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DIARY: Thursday, May 7, 2026

by Daniel Hathaway

R.I.P. Michel Debost

Oberlin College and Conservatory have announced the passing of Michel Debost, the internationally celebrated flutist who taught at Oberlin from 1989 until his retirement in 2011. He died on May 2 in his native France at the age of 92.

“He was the longtime principal flutist of the Orchestre de Paris from its founding in 1967 until 1989, a legendary soloist, and a revered professor at the Paris Conservatory, where he succeeded fellow luminary Jean-Pierre Rampal. He recorded a wealth of flute repertoire for EMI and a variety of other labels.”

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 at Severance Music Center, Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra in Sergei Prokofiev’s First Symphony, the U.S. premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Zones of Blue with clarinetist Jörg Widmann, and excerpts from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On May 7, 1747, Johann Sebastian Bach paid a visit to King Frederick II (“The Great”) of Prussia at his palace in Potsdam — where his son Carl Philipp Emanuel was a court musician. [Read More…]

Pre•Views & Features

Cleveland Chamber Choir to present “La Fleur de la Renaissance”

by Daniel Hathaway

In an open letter to Cleveland Chamber Choir patrons, artistic director Gregory Ristow wrote:

“Our upcoming concert, La Fleur de la Renaissance, celebrates the new approach to harmony that emerged in the 1400s in the northern reaches of the French empire…To my ears, this is where Western classical choral singing as we know it began. To return to this music is to come back to the source, to explore consonance and dissonance in their purest forms, to delight in how these composers wrote glorious melodies for each part of the ensemble, while also allowing them to come together to form beautifully resonant sonorities.”

On Friday, May 8 at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, and Saturday, May 9 at First Lutheran Church in Lorain, the Cleveland Chamber Choir will present “The Flower of the Renaissance,” a compendium of works by six composers in the form of a Roman Catholic Mass that explore this new style. Both performances begin at 7:30.

The program also demonstrates the popular practice among Renaissance composers of embedding pre-existing material in new pieces, something that would come to be regarded as plagiarism in modern times, but were meant as tributes back in the day. Ristow has constructed his imaginary mass from movements of the forty-some Renaissance works based on the mysterious secular song, L’Homme armé. [Read on…]

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra: a conversation with Concerto Competition winner Grace Berendt

by Mike Telin

“When I was three years old my mom took me to a jazz concert. I saw the trombone, and I was immediately hooked,” Grace Berendt recalled. “From that day on, I knew I wanted to be a trombone player.”

On Sunday, May 10 at 3:00 pm at Severance Music Center, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition winner will step to the front of the Mandel Concert Hall stage to play Ferdinand David’s Concertino for Trombone and Orchestra.

Under the direction of James Feddeck, the program also includes Aaron Copland’s Letter from Home, George Walker’s Icarus in Orbit, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” Tickets are available online.

I caught up with the Aurora High School senior by phone and began our conversation by congratulating her on the Concerto competition win.

Grace Berendt: Thank you so much.

Mike Telin: I’m curious about why you selected the David? To be honest, it’s the only piece by him that I know. 

GB: It’s definitely his best piece. It’s actually one of the first trombone concertos I started learning, and I have to say that I have yet to find one that I like more. There’s so much to love about it — the heroic melodies, as well as the emotions conveyed through it. I think there’s really such a variety of styles and interpretations that can be taken with this piece. And it’s just so much fun to play.

[Read on…]

Marc-André Hamelin returns to Severance Music Center

by Mike Telin

“I’m looking forward to being back in Cleveland, It’s almost like a second home,” pianist Marc-André Hamelin said during a telephone conversation. “I believe my first visit was at the Art Museum. I played the complete Iberia — that was a little over 20 years ago.

“But it’s always a joy to be back in Severance. The combination of the atmosphere and acoustics — there’s hardly anything better. And I’ll be experiencing it for the first time as a solo recitalist, which I’m very excited about.”

On Tuesday, May 5 at 7:30 pm in Mandel Concert Hall, Marc-André Hamelin will present the final concert of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Recital Series with a program featuring music by Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mieczysław Weinberg, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Tickets are available online.

[Read on…]

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