by Daniel Hathaway
Expanding its reach around the region, Ross W. Duffin and Quire Cleveland took their survey of rounds and canons to Painesville United Methodist Church on Sunday afternoon, November 8. “Sing You After Me: Wondrous Rounds & Canons” showed the variety of ways that melodies combined with themselves can produce larger pieces of music. The cleverly-devised program featured two dozen works ranging from the 13th to the 19th centuries in expert performances by Quire’s 19 professional singers. [Read more…]
The Cleveland Orchestra unpacked its bags just long enough between its extended European concert tour and its next Miami Residency to play a three-concert set at Severance Hall from November 6 to 8. Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda was at the helm for colorful, virtuosic music by Goffredo Petrassi and Sergei Rachmaninoff, but the centerpiece of Saturday evening’s concert was a breathtaking trip through Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the imperturbable Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos. 
Since his appointment to The Cleveland Orchestra in 1976, principal viola Robert Vernon has appeared as soloist with the orchestra on more than 100 occasions, both in Cleveland and on tour.
It’s difficult to know where to begin when talking about pianist-composer Conrad Tao. At age twenty-one, he has already amassed a list of accomplishments worthy of an artist three times his age. Called a musician of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by the New York Times, and a “thoughtful and mature composer” by NPR, Tao was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts in 2011. In addition to a very busy concert schedule which includes serving as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s artist-in-residence, his new CD
Committed to championing works by composers based in the Rust Belt, The Syndicate for the New Arts will celebrate the region’s creativity on Friday, November 20 at 9:00 pm at Survival Kit as part of 78th St. Studios’ Third Fridays events. “In keeping with the theme of Third Fridays, our performance will resemble an art gallery,” Syndicate founder Joshua Rosner said in an email. “Each piece will be performed in a different space of the room, allowing the audience to move around the room and experience the work from different perspectives.”
“Why did I choose Flamenco? It’s just like love — you can’t explain it, you just feel it in your heart,” Russian-born guitarist Grisha Goryachev told us by phone. “When I listen to Flamenco I feel that it is my music. I don’t know why I feel this way because I am in no way a Gypsy, and I’m not Spanish. But it boils my blood and I feel love for this music.”
With December 8 marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, many celebrations are being held in his honor. On Sunday, November 22 at 4:00 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland Institute of Music faculty, alumni, and students will observe the occasion with a Jean Sibelius 150th Anniversary Concert.
Last Friday evening, November 13, Opera Western Reserve presented as its 12th annual production Gaetano Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love (L’elisir d’amore), an opera buffa in two acts. For a dozen years the company has mounted excellent operas, shrewdly limiting itself to a single annual performance and consistently playing to full houses while maintaining high artistic standards. Friday night’s performance was no exception. First-rate lead singers, fine preparation of choral numbers and ensembles, excellent blocking onstage, and a wonderful orchestra all contributed to another resounding success. 
At once historical and metaphorical in its subject, Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia delivers a lot in a compact package. The eight singers of Oberlin Opera Theater and fifteen instrumentalists of the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble delivered an outstanding performance of the British composer’s 1946 chamber opera last Wednesday evening in Hall Auditorium — one that left the audience with a lot to think about. 
Making virtue out of necessity, CIM Opera Theater director David Bamberger introduced a new operatic technique in his production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro on Thursday, November 5 in Kulas Hall: ventriloquism.