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© St. Petersburg Times, published May 16, 2002
Concerts in a farewell key
Thomas Wilkins, the Florida Orchestra's popular resident conductor, conducts his farewell concerts this weekend before heading off to his new post as resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He'll have no fewer than three guest pianists on hand for the Masterworks program of concertos by Grieg, Gershwin and Tchaikovsky:
ORLI SHAHAM, performing Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Major, last performed with the Florida Orchestra during the 2000-01 season. Born in Israel, Shaham and her family (including her brother, violinist Gil Shaham) moved to New York when she was 7, and studied at Juilliard. She now is considered among the world's most gifted young pianists. In addition to recitals around the world, she has performed with the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, the Houston Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony and the Orchestra of La Scala (Milan).
JON KIMURA PARKER, performing Gershwin's Concerto in F Major, is known for his versatility as much as his virtuosity. A native of Vancouver, Parker once toured the Canadian Arctic performing the music of Beethoven, Chopin, Nirvana and Alanis Morissette on an electronic keyboard for Inuit school students. He has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and jammed with Doc Severinsen and the original Tonight Show Orchestra.
His recordings on the Telarc label include Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev. He also tried comedy as Peter Schickele's partner in the Concerto for Two Pianos vs. Orchestra by P.D.Q. Bach.
ANDRE-MICHEL SCHUB, performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, is the 1981 Grand Prize winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles and the New York philharmonics and many more, collaborating with such conductors as Erich Leinsdorf, James Levine, Eugene Ormandy and Seiji Ozawa. Born in France, Schub has lived in New York City since arriving in this country with his family when he was eight months old.
His recordings, for Vox Cumlaude and Sony Classical, include works of Beethoven, Brahms and Liszt, as well as an all-Stravinsky album with Cho-Liang Lin.
Performances are 8 p.m. Friday, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa; 8 p.m. Saturday, Mahaffey Theater at Bayfront Center, St. Petersburg; and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater. Tickets are $20-$38. Call (813) 286-2403 or toll-free 1-800-662-7286.
-- BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN, Times staff write
You'll want to arrive early at Saturday's performance of the zarzuela La Verbena de la Paloma. To get patrons in the mood for this beloved Spanish-language operetta, Spanish Lyric Theatre is transforming the lobby of Ferguson Hall at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center into a scene from an 1890s Spanish street festival. Flower vendors will sell carnations, there will be games of chance and period music, capped with a contest for most elaborate manton (shawl) at 6:30 p.m. and a pasodoble dance contest at 7 p.m.
The curtain rises at 7:45 p.m. on La Verbena, and its cast of more than 30, including (shown here) Mary Gonzalez, left, and Linda Switzer, right, as Susana and Casta, the two young ladies of Madrid wooed by the old scoundrel Don Hilarion, played by Spanish Lyric Theatre artistic director Rene Gonzalez, center. Cuban-born tenor Gabriel Reoyo-Pazos plays Julian, Susana's jealous boyfriend whose godmother (Esther Maria Talledo) tries to keep him from doing anything foolish, as the girls' aunt (Diana Anton) urges them to play up to Hilarion.
Performed in Spanish with English program notes. Tickets are $20-$25. Call (813) 229-7827 or toll-free 1-800-955-1045; or www.tbpac.org.