WEEKDAY MATTERS | YSU Wind Ensemble performs tonight at Stambaugh Auditorium

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The School of Theatre at the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown has postponed the performance of “Falsettos in Concert.”]

Here are some of the events happening around the Mahoning Valley this week. For more events, check out our events calendar and sign up here for our Weekend Matters newsletter.

YOUNGSTOWN — More than 30 high school music students from the region will join the Youngstown State University Wind Ensemble tonight for a concert at Stambaugh Auditorium.

Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. performance cost $8 for adults and $7 for senior citizens. Admission is free for anyone with a valid YSU ID. They are available at StambaughAuditorium.com or at the door.

The first half of the concert includes music by composers Richard Strauss, Carlos Simon, Julie Giroux and David Maslanka. YSU's Kathryn Umble, professor of flute, and Kayla Gilmore, senior in music performance, are soloists.

The high school students will perform with the Wind Ensemble music by composers Andrew Boysen, Steve Danyew and Bruce Broughton. They spent Sunday participating in workshops and lessons in Bliss Hall.

Sculptor Meiser offers YSU lecture Thursday

YOUNGSTOWN — Guest artist Joe Meiser will present a lecture Thursday for Youngstown State University's Department of Visual & Dramatic Arts.

The sculptor's 4 p.m. talk will be in the McDonough Museum Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public. Masks are required in all YSU buildings.

Meiser is a sculptor and digital artist who uses his work to address questions about ethics, mortality and paradoxical human condition. He lives in Lewisburg, Pa., where he teaches courses on sculpture, digital sculpture and drawing at Bucknell University.

His projects synthesize ideas from philosophy, science and religion while including humor to facilitate insight.

Although Meiser’s formal education was in sculpture, he now primarily uses CAD software to explore the conceptual and practical potential of virtual form.

Meiser earned his BFA at Northern Kentucky University and his MFA at Ohio University. He has exhibited his artwork in venues across the United States and internationally.

Goldbach, Sachs set for Lit Youngstown

YOUNGSTOWN — Lit Youngstown’s First Wednesday Readers Series will present Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts graduates memoirist Eliese Colette Goldbach of Cleveland and Youngstown native poet Carly Sachs.

The reading, free and open to the public, will be co-hosted by Laurin Wolf and will be followed by an open mic. It's available at 7 p.m.Wednesday on Zoom and Facebook Live. Registration for the Zoom room is available at www.LitYoungstown.org.

Goldbach’s award-winning memoir "Rust," about working in the steel industry, was published by Macmillan Publishers. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Western Humanities Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Best American Essays 2017.

Sachs is the author of "The Steam Sequence" (Washington Writers' Publishing House) and "Descendants of Eve" (Blue Lyra Press). She is the editor of the anthology, "The Why and Later" (Deep Cleveland Press). She is the coordinator for the PJ Library Program in Lexington, Ky., as well as a lactation consultant, yoga teacher and challah baker.

GCC Theatre to present 'Once Upon a Mattress'

GROVE CITY, Pa. — Grove City College’s Theatre Program will present its first main stage musical in two years, “Once Upon a Mattress."

The musical will be staged Wednesday through Saturday at 7 p.m. in Ketler Auditorium of the Pew Fine Arts Center.

The musical is a comedic retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s 1835 fairy tale, “The Princess and the Pea.”

The show — with lyrics by Marshall Barer and music by Mary Rodgers — features classic, well-loved numbers such as “Shy” and “Man to Man Talk.”

The show is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Reserve tickets online at GCC.edu/tickets or by emailing ouamgcc@gmail.com.

The show is directed by Betsy Craig, a professor of English and Theatre at GCC.

“When we were deciding on our musical for this fall, it was difficult because we didn’t know exactly where we would be in terms of [COVID-19]," Craig said in a news release. "But I knew that if we were going to be able to do a musical, I wanted to produce a ‘big’ show.

"It was important to do a show that was ensemble-based and had a strong element of dance and movement," Craig said.

For more about the theater program at Grove City College, visit GCC.edu/theater.

JCC offers art workshop, tournament

YOUNGSTOWN — The Paul and Yetta Gluck School of Visual Arts at the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown is offering two art workshops this month.



Mug Making will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the JCC, 505 Gypsy Lane. Participants will make a mug from scratch.



Embroidery will be at 6 p.m. Nov. 16. Participants will learn how to make decorative needlework designs.



Cost for each is $15 for JCC members and $20 for non-members. Supplies are included. Visit JCCYoungstown.org/visualarts to register. The workshops are open to all ages. Children ages 10 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

It's a busy month at the center. From 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, the School of Theatre will hold open auditions for “Falsettos in Concert."



"Falsettos" centers around Jewish identity, gender roles and gay life in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Individuals 18 and older are invited to audition. Those auditioning should prepare a 32-measure song. Auditions will be in the School of Theatre studio.



The performance will be at 7 p.m. Dec. 16.

Also, the center has scheduled a pickleball shootout and a pickleball ladder league.



The 2021 JCC Fall Pickleball Shootout will be at 9 a.m. Nov. 13. Participants may compete with any doubles combination with skill levels of 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0-plus. The cost is $45 per team for JCC members and $60 per team for non-members. Registration is required by Friday.



The pickleball ladder league is set from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays from Nov. 15 to Dec. 13. The cost is $15 for JCC members and $20 for non-members.

Some quick hits …

• The Tunnel of Oppression, a walk-through interactive display that addresses topics such as body image, mental health, poverty and ableism, will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday in the Presidential Suites of Kilcawley Center on the YSU campus. Admission is free. The opening of the display will be at 3 p.m. Monday with a presentation by Carmella Hill titled “Widening the View: Do you see what I see?” in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley.

• The YSU Dana School of Music Flute's Music at Noon series continues Wednesday with a Flute Studio Recital. The performance will begin at 12:15 p.m. at the Butler Institute of American Art on Wick Avenue.

• Dr. Linda Di Fiore, mezzo-soprano, will present a master class at 3 p.m. Thursday in YSU's Bliss Recital Hall. Masks are required in all YSU buildings. The master class is free and open to the public. Di Fiore is on the voice faculty at the DePaul University School of Music where she teaches voice and opera.

• The downbeat is at 7:30 p.m. Thursday as students in the YSU Jazz Studies Area Jazz Quintet and Sextet perform a free concert in Spotlight Theater, Bliss Hall. The groups will feature original music by YSU students Chandler Carpenter, Enzo Chiodi, Lucas Ciesielski and Antwan Howard. Music will also be played by composers Wayne Shorter, John Scofield and Ornette Coleman.

This story was originally published November 1, 2021 at 4:35 AM with the headline "WEEKDAY MATTERS | YSU Wind Ensemble performs tonight at Stambaugh Auditorium."