Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Kenneth Montgomery, above, born in Belfast and known for his opera conducting, makes his debut on the podium with the Florida Orchestra this weekend. Principal bassoon Mark Sforzini's octet, premiered last year on several chamber music programs in the area, receives its first performance in the masterworks series, with the bassoonist and seven of his colleagues doing the honors. Pianist Jeffrey Siegel, substituting for Brigitte Engerer, is the soloist in Schumann's Concerto in A minor. The program also includes Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra (the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme).
Concerts are at 8 tonight at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater; 8 p.m Friday at Ferguson Hall of Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa; and 8 p.m. Monday at Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg. $21 to $45. 813 286-2403 or toll-free 1-800-662-7286; www.floridaorchestra.org
A fine-tuned look backward
The first Go for Baroque Early Music Festival takes place mainly from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in downtown Dunedin, along Main Street, Broadway and in nearby churches. The free public event will feature medieval performers, musicians and crafts experts. Schedules will be available at many Main Street stores.
Headlining the festival is the Newberry Consort, an early music, period-instrument group from Chicago, where it is the ensemble in residence at the Newberry Library and Northwestern University. Core members include, from left, soprano Ellen Hargis, violinist David Douglas, countertenor Drew Minter and viola da gambist Mary Springfels. Minter is not appearing in Dunedin, where harpsichordist Jillon Stoppels Dupree will perform. The group's program, "All in a Garden Green," is at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Church of the Good Shepherd, 639 Edgewater Drive, Dunedin. $15. (727) 733-4125.
The music of Mongolia - and more
Today's world music is glutted with cross-cultural exchange, so it's no surprise that Mongolian musician Sundui Chimidkhorloo feels equally at home performing traditional Mongolian folk music, jazz and his own original compositions on the traditional Mongolian string instrument, the horse-head violin. His latest CDs, My Hiding Place and Horse-Head Violin, flow smoothly with soothing, lyrical sensitivity, meditative calm and grand beauty. The 28-year Palm Harbor resident will perform traditional music and tell folkloric stories in his first set and will lead his jazz band, the Vibe, during a second set Friday at 8 p.m. in a concert sponsored by the Tampa Bay Composers' Forum at the Palladium Theater, 253 Fifth Ave. N, St. Petersburg. $10. 727 822-3590 or www.palladiumtheater.com
Sure to stimulate reactions
Strong performances of Aunt Dan and Lemon by Wallace Shawn have been known to cause audience members to walk out in protest of its seemingly fascist point of view. Lemon, a sickly recluse, falls under the spell of a charismatic professor, Aunt Dan. Karla Hartley, left, is Aunt Dan, and Barbara Eaker is Lemon in the Dog & Pony production, directed by David Frankel. It opens tonight and runs through May 16 at Gorilla Theater, 4419 N Hubert Ave., Tampa. 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. $15-$25. (813) 879-2914.