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Archives for May 2020

DIARY: Friday, May 15, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES TODAY:

Principal Flute Joshua Smith is featured in Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 1 on today’s 12 Noon Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra on WCLV104.9 Ideastream, and also in the latest edition of the Orchestra’s podcast series, which is now available for listening. In “The Boy With the Dragonfly Tattoo,” Episode 5 of On a Personal Note, Smith explains how performing Janáček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen left a lasting impression, and why the dragonfly just may be his favorite insect. Listen here.

Also on today’s agenda: Brahms from CIM’s archives with violist Tess Krope and pianist Alicja Basinska, and Lucia de Lammermoor with Joan Sutherland from the MET Opera vault. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, May 14, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES TODAY:

It’s a busy Thursday. Consult our Concert Listings for details about WCLV’s Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra, Silvia Berry’s live noontime fortepiano recital, Oberlin’s Stage Left (subject: Broadway), Claire Chase’s four-hour live new music marathon, an all-Vivaldi Detroit Symphony Watch Party featuring Nicholas McGegan, the MET Opera’s 2008 production of Peter Grimes, and fp Creative’s third Long Distance Live concert.

 

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi was born in Cremona either on this date or May 15 in Cremona. Put a marker in your calendar for the release next week of the composer’s Vespers of 1610 in Apollo’s Fire’s “Music For the Soul” series. Part 1 comes out on May 19, Part 2 on May 22 (subscribe to the whole series here.) [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, May 13, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1842, composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan was born in London. As the musical half of the Gilbert & Sullivan team, he joined librettist William Schwenk Gilbert in skewering many elements of British society in fourteen comic operas produced by Sir Richard D’Oyly Carte — many of them at London’s Savoy Theater. As a good Victorian, he also wrote oratorios and church music (most of that forgettable, including the triumphalist hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” and the hyper-sentimental The Lost Chord).

Gilbert and Sullivan got skewered themselves by British comedienne Anna Russell in her sketch, “How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera,” captured along with other famous parodies during her live performance at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1984. Watch here, or listen just to that individual sketch here.

Also on today’s date in 1949, British conductor and composer Jane Glover was born in Helmsley, England. [Read more…]

Piano Cleveland announces summer Virtu(al)oso Competition

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by Daniel Hathaway

Having postponed its Cleveland International Piano Competition until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Piano Cleveland has come up with a clever placeholder for the summer of 2020 that will allow 30 pianists, ages 18-30, to compete in a worldwide virtual contest while providing participants with across-the-board financial support.

In a recent telephone conversation, Piano Cleveland CEO Yaron Kohlberg said the idea for Virtu(al)oso grew out of the success of their Quarantine Concerts, a quickly-organized series of eight Thursday evening performances that came together only a few days after Governor DeWine’s stay-at-home order went into effect. Streamed from Steinway Piano Gallery Cleveland between March 19 and May 7, the concerts featured local artists and gave viewers the opportunity to contribute to a Musicians’ Fund.

“It surpassed our goals,” Kohlberg said. “We went into the series not knowing really what to expect. We just knew that we wanted to react as quickly as possible and try to support our musicians. People were so kind and generous, and responded so well.” [Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: “Chamber Music in the Pandemic”

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by Jarrett Hoffman

When live music as we know it came to a halt at the start of the pandemic, clarinetist and Rocky River Chamber Music Society board member Daniel McKelway knew he wanted to do something for concertgoers who live in retirement communities in the area.

“I immediately had a sense that these people are not going to have the connections that are so important to their lives and their happiness in their later years,” McKelway said during a recent telephone call. “These are people who have not been able to have contact with their children and their grandchildren, and who are at greater risk than younger people if they do get the virus.”

His idea was to put on a live concert of chamber music, with generous measures of social distancing to be followed by the performers, and without a live audience in attendance, to be viewed for free over the web. That’s exactly what the Rocky River Chamber Music Society will present on Monday, May 18 at 7:15 pm.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Institute of Music to offer Summer Intensives

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by Jarrett Hoffman

While summer festivals around the world are being cancelled due to the threat of the novel coronavirus, the Cleveland Institute of Music is offering virtual Summer Intensives in nine areas during the months of May and June.

The series, taught by CIM faculty, is aimed at anyone preparing for conservatory or music school auditions, seeking a professional job, or simply honing their performance skills. The faculty members have curated a mix of master classes, demonstrations, discussions, and private lessons to be conducted exclusively online (and notably, CIM has two decades of experience with distance studio teaching).

Want to watch, but not play? Each session is also open to observers for a separate tuition rate, but only participants will receive lessons and the opportunity to perform in master classes.

[Read more…]

CD Review: Wet Ink — Glossolalia/Lines on Black 

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By Tyler Smith
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

Hailed by the New York Times as “The Best Classical Music Ensemble of 2018,” Wet Ink Ensemble has lived up to this acclaim once again with their recent release Glossolalia/Lines on Black. The album takes its name from the two extended works by Wet Ink members Alex Mincek (saxophone) and Sam Pluta (electronics). The remainder of the septet includes Eric Wubbels (piano), Erin Lesser (flutes), Ian Antonio (percussion), Josh Modney (violin), and Kate Soper (voice). [Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, May 12, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Celebrate the birthday of French composer Gabriel Fauré, born on this date in 1845, with his Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano in d, Op. 120. Click here to watch ChamberFest Cleveland players Franklin Cohen, clarinet, Oliver Herbert, cello, and Andrius Žlabys, piano in a performance at Harkness Chapel at CWRU in June, 2017.

The Cleveland Orchestra shares its “Mindful Music Moments” with over 20,000 students in more than 50 schools in Northeast Ohio, providing a way to “start each day with calm and focus.” Here’s such a moment, an excerpt from Má Vlast by Bohemian composer Bedřich Smetana, who died on this date in 1884. And click here to listen to a 1970 performance of the entire “Moldau” movement by the Orchestra under George Szell. [Read more…]

Explore music at home with The Cleveland Orchestra

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You’re never too young to start your music education and you’re never too old to go back to school. Whatever your age, you can discover new ways to connect with music with The Cleveland Orchestra’s Learning@Home resources. 

Mindful Music Moments @Home Family Edition (all ages) 

The @Home edition of Mindful Music Moments is a great way for parents and kids to start the day with structure, calm, and focus in just four minutes. This version of Mindful Music Moments features a single piece of music each week and different mindfulness prompts each day, to deepen our connection to music, and to ourselves, plus additional guided meditations, coloring pages, and resources for at-home play and learning. Mindfulness and music from The Cleveland Orchestra is free. Click here for more information. 

[Read more…]

Singers’ Club appoints new artistic director

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The Singers’ Club of Cleveland has named local conductor and musician Don VerKuilen as its new artistic director, effective June 1.

VerKuilen is the Director of Music and Liturgy at Saint Rocco Parish on Cleveland’s West Side, where he serves as organist and directs all choirs, including a schola cantorum he has created for the return of the Latin Mass.

VerKuilen has directed choirs across the United States as guest conductor and has held choral directing positions in prominent churches, including Pulaski Heights Methodist in Little Rock, Arkansas, and The Old Stone Church, Cleveland. He has performed as concert organist across the United States and Europe. VerKuilen began his organ and conducting studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and is continuing those studies at The Cleveland Institute of Music.

[Read more…]

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