Colbert Artists Management

Zuill Bailey

Cellist Zuill Bailey got a standing ovation for his performance with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra on Monday night -- but he got kudos for an earlier, more intimate concert as well.

On Oct. 10, three days before the RSO concert at Roanoke's Performing Arts Theatre, Bailey performed for a group of symphony corporate sponsors and others at the newly renovated downtown loft of Roanoke clothier Larry Davidson. Attendees sipped wine and nibbled on hors d'oeuvres while Bailey performed in a spacious, high ceilinged room.

"I thought it was a great event," said Davidson, president of Davidsons men's clothing store, afterward. "I enjoyed it."

Bailey performed several of the Suites for Solo Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach on his 315-year-old instrument. Made by Italian luthier Matteo Gofriller, the cello was formerly owned by Mischa Schneider of the Budapest String Quartet.

At one point, Bailey held the instrument over his head for all in the room to see, while explaining that it was made in 1693 -- when Bach was 8.

Act two for Wilhelms

Pat Wilhelms, former education director for Mill Mountain Theatre, has a new gig: artistic director of the valley's newest children's theater.

The nonprofit Roanoke Children's Theatre will present four plays a year and also offer classes, Wilhelms said. Two other former Mill Mountain employees, Mary Best Bova and Shelley Lyons, are on the children's theater staff as well.

Performances will be in the theater space at the new Taubman Museum of Art, Wilhelms said.

Asked if she would be competing with Mill Mountain's own education programs, Wilhelms said, "I think we're an addition," and not a competitor. She said young actors who don't get into other productions around the valley now have another option. "They can come to us."

"I wish them well," Benton said of the new children's theater. "I don't necessarily think of it as competition. I think it's great when we expand the scope of people who appreciate theater."

Wilhelms said the new children's theater programming will focus on 5- to 18-year-olds and their families. "I truly believe theater is a vehicle to pull families together," she said.

For information about auditions at Roanoke Children's Theatre, call 312-4769.

Mann up first

Museum workers have hung the first artwork at the new Taubman Museum of Art. Let history note it was a photograph by Lexington's Sally Mann, from the exhibit "Rethinking Landscape: Contemporary Photography from the Allen G. Thomas Jr. Collection."

"We hung the first work in the gallery, and it just happened to be a Sally Mann," said Deputy Director of Art David Brown, who had been waiting eagerly for construction dust to settle so he could go to work. "I think it was quite fitting and prophetic, being the internationally renowned artist that she is, and also with these great regional connections and the fact that we own a couple of her works. It's one of those things that wasn't planned, but I think it's a good omen."

Brown is responsible for hanging most of the museum's artwork over the next few weeks -- a process he has likened to "playing three-dimensional chess."

Victoria Bond

Victoria Bond, music director for the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra from 1986 to 1995, talked about her dual life as a conductor and composer in an Oct. 10 story in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Bond will conduct the Chamber Opera Chicago in Samuel Barber's "Vanessa" today.

The article by former Sun-Times music critic Wynne Delacoma described Bond as "a live wire with a sunny smile and a mass of wavy blond hair." It noted she has spent her post-Roanoke years as a guest conductor and composer, and has written "operas ... ballets for companies including American Ballet Theatre, orchestral pieces, chamber music and film scores."

"It's a good double life," Bond is quoted as saying. "The only problem is time."

Organ spectacular

Six members of the Roanoke American Guild of Organists and three instrumentalists will perform works by Locklair, Vierne, Saunders, Camilleri, Bowden, Paulus and Durufle at 4 p.m. today at Greene Memorial United Methodist Church. The performance is part of an international Organ Spectacular -- the first global celebration of the organ. It is free. 344-6225.

Square deal

The Square Society gave a $25,000 check to Center in the Square at its 25th anniversary celebration earlier this month. The Square Society is an association of young professionals that supports Center in the Square. It has donated $116,000 to the arts and cultural complex over the years, said Center President Jim Sears. www.squaresociety.org.