by Daniel Hathaway
Francis Poulenc’s inspiring and disturbing story of the sixteen Carmelite nuns of Compiègne who perished at the guillotine in 1794 during Robespierre’s Reign of Terror during the French Revolution received a laudable performance by Baldwin Wallace Opera Theater on Friday, February 24. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Jet lag, Egypt, the long gestation of a new musical language, and the Sea — these disparate elements all had something to do with inspiring the four wildly different pieces that guest conductor Matthias Pintscher brought to Severance Hall on Thursday evening, February 23. If there were few connections to be made between those works, each of them inspired brilliant, committed performances from The Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]
by J.D. Goddard
On Saturday evening February 18 at the Breen Center, the Blue Water Chamber Orchestra utilized differing combinations of eighteen musicians in a performance of three intimate works by Copland, Britten, and Wagner. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“I cannot sing Mozart and not have it be fun,” bass-baritone Daniel Fridley said during a telephone conversation. “His music has so much buoyancy, and is full of long, smooth musical lines that just pull you along.”
This week at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Fridley will sing the role of the conniving Don Alfonso in CIM Opera Theatre’s production of Mozart’s comic opera Così fan tutte. Performances run from Wednesday, March 1 through Saturday, March 4, beginning at 7:30 pm.
Così fan tutte, which is often translated as “all women do the same,” is the third of three operas Mozart composed with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. The plot centers around the soldiers, Guglielmo and Ferrando, and their respective brides-to-be, Fiordiligi and Dorabella. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
It’s no secret that the Cleveland area has a vibrant classical guitar scene. But it wasn’t until flutist Linda White relocated here from Wyoming, that she discovered the breadth of repertoire that has, and continues to be written for flute and guitar.
“Before I moved here, I can say that I had never heard a classical guitarist perform live, let alone work with one,” White said during a telephone conversation. “As I began to learn the concert repertoire, it spoke to me because of all of the different colors and sounds the instrument is capable of producing.”
On Saturday, March 4 at 8:00 pm at the Bop Stop, Linda White will join classical guitarist Robert Gruca, performing as the Gruca White Ensemble, in a concert that will feature music by three guitarist/composers. [Read more…]
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, who defected to the United States from his native Poland in 1960 and led the Minnesota Orchestra for 19 years, died on February 21 in Minneapolis.
Invited by George Szell to guest conduct The Cleveland Orchestra in 1958, Skrowaczewski last appeared with the Orchestra at Severance Hall in August, 2015. The New York Times obituary quotes from ClevelandClassical.com’s interview with the conductor in 2014 before he was scheduled to lead a Blossom Festival concert (he cancelled due to illness).
The BlueWater Chamber Orchestra announces the death earlier this week of its founder and music director, Carlton R. Woods.
Woods created the Orchestra ten years ago after retiring from his previous post at Central Michigan University and moving to Cleveland.
A memorial service will be held on Sunday, March 5th at 2:00 PM at the Avon Lake United Church of Christ, 32801 Electric Blvd., Avon Lake, OH. A reception will follow. Read BlueWater’s appreciation of Woods here.
by Neil McCalmont
The sounds of German Romanticism filled Severance Hall on Thursday, February 9, as guest conductor Donald Runnicles led The Cleveland Orchestra in Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in b, “Unfinished,” and Mahler’s epic song-cycle Das Lied von der Erde. [Read more…]
The Ohio Light Opera is receiving online applications from string, woodwind, brass, percussion and harp players for its 2017 Orchestra. The deadline is March 1. [Read more…]
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra will hold auditions at Severance Hall during May for the 2017-2018 season. [Read more…]