by Jarrett Hoffman
The BOP STOP stage was covered Sunday night — with instrument stands and cases, clarinets and saxophones large and little, and at least one broken reed — for The Renga Ensemble’s first visit to Cleveland. Having just released The Room Is last week, the sextet, formed by Chicago-based composer and clarinetist James Falzone, showed off their reed feast of a debut album, as well as a few extra tunes. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Performing on the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series, French guitarist Gäelle Solal thoroughly charmed a good-sized audience at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights on Saturday evening, February 28. She seems to have had a similar effect on guitar students in a series of CCGS-sponsored classes preceding her performance. No wonder. She has a winning personality, and her playing is ravishing. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
A program of twenty-one settings of poetry from a single source might seem to be much of a muchness, but Quire Cleveland’s concert “The Song of Songs: Medieval to Modern” on Friday evening at St. John’s Cathedral proved to be thoroughly varied, endlessly fascinating, and sung with style and total commitment. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Last Thursday evening, Laura Carlson Tarantowski’s bright set design, beautiful in its classical symmetry, served as a perfect foil to the messy romantic tangles of Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, when Baldwin Wallace Opera’s engaging production opened for four performances in John Patrick Theater. “Welcome to a world of love, lust, disguise, joy, grief, and madness,” director Benjamin Wayne Smith wrote in his program note. “The plot can be confusing,” he added. No kidding! [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
It’s not every day that a performer can be judged to be one of the two or three best in the world. Tenor Lawrence Brownlee could make that claim, but he probably wouldn’t, at least not publicly. Brownlee, a native of Youngstown, Ohio, a Steelers and Ohio State football fan, and an aficionado of good food, is a down-to-earth guy who happens to be one of the leading current examples of that rare species, the bel canto tenor. [Read more…]
by J.D. Goddard
For CIM Opera’s opening night performance on Wednesday, February 25 in Kulas Hall, conductor Harry Davidson, an outstanding CIM orchestra, and a multi-talented CIM cast who were eager to take full advantage of the wonderful opportunities Mozart offered them shown forth in an impressive performance. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
How does a composer-pianist approach a performance of their own works? “You have to approach it the same way that you would approach anybody else’s music or you will pay a price,” Nicholas Underhill said during a telephone conversation. “The issue is that when a piece hasn’t been vetted by performances, you can find yourself re-composing it.” [Read more…]