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To•Day

DIARY: WEEKEND, Friday-Sunday, June 5-7

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND CLASSICAL MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS:

This weekend’s schedule offers a rich mix of stand-alone events — some with multiple performances — and intriguingly programmed festival concerts.

On Friday, the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival (download the program book here) hosts the Kaleido Guitar Duo (Hao Yang and Kevin Loh, 7:30 in CIM’s Mixon Hall), and ENCORE Chamber Music Institute (pictured) presents an al fresco celebration with a dancer and full string ensemble at 7:30 at the Grove Amphitheater in Mayfield).

JUNE 6 – SATURDAY

On Saturday afternoon, the Guitar Festival presents Muxin Li (3 pm in Mixon Hall), and this evening welcomes the Davin-Levin Duo (Colin Davin, guitar, and Emily Levin, harp, 7:30 in Mixon Hall).

Also on Saturday afternoon, Renovare Music combines original songs written by refugee storytellers with Afghani and South African instrumentals (2 pm at Visible Voice Books in Cleveland,) while Studio Espressivo features pianists Allison Hillier and Chris Neiner performing tunes inspired by commedia dell’arte (3 pm at Studio Espressivo, repeated Saturday at 8 pm and on Sunday at 8.)

And for its Saturday evening event, ENCORE has given its artistic director Jinjoo Cho carte blanche, and she’s picked music by Aino Sibelius, Jörg Widmann, Jean Sibelius, and Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht for her 7:30 program at Federated Church in Chagrin Falls.

JUNE 7 – SUNDAY

There are three concerts to highlight on Sunday at the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Guitarist Nicolò Spera joins flutist Christina Jennings, and violist Matthew Dane, viola, in music by Theofanidis (2 pm in Mixon Hall) and Petra Polácková plays works by J.S. Bach, Collins, Dowland, Narvaez, and Torroba (4 pm in Mixon). The day of Classical guitar music ends with the final round of the James Stroud Classical Guitar Competition in which young musicians ages thirteen to eighteen will perform before the public and a panel of internationally acclaimed judges. Prizes will be announced. (6:30 in Mixon Hall).

For details of these and other classical music events, please visit the ClevelandClassical.com concert listings.

Pre•Views & Features

Next week at ChamberFest: season fourteen begins

by Mike Telin

Music is in a constant state of flux — adapting and taking on new life as it crosses borders, cultures, and time. Just as tectonic plates shift slowly but inevitably, musical traditions push against one another, sparking something new.

Diana Cohen | Franklin Cohen | Roman Rabinovich
Artistic Directors

With the theme of “Continental Drifts,” the fourteenth edition of ChamberFest Cleveland will launch on Wednesday, June 10 at 7:30 pm in Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Tickets to all events are available online.

The evening will begin with a 6:30 pm welcome by CFC executive director  Jessica Peek Sherwood. The program, titled “Global Fanfare,” will kick off with virtuosic drumming from djembefola Weedie Braimah.

The program will also include Steve Reich’s Piano Phase, Yang Baozhi’s Ambush on All Sides, Miguel del Águila’s Clocks: I. Shelves Full of Clocks, Matthew Hindson’s Rush for Piano Trio, and Johannes Brahms’ String Sextet in G major, Op. 36. The audience is invited to stay for a Postlude Reception to celebrate Opening Night.

[Read on…]

Petra Polácková returns to her “second home”

by Mike Telin

“I remember coming to the U.S. for the first time to play in the Cleveland Festival,” Petra Polácková recalled during a Zoom conversation. “That was twelve years ago. I remember Armin Kelly waiting for me at the airport — we were all super excited and of course, super nervous.”

On Sunday, June 7 at 4:00 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Polácková will make her tenth appearance at the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Jonathan Leathwood will give a free pre-concert talk at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

In addition to the Festival, Polácková has also returned to record videos for Guitars International. “This might be my 12th time in Cleveland, so nowadays it’s like coming home for the annual meeting of the family. I can’t imagine not being in Cleveland at least once a year.”

The guitarist said that the origins of her setlist began to take shape when she was asked to play a Spanish program for a Rodrigo anniversary festival. [Read on…]

ENCORE’s 11th Music & Ideas Festival finds a way home

by Stephanie Manning

“HOME,” the theme of this year’s ENCORE – Gates Mills Music & Ideas Festival, has been on Jinjoo Cho’s mind for a while.

“I am a homebody that is not allowed to be at home very much,” the artistic director and violinist said, speaking by phone from a midpoint in her drive from Chicago to Cleveland. She’s lived in Chicago since 2024, when she began teaching at Northwestern University, and she spent six years before that at McGill University in Montreal.

Given that relocation back to the U.S. from Canada, the concept of home “encapsulates a lot of thoughts I’ve had throughout the past two years,” she said. “It’s kind of a peculiar science what conditions need to be met for someone to truly feel secure and safe. This festival theme is really my attempt to pinpoint what those conditions are.”

From June 5 to June 20, the eleventh season of ENCORE’s Music & Ideas Festival will present five headline concerts in different venues around Northeast Ohio. These events take place concurrently with the Summer Academy, which provides training, mentorship, and performance opportunities for young musicians ages 13 to 26. Tickets are available online. [Read on…]

See all previews

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