6 things to do in the Stevens Point area

STEVENS POINT - There's plenty of music, from some local orchestras to classic music during the world's largest trivia contest, to go along with a community rummage sale and two activities right in downtown Stevens Point. Here’s our weekly roundup of noteworthy events:

1) Artisan Alley, Thursday and Saturday

Building on the growing effort to develop a more thriving city center, the Downtown Plaza with the support of CREATE portage county are launching Artisan Alley, turning the space of the building just off Main Street into a community of arts and crafts storefronts to support and grow locally-produced retail.

Open houses will be held from at the plaza, 1052 Main St., from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on April 14 and from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on April 16.

Organizers are looking to network artists and crafters interested in either running and managing a cooperative or placing goods on consignment within a space.

For more information, please contact Mike Beacom at 715-340-0681 or mike@pointhousing.com.

2) “A Grande Affaire,” Saturday and Sunday

The Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Dr. Patrick Miles, presents the final concert of the season program at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

“A Grand Affaire” will close the season by celebrating the CWSO’s new grand piano. The featured soloist, celebrated mezzo-soprano Julie Simson, is professor of voice at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, but no stranger to Wisconsin. Born and raised in Milwaukee, with family residing in Central Wisconsin, Ms. Simson is excited to be presenting Gustav Mahler’s “Songs of a Wayfarer” with the CWSO.

The concert will open with Richard Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung: Siegfried’s Death & Funeral Music,” and the season will conclude with Johannes Brahms’ “Symphony No. 2 in D Major,” composed in the summer of 1870 while the composer was on holiday. The symphony’s bright and cheerful character is in direct contrast to the dark mood of his first symphony.

For the fifth year, the CWSO will again participate in the League of American Orchestras’  “Orchestras Feeding America,” which over the past six years has seen over 450 orchestras from across the country collect and donate nearly 475,000 pounds of food. All donations stay in the Central Wisconsin community, benefitting UW-Stevens Point’s “The Cupboard.” Each concert attendee donating a non-perishable food item on the weekend of the concert will be entered to win a pair of tickets to the 2016-17 concert season, “A Sumptuous Feast of Sound.” The winner will be drawn at intermission on the Sunday concert.

Performances will be held at the Theater @1800 in the Sentry Insurance Complex, 1800 Northpoint Dr. Tickets, available through the UW-Stevens Point Box Office are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and $10 for any student with an I.D. through the college, plus $2 handling charge on each ticket. Student rush at $7 available for UW-Stevens Point and Mid-State Technical College students with I.D. at the Sunday concert beginning fifteen minutes prior to the start of the performance  Please contact the box office, located at 1015 Reserve Street, Stevens Point, by telephone: 800-838-3378 or via the internet: www.cwso.org/tickets.

3) Hancock Rummage Sale, Saturday

The 6th annual rummage sale, sponsored by the Hancock Citizens Committee, will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Hancock Community Center, 420 N. Jefferson St.

The committee is looking for donations of clean, gently used and/or new items to sell, no clothes or shoes. Donations may be dropped off at the community center from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday April 14 and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, April 15.

Breakfast and lunch will be available at the event, and there will be a bake sale. All proceeds will be used to purchase new stone benches and picnic tables at the new Hancock Community Center playground.

For more information, please contact Cindy Johnson at 715-249-5123, Lucy Vezina at 715-249-5563, or Wendy Hetzel at 715-249-5947.

4) “Readings and Songs in Praise of Creation,” Saturday

The Franciscans Downtown, 1000 Main St., will host a program, “Readings and Songs in Praise of Creation,” at 12 p.m. on Saturday. Willie Weinmann, who currently serves as director of music for Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church and organist at St. Joseph Catholic Church, will lead the program.

The event is free and open to the public. People can bring their lunch or enjoy free refreshments.

For more information, please contact Fr. Placid Stroik at placidstroik@yahoo.com or 201-663-1652 or Leo Jacoby at wisdom@wctc.com or 715-341-2790.

5) Central Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra, Sunday

The Central Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra Program will present their spring concert at 7 p.m. on Sunday in Michelsen Hall in the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s Noel Fine Arts Center. The concert is free and open to the public.

The non-profit organization was newly formed in September 2014 and serves young musicians from the central Wisconsin region as a part of their mission. They meet each week for 10 weeks per semester and receive additional mentoring from UW-Stevens Point Music Department student section coaches, participate in UW-Stevens Point Music Department faculty master classes and rehearse symphonic literature.

The Philharmonia, comprised mostly of middle/junior high school musicians, is under the direction of Stephen Wucherer. He is an active cellist, composer, arranger, and conductor throughout the Fox Valley and central Wisconsin. Wucherer is currently the 5th and 6th grade orchestra director at Lineville Intermediate School in the Howard-Suamico School District. The ensemble will perform Ancient Aires and Dances from Suite No. 1, Baletto by Ottorino Respighi: Symphony No. 1, 3rd Movement by Gustav Mahler, and the Overture to Rienzi by Richard Wagner.

The Youth Symphony, comprised mostly of high school musicians, is under the direction of Kurt Van Tiem, who is also the founding Music Director of CWYSOP. He has conducted for area orchestras as well as the University of Massachusetts Wind Ensemble and the University of Massachusetts Youth Wind Ensemble. He has also conducted many musicals for CWact and SPASH and is currently Chair of the Music Department at P. J. Jacobs Junior High in Stevens Point where he directs the Concert Band, Chamber and Concert Orchestra. Their program includes: Water Music Selections by G. F. Handel; Espana (Rhapsody for Orchestra) by Emmanuel Chabrier, and the first movement of A London Symphony by Ralph Vaughn Williams.

Founded in partnership with the UW-Stevens Point Music Department, Aber Suzuki Center, UW-Stevens Point Continuing Education, Heid Music, and music educators in central Wisconsin, the Central Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra Program serves all of central Wisconsin.

Registrations for the 2016-2017 season will begin mid-May.  For more information about CWYSOP and registration, visit UW-Stevens Point Continuing Education at:www.uwsp.edu/conted/Pages/enrichLife.aspx or call 715-346-3838.

6) Trivia 47, Friday through Sunday, April 15-17

Registration for the world's largest trivia contest runs daily from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday. The Trivia Parade will kick off at 4 p.m. Friday on the UW-Stevens Point campus before the contest starts at 6 p.m.

Those who don't plan to compete can still listen along on WWSP 90 FM on the radio or by livestream to music and questions for 54 straight hours. For more information, please visit http://90fmtrivia.org.

Nathan Vine: 715-345-2252 ornvine@gannett.com; on Twitter@NathanAVine.