Pete Nowlen, whose VITA Symphony Orchestra will perform Saturday at CSUS, has two audiences to serve. First there is the classical-music audience that comes to hear and enjoy this group of emerging professional musicians. Then there is the group of artists themselves. VITA stands for Vocal and Instrumental Teaching Artists -- and Nowlen helps to guide the musicians into a successful, satisfying career. Saturday's program "all flows from (Antonin Dvorak's) New World Symphony," Nowlen said. "One of the reasons that I wanted it to flow from that piece was Dvorak's intent when he composed it. It really pointed the way for American music to come." Other pieces on the program, all from the 2

The April 1 concert by Celtic music group Colcannon closed the 59th season of shows presented by Sacramento Community Concert Association. Many thought the season would never take place -- some in the organization had even urged a hiatus the year before -- but not only did Season 59 come off, it was so successful that Season 60 was announced at that concert. SCCA president Elaine Myer, a former board member who assumed the presidency two years ago, was proved right when she said the organization could survive -- and thrive again -- if it faced the new economic reality of arts presentation. For all of its first half-century, SCCA was a full-season-subscription-only concert promoter. The sho

St. Mark’s third annual Bravo Bach! Festival continues with three concerts this weekend. The first and the third feature local pianists with burgeoning careers. The middle show, on Saturday, features a jazz cabaret with the Joe Gilman Trio riffing on Baroque themes. That popular concert sold out last year. The festival, which presented three concerts last weekend, continues at 7:30 p.m. today with pianist Anyssa Neumann playing keyboard music of Bach, Handel and Couperin. Neumann grew up in Sacramento, studied at Sac State, and performed at the first Bravo Bach! Festival. She performs nationally and internationally and is noted for her “deep connection to the Bach repertoire.” In addition

The Sacramento Ballet is giving local audiences a rare opportunity to experience some of the work of the greatest choreographer of the 20th century: George Balanchine. "Genius" is the first all-Balanchine program ever performed by the troupe here (although it did present such a program when it was invited to perform in the People's Republic of  China in 2007).  Excerpts from six dances created between 1941 and 1964 are on the program, which will be presented at 2 p.m. today, 7 p.m. next Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. April 29 at the Ballet Company's Studio at 17th and K streets. Each program contains the same six dances but the order of performance and the featured dancers changes from sh

The third annual St. Mark’s Bravo Bach! Festival opened Friday with an evening of music by . . . Handel. The six-concert series, which continues today and Sunday and April 27, 28 and 29, is -- like the more-famous Carmel Bach Festival -- a celebration of Baroque music in general, with an emphasis on “the music of the immortals, J.S. Bach and G. F. Handel.” A 19-piece orchestra and 28-voice chorus under the direction of festival artistic director Jack D. Miller performed Handel’s “Messiah parts II and III” and, as was the custom in his day, an organ concerto, this one the concerto in F Major, opus V, no. 5. The “Messiah” is Handel’s most popular work, but it’s usually Part I that’s perform