Culture FIX, April 15-21

We have a strangely eclectic mix of arts and culture events this week, so let’s just get In the Mood to Take the “A” Train to Fleet Street, tangle with Tango on the Square, tour the cosmos with an ancient prince, skip to the Scottish Highlands and California redwood forests, and much more …

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Wednesday, April 15

CCM Opera and Musical Theatre, “Sweeney Todd” | 8 p.m. Corbett Auditorium, University of Cincinnati. 513-556-4183. DETAILS: What a weird and possibly appropriate debut for Tax Day: As writer and Sondheim authority Rick Pender noted in the April edition of Movers & Makers, Stephen Sondheim’s stage masterpiece “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is a fitting vehicle for collaboration by CCM’s Opera and Musical Theatre departments. This promises to be a memorable, first-class production of Sondheim’s musically sophisticated 1979 shocker about a deranged 19th-century London barber whose quest for vengeance takes a particularly bloody turn. Meat pies, anyone? Through April 19.

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concertnova, “Bartók Rebórn” | 7:30 p.m. Cohen Family Studio Theater, CCM, University of Cincinnati. DETAILS: Many years ago, I had the privilege of studying and performing Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. I’ve long felt that it’s one of the greatest musical works of the 20th century – a unique and virtuosic blend of visceral emotional power with ferocious structural logic. For this program, concertnova is presenting the Baltimore-based icarus Quartet (pianists and percussionists), who will perform not only the Bartók classic but three new works written in response to it by Jennifer Higdon, Martin Bresnick and Viet Cuong.

Thursday, April 16

Cincinnati Ballet, “Pinocchio” | 7 p.m. Procter & Gamble Hall, Aronoff Center, downtown. 513-621-5219. DETAILS: Cincinnati Ballet‘s Family Series presents a one-hour, narrated, family-friendly ballet on the classic story of the puppet who wants to be a real boy, performed by the company’s CB2 dancers and young performers from the Otto M. Budig Academy. Free games, crafts, photos and more will be available in the lobby before the performances. Through April 19.

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Paul Kroner, “What have I done?” | Opening reception 6-9 p.m. Studio Kroner, 130 W. Court St., downtown. DETAILS: This is no mere despairing, rhetorical question. Gallery founder Paul Kroner answers his own query with an exhibition surveying his own creative activity and direction, along with that of the other artists he has featured, during the five years since he opened Studio Kroner (which was just named Best Gallery in CityBeat’s Best of Cincinnati 2026). Through May 23; artist talk 1-2 p.m. May 2 (NOTE: new date; also, just found out, moderated by M&M publishers Elizabeth Mariner and Thom Mariner); closing reception 1-4 p.m. May 23.

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Acoustic Salsa, Patricia Paz (Argentinian Tango & Folklore) | 5 p.m. Fountain Square, downtown. 513-621-4400. DETAILS: We’re not quite ready for the Salsa on the Square season, but Fountain Square is filling the Thursday evening slot with a series of varied Latin music performances – without the lively dance instruction that has made Salsa on the Square (which returns in May) a popular favorite since 2008.

Friday, April 17

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, “Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3” | 11 a.m., Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 513-381-3300. DETAILS: The CSO continues to amaze with fiendishly clever titles for its concerts. Anchoring this program with guest conductor Kristiina Poska is … wait for it … Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3! Nicknamed the “Scottish” Symphony, it features more than a wee dram of tunes and rhythms inspired by the composer’s visit to Scotland in 1829. French pianist Lise de la Salle is a fitting soloist for Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and composer Julia Adolphe’s well-regarded 2018 “Underneath the Sheen,” inspired by the play of light through a canopy of California redwoods, opens the program. Also 7:30 p.m. April 18.

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Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, “Pericles” | Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, 1195 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 513-381-2273. DETAILS: Cincy Shakes has chosen to boldly go where no theater company has gone before by beaming up William Shakespeare’s obscure late work “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” (well, he likely wrote just the last three acts, with the now-forgotten George Wilkins penning the first two) from a tale about a prince’s long, disaster-plagued wanderings among the kingdoms of the ancient world to a sci-fi epic about a prince’s warp-speed intergalactic voyage to alien worlds. Talk about a Hail Mary Project! The production will live long and prosper through May 3.

