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Archives for March 2013

Review: Classical Guitarist Gideon Whitehead at Happy Days Lodge (March 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Gideon WhiteheadA classical guitar concert of mostly Russian music held on St. Patrick’s Day in a rustic lodge in a national park —with stuffed bison heads staring down at you! Disconnects sometimes make for really successful concerts, as they did last Sunday when guitarist Gideon Whitehead performed at Happy Days Lodge in Cuyahoga Valley National Park under the joint auspices of Music by Nature and the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society.

Whitehead, a Michigander who studied at CIM and is now pursuing an artist diploma at the Curtis Institute with Jason Vieux and David Starobin, appeared as part of CCGS’s Local Artists and Rising Stars Series.

Each half of his cleverly-constructed program began with a suite (Sylvius Leopold Weiss’s real baroque Partita in g and Paul Lansky’s witty modern knock-off, Semi-Suite), proceeded to an evocative set of variations, Sergei Rudnev’s on The Old Lime Tree, or a narrative work, Nikita Koshkin’s Usher Waltz, and ended with a tone poem, Grigori Korchmar’s White Nights Serenade and Agustin Barrios Mangoré’s La Catedral. [Read more…]

Review: The Newberry Consort: “Celestial Sirens” at the Church of the Covenant (March 20)

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by Nicholas Jones

Celestial-Sirens-ChicagoThe overlapping musical talents and resources of Cleveland’s early music community were in full multi-tasking mode at the Church of the Covenant last week — with some help from Chicago and Tennessee.

The occasion was one event in celebration of the church’s magnificent new tracker organ, modeled on north German 17th-century organs. The organ was built by the Tennessee firm of Richards, Fowkes and Company and installed only this January. It replaces a small gallery organ in the back of the church. A stop-action video documenting the organ’s installation is online at YouTube.

The organ is still being adjusted, but from what I heard, it has a lively delicacy that suits both early solo music and the accompaniment of singers. Boston-based organist Frances Fitch played it to great effect. [Read more…]

Review: CMA VIVA! & Gala: Ana Mauro, Fado of Portugal (March 22)

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by Nicholas Jones

MouraFado, the music sometimes called the “Portuguese blues,” is a relatively conservative genre. But recently, fado, like the Portuguese navigators of the Renaissance, has begun to explore the globe, and Ana Moura has been at the forefront of that exploration.

Ana Moura’s concert Friday at Gartner Auditorium in the Cleveland Museum of Art showed an enthusiastic audience — a nearly packed house — how the sad ballads of fado can cross over into jazz, blues, and folk.

Moura’s deep contralto voice, throaty and intense, evoked the saudade—meaning, roughly, “yearning” — that is at the heart of fado.

Backed up by a five-man band, she gave her concert in a single set of about ninety minutes. [Read more…]

Piano Competition to co-sponsor screening of “Apassionata” at Film Festival

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ApassionataChristian Labhart’s film “Apassionata” tells the story of a Ukrainian-Swiss concert pianist who returns to her homeland to deliver a concert grand piano to her first music school, visits her parents and music teachers and hears ghostly refrains from the past. “Apassionata” will be shown at the Cleveland International Film Festival on April 8 at 2:10 pm, April 9 at 4 pm and April 10 at 8:40 pm in cooperation with the Cleveland International Piano Competition, whose members and friends will receive a $2 discount on tickets. (Purchase online and use the code PIANO).

News: Oberlin Dean to head San Francisco Conservatory

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STULL-DavidDavid H. Stull, who was appointed dean of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2004 (after four years as associate dean) will become the next president of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in July. An Oberlin graduate, he worked at Lawrence University’s conservatory of music and at the Juilliard School before returning to his alma mater. Stull presided over many new initiatives at Oberlin including the new Kohl Building to house Jazz Studies, the Cooper International Competition, the Creativity & Leadership Project, Music in America, the creation of an Oberlin record label, national and international tours of the Oberlin Orchestra, and the Rubin Institute for Musical Criticism, helping generate some $40 million in donations for construction, project and program support. On behalf of Oberlin Conservatory, Stull accepted the National Medal of Arts from President Obama in 2010.

