ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad
Ad

Archives for June 2015

Great Lakes Trombone Ensemble performs at Drinko Hall.

by

by Jeremy Reynolds

CTS-060915Two trombones led the opening melody of Giovanni Gabrieli’s Jubilate Deo with seven more close at hand to join in the counterpoint. On Tuesday, June 9 the Great Lakes Trombone Ensemble delivered a program of fanfares, folk tunes, film music and more in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University.

The group comprises members of The Cleveland Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony, the Pittsburg Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, Toledo Symphony, and faculty members from Akron and Cleveland State University. The Ensemble performed during the annual Cleveland Trombone Seminar, which Cleveland assistant principal trombone Shachar Israel initiated in 2011. [Read more…]

Jeremy Reynolds named Young Writer Fellow

by

Reynolds250x250Jeremy Reynolds is serving as ClevelandClassical.com’s 2015 Young Writer Fellow during the month of June. He recently completed his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Bachelor of Music in Clarinet Performance at Oberlin College and Conservatory. During his senior year, Reynolds was accepted to the Pi Kappa Lambda and Golden Key national honor societies. After editing the arts section of the Oberlin Review during the Fall of 2014, Reynolds became a staff writer for the Spring of 2015. He will enter the Goldring Arts Journalist Program at Syracuse University beginning in July. After receiving his master’s degree, Reynolds hopes to build a career writing about music.

ChamberFest Cleveland Season Four: Franklin & Diana Cohen on “Crossing Borders”

by

by Mike Telin and Daniel Hathaway

COHEN-Frank-&-DianaHaving expanded its June season from five concerts in 2012 to eight in 2013, Franklin and Diana Cohen’s ChamberFest Cleveland grew again in 2014 to encompass ten events. Ten seems now to be the magic number for this enterprising festival, which offers everything you can imagine in the category of chamber music, played by an all-star cast of musicians who come to Cleveland from far and wide.

We caught up with Franklin and Diana Cohen to gather their thoughts about the season, first asking how they arrived at the theme, “Crossing Borders.”

“Someone had suggested the idea a few years ago,” Diana said. “I think they called it ‘Foreign Exchange.’ We toyed around with the idea and it just sort of evolved.” [Read more…]

GNASH: Graham Nash sings hits with Contemporary Youth Orchestra and Chorus

by

by Jeremy Reynolds

NashFullJogging onto the stage of Severance Hall, Liza Grossman wasted no time in launching the barefoot Contemporary Youth Orchestra and Chorus straight into the opening number of their annual “Rock the Orchestra” concert on Friday, June 5. After a slow, somber musical introduction from the students, singer-songwriter and philanthropist Graham Nash walked onstage, serenely and similarly unshod, to a standing ovation from listeners. He began GNASH — a concert celebrating his five-decade musical career — with a spirited rendition of “To the Last Whale” (Nash, David Crosby, 1975). [Read more…]

Cleveland Trombone Seminar launches its fourth year at Cleveland State University

by

by Daniel Hathaway

CTS-Final-ConcertThe Cleveland Trombone Seminar, the brainchild of Cleveland Orchestra assistant principal trombone and CSU faculty member Shachar Israel, will bring distinguished trombonists and students together on the campus of Cleveland State University for a variety of masterclasses, lectures, and performances from June 6 through June 14

The first of six public performances will feature Shachar Israel himself in a 2:00 pm solo recital on Saturday, June 6. Mark Lusk of The Pennsylvania State University will play on Monday, June 8 at 6 pm, followed by the Great Lakes Trombone Ensemble (comprising players from the orchestras of Buffalo, Rochester, Erie, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toledo and Detroit) on Tuesday, June 9 at 6 pm.

[Read more…]

Baroque flutist Kathie Stewart talks Bach and Telemann

by

by Jeremy Reynolds

STEWART-KathieIn Zimmerman’s famous Coffee-Garden in Leipzig, Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann presented an outdoor concert series of their own music in 18th century. On Thursday, June 11 and Friday, June 12 at the Baroque Music Barn in Hunting Valley, Apollo’s Fire will recreate this rustic aesthetic with a concert of Bach’s fifth Brandenburg concerto, his “Trio Sonata” from A Musical Offering, and Telemann’s tragicomic Canary Cantata.

