Local concerts don’t end when summer does

How can fall be coming already if there’s still sunscreen in the tube?
By the time August is halfway gone, the same might be said for the blank spaces your calendar. Autumn activities have a way of crowding schedules before the coals in your grill even get cold.

With all the meetings, rehearsals, practices and projects coming up for fall, make sure there’s room on your to-do list to pencil in some “me” time. To make it easier, take a quick cruise through a sampling of upcoming concert series offerings and grab your BlackBerry.
Charlottesville Chamber Music Series
Tickets for Charlottesville’s homegrown chamber music celebration, the brainchild of cellist Raphael Bell and violinist and violist Timothy Summers, are available at http://www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu and http://www.cvillechambermusic.org. Get them by phone at 295-5395.
The festival will present events on Sept. 6, 13, 17 and 20 in Cabell Hall Auditorium and a concert followed by a 10th-anniversary reception on Sept. 10 at the Paramount Theater. Returning favorites and new guests present a combination of classic chamber works and new music.

Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra
“Musical Postcards” is the theme for the 2009-10 season, which will present Saturday evening concerts in Cabell Hall Auditorium at the University of Virginia and Sunday matinees at Monticello High School under the baton of music director Kate Tamarkin.
The concerts include:
—Sept. 26 and 27: “Ciao Bella,” including Giuseppe Verdi’s “Overture to ‘Nabucco,’ ’’ Tomaso Albinoni’s “Adagio for Strings in G minor,” Nino Rota’s “Bassoon Concerto” with soloist Ibby Roberts and Felix Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 4, Op. 90, ‘Italian.’ ’’
—Nov. 7 and 8: “Vive La France” offers Maurice Durufle’s “Requiem” featuring conductor Michael Slon, mezzo-soprano Cherry Duke, baritone Sumner Thompson and UVa’s University Singers, plus Claude Debussy’s “Danses Sacred and Profane” with harpist Anastasia Jellison and Debussy’s “La Mer.”
—Feb. 13 and 14, 2010: “Heartland of Europe” presents Zoltan Kodaly’s “Galanta dances,” Frederic Chopin’s “Piano Concerto No. 2” with pianist Mimi Tung, Arvo Part’s “Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten” and Andrzej Panufnik’s “Sinfonia Sacre.”
—March 27 and 28: “English Variations” serves up Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (Variations on a Theme of Purcell),” Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis” and Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variation’s, Op. 36.”
—April 24 and 25: “The New World” features Samuel Barber’s “Essay No. 2 for Orchestra, Op. 17,” the premiere of UVa composer Judith Shatin’s “Jefferson, in His Own Words” and Antonin Dvorak’s “Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, ‘From the New World.’ ’’
The symphony also will bring back its popular Youth Concerts on Oct. 8 and Family Holiday Concerts with the University Singers on Dec. 5 and 6, and the Chamber Orchestra of Charlottesville plans its winter offering for Jan. 30.
Subscriptions are available online at http://www.cvillesymphony.org or by phone at 924-3139.
Individual tickets will go on sale starting Sept. 15 at the new Arts Box Office in the lobby of UVa’s Drama Building, through http://www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu or by calling 924-3376.

Tuesday Evening Concert Series
There’s still time to plan for the 2009-10 season of concerts by internationally respected performers.
The schedule includes the following:
—Oct. 13: Takacs Quartet, performing quartets by Beethoven and Schumann.
—Oct. 27: Cellist Amit Peled and pianist Robert Kulek, presenting sonatas by Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff.
—Nov. 17: Pavel Haas Quartet, playing quartets by Haydn, Ravel and Dvorak.
—Jan. 26: Europa Galante with conductor and violinist Fabio Biondi, offering works by Telemann and Sammartini and Vivaldi’s popular ‘The Four Seasons.”
—Feb. 23: Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena and pianist Yefim Bronfman, teaming up to play Schumann, Ravel, Rachmaninoff and Bartok.
—March 16: Pianist Christian Zacharias, performing Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert.
—April 27: Venice Baroque Orchestra with conductor Andrea Marcon and violinist Giuliano Carmignola, presenting works by Albinoni, Vivaldi, Geminiani and Tartini.

To subscribe to the series, visit http://www.tecs.org or call 244-9505. Individual tickets released by subscribers will be available starting two weeks before each concert at 924-3376, and you can check http://www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu as well.