Mark Morris dance, MSO’s Cole Porter and more

I’m always telling you how interesting Chamber Music Milwaukee programs are. Don’t take my word for it. Check out the winds-and-brass program they’re playing at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday (April 7) at the UWM Zelazo Center: Syrinx (1913), Claude Debussy, solo flute; Divertimento, Adolf Busch, clarinet, flute and english horn; Brass Quintet No. 1, Victor Ewald; Suite from Danserye, Tielman Susato, arranged for brass quintet; Sextet in Eb Major, Opus 71, Beethoven, two clarinets, two bassoons and two horns. You don’t hear that stuff every day. Tickets are $17 general/$12 seniors, faculty, alumni/$10 students, UWM Peck School of the Arts box office, 414 229-4308.

For years, pianist Jeffrey Hollander has serenaded Pfister Hotel guests with beautiful music as they entered its opulent lobby. Beginning Thursday, April 7, Hollander will be featured in a new concert series, Rhapsodies in Blu, the first Thursday of every month from 5:30-6:30pm in hotel’s 23rd floor lounge, Blu. At his debut this year, he’ll improvise on My Foolish Heart. Subsequent performances focus on music by George Shearing, George Gershwin and more. Visit Blu’s website for details.

Cole Porter. Wikipedia Commons photo, public domain.

The Milwaukee Symphony Pops plays Cole Porter at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 9-10, at the Riverside Theater.  (Note last-minute venue change.) From That Moment On, no matter if it’s In the Still of the Night or Too Darn Hot, no matter if You Love Paris and you Get Outta Town, those songs will Get Under Your Skin. If you want to go to all three concerts, Marvin Hamlisch says It’s All Right With Him. Vocalists Jody Benson and Gary Mauer will Concentrate on You. All remaining ticket $40, at the MSO website and ticket line (414 291-7605).

Sharon Hansen’s Milwaukee Choral Artists, an elite women’s choir, will try to make you feel like Rocky Balboa on the top step Saturday (April 9), when they sing Music of Joy and Inspiration at North Shore Presbyterian Church, 4048 N. Bartlett Ave., Shorewood. Featured rep: Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, arranged by the composer for treble voices. Guest Jeffry Peterson will be at the organ. Concert time is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25, $20 for seniors and $15 for students. You can also order by phone, 262 658-5022.

The Bel Canto Boy Choir, led by Ellen Shuler, and Emily Crocker’s new Vocal Arts Academy Young Artists will combine in a program a Christ the King Parish Church, 2604 N. Swan Blvd., Wauwatosa, at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 10. The featured work is Robert Jager’s I Dream Of Peace, a 20-minute work that paints a haunting picture of war. Jager set texts written by Balkan children  who saw their lives torn apart by war in the 1990s. Tickets are $8, $5 for children. Click on the link or call 414 481-8801.

Philomusica: Hackett, Kim, Zitoun, Mandl.

Stas Venglevski, Milwaukee’s virtuoso bayan accordionist, is also something of an accordion impresario. Venglevski runs an Accordion 21st Century Series at Mount Mary College Helfaer Hall, 2900 N. Menomonee River Parkway. At 3 p.m. Sunday, April 10, Venglevski presents Frank Marocco, a Los Angeles accordion legend with a long list of movie credits. Tickets $20 at the door; call Stas for a reservation, 262 641-9056.

The Philomusica Quartet, comprising violinists Jeanyi Kim and Alexander “Sascha” Mandl, violist Nathan Hackett and cellist Adrien Zitoun, will close off an artistically successful 2010-11 season with a concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 11. They will play in the lovely Bader Hall of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, where the Philomusica is in residence. Tickets are $22, $20 for students and seniors; 414 276-6076. The program: Haydn: String Quartet in D major, Op. 64 No. 5, (“The Lark”); Beethoven: Große Fuge in B-flat major, Op. 133 Brahms: String Quartet in C minor, Op. 51 No.1.

Dance

Mark Morris Dance Group will perform “Excursions” in Brookfield Saturday. Nathaniel Brooks photo for the Morris company.

The Mark Morris Dance Group is coming to the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 9. Fourteen of the best dancers in the world will perform works by the most musical choreographer of his generation. So you pretty much have to go. The rep: Program: Italian Concerto (2007), Going Away Party (1990), Excursions (2008), Grand Duo (1993) Presenter: Wilson Center for the Arts New York,Tickets are $52 and $25. Click here or call the Wilson Center box office, 262 781-9520.

Theater

Here’s how Milwaukee Playback Theatre works: You go to the show, you tell a story from your life. The actors recreate your story instantly on stage. Their explicit intention is to honor the person who shared the story, so stop worrying. The Milwaukee Multicultural Theater will do the playback thing at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 7, at the John C. Cudahy YMCA, 9050 N. Swan Road. Also on the bill, The Living Proof, which rises from experiences in a men’s support group established in 2006. Tickets are $10 at the door, $8 in advance. Email Katina at mmt.org@gmail.com.

The Great American Trailer Park Musical has been around, but it will park in Milwaukee for the first time Friday night (April 8), courtesy of Carte Blanche Studios Theatre. Producing artistic director Jimmy Dragolovich will direct this local premiere, assisted by Lisa Golda (Vocal Director) and Samantha Paige (choreography). David Nehls wrote the music and lyrics and Betsy Kelso wrote the book. Carte Blanche promises a “raunchy, raucous and big-hearted show.” It opens at 8 p.m. Friday and runs through May 1 at 1024 S. 5th St. Tickets are $20.

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 April 17.