This week’s entertainment offerings are mostly musical and mostly lighthearted – even the hospice talk, if you ask Sherry Campbell, co-founder and director of Welcome Home of Chattanooga, which serves the terminally ill. Her organization’s annual series on “Demystifying Death and Dying” is meant to help everyone face end-of-life decisions with good information and a lighter heart. Here’s a look at what’s ahead.
* Classical music: In three concerts this weekend, the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera will feature the music of P.D.Q. Bach, the fictional relative of Johann Sebastian Bach and alter ego of contemporary composer Peter Schickele. His “Musical Sacrifice” is a response to the classical composer’s “Musical Offering.”
“Whenever I hear the name P.D.Q. Bach, it always brings a huge smile to my face because I know I am in for a treat,” said CSO Music Director Kayoko Dan, who describes the satirical composer’s work as “witty, charming and whimsical.”
The program also will feature Bloch’s Concerto Grosso No. 1, a modern take on Baroque stylings, and contemporary American composer/flutist Valerie Coleman’s “Portraits of Josephine,” a musical biography of French American entertainer Josephine Baker.
The programming is part of the First Horizon Foundation Instrumental Series featuring smaller ensembles of musicians and limited audience sizes. Masks and socially distanced seating are required.