MUSIC
La Jolla Music Society just opened its 2006-’07 season. At Sherwood Auditorium (700 Prospect St., La Jolla), LJMS presents the ravishingly beautiful and acclaimed Claremont Trio, Emily and Julie Bruskin and Donna Kwong, at 8 p.m. Saturday Oct. 14. The women may be young and glamorous, but their pulchritude is mere bonus next to their accomplishments and their extraordinary playing.
To open this season’s the Discovery series, cellist Clancy Newman plays Neurosciences Institute (10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, La Jolla) recital with pianist Noreen Cassidy-Polera at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29. The program includes works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Bohuslav Martinu and Sergei Rachmaninoff and features the world premiere of the cellist’s “Variations on an Australian Theme.” His performance is preceded at 2:30 p.m. by a performance by 10-year-old pianist/cellist Sarina Zhang.
For information and tickets, visit www.lajollamusicsociety.org or call (858) 459-3728.
With music director and conductor Jahja Ling on the podium and Garrick Ohlsson at the piano, San Diego Symphony kicks off its season with identical Jacobs Masterworks Series programs at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 15 at Copley Symphony Hall (7th and B streets, downtown San Diego). Expect to hear Ohlsson’s performance of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 plus William Schuman’s “American Festival Overture” and Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2.
Sandwiched in between these two concerts, one finds the Oct. 14 opening night gala at which Ling conducts the orchestra in Aaron Copland’s “Danzon Cubano,” Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio Italien,” and Heitor Villa-lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2. Ohlsson and the orchestra perform Frederic Chopin’s “Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise Brillante, Opus 22.” Patrons may attend the concert only this evening or purchase gala packages. For details, see www.sandiegosymphony.com or call (619) 235-0804.
UCSD’s ArtPower! continues its Chamber Music Series with the appearance of The Calder Quartet at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22 at Mandeville Auditorium. The program comprises Christopher Rouse’s String Quartet No. 1, Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 13, and Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major. Meanwhile ArtPower! presents sitar virtuosa Anoushka Shankar Saturday, Oct. 14, and Random Dance “Ataxia” Saturday, Oct. 21. Check ArtPower’s improved Web site, www.artpower.ucsd.edu, for details and tickets, or call (858) 534-TIXS.
THEATRE
Tickets are selling quickly for Mo’olelo Theatre’s “Since Africa,” playing Oct. 12 through 29 at Diversionary Theatre. “Since Africa” concerns Atar, one of the lost boys of Sudan, as two volunteers try to acclimate him to life in urban America. For reservations and information, visit www.moolelo.net or call (619) 342-7395.
Lyric Opera San Diego opens the season with Franz Lehar’s Viennese operetta, “The Merry Widow,” Oct. 6-21 at Birch North Park Theatre (29th and University, San Diego). Listening to soprano Stacey Uthe (www.staceysoprano.com), who makes her debut in the title role, will send you to the box office forthwith. Get tickets at www.e-ticketsnow.com or call (619) 239-8836; general information about the company and the rest of the season at www.lyricoperasandiego.com.
La Jolla Playhouse continues its season with the world premiere co-production (with Berkeley Repertory Theatre) of “Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell,” directed by Tony Taccone. If you dig the masked love bandit, variously played by swashbucklers from Douglas Fairbanks to Antonio Banderas, now you can see the interpretation of three guys known as Culture Clash, Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza. Having opened Oct. 4, the show continues through Oct. 29 in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse. Ticketing information below.
Don’t miss Des McAnuff’s fantastic “re-visioning” of William F. Brown and Charlie Small’s 1975 musical sensation, “The Wiz,” at La Jolla Playhouse. Based on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the production’s official opening was Oct. 11. Robert Brill’s set and Paul Tazewell’s costumes reportedly are knockout grand. No Broadway talk yet, but you never know. Continues through Sunday, Nov. 26 only at Mandell Weiss Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse (2910 La Jolla Village Drive). For tickets and information, call (858) 550-1010 or visit www.lajollaplayhouse.com.
Last but certainly not least, Old Globe audiences so liked Hershey Felder’s “George Gershwin Alone” that he’s been persuaded to perform his other one-man composer survey, “Monsieur Chopin,” in the Old Globe Theatre Oct. 26-31. For tickets and information, visit www.theoldglobe.com or call (619) 23-GLOBE.