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To•Day

DIARY: Thursday, June 11, 2026

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Tonight at 8 pm, ChamberFest Cleveland presents Canadian violinist Kerson Leong in “Phenomenon.” He’ll play solo works by Francisco Tárrega, Alessandro Marcello, Eugène Ysaÿe, Agustín Barrios, and Johann Sebastian Bach. A social hour with CFC artistic directors and musicians begins at 7 in Dunham Tavern.

INTERESTING READ:

Interview with Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth On What The Classical Music World Is Now (The Guardian)

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Composer Richard Strauss was born on June 11 in 1864 in Munich, an anniversary date he shares with Polish composer and pianist Alexander Tansmann (1897 in Lodz), American composer George Frederick McKay (1899 in Harrington, WA) and American opera composer Carlysle Floyd (1926 in Latta, SC). [Read More…]

Pre•Views & Features

Week Two at ChamberFest Cleveland

by Mike Telin

Week Two of ChamberFest Cleveland is packed full of events. As the Festival’s executive director Jessica Peek Sherwood says — “there is something for everyone.”

On Monday, June 15, “Celebrating Frank” is everyone’s opportunity to pay tribute to Franklin Cohen, the founding father of ChamberFest Cleveland. His professional highlights include his tenure as Principal Clarinet of The Cleveland Orchestra and 50 years on faculty at CIM. Cohen’s colleagues, alumni, friends, and musical family will share the stage to say thank-you.

Week two will also welcome three artists who will be making their ChamberFest debuts on Wednesday, June 17.

[Read on…]

Last lap at Ohio Light Opera: a few questions for Steven A. Daigle

by Daniel Hathaway

2026 will mark the end of an era for Ohio Light Opera at the College of Wooster. Artistic director Steven A. Daigle will retire at the end of this summer’s season, which makes this a good opportunity for an exit interview. What has his job entailed for the past quarter century, and how does he see OLO moving into the future?

I reached Steve by telephone on Memorial Day in a moment of calm before the cast, orchestra and crew descended upon the Wayne County campus to set things in motion for this season’s six shows. I began by asking how he and his colleagues go about choosing the titles for a season.

Steven Daigle: Well, there is a formula that we’ve been using since I’ve been artistic director. ’Doc,’ James Stewart, used one before, but since then we’ve expanded the repertory to include musical theater. With our mission now, we pick three musicals, and we try to have one of them be an early musical — this summer, it’s The Boys from Syracuse.

We try to choose stylistically different titles for the other two, and I think we’ve achieved that in My Fair Lady and Damn Yankees. They’re golden age musicals from the 1950s and 1960s, but in a way they couldn’t be more different from each other. [Read on…]

Percussionist Jeff Stern debuts at ChamberFest

by Mike Telin

“I wasn’t sure if music was even going to stick until I found myself enthralled by percussion,” Jeff Stern said during a telephone conversation.

“It suits me in a lot of ways, particularly because it has so many options in the kinds of instruments you can play, and the kinds of music and musical settings that it lends itself to.”

On Wednesday June 17 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall, Stern, who serves as Instructor of Percussion at the Peabody Conservatory as well as the executive director, co-artistic director, and founding percussionist of  the two piano, two percussion group the icarus Quartet, will make his ChamberFest debut.

I began our conversation asking him how he will fit into a Spanish Baroque trio sonata. [Read on…]

See all previews

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