A Concert When You're Done Digging Out

So here we are again! My daughter and I spent about 45 minutes clearing the slush off the sidewalks in the light rain of yesterday afternoon, and then watched serenely as a foot of snow covered over those paths in the evening, satisfied in the knowledge that we had done our part and this morning's school would be closed for all.

Tonight however if you're feeling up to it, you can drag your sore muscles to the Nicholas Music Center, in the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center, 85 George St., on Douglass Campus, Rutgers University, New Brunswick. The concert inaugurates an exciting concert series, the Common Purposes Concert Series, featuring jazz and world music.

Tonight's guest is pianist Aruán Ortiz, blending avant-garde jazz and world music. The Aruán Ortiz Trio features Grammy Award nominatee Ignacio Berroa on drums and Ed Howard on bass. Ortiz fuses jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms in original compositions and arrangements of classical masterpieces.

It's the perfect last-minute event, as the performance is free and tickets are not needed. For more information, visit www.masongross.rutgers.edu or call the ticket office at 732-932-7511.

Depending on how the shoveling goes, I may or may not see you there.

--C.
www.theandofone.blogspot.com

Storms and Reviews

Our local Monmouth Symphony Orchestra is scheduled to perform this afternoon at 3 p.m. The group has posted a note on its website that says the performance is going ahead as scheduled despite the remains of the storm that are everywhere here. I plan to be there and to write a review for the Asbury Park Press (running probably Tuesday or Wednesday).

I had planned to review the production of Carmen that opened at McCarter Theatre in Princeton Friday with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Opera NJ. But with the Weather Channel warning that blizzard conditions could shut down I-195 ... I opted to stay home. Performances of Carmen in New Jersey continue at 3 p.m. this afternoon at The State Theatre, 15 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick and 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre, 1 Centre Dr., Newark. For tickets and information visit the NJSO website, www.njsymphony.org or call 1-800-ALLEGRO.

--C.
www.theandofone.blogspot.com