by Stephanie Manning
The warm light spilling out onto the Waterloo Road sidewalk on February 14 came from Praxis Fiber Workshop, which had opened its doors that evening for a concert by Wit’s Folly. Beyond the large windows curtained with vertical string lights lay the open showroom area, with colorful art adorning the walls and even hanging from the ceiling. Quite the dynamic space to hear some 18th-century music.
For this Valentine’s Day program, guest flutist Ellen Sauer Tanyeri joined violinist Guillermo Salas-Suárez, violist Jonathan Goya, and cellist Jane Leggiero in a collection of music featuring the flute, with a Wit’s Folly twist. The group decided to combine movements from two of Beethoven’s Serenades (Op. 8 and Op. 25), to make a serenade of their own.
Perhaps the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday is not the best time to schedule a concert. So when only a small group of people showed up at Rocky River Presbyterian Church on February 8 to hear the Thorpe Ensemble, scheduling conflicts could be assumed to be the culprit.
On Friday, February 20 in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel, the American Brass Quintet reasserted its long-standing theory that five brass instruments can sustain an evening with the seriousness of a string quartet.
On his website, Makaya McCraven refers to himself as a “Beat Scientist.” It’s an interesting moniker, but those who were present for McCraven’s performance at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium on Wednesday, February 18 will know exactly what the spellbinding drummer was getting at. Indeed, his concert was a study of beat-making, an intersection of synthesized and organic sound, a beautiful amalgamation of the mechanical and the natural. Makaya McCraven was true to his word.
