If you’ve missed the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra during its ongoing lockout, the Atlanta Chamber Players’ season-opening concert on Oct. 7 offers an opportunity to not only support the premier chamber ensemble but also to see and hear some of the ASO’s finest players.
Ten of the Atlanta Chamber Players' 16 musicians for its 39th season are also full-time Atlanta Symphony Orchestra members. Or will be again, once the lockout is lifted that began Sept. 7 when ASO management and the musicians could not reach accord on a new collective bargaining agreement.
In fact, three of the Atlanta Chamber Players members are principals with the Atlanta Symphony: clarinetist Laura Ardan, bassoonist Keith Buncke and oboist Elizabeth Koch Tiscione.
ASO associate principal bass Gloria Jones and assistant principal viola Catherine Lynn also are members of ACP. Other ASO members in the ACP are first violinists Anastasia Agapova and Kenn Wagner, cellist Brad Ritchie, clarinet and bass clarinetist Alcides Rodriguez and flutist Todd Skitch.
Eight of the ASO musicians will play in the Oct. 7 concert at the New American Shakespeare Tavern.
All that shouldn't obscure a notable Atlanta Chamber Players development: The season-opener marks the debut of pianist Elizabeth Pridgen as artistic director. Pridgen succeeds Paula Peace, who co-founded the ensemble in 1976.
The “Act One” program: Jean Francaix’s Quartet for English Horn and Strings, Ludwig Thuille’s Sextet for Piano and Woodwind Quintet and Frederic Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor. Pridgen is featured in the chamber music version of Chopin’s work.
The Shakespeare Tavern opens with a separately priced British pub menu at 6:15 p.m.; concert begins at 7:30 p.m.
$15-$24. 499 Peachtree St., Atlanta. 404-874-5299, www.shakespearetavern.com.
Also new to the ACP this season is general manager Rachel Ciprotti, a native of Marietta who is pursuing an MBA at Kennesaw State University. She previously worked for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Center, Maryland Citizens for the Arts and the Georgia Symphony Orchestra.
MUSIC
Concert of racial harmony
The “2014 Atlanta Music Festival Concert: Songs of Aspiration, Hope and Progress, ” 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10 in the First Congregational Church sanctuary, has historic roots.
The Rev. Dwight Andrews of First Congregational Church and Steven Darsey of the Atlanta music-worship group Meridian Herald launched the music festival in 2001. It was something of a homage to the Atlanta Colored Music Festival Association’s debut concert in 1910 that drew an integrated audience of 2,000 for a concert by African-American artists. That event was an act of social healing after the Atlanta race riot of 1906.
This year’s concert will feature spinto tenor Timothy B. Miller (best known for his “God Bless America” performances at Atlanta Braves’ games), the Chancel Choir of First Congregational Church and the Meridian Chorale.
Free, with an offering taken. 105 Courtland St. Atlanta. 404-525-4722, www.meridianherald.org.
THEATER
3 strong possibilities hit the boards
This is a week of rich choices for Atlanta theater-goers, who can pick between a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about race in the United States, an early drama about apartheid in South Africa by a playwright awarded the Tony for lifetime achievement and, for something completely different, a genre-bending world premiere from a rising Atlanta playwright.
Here’s the playbill:
- Aurora Theatre's just-opened "Clybourne Park," Bruce Norris' drama about race and real estate, places its two acts in the same Chicago house but 50 years apart. In the first act, the characters from Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" move into a new home in a white area in 1959 after neighborhood leaders try to stop the sale. In act two, the now-predominantly African-American neighborhood battles against gentrification.
Through Oct. 26. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. $20-$40. 128 E. Pike St., Lawrenceville. 678-226-6222, www.auroratheatre.com.
- Theatrical Outfit begins previews of Athol Fugard's three-character drama "My Children! My Africa!" on Oct. 9. It's the story, set in 1984 South Africa, of a black teacher in a segregated township trying to persuade a favorite student that education, not violence, is the answer to their country's problems.
Through Oct. 26. Previews: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 9-10 ($30). 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; and 2:30 Saturdays (except Oct. 11) and Sundays. Additional shows 7:30 p.m. Oct. 15 and 22. $20-$50. 84 Luckie St. N.W., Atlanta. 877-725-8849, www.theatricaloutfit.org.
- Seven Stages' just-opened world premiere production of Suehyla El-Attar's "The Doctor, The Devil, & My Dad" explores what would happen if sci-fi TV icon Dr. Who and a devilish biblical villain descended upon a woman trapped by the grief of losing her father.
Through Oct. 26. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 5 p.m. Sundays (check 7 Stages web site for variations). $22.50 advance, $25 door. 404-523-7647, www.7stages.org.
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