by Robert Rollin
On Sunday afternoon, June 18, Encore Chamber Music presented “Summer Tango,” an outstanding collaborative concert including the Jupiter and Cavani String Quartets and violinist Jinjoo Cho. The enthusiastic audience filled the small but opulent, wood-paneled room at Gilmour Academy’s Tudor House. [Read more…]
by Joshua Rosner
The audience at Mixon Hall was abuzz with anticipation Thursday night, June 22 for the fifth installment of the sixth season of ChamberFest Cleveland. “Fin de Siècle” (end of century) was a tapestry of compositions with roots in Austria from before and after the First World War. The evening consisted of works by Brahms, Ravel, and Korngold and was designed to showcase pianist Orion Weiss, a Lyndhurst native. [Read more…]
by Samantha Spaccasi
The Music Critics Association of North America presented composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek with its inaugural Best New Opera award for Breaking the Waves. Both will be honored on July 19 at the MCANA Annual Meeting in Santa Fe. [Read more…]
by Samantha Spaccasi
The Akron Symphony Orchestra has announced its outdoor summer concert series in collaboration with the City of Akron. The Orchestra will participate in Akron’s Independence Day celebrations with a free concert at Lock 3 on July 4 at 8:00 pm, the first performance of the series. [Read more…]
by Samantha Spaccasi
The Gilmour Academy’s Tuesdays at Tudor will initiate a new concert series sponsored by the Cleveland International Piano Competition, Steinway Piano Gallery Cleveland, and ArtsConnect this summer. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Editor Daniel Hathaway is covering the 2017 Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute from June 18 through July 1 as an “embedded” harpsichord student, joining 123 other participants whose birth dates span a remarkable range from 1927 to 2003
He’ll be posting reports on a daily basis. Follow his narrative here (or click on “BPI 2017” in the navigation bar above). [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Though we were kept very busy this week, by Friday people were relaxing into their routines and there was time and opportunity to get to know one another a little better.
As coachings went on, I had some nice conversations with my fellow ensemble members, who brought a bit more experience to the Baroque Performance Institute than others, but reflected the expansive age range of participants (in our case from teens to 70s).
Luka Stefanović, the cellist, is 17, but already has an impressive track record on the modern cello (his father plays violin in the Baltimore Symphony). Florence Peacock, the soprano (from Chapel Hill, NC), has attended BPI for many years and has managed to overcome auditory problems with the help of high-tech hearing aids — she’s amazing. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
If people seemed a bit wooly-headed on Friday morning, the day began with Donner und Blitzen: nearly everybody sleeping near a window was rudely awakened about 5 in the morning by bright flashes of lightning and heavenly timpani.
Mark Edwards spent two hours in his harpsichord class reflecting on the finer points of ornamentation and touch, beginning with a Rondeau by François Couperin whose languorous first half suddenly turned lively. Edwards pointed out that Couperin was an awesome player whose notation of ornaments preserved all his niceties of touch and style. In a second work, Edwards advised a student to make a difference between a downward motion and the feeling of gripping the sound of the instrument toward you. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Rhythm is right up there with harmony as a pillar of Baroque music. So it’s curious that French composers like Louis Couperin, Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and Jean-Henri D’Anglebert invented the concept of “unmeasured preludes” and notated them as shown here.
The calligraphy is beautiful on the page, but how do you rhythmicize those notes at the keyboard? Mitzi Meyerson devoted much of Thursday morning’s harpsichord master class to that topic, beginning as always with student performances. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Violinist Jennifer Koh is fascinating. Born in Chicago of Korean parents, she made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11. In 1994, while she was pursuing a degree in English Literature at Oberlin, she won the International Tchaikovsky Competition.
After furthering her musical studies at Curtis, the violinist began carving a career path that has led to collaborations with artists from many disciplines, and creating projects that bridges music from all eras — traditional to contemporary. She has also premiered more than 60 works written especially for her.
This week Jennifer Koh will return to Northeast Ohio as this year’s Kent Blossom Music Festival Kulas Guest Artist. On Wednesday, June 28, at 7:30 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall, Koh will perform a solo violin recital featuring J.S. Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in a, BWV 1003 and the Partita No. 2 in d, BWV 1004. [Read more…]