In a recent phone conversation, baroque flutist Kathie Stewart shared her thoughts on keeping Bach’s Brandenburg fresh. “We’ve done it lots of times, and there’s no one I enjoy playing it with more than Olivier Braut (violin) and Jeannette Sorrell (harpsichord). We’ve really worked it out in a way that’s comfortable for us. It’s just such great music! It’s the most beautiful piece ever — it’s so life-affirming,” she said. “He wrote it in the best key possible for the flute — not that he was thinking of that — but he put it in D Major, which is the natural key of the baroque flute. It’s idiomatic. In fact, it’s probably the only piece he ever wrote that’s idiomatic for the flute. So it’s a joy to play and it feels good. I never get tired of it.” [Read more…]

Tina Bergman discusses Apollo’s Fire’s upcoming Sugarloaf Mountain concert series

by

by Jeremy Reynolds

“BERGMANN-TinaMy background is with American Old Time and Celtic, so this is right up my alley — like putting on an old pair of shoes,” said hammered dulcimer player Tina Bergman. We chatted about Apollo’s Fire’s Sugarloaf Mountain rogram in a recent telephone conversation. Performances of this crossover concert will take place from Sunday, June 14 through Sunday, June 21 in a variety of venues including the Huntington Playhouse in Bay Village and the Geauga Lyric Theatre in Chardon (see concert listings for full details).

The ensemble — which also includes Amanda Powell (soprano), Ross Hauck (tenor), Susanna Gilmore (fiddle), Kathie Stewart (flute), Brian Kay (lute, guitar, banjo), René Schiffer (cello), Jeannette Sorrell (harpsichord and direction) — is celebrating its newest album of the same title with CD release parties held after select concerts. [Read more…]

Opera Circle presents Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (June 13): a conversation with conductor Grzegorz Nowak

by

by Mike Telin

Nowak“Butterfly is one of the most popular and moving operas of all time, and it’s full of wonderful music,” conductor Grzegorz Nowak said during a recent telephone conversation. “I’m so happy to be able to join Opera Circle this week conducting an opera that is always an audience favorite as well as a favorite of the artists.”

On Saturday, June 13 at 7:30 pm in the Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square, Opera Circle will present Puccini’s tragic love story, Madama Butterfly, under the direction of Maestro Nowak, who will be making his Opera Circle debut. The cast will include soprano Dorota Sobieska as Cio-Co San, mezzo-soprano Christina Carr as Suzuki, tenor Isaac Hurtado as B.F. Pinkerton, and baritone James Binion as Sharpless. The fully-staged production will be sung in Italian with English subtitles. [Read more…]

Opera Circle presents Madama Butterfly (June 13): catching up with tenor Isaac Hurtado

by

by Mike Telin

HURTADO-IsaacWhen Opera Circle presents Puccini’s Madama Butterfly on Saturday, June 13 at 7:30 pm in the Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square, the outstanding American tenor Isaac Hurtado will return to the Opera Circle stage performing the role of B.F. Pinkerton.

Hurtado has received praise for his Opera Circle performances in the role of the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and for his gripping performance in the title role of Massenet’s Werther. We caught up with Issac Hurtado by telephone and began by asking him how he prepared to perform the role of the American naval officer, who, at least by modern standards, makes a questionable moral decision when he decides to abandon Butterfly. [Read more…]

Nightingale Opera Theatre to produce Donizetti’s Elixir in Hudson June 13

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Elixir-PosterHudson’s Nightingale Opera Theatre will mark its move into a new venue at Western Reserve Academy on Saturday, June 13 at 7:30 pm with a production of Gaetano Donizetti’s “melodramma giocoso,” The Elixir of Love.

One of the top comic operas of all time, Elixir was the most-performed opera in Europe during the decade following its premiere in 1832, and unlike many titles, has never fallen off the charts.

In a telephone conversation, we asked Melissa Davis, Nightingale’s artistic director, why she chose the piece for the company’s summer production. “We wanted to do a show with a smaller principal cast this year,” she said. “Tim Culver, the tenor who will be singing the role of Nemorino, told me, ‘I just really love Elixir. Have you thought about doing that?’ I’ve performed the opera three times in my career and remember it so fondly. It has such great music and such a fun plot. We decided to go with it.” [Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us