Sing, sing, sing!

The Chapter 6 vocal band, at SMPAC Friday. Photo courtesy of Chapter 6 website.

Music

A grand weekend for singing is coming.

The Florentine Opera will present its resident Studio Artists in a joint recital Friday. This year’s very strong quartet comprises soprano Erica Schuller, mezzo Julia Elise Hardin, tenor Matthew Richardson and baritone Scott Johnson. (Schuller, Hardin and Johnson were featured and excellent in significant roles in the company’s recent An Italian Girl in Algiers.) The recital is set for  the Steinway Piano Gallery, 11550 W. North Ave., at 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 1. $25 at the door, $20 in advance; 414 727-5995.

Florentine Studio Artists: Hardin, Johnson, Richardson, Schuller.

You might just have time after the Florentine to dash down to the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center to catch Chapter 6, six young guys who harmonize. They sing a variety of material, but if you had to classify them they’d be a jazz/swing a cappella group. They’re very good musicians. Their set list ranges from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody t0 a Wizard of Oz medley to a doo-wop tribute to Krispy Kreme donuts to jazz standards.  Tickets are $25 and down; call 414 766-5049 or visit SMPAC online.
(Also at SMPAC: World-beat guitarist Jesse Cook, who these days is especially into rhumba music. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 31.)

Sopranos Megan Bell, Catherine Schweitzer, Jamie Woodhull and Ashley Mispagel and baritone Aidan Smerud made strong showings at the Wisconsin Metropolitan Opera Auditions in October. The Civic Music Association and the Supporters of Opera Singers chose them for nurturing and sent them to monthly coaching sessions with Dana Brown of  Roosevelt University in Chicago.
CMA and SOS will present the young singers in recital at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 3, at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center, Brookfield.  Call the Wilson Center box office for ticket info, 262 781-9520.

Susan Wiedmeyer

Milwaukee Opera Theatre will present Diane Lane, a well-established singing actress, and rising talent Susan Wiedmeyer in a double bill of one-woman shows. Lane will perform Domick Argento’s From the Diary of Virginia Wolf.  Wiedmeyer will perform Meditations on Arion, by Jennifer Baldwin Peden and Ben Krywosz.
7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, April 1-3, at the Sunset Playhouse Studio Theater, 800 Elm Grove Rd. Tickets are $20, $16 senior, $10 student. Order at the Sunset box office,  262 782-4430, or click here.

Trumpeter Jon Faddis, a very big name in jazz, is in residence at UWM this week. UWM’s jazz program and the Bob Kames Jazz Foundation partnered to get Faddis to Milwaukee. His stay here will culminate in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 2, with the Milwaukee Jazz Orchestra at the UWM Zelazo Center. Tickets are $28, $25 for seniors, students and UWM faculty, staff and alumni. Call the UWM Peck School of the Arts box office, 414 229-4308.

Dance

The Milwaukee Ballet will dance works by Darrell Grand Moultrie, Diane Coburn Bruning and Petr Zahradnícek Thursday through Sunday (March 31-April 3) at Marcus Center Uihlein Hall. Moultrie last visited in 2006, Coburn Bruning will make her Milwaukee debut and Zahradnícek is a longtime Milwaukee Ballet dancer and occasional choreographer. TCD interviewed the three dancemakers Monday; more to come on this. Tickets are $25-$89 at the Milwaukee Ballet website and at its ticket line,  414 902-2103.

Acting, directing, technical and administrative  interns have honed skills, made connections and contributed to The Milwaukee Repertory Theater for nearly its entire institutional life.
Thursday through Monday (March 31-April 4), 13 of the Rep’s artistic interns will show their stuff in the first Rep Lab program, in the Stiemke Theater. They will stage eight short plays, by Wayne Rawley, Scott Organ, Paul Dooley and Winnie Holzman, two by Neil Labute, Will Eno, Harold Pinter and a brand new piece the interns put together. Artistic associate Brent Hazleton, education director Jenny Kostreva, associate AD Sandy Ernst, artistic director Mark Clements, directing interns Geoff Bleeker and Leda Hoffmann, and artistic assistant Michael Kroeker will share directing duties. The actors: LaToya Codner, Rukhmani Desai, David Hathway, Ryan Krause, Alex Pawlowski, Charlie Wright, Stephanie Lambourn, Michael Lindsey, Giuseppe Ribaudo, Greta Wohlrabe and Jonathan Butler-Duplessis.
Tickets are $20 and $15, $10 for students; call the Rep box office, 414 224-9490 or visit the company’s website. Curtain times are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Monday.

Ongoing

Renaissance Theaterworks: James DeVita’s On Acting Shakespeare, through April 17.
Milwaukee Repertory Theater: The Bomb-itty of Errors, through May 8 (Stackner).
Next Act Theatre: A Sleeping Country, through

Last Chance

Off the Wall Theatre: Mother Courage closes April 3.
Sunset Playhouse: Tuesdays with Morrie closes April 3.
Skylight Opera Theatre: Mozart’s Così fan tutte, through April 3.

Note: On Stage is not comprehensive. Please check TCD’s events calendar for more. Producers and presenters, please list establish calendar accounts and list your events; the calendar service is free. Readers, if you think I missed something, feel free to tout an event in the comment boxes below.