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Archives for June 2015

Ohio Light Opera: Brigadoon opening performance (June 13)

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by Kelly Ferjutz, Special to ClevelandClassical

DanceWhen Broadway composer Frederick Loewe and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner first proposed a musical based on the legend of Brigadoon, it was suggested that they change its setting from Scotland to the US. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and here we are 68 years later with a sparkling production of Brigadoon that opened the Ohio Light Opera 2015 season last Saturday evening, and will run in repertory through August 7. (Photo: Benjamin Krumreig as Charlie and Emily Hagens as Jean).

[Read more…]

Cleveland Trombone Seminar features Fauré’s Requiem on final concert (June 14)

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by Daniel Hathaway

LuskThe Cleveland Trombone Seminar capped its fourth annual summer gathering on Sunday afternoon, June 14 in Cleveland State University’s Waetjen Auditorium with a glorious performance of a piece you might never have thought you’d hear arranged for nearly forty trombones, four flugelhorns, tuba, harp, organ, and solo soprano. Arranger Mark Lusk said the idea first occurred to him when he passed a fellow student’s door at Eastman and heard heavenly music issuing forth. “That would sound good on trombones,” he thought. [Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire: Bach in the Countryside at Baroque Music Barn in Hunting Valley (June 12)

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by Daniel Hathaway

AF-Intimate-BachWhen you live in a climate like Cleveland’s (or Leipzig’s, for that matter), at the first sign of moderating weather, you want to take your activities out-of-doors — rain, bugs, wind and humidity be damned. In Leipzig, Johann Sebastian Bach led summer concerts in Zimmermann’s Kaffegarten. In Hunting Valley last week, Jeannette Sorrell led two concerts in the “Baroque Music Barn” at the intersection of Shaker Boulevard and Chagrin River Road. On those occasions, the building formerly used to store apples rang out with the music of Bach and Telemann, including a thorny trio sonata, a requiem for a canary, and a virtuoso concerto. [Read more…]

CD Review: Apollo’s Fire — Sugarloaf Mountain, an Appalachian gathering

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by Daniel Hathaway

Sugarloaf-Mountain-CDWhen summer arrives, Apollo’s Fire lets its hair down and goes off to visit Baroque music’s country cousin — the music of Appalachian America. The ensemble’s previous show, “Come to the River,” now has a prequel: “Sugarloaf Mountain,” an equally irresistible collection of tunes from the old and new worlds chronicling the passage of immigrants from the British Isles to their new homes in the American south — in the shadow of Sugarloaf Mountain. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: a conversation with violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti

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by Mike Telin

Schwartz-Moretti-Amy“When Diana and Frank came up with this fantastic idea of starting ChamberFest, I was so happy when they invited me to be part of the first festival,” violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti said during a telephone conversation while enroute to Cleveland. “Diana and I were both in Donald Weilerstein’s studio at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Of course, back then Frank was ‘Mr. Cohen,’ but I got to hear him play all the time at Severance Hall, and I got to know him through school because he also teaches at CIM. I always had a wonderful relationship with both of them.”

In addition to reconnecting with the Cohens, the opportunity to be part of ChamberFest also gave Schwartz Moretti the chance to rediscover a city she had not visited in some time. “When I came back to Cleveland after not having been there since the 1990s, I was so impressed with all the changes in the University Circle area, and with all that was happening in Cleveland in general — it is such a vibrant city. And ChamberFest is just a wonderful addition, with all the great musicians it brings to town.” [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: an interview with violinist/violist Yura Lee

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by Jarrett Hoffman

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The first concert in season four of Franklin and Diana Cohen’s ChamberFest Cleveland begins on Wednesday, June 17 at 8:00 pm in SPACES Gallery. This year’s theme is “Crossing Borders” — borders including those of geography, culture, style, mood, and career path. We caught up with violinist/violist Yura Lee, a veteran of the festival, who will be performing on the first five concerts (June 17, 18, 19, 21, 23) as well as the tenth and final concert on July 1. See our interview with the Cohens for details about each concert.

Yura Lee is the winner of the only first prize awarded across the four categories in the 2013 ARD Music Competition in Munich. The recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, she is also currently a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as both violinist and violist.

[Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: fifteen minutes with bassist Nathan Farrington

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Nathan-Farrington pic“It’s pretty crazy, isn’t it?” bassist Nathan Farrington said of Prokofiev’s Quintet for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, and double bass. “There’s a lot of circus imagery in the piece, and in the second-movement solo, I’m totally the dancing bear.”

Franklin and Diana Cohen’s ChamberFest Cleveland, beginning its fourth season on June 17, welcomes back bassist Nathan Farrington, who debuted with the festival last summer. A 2006 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Farrington has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony, and the Minnesota Sinfonia. He appears regularly in the bass sections of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Columbus Symphony, and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Farrington has completed three summers at the Marlboro Music Festival. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: a conversation with violinist Alexi Kenney

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by Mike Telin

KENNEY-AlexiStill in his early twenties, violinist Alexi Kenney has already amassed an impressive résumé. In 2013 he won the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition at the age of nineteen. He has given recitals at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and Napa’s Festival del Sole, and he has been featured on NPR’s “From the Top.” He is the recipient of top prizes at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, the Mondavi Center Competition, and the 2013 Kronberg Academy master classes. He attends the New England Conservatory, where he will enter its Artist Diploma program this fall, studying with Donald Weilerstein and Miriam Fried.

I spoke to the Palo Alto, California native by phone and began by asking him how his position as ChamberFest’s Young Artist came about. [Read more…]

The Epic of Everest: a conversation with composer Simon Fisher Turner

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by Mike Telin

Epic-EverestIn June of 1924, English mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared while attempting to scale the world’s highest mountain. Their journey up Mount Everest was documented by mountaineer and filmmaker John Baptist Lucius Noel. Shot with a hand-cranked camera, Noel’s film is also one of the earliest filmed records of life in Tibet. Restored by the British Film Institute with the addition of a musical score by Simon Fisher Turner, The Epic of Everest will have its Cleveland revival premiere on Friday, June 19 at 7:00 pm in Morley Lecture Hall at the Cleveland Museum of Arts.

Simon Fisher Turner began his diverse career as a musician, songwriter, composer, producer, and actor portraying Ned East in the 1971 BBC TV adaptation of Tom Brown’s Schooldays. His musical work in film began with director Derek Jarman, for whom he scored many feature films — from Caravaggio (1986) through to Jarman’s final work, Blue (1993). [Read more…]

League of American Orchestras Conference: reports by ClevelandClassical staff (May 27-29)

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by Jeremy Reynolds, Mike Telin & Daniel Hathaway

LOA-Cleveland-SkylineBelying its name, this year’s League of American Orchestras Conference hosted representatives from a wide range of countries including the United States, Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Kenya, Norway, New Zealand, and the UK. Total attendance reached 1,068, an increase of 10% compared to last year. 67 companies signed up as exhibitors, peddling innovative technology and business strategies, as well as the services of famous artists, in the Cleveland Convention Center from May 27-29. Evening concerts during the conference featured The Cleveland Orchestra and CityMusic Cleveland.

Opening events

On the first day, attendees trekked across the street from the Convention Center to Public Auditorium for the welcoming session and concert. Brett Mitchell led cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in a polished performance of Saint-Saëns’s “The Swan” and a rambunctious interpretation of the “Finale” from Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony. Weilerstein, an alumna of the youth orchestra, performed as principal cellist during the Tchaikovsky. [Read more…]

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