Events: Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra goes retro

The Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra’s (LSO) latest fundraiser, “Get Down Tonight,” is a nightclub-style show and dance featuring the great Motown hits of the 1960s and 1970s.

BC’s Big Rhythm Sound — featuring trumpeter and LSO founding member Bill Carroll, vocalist Becky Grandey and keyboardist/vocalist Lew Taylor — is headlining the event, which starts at 9 p.m. Saturday in the Academy of Fine Arts’ Warehouse Theatre.

This year, Lynchburg resident George Caylor will appear as a special guest, sitting in on bass during the band’s two sets. Although he now calls himself “a nameless, faceless, bass player,” Caylor was a member of mid-60s groups whose records made three of the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1967 adn 1968. He is now a financial planner, host of a syndicated radio spot, and with his wife owns The Residence, a local bed & breakfast.

Admission is limited to about 250 attendees, and tables of eight can be reserved.

Tickets to the three-hour event are $20 per person. They can be purchased in person at Givens Books and Lynchburg Music on Fort Avenue; online at http://www.LynchburgTickets.com; by phone at (434) 845-6604; or at the door, if seats are still available.

Choral union raises money for Food Bank

The Lynchburg College Choral Union and Concert Choir’s fall concert, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, will benefit the Lynchburg branch of the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.

Under the direction of Melanie Braxton Coleman, the Choral Union — an ensemble made up of LC faculty, staff, students and alumni — will perform Mozart’s “Missa Brevis in B flat;” Randall Thompson’s “Frostiana,” which is based on four Robert Frost poems; David Dickau’s “If Music Be the Food of Love;” and Moses Hogan’s arrangement of “Music Down in My Soul,” among others.

The Concert Choir, a large student ensemble, will perform Mozarts’ “Ave Verum Corpus;” Gabriel Faure’s “Cantique de Jean Racine (Op. 11),” Egil Hovland’s “Saul,” and “Two ayres and Phantastick sprites” from the English Madrigal School.

Music professor Cynthia Ramsey will conduct the choir, as well as both groups in a performance of “Hallelujah” from Beethoven’s “Mount of Olives.”

Admission to the concert will be a donation of cash or non-perishable food items for the food bank, which serves 17,000 people each month. Current numbers indicate that the Lynchburg branch expects to distribute 1.9 million this year — 400,000 more meals than last year.

For more information about the concert, call (434) 544-8344.

Work Release hits Ellington Fridays
The latest Ellington Fridays event will feature Work Release, hot off the stage at the Sedalia Chili Cook-off, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. The band plays rock and blues from the ’60s and ’70s.

Tickets are $8 and can be purchased at the door. Light appetizers will be served, and the cash bar will be open.

Visit http://www.theellington.org for more information.

CVCC exhibits photos of Ireland

Central Virginia Community College’s Merritt Hall Gallery is opening its latest exhibit — “From Dublin to Ballylinny,” a collection of photographs and paintings of Ireland — with a reception from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday. It will remain up until the end of December.

The work reflects the travels of a number of CVCC faculty, staff and friends as they went from Dublin to the Antrim Coast in May. Along the way, they captured the streets of Dublin, the beauty of the Irish countryside, ancient monuments and the Northern Ireland towns, with their visible history of “The Troubles.”

Sweet Briar holds fall dance concert

Performances of Sweet Briar College’s 2009 fall dance concert are scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Murchison Lane Auditorium.

The program of mostly modern dances will include performances by more than 30 student dance majors and several faculty members, including Mark and Ella Magruder.

Both Magruders choreographed pieces for the show. Mark’s, “Stones and Scones,” features him playing live music on a guitar, while dancers perform with long pieces of fabric.

Other dances include sophomore Ashley Adams’ “My Hallucination,” which incorporates glow-in-the-dark props; senior Katherine Boltz’s crossover dance, which combines modern dance with Irish step dancing and is set to music by the Afro Celt Sound System, a musical group that fuses Celtic and African music; a jazzy piece by sophomore Courtney Lewandowski; and junior Sara Buttine’s duet, in which one student is wearing a sloppy sweater, and the other is trying to get it away from her.

Admission to the concert is free. For more information, call (434) 381-6150 or visit http://www.sbc.edu. 

Hamner continues cabaret series
The Dinah Pehrson Band is headlining the Hamner Theater’s latest “In the Cabaret” event, set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

It’s been three years since the last time the band brought their mix of blues and R&B — with a little Dylan, country, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and who-knows-what-else-mixed-in — to the Hamner.

The Cabaret Performance Series offers entertainment in a club setting, with wine, beer and food. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the show begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets, which include heavy hors d’oeuvres, are $20 each or 2 for $35, and must be purchased in advance.

For more information, call (434) 361-1999 or visit http://www.hamnertheater.com.