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CLASSICAL NOTES

Kirill Gerstein

The sixth season of The Met: Live in
HD will feature 11 live opera broadcasts,
beginning with the Met premiere produc-
tion of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, starring
Anna Netrebko in the title role, 12:55
p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15 (pre-recorded
encore 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2).
Theater locations and tickets:
fathomevents.corn.
Cranbrook Music Guild opens its
61st season with the Borealis String
Quartet, a young, highly talented
ensemble that performs on superb
Italian instruments from the 17th and
18th centuries, 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16,
at Christ Church Cranbrook. The group

will perform works by
Raminsh, Mendelssohn
and Beethoven. A meet-
the-artists afterglow
will follow the concert.
430 Church Road (off
of Lone Pine Road),
Bloomfield Hills. $25/
discounts for students; tickets available
at the door. (248) 645-0097;
cranbro okmusicguild. org .
Conductor Jerzy Semkow leads
the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
in Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6
("Pathetique"), Franz Liszt's Second
Piano Concerto, with soloist Kirin
Gerstein, and Neilsen's Helios Overture
7:30 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday,
Oct. 20-21, at Orchestra Hall. Born
in Russia in 1979, Gerstein, now an
American citizen, is a first-prize win-
ner of the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano
Competition in Tel Aviv, a recipient of
a 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award,
Carnegie Hall's "Rising Star" for the
2005-2006 season and the 2010 recipient
of the $300,000 Gilmore Artist Award.
Tickets start at $15. (313) 576-5111;
detroitsymphony.com .

POP / ROCK / JAZZ / FOLK

Conductor Jonathan Tunick is one of
only 10 artists in history to win all four

major awards in the world
of entertainment — the
Emmy, Grammy, Oscar
and Tony. He helms An

Evening with Rodgers
and Hammerstein,

three Detroit Symphony
Orchestra Pops concerts
scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Friday, 8 p.m.
Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14-16,
at Orchestra Hall in Detroit. Broadway
singers Shuler Hensley and Kate Baldwin
provide vocal accompaniment. $19-
$71.50. (313) 576-5111; dso.org .

Jonathan Tunick

The country-flavored, folk-rock band
the Jayhawks has reunited with a new
CD, Mockingbird Time, and a tour —
with original bassist Marc Perlman on
board. Hear them 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct.

15, at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor.
$27.50-$35. (800) 745-3000; ticketmaster.

COM.

Singer-songwriter Richard Marx,
whose latest CD, Stories to Tell, reinvents
his greatest hits acoustically, performs
with a live symphony 7:30 p.m. Sunday,
Oct. 16, at the Sound Board at Motor City
Casino Hotel. Marx's late father, a suc-
cessful jingle writer, was Jewish. 2901
Grand River Ave., Detroit. $38-$40. (866)
752-9622; motorcitycasino.com .
Kerrytown Concert House hosts the
15th annual Edgefest, whose theme
this year is "Blending Out,' with a focus
on blending jazz and classical genres.
Highlights include New York violinist
Marc Feldman and his wife, Swiss-born
pianist Sylvie Courvoisier ("two of the
most spectacular composer-performers
working today:' says Jazz Magazine) and
multi-instrumentalist Ned Rothenberg
and Mivos Quartet, joining together for
the Midwest premiere of Rothenberg's
Clarinet Quintet. In all, 13 different shows
comprise the festival running Oct. 19-22.
415 N. Fourth Ave., Ann Arbor. For a
complete schedule and tickets, call (734)
769-2999 or visit
kerrytownconcerthouse. com .

ON THE STAGE

The U-M Musical Theatre Department

Jews

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

Film Notes

Director David Frankel, 52, has
shown a very sure touch with his
two recent hits, The Devil Wears
Prada and Marley and Me. So it's
likely his new comedy, The Big Year,
which opens Friday, Oct. 14, will be
much better than
many so-so movies
about people who
hit a life crisis and
decide to chuck it
all to pursue their
dream.
In Frankel's
film, three friends
David Frankel
(Owen Wilson,
Steve Martin
and Jack Black,
42) have come
to a crossroads.
Unhappy with their
lives, they decide
to take a year off
and have a wild,
Jack Black
cross-country

48

October 13 2011

JN

adventure. All three are avid bird-
watchers so in their year off, they
try to outdo one another by find-
ing the most bird species in North
America.
Appearing in sup-
porting roles are
Rashida Jones,
35, Kevin Pollak,
53, and Tim Blake
Nelson, 47.
By the way, I
recently found out
that Nelson, who
Tim Blake
was born and raised
Nelson
in Oklahoma and
wrote and directed
the Holocaust film
The Grey Zone,
is the nephew of
George Kaiser,
67, a very famous
oil billionaire who
is among the 100
George Kaiser
richest people in
America.
Tim's mother, Ruth Kaiser
Nelson, is George's sister. Ruth
and George's parents were refu-

gees from Nazi Germany. Ruth and
George's father and uncle founded
an Oklahoma oil company in the
1940s, which George joined in the
'60s and now heads up. George and
Ruth are among the biggest bene-
factors of the Oklahoma Jewish
community, and their philanthropy
to the general Oklahoma com-
munity, including the arts, is truly
incredible.
In January 2009, George Kaiser
made headlines when he told the
Oklahoma legislature that the state
should eliminate or reduce tax
incentives for the oil and gas indus-
try and instead use the money for
health care or education programs
or for tax cuts for other taxpayers.
He has, like Bill Gates and Warren
Buffett, pledged to give half his
wealth to charity.

Mazel Toy

On Oct. 1, actor Seth Rogen, 29,
married his longtime girlfriend,
filmmaker-writer Lauren Miller,
30, in a Jewish ceremony held in a
vineyard in Sonoma, Calif. Guests

Miller and Rogen

included
Rogen's
frequent co-
stars Adam
Sandier, 45,
Paul Rudd,
42, and
Jonah Hill,

27. Director

Judd Apatow, 43, who gave Rogen
his first big breaks (the TV series
Freaks and Geeks and the movie
Knocked Up), also was in atten-
dance.
Rogen recently told the Jewish
Journal of Greater Los Angeles
that he planned to honor his pal
Will Reiser at his (then) upcom-
ing wedding. Reiser, who wrote
the script for
Rogen's new hit
film, 50/50, which
was inspired by
Reiser's own fight
with cancer, was
the person who
first introduced
Miller to Rogen.

Will Reiser

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