If you love opera music in concert form, Vero Beach Opera is presenting an impressive roster from the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia Saturday.
This is a new collaboration for Vero Opera, the result of a John’s Island supporter who connected the two organizations. The academy is the only school of its kind in the nation that trains young artists in an entire role – not just an aria or duet, which they go on to perform in the academy’s theater. In April, Vero Beach Opera’s leaders, Joan and Roman Ortega-Cowan, were invited to Philadelphia, a trip that resulted in not only Saturday’s concert, but an opera next season staged with academy singers. In Vero this weekend: soprano Marina Costa-Jackson, who is covering a role at the Met this season and another next season, after winning the Metropolitan National Council Auditions in 2015; and Dominick Chins, who’s getting press as a break-out tenor and just played Don José in Palm Beach Opera’s “Carmen” two weeks ago.
The concert is Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Vero High Performing Arts Center.
Sunday another young talent takes the same stage. A remarkable pianist from Taiwan, Tzu-Yi Chen, is performing with Space Coast Symphony. The winner of the Premier Prix of the Paris Conservatory, Chen will be playing Tchaikovsky’s “Piano Concert No. 1”– so difficult it was deemed “unplayable” when it premiered in 1875. The concert is Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 online, $25 at the door.
A crowded schedule this weekend at Riverside Park: So many things to see; so few parking places. There’s GardenFest under the Oaks going on during the day; two new exhibits at the Museum of Art including John Baeder’s Americana photographs and the paintings of Oscar Bluemner; Riverside’s original musical “Poodleful” at the Children’s Theatre at 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; and matinees both days of the light comedy “Over the River and Through the Woods,” which opened Tuesday on the Main Stage.
Then, Friday and Saturday night, along with “Over the River,” there’s a Comedy Zone going on in Riverside’s Black Box Theater. It looks like a good one: the Jamaica-born, Bronx-raised Drew Thomas, and Tampa Bay’s Trish Keating. She earned her B.A. and M.S. from Florida State’s excellent theater department, then headed north to study with Chicago’s great improv workshops. Comedy Zone offers two shows on each night. I’m thinking comedy fans are the most likely to run late; best to get there early, get a space and enjoy the band out front.
The crowds in the park will have cleared out by Monday, but the house will be full when documentarian and historian Ken Burns speaks as part of Riverside’s Distinguished Lecturer series. It comes as no surprise that his talks sold out long ago. But there is a waiting list for any cancellations. Or you could try for Feb. 22 when the deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, Brett Stevens, gives a talk, or March 14, when former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice comes to Vero.
Across town at the Emerson Center Saturday, one of my favorites from the PBS Newshour, Marcia Coyle, speaks on the Supreme Court. The author of “The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution,” Coyle has an uncanny ability to decode the Court’s most complex decisions for a general audience. Coyle speaks at 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Vero composer and retired conductor Paul Gay has a spot on the program when the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra plays his new composition “Due Sorelle Finale” at Community Church. The performance is part of the season of the Indian River Symphonic Association. Individual tickets are sold out, but you can see it if you buy a package for the rest of the season, too. Upcoming concerts are by the Russian National Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and two by Brevard Symphony.
This coming Wednesday at the museum, Ballet Vero Beach is staging “Museum in Motion,” an innovative collaboration in choreography and performance celebrating the museum’s 30th anniversary. Museum visitors were actually the inspiration for company members who created their own dances for different spaces within the museum. Viewers are encouraged to meander through the spaces as the dances are in progress, as on a loop. The first shift of performances starts at 5 p.m. and includes a reception with the dancers, and tickets are $50. A second shift starts at 7 p.m. with tickets costing $35.
Next Thursday, our resident chamber orchestra, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, plays with another guest conductor vying for the post of artistic director to replace Stewart Robertson, who retired last spring. This time, it’s David Loebel, the associate director of the New England Conservatory. Loebel will offer a lecture at 6:40 p.m. prior to the 7:30 p.m. performance. The program includes Ravel’s “Tzigane” featuring guest violinist Leonid Sigal.