Chapel Hill
Winter Festival of Chamber Music
Gerrard HallIt wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Donald Oehlera clarinet professor at the University of North Carolinais obsessed with chamber music. Oehler’s clarinet studio is littered with scores written for five instruments or fewer, pieces that highlight the tone of each instrument and emphasis the way it blends into a Beethoven sonata, Brahms trio or Mozart quintet.

In the UNC music department’s Winter Festival of Chamber Music, Oehlerwho founded and directs the University Chamber Players and is artistic director for the summer Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshopjoins UNC music faculty members Brent Wissick (cello) and Mayron Tsong (piano) for the Brahms Clarinet Trio. The piece poses Brahms’ controlled clarinet lines against an active cello part. The program also features the Brahms Horn Trio (with Richard Luby on violin, Andrew McAfee on French horn and Tsong on piano), and Benjamin Britten’s Cello Sonata (with Wissick on cello and Tsong on piano).

A second Winter Festival of Chamber Music concert Sunday, Feb. 8, features the Carolina Wind Ensemble, a group composed of UNC music faculty members. Sunday’s concert starts at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for UNC students, faculty and staff. Margaret Hair

Chapel Hill
The Glass Menagerie, Well
Playmakers RepIn Tennessee Williams’ first hit, The Glass Menagerie, a mother lives vicariously through her children: A daughter escapes her crippled physique by collecting glass animals; and a son dreams of leaving home and succeeding in the world. Under the direction of guest artist Libby Appel, this memory play will attempt to do justice to Williams’ stated ambition: to depart from “the exhausted theatre of realistic conventions.” This show will be performed in rotating repertory with contemporary theater artist Lisa Kron’s The Wellanother memory playwhich similarly revolves around a mother/ daughter relationship. Well opens Saturday, Jan. 24, and Menagerie debuts today. The plays run through March 1. Visit www.playmakersrep.org or call 962-PLAY. Megan Stein