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Silent Movies Made Musical, “The Mark of Zorro” | 7 p.m. Music Hall Ballroom, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 513-621-2787. DETAILS: Well buckle my swashes, the Friends of Music Hall fire up the Mighty Wurlitzer theater organ for a screening of the 1920 Douglas Fairbanks silent classic about the nobleman Don Diego Vega, who dons the mask of Zorro to fight injustice. Prominent silent-film accompanist Clark Wilson is the organist.

Saturday, April 18

City Flea, Vintage Market | 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Ziegler Park, 1322 Sycamore St., Over-the-Rhine. DETAILS: For 15 years, City Flea has boosted small businesses and entrepreneurs in the city’s core with flea-market events at venues such as Washington Park and a focused, curated version with vintage items at Ziegler Park – more than 100 events in all. City Flea kicks off its 2026 schedule with a Vintage Market, and the organization’s leaders are considering “some completely new events” this year. Stay tuned.

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Dayton Performing Arts Alliance, “American Soundscapes” | 7:30 p.m. Winsupply Theatre, Schuster Center, 1 W. 2nd St., Dayton, Ohio. 937-228-3630. DETAILS: America’s 250th anniversary celebration this year is already generating plenty of American music-themed events, and the artistic directors of the DPAA – Keitaro Harada of the Dayton Philharmonic, Kathleen Clawson of the Dayton Opera and Brandon Ragland of the Dayton Ballet – are collaborating on a multi-discipline program featuring all three groups. The program has plenty to enjoy: Aaron Copland’s “Hoe-Down” and selections from “Old American Songs;” music from Leonard Bernstein’s “Fancy Free” and “West Side Story;” George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with pianist Ji-Hyang Gwak; and “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “Lush Life” and “Sophisticated Ladies” by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. A pre-concert talk with the artistic directors begins at 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 19

Cincinnati Choral Society, “Choral Voices … Plus One” | 3 p.m. Indian Hill Episcopal-Presbyterian Church, 6000 Drake Road, Indian Hill. DETAILS: For its spring event, the Cincinnati Choral Society has crafted a nature/life/love-themed program in which each choral piece is accompanied by a single obbligato instrument – such as flute, clarinet, violin or cello. Also of note: This will be the final CCS concert for Artistic Director Phil Clary and Assistant Artistic Director Lisa Peters, both of whom will conduct during the concert. Scot Buzza takes over as artistic director May 1.

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Taft Chamber Music Series, Summermusik | 2:30 p.m. Taft Museum of Art, Lytle Park, downtown. 513-723-1182. DETAILS: The Taft’s free chamber-music series kicks off this year with a program by members of Summermusik/Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. The series also has events scheduled for June 21 and July 26.

Monday, April 20

Jazz at the Memo, “From Toninho to Metheny” | 7 p.m. Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 513-977-8838. DETAILS: Noted local guitarist-singer Carlos Vargas, joined by pianist Brian Cashwell and bassist Justin Dawson, present a concert pairing pieces by Brazilian composer-guitarist Toninho Horta and famed American jazz guitarist-composer Pat Metheny.

Tuesday, April 21

Jazz at the Square, Mason Daugherty Trio | 5 p.m., Fountain Square, downtown. 513-621-4400. DETAILS: The popular Tuesday night jazz series at Fountain Square started last week, and has a solid weekly lineup of performers set through late September. Mason Daugherty, a Kentucky bassist-singer-composer who works in various genres, brings his trio (with guitarist Patrick Oakes and pianist Chris Caporale) to the square this week.

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Cincinnati Arts Association, Glenn Miller Orchestra | 7 p.m. Jarson-Kaplan Theater, Aronoff Center, downtown. 513-621-2787. DETAILS: Boy, the way Glenn Miller played … songs that made the Hit Parade … Those apparently still are the days. Perhaps the most famous and beloved big band of all, the Glenn Miller Orchestra has been touring continuously since 1956 in various incarnations, logging more than 200 concerts a year. The 18-member ensemble will perform classic Miller songs such as “In the Mood,” “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “American Patrol,” “A String of Pearls,” “Little Brown Jug,” “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” “Tuxedo Junction” and its theme song, “Moonlight Serenade.” Repeats Wednesday, April 22.