Buffalo Rising Online

Conducted by maestro JoAnn Falletta, the BPO offers a program of musical contrasts, beginning with Rossini's ever-playful and teasing Barber of Seville Overture. Concert master Michael Ludwig is featured in Corigliano's dashing Violin Concerto, based on his alluring film score for The Red Violin. Ever bright and light, Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 is replete with melodic and poetic jewels, with swaggering tempos and rhythms over a melodic mosaic, light and uplifting.

When the Martin House was new in 1905, women's domestic lives were changing, the suffrage movement was in full swing and clothing was changing to fit the times. Ann Emo, Assistant Professort in Costume Design, Theater Dept., Buffalo State College, will discuss the influences of early 20th century society on women's clothing. View a dress from this era worn by Mrs. Darwin D. Martin. Coffee, fine teas and assorted sweets will be served. $30/person. Call 716.856.3858 for reservations.

Chamber Choir and Chopin Singing Society perform Stanislaw Moniuszko’s 1858 opera, “The Raftsman.” Music Department Associate Professor Thomas Witakowski conducting. For more information, call 716.878.6401.

Vocalis Chamber Choir is pleased to begin its seventh season with its concert, There Will Be Rest, a meditative evening of a cappella music featuring the masters of the Renaissance and the 20th century. Tickets are available at the door.

The Freudig Singers of Western New York will commence their 25th year of joyful music-making with sacred, secular and bawdy music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and beyond. This will be the first concert of their silver anniversary series “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue.” Music Director Roland E. Martin, the Arts Council’s 2008 Outstanding Individual Artist, has assembled a revolutionary program which he believes will open a window to a sound world Western New Yorkers have rarely experienced. Travel with the Freudig Singers back in time to the 14th century, and experience “The Mass of Tournai,” the first complete mass setting which includes what Martin describes as “the longest ‘amen’ ever written.” Hear how Charles V’s favorite tune made its way into several works in the 15th century, and thrill to the sound of two lovely pieces by Jachet de Berchem of the 16th century. A delightful mug-clicking trio of madrigals related to beer by Thomas Ravenscroft, along with songs about wine, crickets, cuckoos and screech owls, rounds out this tribute to the time-honored, with a few Freudig surprises along the way.

Accompanied by the inimitable Mark W. DiGiampaolo, the Freudig Singers will perform tonight. Call 716.667.7088 for advance purchase, or visit their website at www.freudigsingers.org.