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Archives for June 2018

Ohio Light Opera at 40: season preview, part one

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

OLO Calendar 2018_previewUsually, the celebration of an anniversary results in gifts offered by the visitors to the host. But not this time! Ohio Light Opera is celebrating its 40th anniversary this summer, but they’re gifting the audiences with five OLO premieres! That’s correct – five productions that have never graced the stage of Freedlander Theatre, their home in Wooster, Ohio.

Four of the premieres — The Pajama Game, Babes in Arms, Fifty Million Frenchmen, and Candide — are from America’s Lyric Theater tradition, while the fifth — CloClo — is steeped in the Viennese operetta tradition. The season is rounded out with two old friends of OLO, Iolanthe and La Périchole.

Opening on Saturday, June 16 at 7:30 pm, The Pajama Game is known for wonderful tunes and sassy choreography by Bob Fosse (one of his dancers was Shirley MacLaine), debuted in New York in 1954. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Opera & Ballet to perform Moniuszko’s Straszny Dwór on June 16

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by Daniel Hathaway

CastTo mark the 100th anniversary of Polish independence, The Cleveland Opera and Cleveland Ballet will present Stanislaw Moniuszko’s 1865 opera, Straszny Dwór (“The Haunted Manor”), on Saturday, June 16 at 7:30 pm at the Ohio Theatre in Playhouse Square.

“It was popular at its debut in the mid-19th century, but Poland was under partition between Russia, Prussia, and Austria, so there’s a patriotic undercurrent,” soprano, executive artistic director — and native Pole — Dorota Sobieska said in a telephone conversation. “It’s a Polish opera. We sing and I cry. It’s sentimental. It’s where my heart is.”

“The music is wonderful,” conductor Grzegorz Nowak said in a separate phone call. “It was all composed by Moniuszko, but it has a folk quality to it. The Mazur [Mazurka] has even been texted so it can be sung by a choir.”

Nowak, also Polish, is principal associate conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as music director of The Grand National Opera (Teatr Wielki) in Warsaw. He studied at Tanglewood, earned his doctorate at Eastman, then served on the faculty of Bowling Green State University. He’s quite familiar with Moniuszko’s piece, having first conducted it in Warsaw in what he describes as “quite a scandalous production.” [Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire Countryside Concert: “Tarantella!” in Hunting Valley (June 8)

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by Alice Koeninger

AF Tarantella_previewThe Baroque Music Barn and its three-sided seating make for an intimate setting, which was perfect for the Friday, June 8 concert by Apollo’s Fire titled “Tarantella!” Soprano Amanda Powell, plucked instrument musician and tenor Brian Kay, and artistic director Jeannette Sorrell invited the audience to join them on an energetic and emotional tour of “Rhythms of the Old Mediterranean.” This fantastical journey was dramatically narrated by Powell, and talks by Kay, Sorrell, and ensemble member Daphna Mor added to the experience.
 [Read more…]

ContempOpera/Cleveland to premiere Steven Mark Kohn’s Mary Chesnut

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by Jarrett Hoffman

ContempOpera Mary Chesnut Art for Website_previewDuring the Civil War, writer Mary Chesnut — the wife of a senator and Confederate officer — kept a diary where she recorded significant moments in the conflict, wrote about the state of Southern society, and revealed secret feminist and abolitionist views.

She worked to revise the diary as a book, but died nineteen years before its eventual publication under the name A Diary from Dixie. Writers and historians continued to study the text as they discovered more of her papers, and the work’s staying power was affirmed when a 1981 annotated version won the Pulitzer Prize for History.

That woman’s perspective on the Civil War will now make its way to the opera stage. On Friday, June 15 at 7:00 pm at Cleveland Public Theatre’s James Levin Theatre, ContempOpera/ Cleveland will present the premiere of Mary Chesnut by Steven Mark Kohn, composition faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Soprano Andrea Anelli will take the title role in this production directed by Marla Berg and featuring Lorenzo Salvagni at the piano. [Read more…]

CIPC Announces 2018 Prizes in Young Artists Competition

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by Daniel Hathaway

CIPC YA FInalists 2018

Customarily, the Cleveland International Piano Competition announces its winner late in the evening of its final round, which this year featured concertos with the Canton Symphony Orchestra on Friday evening, June 8 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. But for the Young Artists Competition this time around, CIPC kept its competitors and followers in suspense until an awards ceremony the following evening at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Here are the results (L-R: Shuan Hern Lee, Hao Wei Lin, Eva Gevorgyan, Xiaoxuan Li, Yunchan Lim, JiWon Yang):

JUNIOR DIVISION
First Prize ($10,000): Eva Gevorgyan (13, Russia)
Second Prize ($5,000): Yunchan Lim (13, South Korea)
Third Prize ($2,500): Hao Wei Lin (13, Taiwan)

SENIOR DIVISION
First Prize ($25,000): Xiaoxuan Li (16, China)
Second Prize ($10,000): Shuan Hern Lee (15, Australia)
Third Prize ($5,000): JiWon Yang (16, South Korea) [Read more…]

Competition Review: CIPC for Young Artists — Semifinal and Final Rounds (June 5, 6 & 8)

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by Daniel Hathaway

JuniorSemiFinalScreenShotThe Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists brought 22 pianists (ages 12-17) from 11 countries to Cleveland beginning on May 30. By the beginning of the semifinals on Tuesday, June 5, six remained in the junior half of the draw, and seven in the senior. All were impressive performers, some of whom could stand up proudly to participants in CIPC’s 18-30 event. [Read more…]

Nicholas R. Jones Young Writer Fellows named for the summer of 2018

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by Daniel Hathaway

Meyers-KoeningerTwo talented young writers have joined the ClevelandClassical.com masthead as Nicholas R. Jones Young Writer Fellows for June and July. They will participate in all aspects of running a website devoted to classical music including conducting interviews, writing previews and reviews of events and posting them to the site, maintaining our concert listings, and managing social media.

The fellowships are named in honor of the long-time Oberlin Professor who lent his support and writing skills to the website from its founding in 2008 until his retirement in 2017. Major funding for the fellowships comes from the Mandel Foundation. [Read more…]

CD Review 
Convergent Winds: Music of Paul Hindemith — Oberlin Conservatory Faculty (Oberlin Music)

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by Jeremy Reynolds

Hindemith Convergent Winds - FrontPaul Hindemith’s woodwind sonatas are gems, displaying the timbres of each instrument to great effect. Experiencing their individual personalities back-to-back on Convergent Winds: Music of Paul Hindemith is what makes the recently released Oberlin Music album so engaging. [Read more…]

CIPC Announces Senior Finalists

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CIPCSeniorFinalists2018Following the senior semifinal rounds at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Wednesday, June 6, the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists announced the three pianists who will advance to the senior half of the final round with the Canton Symphony on Friday evening: JiWon Yang, 16 (South Korea), Xiaoxuan Li, 16 (China), and Shuan Hern Lee, 15 (Australia).

In performance order, here are the six finalists and their concertos (first movements only). Junior Division: Yunchan Lim (Chopin’s Concerto No. 1); Eva Gevorgyan (Grieg’s Concerto); Hao Wei Lin (Chopin’s Concerto No. 1). Senior Division: JiWon Yang (Grieg’s Concerto); Xiaoxuan Li (Chopin’s Concerto No 2); and Shuan Hern Lee (Grieg’s Concerto). The finals will be broadcast live over WCLV Ideastream, 104.9 FM and prizes will be announced and awarded at a ceremony in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Saturday evening at 7:30 pm. More information here.

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