Lied headlines Frankie Valli, Emmanuel Ax in Sept. 21, 23 opening weekend

            World-famous artists in classic rock and roll and classical piano will open the 2012-13 season at the Lied Center for Performing Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Sept. 21 and 23.

            Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons will play to a packed house at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 21, delighting the audience with memorable hits, including "Sherry" and "Oh, What a Night." Two nights later, Grammy Award-winning pianist Emmanuel Ax will present an evening of Beethoven and Schubert in a concert beginning at 7.

            Valli came to fame in 1962 as the lead singer of the Four Seasons and is hotter than ever in the 21st century. Thanks to the success of the Tony-winning musical, "Jersey Boys," which chronicles the life and times of Frankie and his legendary group, such classic songs as "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," "Rag Doll" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" are the rage all over again. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Four Seasons' first hit, "Sherry," Valli is touring England, Australia and New Zealand in 2012, in addition to keeping up his busy schedule in the United States.

            Ax won Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn's piano sonatas. He has also made a series of Grammy Award-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. His soaring solo career has resulted in global tours performing concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the London Philharmonic, New York's Carnegie Hall and dozens of other famous venues.

            Tickets for the Valli concert are nearly sold out; tickets for the Ax performance are available in person at the Lied Ticket Office, 301 N. 12th St., by phone at 402-472-4747, or online at www.liedcenter.org.

Writer: Maureen Ose