The end of July is already in sight. So while there are still summer days and nights ahead, get out there and enjoy music under the sun or music under the stars.
And that’s just what Toledoans have been doing for decades: going to the Toledo Zoo Amphitheatre to listen to classics, whether classical music by Ludwig van Beethoven or Felix Mendelssohn, or classical jazz, rock, blues, and more, often accompanied by the caged creatures.
This weekend, zoogoers can get an early peek at the Lights before Christmas display while listening to holiday music — under the stars, of course.
Funds from the Works Progress Administration came to Toledo during the Great Depression, leaving behind a trail of civic-improvement projects, including an amphitheater at Ottawa-Jermain Park, the Toledo Lucas County Main Library building, and a wealth of structures and improvements at the Toledo Zoo, then in its 30s.
The WPA was derided by opponents as a “make work” program, that is, building things that weren’t needed. But it put money in the pockets of Americans and beauty in front of those Toledoans who gathered at the zoo amphitheater for a few days in July, 1936, as well as the generations who followed.
In fact, 10,000 people showed up for the first classical concert on July 16 in the approximately 4,500-seat amphitheater. According to the zoo, a wall of multicolored, cascading water splashed into a pool filled with swans to hide the structure before opening to its awestruck audience.
During that concert, the Toledo Civic Orchestra performed Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, Richard Wagner, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. A short ballet piece was also included. Three days later, the festivities culminated in a “community sing.”
It wasn’t until 1938, three years before Pearl Harbor catapulted the nation into World War II, that the term Music Under the Stars was coined to describe summer concerts under the great proscenium arch.
Music wasn’t the only arts performed at the zoo: Shakespeare and other plays were staged at the amphitheater as well.
Yet the pull remained the concerts and the musicians who played there, even though the pull to stay indoors to watch John Wayne at the theaters or Milton Berle on the television set might have been just as strong.
In 1953, Sam Szor began to lead these concerts at the zoo, and he continued to do so for 60 years.
According to an article in The Blade published in 2011, “An estimated 2 million people have listened to the concerts since the program's inception. ... Mr. Szor, known far and wide as Mr. Music, has mastered the art of programming for a diverse public, including light classics, Broadway standards, marches, and jazz.”
Szor led the Toledo Concert Band for Music Under the Stars for 60 years, often adding his own personal flair by dressing in costume as Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach or “March King” John Philip Sousa.
Szor died in 2014. The music didn’t stop, but the partnership with the Toledo Symphony ended by 2018. Since then, the zoo has been arranging the lineup, said Jennifer Brassil, zoo events manager.
“I’d say the bands are more regional,” Brassil said in an email. “We have performance groups based out of Maumee, B.G., Genoa, Bellevue, and Toledo.”
Some of the luminaries in the music world who have performed in the amphitheater, according to the zoo, have been Leopold Stokowski, Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio, Jackson Browne, Chicago, the Tragically Hip, Louis Armstrong, David Sanborn, Roger Williams, Eddie Rabbitt, Anne Murray, Bonnie Raitt, actors John and Arthur Lithgow, and Tarzan (Johnny Wiesmuller).
Brassil said that the average attendance is about 500, but it can number in the thousands.
“Our busiest Sunday performance is our Christmas in July performance, when we have a portion of our Lights before Christmas lights on,” she said.
July’s Christmas this year at the zoo is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Times Friday and Saturday are 7 to 10 p.m. The zoo’s south side will be aglow, holiday carols will be in the air, and even Santa gets a break from the frigid North Pole when he visits from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Disney royalty from the film Frozen will be there on Friday, and the Grinch and Cindy Loo Who will visit on Saturday.
Families can play glow in the dark mini golf and make crafts, and the ProMedica Museum of Natural History, Aquarium, Reptile House, carousel, and Nancy L. & Martin Davidson Barnyard will be open.
On Sunday, 56Daze will be in free concert at 7:30 p.m. in the amphitheater. If you’re not in the mood for a concert, acoustic duo DC Taylor will be in the zoo’s main plaza for visitors to listen as they look at the lights.
The gates open at 6 p.m. and close at 10 p.m. Learn more at toledozoo.org/music.
THE MONDAY Musicale holds a benefit concert for its student scholarships fund at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Center for Performing Arts of the University of Toledo, 1910 W. Rocket Dr.
Duo Ami is set to perform. Members Amy Brucksch, guitar, and Amy Heritage, flutist, were colleagues at the University of Toledo and performed as Ohio Arts Council Touring Artists. Duo Ami has been performing throughout the Midwest and South since 1989.
Admission is free, but donations are welcome. Limited free parking is available. Parking lot attendants will be on hand to assist patrons, the Monday Musicale group said.
Coming up:
■ Promenade Park, 400 Water St., Toledo, Friday, 6:15 p.m.: ProMedica Live featuring Craig Morgan. The Grand Ole' Opry member and philanthropist has charted 17 times on the Billboard country charts. Tickets start at $20. Gates open at 5 p.m. Visit promedicalive.com.
■ Walbridge Park, 2761 Broadway, Thursday, 7 p.m.: Extra Stout. Free.
■ Ottawa Park Amphitheater, 2205 Kenwood Blvd., Saturday, 6 to 8 p.m.: Distant Cousinz. Free.
■ Lucille’s Jazz Lounge at TolHouse, 1447 N. Superior St., Toledo, Friday, 8 p.m.: Toledo Jazz Orchestra featuring Andrew Bishop. Non-member tickets are $10. Visit lucillesjazzlounge.com.
Saturday, 8 p.m. Tod Dickow with Charged Particles. Non-member tickets are $10. Visit lucillesjazzlounge.com.
■ Commodore Schoolyard, 140 E. Indiana Ave., Perrysburg, Thursday, 7 p.m.: Music at the Market presented by Mercy Health featuring Not Fast Enuff. Free.
■ Woodland Park, 429 E. Boundary St., Perrysburg. July 27, noon to 1 p.m.: Wednesdays at Woodland featuring the Quartet Bernadette.
Send news of music to Heather Denniss at hdenniss@theblade.com at least one week ahead of your event.
First Published July 21, 2022, 11:45 a.m.
