice's St. Mark's Cathedral.
The Washington Symphonic Brass, a 14-member ensemble made up of the region's premier trumpeters, trombonists and French horn players, will re-create these brilliant washes of sound at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Anne's Church in Annapolis under the direction of Milton Stevens, longtime principal trombonist of Washington's National Symphony Orchestra.
Tickets cost $20; $10 for students. Information: 410-263- 1906.