Archives for April 2020
Oberlin Stage Left: “Something for everyone”
by Mike Telin
Artists, arts organizations, and schools of music have found inventive ways of providing homebound audiences with a seemingly never-ending stream of performances during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The question is, what will make yours stand apart from the others?
Beginning on Tuesday, April 14 at 7:30 pm, the Oberlin Conservatory will debut Oberlin Stage Left, a new online series featuring faculty and students, as well as fascinating guests from throughout the musical world. The programs promise to be fun, informative, and “distinctly Oberlin.” New episodes will be broadcast on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons. The inaugural performance will feature harp professor Yolanda Kondonassis and the Oberlin Orchestra, Raphael Jiménez, conducting, in Ginastera’s Harp Concerto, preceded by a recently recorded interview with Kondonassis by Conservatory Dean William Quillen.
Cleveland Chamber Choir responds to COVID-19 and releases a new video
by Mike Telin
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and ban on mass gatherings, Cleveland Chamber Choir and BlueWater Chamber Orchestra have canceled their May 2 performance of “With Heaven and Earth.”
In response to the overwhelming loss of work that area musicians have experienced, the Cleveland Chamber Choir has created the More than Music Artist Relief Fund to support local performing musicians impacted by the crisis. Click here to donate and here to apply for funding.
In a recent telephone conversation, mezzo-soprano and CCC managing director Kira McGirr said that she became aware that some organizations had indicated whether or not they would be able to pay their musicians for cancelled performances. “I thought it would be a nice gesture if we offered our singers at least a portion of their fee as a thank-you and acknowledgment of the struggles that we are all experiencing. The Board unanimously agreed.”
After McGirr sent the email to CCC members notifying them of the May 2 cancellation and the Board’s intent to pay a partial fee, she immediately received messages from singers saying that they preferred to have the organization keep the money. [Read more…]
DIARY: Sunday, April 12, 2020
DIARY: Saturday, April 11, 2020
DIARY: Friday, April 10, 2020
DIARY: Thursday, April 9, 2020
DIARY: Wednesday, April 8, 2020
DIARY: Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Responding, or not, to the pandemic: conversations with eight composers
by Jarrett Hoffman
During the COVID-19 pandemic, performers and presenters have grappled with cancellations by giving virtual performances and releasing videos from the past.
Composers have been flying a little more under the radar — and in a way, that’s natural. “Sheltering in place isn’t that much different than being on deadline for a piece,” Oberlin Conservatory professor Stephen Hartke wrote by email. Cleveland Institute of Music professor Keith Fitch agreed: “A quarantined composer is not so different from a non-quarantined composer.”
Hartke and Fitch are two of the eight composers — including professors, freelancers, and young professionals — who agreed to share their thoughts for this article. After establishing that all things considered, they’re healthy and well, we delved into how — or whether — the pandemic has impacted their writing.