Review: CMA VIVA! & Gala: Naseer Shamma and Al-Oyoun Ensemble (March 15)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Shamma-NaseerNow that United States forces have ended their occupation of Iraq, oud virtuoso Naseer Shamma has returned to touring in this country after a ten-year, self-imposed absence. He brought his excellent Al-Oyoun ensemble to the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium on Friday, March 15 for a remarkable performance on its VIVA! & Gala series that included one dramatic testimony to the events of the last decade during an 11-piece set that otherwise treated the large audience to both strange and familiar sounds and a wide range of musical forms.

Once a rarity, the expressive voice of the oud has become better known in the West — it recently evoked the Arabic music of Spain in the late fourteenth century during a performance by the Broken Consort at St. John’s Cathedral. In the hands of Naseer Shamma, it speaks eloquently both as a solo instrument and as a member of the traditional Iraqi takht or ensemble, which in Gartner last Friday included the Qanun, an 81-string zither, the Nay or end-blown flute in several sizes, the Riqq or Arab tambourine, a bass viol and two violins (19th century latecomers from Europe). [Read more…]

Preview: “Clocks in Motion” percussion ensemble to play at Baldwin Wallace and Cleveland State Universities

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by Mike Telin

Clocks-in-MotionIf you have never had the opportunity to hear the magic that a percussion ensemble can bring to a stage, here is your chance. On Sunday, March 24th in Gamble Auditorium at Baldwin Wallace University and Monday, March 25th in Waetjen Auditorium at Cleveland State University, Clocks in Motion presents concerts featuring the works of Reich, Cage, Xenakis and Brün. The program also features violinist Evan Kleve as soloist in Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra.

Formed in 2011, Clocks in Motion is a contemporary percussion ensemble dedicated to performing modern chamber music and commissioning new repertoire. The group were the featured performers at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery 2012 Science Fair and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMOCA) Gallery Night for the opening of a new exhibit by painter Robert Lostutter. In addition, the group served in residency at Rhapsody Arts Center (Verona, WI) in January of 2013 to teach students in grades K-12 about contemporary music and percussion and will be the ensemble in residence at the Interlochen Arts Academy in May 2013. [Read more…]

Preview: No Exit: three upcoming concerts from March 21-23 feature flutist Carlton Vickers and composer Matthew Ivic

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by Mike Telin

No-Exit-VickersBeginning on Thursday, March 21 and continuing through Saturday, the new music ensemble No Exit presents concerts at MOCA, Drinko Auditorium at Cleveland State University and Spaces Gallery. All three programs include Brian Ferneyhoughʼs Cassandraʼs Dream Song and the U.S. premiere of Sisyphus Redux, Andrew Rindfleischʼs Trio for Piano, Violin and Violincello, and Alberto Ginasteraʼs Puneña No. 2 for Cello (“Hommage à Paul Sacher”). Also featured on the program is the world premiere of Matthew Ivicʼs Piano Quartet No. 2. We spoke to Carlton Vickers and Matthew Ivic by telephone.

[Read more…]

Chamber Music Society announces its 64th season

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CCMS-ribbon-200x200The Cleveland Chamber Music Society will present nine concerts during its 2013-2014 season at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights.

October 15, 2013: Susanna Phillips, soprano, Anne Marie McDermott, piano & Paul Neubauer, viola.

October 29: Cuarteto Casals with Manuel Barrueco, guitar.

December 3: the Daedalus Quartet.

February 4, 2014: the Albers Trio with Orion Weiss, piano.

March 17 & 18: the Takács Quartet (complete Bartók Quartets in two concerts).

April 8: the Pavel Haas Quartet. April 29: eighth blackbird at Waetjen Auditorium, CSU.

The date for a young artists showcase performance will be announced.

Preview: CMA VIVA! & Gala: a conversation with Fado singer Ana Moura

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by Mike Telin

MouraWhy is it that Fado, the traditional soulful music of Portugal, has been embraced by audiences around the world? “I think more people are trying to discover new musical sounds that can make them feel different things and Fado has [a way of doing that],” says Fado superstar Ana Moura. On Friday, March 22nd beginning at 7:30 pm in Gartner Auditorium, Ana Moura will share the music from her latest album Desfado and other traditional Fado songs as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s VIVA! & Gala series.

We spoke to Ana Moura by telephone in California, and talked about her new album, growing up in a musical family, and her past musical projects with the Rolling Stones and Prince. We began by asking her how she describes the Fado sound? [Read more…]

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