by Robert Rollin
Last Sunday afternoon, November 19, talented pianist Sandra Shapiro stepped in for clarinetist Franklin Cohen and pianist Zsolt Bognár on the Arts Renaissance Tremont series at Pilgrim Church. She played an imaginative recital titled “In My Father’s Footsteps — A Daughter’s Search for Answers.” The program was the first of four recitals inspired by her father’s World War II odyssey from Russia around the world to the United States. Shapiro had little time to know her father and contacted European relatives to learn more about him. [Read more…]
“Pictures at an Exhibition” was the title of the Akron Symphony’s concert in E.J. Thomas Hall on Saturday evening, November 18, but there were more pictures on the wall than those by Victor Hartmann that inspired Mussorgsky’s famous musical stroll through a gallery. The other two artists whose work was projected on either side of the stage were Charles E. Burchfield and Matthias Grünewald, their art the catalysts for pieces by Morton Gould
It’s not unusual these days for instrumentalists, especially string players, to play period and modern instruments or to engage in the practice of free improvisation. However, it is rare for an ensemble to combine the three disciplines during a single performance. On Saturday, November 4 at Zygote Press, Time Canvas — violinist Chiara Fasani Stauffer, guitarist and theorbist Joshua Stauffer, and cellist Roland Gjernes — did exactly that during their stunning 70-minute program titled “Silence, Space & Sound.”
With Medieval roots and impressive singers age ten to fourteen, the