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Archives for April 2019

Case Camerata + Earth and Air at Harkness Chapel (April 5)

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by David Kulma

Case Western Reserve University’s string orchestra — the Case Camerata Chamber Orchestra led by conductor David Ellis — currently fields 25 student musicians mostly majoring in the sciences (two of whom are also music minors). For their Friday, April 5 concert at Harkness Chapel, Ellis invited five collaborators from his own professional group Earth and Air: String Orchestra to coach each section and sit principal for the performance. The results were noticeable: the group played with an admirable cohesion and rhythmic precision.

[Read more…]

No Exit remembers composer Ladislav Kubik

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by Jarrett Hoffman

How should we remember someone after they pass away?

Czech-American composer Ladislav Kubik died in 2017, and many of the obituaries written for him described an impressive career — from his Guggenheim fellowship to first prizes in several major competitions and a 26-year teaching post at Florida State University.

One short article included below went in a different direction. You got the sense from reading it that this writer really knew Kubik, and that his loss was personal.

The writer was Tim Beyer, director of No Exit. And that new music ensemble will give the premiere of Kubik’s 2017 Nocturnes in three free concerts next week devoted to the composer’s works. Nocturnes, a No Exit commission, turned out to be Kubik’s last completed piece.

[Read more…]

Director Dirk Garner fills us in on Baldwin Wallace’s 87th Bach Festival

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by Daniel Hathaway

Founded in 1932 by Albert Riemenschneider (probably best known today for his edition of Bach’s 371 harmonized chorales), the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival turns a spry 87 years old this year. Festival director Dirk Garner continues to infuse the extended Festival weekend with new ideas. We chatted with him by phone to ask what’s new on the agenda for 2019.

“There are two or three changes this year. We’ve added a Thursday evening concert specifically to celebrate our new orchestra conductor, Soo Han. He’s just been here a year, but he’s making a big splash. He’s a wonderful musician, and the students love him.” That opening concert on Thursday, April 11 at 7:00 pm in Gamble Auditorium includes Leopold Stokowski’s arrangement of Bach’s Air on the G String from the third orchestral suite, Mozart’s Symphony No. 31 in D, and Christopher Theofanidis’ Rainbow Body.

“The Stokowski arrangement ties into what I think is so cool about this year’s Festival,” Garner said. “It shows the many faces of Bach in the 21st century. [Read more…]

CUSP: Nakatani Gong Orchestra at Historic St. John’s (Mar. 30)

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by Nicholas Stevens

For a case study in the inadequacy of words to capture experiences, consider the gulf between describing the Nakatani Gong Orchestra and hearing, seeing, and feeling it live. A “large-ensemble nomadic sound art project,” according to founder, director, instrument-builder, and performer Tatsuya Nakatani, the NGO enlists local volunteers to play seventeen variously sized gongs. A description of the event might dwell on the bows and beaters that fourteen Ohioans recently used to play the gongs in concert. It might catalog the exact sounds the group created from one moment to the next. However, the proper language for this experience is that of enchantment. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: Escher String Quartet (Mar. 28)

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by Nicholas Stevens

Rare, even precious, are the occasions when classical-concert organizers and the ensembles they welcome give substantial new pieces the space to thrive alongside beloved classics. Tuesday Musical, however, presents Northeast Ohioans with just this sort of experience on a semi-regular basis. When the Escher Quartet came to Akron on Thursday, March 28, a bold new thirty-minute composition more than held its own alongside works by Mozart and Beethoven. [Read more…]

NEOSonicFest: Uno Lady, McDaniel + Kirkwood, & Stephan Haluska at Mahall’s (Mar. 29)

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by Rory O’Donoghue

“This next one will have all the homosexuals in the room grabbing a vodka cranberry,” composer Buck McDaniel said winkingly to a packed crowd at Mahall’s last Friday night, March 29. “Including me,” he added. It was perfect commentary for the energetic kickoff event of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony’s 6th NEOSonicFest, an evening that celebrated both cocktails and contemporary music.

[Read more…]

Avital meets Avital at Cleveland Museum of Art

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Avi Avital remembers meeting Omer Avital — no relation — in the cafeteria at the Jerusalem Music Academy.

“We both had this look on our faces like, ‘What’s in that strange instrument case?’” Avi told me during a recent phone call. “He was with his oud, and I was with my mandolin.”

They started talking and discovered how much they had in common. “There’s the family name, for one thing,” Avi said. “We’re not blood-related, but it’s the DNA of our heritage — Avital is a name that is typical to Jewish Moroccan families.” Both Avi and Omer were born and raised in Israel, their parents having immigrated there from Morocco. “We connected very fast.”

[Read more…]

Tharaud to replace Anderszewski on Oberlin Artist Recital Series April 3

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by Daniel Hathaway

French pianist Alexandre Tharaud will step in on short notice for Piotr Anderszewski on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series this Wednesday evening, April 3 at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel. Anderszewski has withdrawn from his current recital tour due to illness. Tickets for the cancelled recital will be honored at the door, and new ticket buyers can reserve online here.

On Wednesday, Tharaud will play J.S. Bach’s so-called Goldberg Variations, followed by a question and answer session moderated by Oberlin piano professor Robert Shannon. The popular title of the work refers to the tale — now regarded as spurious — of a harpsichordist named Goldberg who is supposed to have appealed to Bach for a work to entertain his insomniac patron during sleepless nights.

One of the only Bach works printed during his lifetime, the 1741 copper plate engraving by Nuremberg publisher Balthasar Schmid is titled “Keyboard Exercise, consisting of an ARIA with diverse variations for harpsichord with two manuals.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Women’s Orchestra 84th Anniversary at Severance Hall

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by Daniel Hathaway

Following the unexpected passing at the beginning of the season of its longtime conductor Robert Cronquist (left) — only the second person in its history to lead the ensemble — the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra found itself scrambling for podium leadership. Guest conductor John Thomas Dodson has stepped into that role for the ensemble’s 84th annual concert at Severance Hall on Sunday, April 7 at 3:30 pm, and violinist Jinjoo Cho will be the featured soloist.

Founded in 1935 by Cleveland Orchestra violinist Hyman Schandler at a time when symphony orchestras were the exclusive province of male musicians, the Cleveland ensemble is the oldest women’s orchestra in the United States. After Schandler’s death in 1990, Cronquist took over the podium in addition to his posts as music director of the Mansfield Symphony and the summertime Lakeside Festival Orchestra. During his tenure, he established an endowment to sustain the ensemble as it moved into the 21st century. [Read more…]

Organist Emmanuel Culcasi at Cleveland Museum of Art (Mar. 31)

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by David Kulma

The young award-winning Frenchman Emmanuel Culcasi is the most recent organist to set ablaze the thousands of pipes of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s McMyler Memorial Organ. His program on Sunday afternoon, March 31 in Gartner Auditorium focused on light and included works by the great French organist Louis Vierne, who gave a recital on the instrument in March of 1927 when it was still located in the Museum’s Armor Court. [Read more…]

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