Offer Mom gift of music Sunday at concert

The Northwest Symphony Orchestra is hoping that you will be looking for something cultural to do with your mother this Mother's Day.

They are hosting a 3:30 p.m. pops concert at Maine West High School, 1755 S. Wolf Road, Des Plaines.

And they are pulling out all of the stops to entice you -- two vocal soloists and a piano soloist, in addition to the 70-member orchestra.

"We hope that holding our final concert of the season on Mother's Day will not be a liability," said Paul Vermel, music director and conductor.

"We have put together a lovely, romantic program that we hope will please everyone," he explained. "So we are hoping that everyone will bring their mothers out for a perfect afternoon."

To spice things up, Vermel and the orchestra's board chose to include operatic singers in this program, something they have not done in the many years of Vermel's tenure with the orchestra.

After the orchestra opens the performance with Giacomo Puccini's early and seldom-performed "Symphonic Prelude," soprano Lauren Curnow and tenor Edward Mout, both members of the Lyric Opera's Ryan Opera Center for American Artists, will sing two sentimental love duets -- selections from Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" and "La Boheme," as well as favorites from Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story."

Then piano soloist Olga Nikova Ridgway, a native of Uzbekistan, will take the stage with the orchestra to conclude the program with George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."

"Olga performed with the orchestra as a soloist several years ago and she was wonderful, so we asked her to return," Vermel said.

The Northwest Symphony Orchestra consists of 70 instrumentalists who meet weekly to play great symphonic orchestral music.

Founded in 1951, the orchestra features talented musicians who, in some cases, have pursued other areas of endeavor in their careers, but continue to enjoy performing music, as well as music educators, performers and students who choose to perform in the orchestra in addition to their other musical forays. They range from teenagers to octogenarians and come from 45 area communities.

If you go

What: Mother's Day Pops Concert by the Northwest Symphony Orchestra

When: 3:30 p.m., Sunday

Where: Maine West High School auditorium, 1755 S. Wolf Road, Des Plaines

Cost: $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 for students; under age 14 free with paid adult

Note: A pre-concert commentary by Carolyn Paulin, a producer and program host at WFMT-Chicago and Vermel's wife, will begin at 2:30 p.m.

Contact: www.northwestsymphony.org