by Nicholas Stevens
Few composers in the classical tradition have successfully transformed stories for children into engrossing all-ages artworks. In a concert at the Cleveland Museum of Art last week, Third Coast Percussion — the Chicago-based quartet of Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore — made a strong case for their new work, Paddle to the Sea.
by Jarrett Hoffman
Third Coast Percussion went bold with their latest project, a sprawling marine ecosystem of an album titled Paddle to the Sea. The name comes from a 1966 film about a wooden toy boat floating its way from Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean. After the half-hour film was brought to the group’s attention, they group-composed a new score to it, here receiving its world-premiere recording.
by Mike Telin
Bass-baritone Dashon Burton is no stranger to Northeast Ohio audiences — he has appeared with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra on three occasions over the last two seasons. This past fall Burton reprised his role as the Parson and Badger in Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen and will return in May for Beethoven’s Ninth as part of the Orchestra’s Prometheus Project.
You can hear another side of the Oberlin alum’s vocal skills this week when he and his Roomful of Teeth colleagues perform on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series on Friday, February 16 at 8:00 pm in Finney Chapel. Tickets are available online.
“I’m so excited to be going back to Oberlin. It played a huge part in feeding my vast curiosity about what music can be,” Burton said during a telephone conversation. “Without the people in the TIMARA program and the composition and vocal departments, I wouldn’t be the professional that I am today. And I want everyone to come to the show and see what Roomful of Teeth is all about.”
by Jarrett Hoffman
“In reality — in the wild — musics interact,” said Josh Ryan of Africa→West Percussion Trio. “Sometimes we play folkloric music, sometimes we play what sounds like experimental concert music, and sometimes we play a mix of the two. That’s just the reality of being a 21st-century person and percussionist, and it’s really fun.”
On Friday, February 16 at 7:00 pm at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory’s Gamble Auditorium, the Africa→West Percussion Trio (Ryan Korb and brothers Jamie and Josh Ryan) will present a program of original works and arrangements, with influences ranging from Ghanaian and Cuban music to jazz, classical, and pop. The group is a longtime ensemble-in-residence at BW, and their fourth CD, Loud Fossil, was released in 2016.
by Mike Telin
“It’s amazing how professional choral singing has changed in the past 10 to 15 years,” Gregory Ristow, director of vocal ensembles at the Oberlin Conservatory, said during a recent conversation. “And the singers in Roomful of Teeth are the perfect model for our students because their careers are multi-faceted.”
On Friday, February 16 at 8:00 pm in Finney Chapel, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series will present Roomful of Teeth under the direction of Brad Wells. The program will include Caroline Shaw’s Partita for 8 Voices, Missy Mazzoli’s Vesper Sparrow, Judd Greenstein’s Run Away, and Toby Twining’s Dumas’ Riposte. The Grammy Award-winning ensemble will be joined by the Oberlin College Choir for William Brittelle’s Psychedelics and Merrill Garbus’ Quizassa. Tickets are available online.
by Mike Telin
Johann Sebastian Bach’s music seems to have penetrated every corner of Western culture. Baldwin Wallace’s Bach on Screen Conference will devote a whole day on Sunday, February 18 to the subject in four sessions in the Chamber Music Hall of the BW Conservatory.
At 9:00 am, the topic is “From Silent Films to Video Games,” followed at 11:15 am by “Bach’s Sacred Music in New Contexts.” After lunch, a 2:00 pm session takes up “Bach in Unexpected Places,” and the day ends with the interesting question, “Genius or Villain?” at 4:15 pm.
by Mike Telin
Each summer since 2005, the composition and performance exchange soundSCAPE has attracted composers and performers from around the world for two weeks of concerts, lectures, master classes, and workshops. “The Festival is in a beautiful location near the Alps in Northern Italy,” Oberlin faculty composer Jesse Jones said during a recent conversation. “They’ve commissioned many pieces over the years, so it’s a great place for composers to go. It was an honor for me to be the Festival’s composer-in-residence in 2015.”
On Sunday, February 18 at 8:00 pm in Oberlin Conservatory’s Warner Concert Hall, musicians from soundSCAPE — soprano Tony Arnold, percussionist Aiyun Huang, violinist Mark Fewer, flutist Lisa Cella, and pianist Thomas Rosenkranz — will present a free concert of music by composers who have long supported the work of the Festival. The program will include Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon’s Flores del Viento III, Christopher Adler’s 010 machine states, Chris Paul Harman’s Partita for Solo Violin, and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez’ Kikai no Mori and Chance Forest Interludes.
by Daniel Hathaway
The Oberlin Conservatory will present a four-concert Historical Performance WinterFest this month, including performances by the Flanders Recorder Quartet, lutenist Nigel North, the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, and faculty harpsichordist Mark Edwards. Baroque flute professor Michael Lynn, who has organized the events, said, “They should all be excellent concerts, and the price can’t be beat — free!” The festival includes two public master classes as well as the performances.
HP WinterFest begins on Tuesday, February 20 with an 8:00 pm performance by the Flanders Recorder Quartet in Fairchild Chapel, a stop on the ensemble’s 30th Anniversary Farewell Tour. Founded in Belgium in 1987 and comprising Bart Spanhove, Paul Van Loey, Tom Beets, and Joris Van Goethem, the Quartet began touring following their success at the 1990 Musica Antiqua Competition in Bruges. After a career that has included more than 1,800 concerts in 42 countries, the ensemble has decided to disband at the end of 2018. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Blossom Music Center will celebrate its 50th anniversary in the summer of 2018 with concerts by The Cleveland Orchestra, Blossom Festival Band, and Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra; special guests including cellist Yo Yo Ma, Broadway legend Audra McDonald, and Roger Daltrey of The Who; and screenings of Singing in the Rain, The Little Mermaid, and Star Wars: A New Hope with live scores performed by the Orchestra.
For selected events, Image Magnification (IMAG) on LED screens in the Pavilion will display live footage from concerts, giving audience members throughout the Pavilion the opportunity to clearly see the musicians onstage. IMAG is provided in partnership with ideastream.
Since its opening in 1968, Blossom has drawn over 400,000 visitors each summer, a total of over 20 million guests during its first half-century. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Stevens
In a recent concert by the Cleveland Institute of Music’s New Music Ensemble, Keith Fitch — CIM’s composition department chair, and the ensemble’s director — demonstrated his penchant for effective curation. His own new composition, The Range of Light, illuminated the work and words of John Muir, a visionary in American history, and cast the other pieces on the program into sharp relief.