MUSIC NOTES : MET BASSO TOZZI AT UCI BENEFIT CONCERT

Metropolitan Opera basso Giorgio Tozzi will be the featured guest artist at a UC Irvine Music Scholarship Benefit concert at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Fine Arts Concert Hall on the campus.

Tozzi will appear with several UCI music faculty members, including soprano Nina Hinson, bass-baritone Marvin Hayes, pianists Nina Scolnik and Rosemary Hyler, violinist Brian Dembow, cellist Stephen Erdody and clarinetist Gary Bovyer.

The program will include music by Gershwin, Schubert, Brahms and Liszt.

Tozzi appeared at the Metropolitan for 20 consecutive seasons, singing such roles as Boris Godunov, Don Giovanni, Rossini’s Don Basilio, Mozart’s Figaro and Gounod’s Mephistopheles. He created the role of the Doctor in the premiere of Samuel Barber’s “Vanessa” at the Met in 1978.

He has been described as an imposing figure on stage and has been praised for his musical versatility, warmth and intelligence.

Tozzi’s active career also includes appearances in films and television, including dramatic as well as operatic roles, and he was recently nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in the revival of “Most Happy Fella” on Broadway.

Tozzi also has served on the faculty at the Juilliard School in New York and has recorded for RCA with Renata Tebaldi, Birgit Nilsson, Jussi Bjoerling and many other great concert artists.

For further information, call (714) 856-6616.

The University Orchestra at Cal State Fullerton will conclude its concert season today with an all-Russian program at 8 p.m. in the Little Theater on the campus.

Featured composers include Tchaikovsky and Borodin. Appearing with the orchestra will be the University Singers and University Choir. For information, call (714) 773-3371.

John Sambuco, concertmaster of the Capistrano Valley Symphony, will be featured soloist in the orchestra’s 4 p.m. concert on Sunday in the Capistrano Valley High School Gymnasium. Sambuco will be featured in Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor. Music director Donn Laurence Mills also will conduct Bach’s “Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother” and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1, among other works.

The 60-member orchestra was founded by Mills in 1984. For further information, call (714) 493-7682.

The Arizona Chamber Choir will visit the Southland to perform at Golden West College on Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Mainstage Theater. The 33-voice choir will sing a program of varied music ranging from Brahms to Verdi. For further information, call (714) 895-8378.