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Archives for June 2017

Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute: Week Two, Day One (Monday, June 26)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TheorbosLobbyAfter an intense first six days, it was essential to take a day off. While some of us enjoyed extra practice time, others took care of practical matters like laundry. One group of students recharged their musical circuits by taking over a piano practice room and playing multiple-hand versions of non-Baroque music like Carmina Burana.

The second week coincides with Oberlin’s Summer Trumpet and Percussion Institutes, so there are new groups on campus vying for rooms in an already tight situation because of construction. Harpsichordists showed up for their master class to watch a group of percussionists discussing the finer points of tambourines. Trumpeters are taking over the Methodist Church next door.

Since rooms are at a premium, you can encounter groups using every available space — like the gaggle of theorbos meeting with Lucas Harris in the lobby of Warner Concert Hall (above). [Read more…]

Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute: Week One, Day Seven (Sunday, June 25) — A chat with Kathie Stewart

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by Daniel Hathaway

Kathie-Tuning-1On the seventh day, BPI rested — even Kathie Stewart, who is usually at work Monday through Friday shortly after dawn as Oberlin’s Curator of Harpsichords. Known publically to Apollo’s Fire audiences as the principal flutist in Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra, Stewart’s role at BPI is usually hidden from sight, although the results of her labors are crucial to the work of BPI’s 22 harpsichord students.

Few other institutions could provide multiple practice instruments for that many keyboardists. BPI students have access to 18 harpsichords of various configurations, and Stewart tunes them all every weekday beginning between 6:00 and 6:30 am. “In ten days, that comes out to 180 tunings, plus another 20 for concerts and faculty rehearsals,” she told me, taking a break from touching up one of Lisa Goode Crawford’s personal instruments. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: The Music Man (June 21)

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

OLOMusicManHillIt’s common for productions of lyric theatre works to be placed in countries other than their original setting. But The Music Man is so American it’s hard to envision it taking place anywhere other than River City, Iowa. From the first whistle of the unseen drum major leading the ‘band’ during the overture, feet began to tap on the Freedlander Theatre floor — mine included. (Once a band member, always a band member.) [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland – “Youth” (June 25)

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by Samantha Spaccasi

DunhamDunham Tavern Museum is a perfect venue for an afternoon of chamber music. On Sunday afternoon, June 25, the seventh installment of this year’s ChamberFest explored the theme of “Youth” and featured early works by Beethoven and Bartók. The concert began with Wilhelm Popp’s Rigoletto Variations, performed by flutist Demarre McGill and pianist Zoltán Fejérvári. McGill gave a nuanced performance of this flashy piece, bringing it to light with impeccable phrasing. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra and Cleveland Chamber Choir to premiere Guarnaccia’s Emergent Universe Oratorio

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by Daniel Hathaway

ComposerCleveland Chamber Choir founding artistic director Scott MacPherson will lead his expanded chorus and the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of Sam Guarnaccia’s Emergent Universe Oratorio at the Maltz Performing Arts Center at Case Western Reserve University on Friday, June 30 at 7:30 pm. Designed to underline humanity’s responsibility to protect and preserve planet Earth, the work relates the scientific story of the journey of the Universe from the Big Bang to the emergence of the evolutionary force of human consciousness.

The new work will be performed in conjunction with a congress of the World Union of Jesuit Alumni at John Carroll University — held every four years but meeting in North America for the first time since its founding in 1956. [Read more…]

Fresh off Fischoff win, Milton String Quartet to perform at ENCORE

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by Mike Telin

Screen Shot 2017-06-27 at 4.57.46 PMLife has quickly changed for the Milton String Quartet. After winning the grand prize and string division gold medal at the 44th Annual Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in May of this year, violinists Roman Fraser and Maithéna Girault, violist Evan Robinson, and cellist Joshua Morris are already receiving invitations to perform recitals and at festivals.

Formed in 2015 at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, the ensemble is also ENCORE Chamber Music’s Fellowship Quartet, and on Friday, June 30 at 7:00 pm, they will present a free recital at the Tudor House on the campus of Gilmour Academy. The program will include Joseph Haydn’s Quartet in F, Op. 77, No. 2, Béla Bartók’s Quartet No. 3 in C#, and Felix Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 4 in e.

The Milton are the Festival’s first Fellowship Quartet. “I heard about the program from Clara Engen, who is ENCORE’s Head of Operations,” Joshua Morris said during a conference call with his quartet colleagues earlier this month. “Clara and I both did our undergraduate studies at Oberlin and we’ve kept in touch. She encouraged us to apply. We did, and we won, and we’re very happy about that.” In addition to Friday’s concert, the Quartet are also performing outreach concerts, playing in master classes, and receiving daily coaching with the Cavani Quartet as part of the Fellowship. [Read more…]

Pianist Aaron Diehl to make Cleveland Orchestra Debut

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by Mike Telin

Screen Shot 2017-06-27 at 4.47.44 PMAfter jazz pianist and composer Aaron Diehl made his New York Philharmonic debut in September of 2016 performing George Gershwin’s Concerto in F, Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times wrote: “Mr. Diehl played magnificently. He had brilliance when called for during jazz-tinged passages of Lisztian runs and octaves. The roomy freedom of Mr. Diehl’s playing in bluesy episodes was especially affecting. He also folded short improvised sections into the score, and it’s hard to imagine that Gershwin would not have been impressed.”

On Saturday, July 1 and Sunday, July 2 at Blossom Music Center, the Columbus, Ohio native will make his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing that same Concerto under the baton of Jahja Ling. The 8:00 pm concerts will also include Shostakovich’s Tahiti Trot, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture, and Tchaikovsky’s “1812” Overture. [Read more…]

ChamberFest: Josef Špaček on music, travel, and social media

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Josef-Špaček-by-©-Radovan-Subin-4ChamberFest Cleveland brings a new face to town this week. Making his Cleveland debut on Thursday, June 29, violinist Josef Špaček will play three concerts in three days, performing works by Schnittke, Strauss, Mozart, and Dvořák as he helps bring the 2017 edition of ChamberFest to a close.

Born in Třebíč, Czech Republic, Josef Špaček has been concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic since 2011 and was named Associate Artist by the orchestra in 2016. A graduate of Juilliard, Curtis, and the Prague Conservatory, he was a laureate of the International Queen Elisabeth Competition, and won top prizes at the Michael Hill and Carl Nielsen International Violin Competitions. As a soloist, he has performed with such ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg.

Špaček picked up the phone after wiping away the tears of his 9-month-old daughter and getting her to bed. “She’s asleep now, but one never knows. Babies kind of wake up any time they want,” he said with his trademark laugh. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland explores “Hommage” (June 23)

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by Joshua Rosner

CFCBachJune23On June 23, as beautiful light poured through Mixon Hall’s many windows, ChamberFest Cleveland presented “Hommage,” a program showcasing composers paying tribute to J.S. Bach. The concert began with the final two movements of Bach’s Suite No. 2 in b, replacing the originally programmed Cantata BWV 209 due to the withdrawal of mezzo-soprano Lauren Eberwein. [Read more…]

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