by Timothy Robson
It was with a sense of relief and anticipation that I attended last Thursday’s third-to-last concert of ChamberFest Cleveland 2021, after a complete pandemic cancellation of its 2020 season. This musical star of Cleveland summers returned along with many performers from past seasons, plus talented younger musicians in CFC’s Rising Star program. As usual, the performances were top-notch. [Read more…]
by Stephanie Manning
After a year with no shortage of pre-recorded performances, watching musicians play together live and unmasked — even through a computer screen — feels like a breath of fresh air.
Though there was no audience in the room, the energy was palpable as the musicians of the Local 4 Music Fund’s She Scores concert series came together on Sunday for an afternoon of music at the Pilgrim UCC. [Read more…]
by Stephanie Manning
As has been the case throughout this season, on July 4, the ENCORE Music & Ideas Festival will once again try something new. In a celebration of American music, classical and bluegrass will share the stage at the Dodero Center for Performing Arts in Gates Mills. The 4:30 pm concert will begin with Copland’s Appalachian Spring performed by ENCORE artists, before shifting to Michael Cleveland and his band Flamekeeper, who will deliver what is certain to be a high energy performance.
“We’re gonna get up there and jam out,” Cleveland said in a recent phone interview. “That’s what we do.” The band won’t formally decide on a set list until concert day, but the fiddler said the performance will last 30 to 45 minutes and will include songs from their records.
With six albums to their credit, Flamekeeper has a lot of music to choose from. Their most recent release, Tall Fiddler, won the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album. Cleveland, who is blind and partially deaf, has wowed audiences with his fiery playing from a young age. He formed the group in 2006, which includes Chris Douglas on bass, Nathan Livers on mandolin, Josh Richards on guitar, and Jasiah Shrode on banjo.
by Mike Telin
The weather on Sunday morning, June 13, was bright and sunny but not too hot — perfect for a ChamberFest lawn concert. Not to miss out on the occasion, a multitude of people, lawn chairs in hand, made their way down Guilford Road in Cleveland Heights to hear a wonderfully varied program titled Bach and More. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
“What a year!” Kent Blossom Music Festival director Ricardo Sepúlveda said in a recent telephone conversation. “But we’ve been fortunate. The challenges of the pandemic provided us with opportunities to learn, to explore, to be creative and innovative, and how to adapt to rapid change.”
The more you collaborate with others, the less control you have over your own operations. In the case of Kent Blossom, the summer education program that was established in the same year that The Cleveland Orchestra moved into its summer home in Cuyahoga Falls, the program that provides chamber music coaching for young players by members of the Orchestra takes its cues not only from the Orchestra, but also from Kent State University. And since the novel coronavirus made its appearance, the program has also been subject to the health protocols of the State of Ohio.
by Mike Telin
On Wednesday, June 16 at 7:00 at The Grove Amphitheatre, ChamberFest’s theme of the evening was Luscious Soundscapes and included music by Richard Strauss and Amy Beach.
However, it was pianist Shai Wosner’s imaginative interweaving of sonatas by Italian Baroque composer Domenico Scarlatti with sonatas by American composer Frederick Rzewski that got things off to a fascinating start. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
What has happened to June? The sudden flood of openings and return to in-person performances has made the month fly past, but also left some unfinished business — like a review of The Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus Episode 12, subtitled “Celestial Serenades” that features works by Aaron Jay Kernis and Josef Suk.
The video captures a moment when the live concert world was still on hiatus, and face masks were more than merely de rigueur. Though we have moved on from that point in several ways, it’s good to have a reminder that the pandemic will remain with us for some time into the future, and that we’re not through with pondering mortality and creating memorials quite yet. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
NEWS BRIEFS:
Akron’s Tuesday Musical Association has announced that tickets will go on sale tomorrow, Thursday, July 1, for the Chanticleer concert in E.J. Thomas Hall on July 27 at 7:30 pm, rescheduled from last season due to the pandemic. The celebrated 12-voice male chorus from San Francisco will present “Awakenings,” with music by Monteverdi, Byrd, Vicente Lusitano, Villa-Lobos, Augusta Read Thomas, Ulysses Kay, Steven Sametz, Burton Lane, and a newly commissioned work by Ayanna Woods. Click here.
Chagrin Arts will present the Callisto Quartet — Paul Aguilar and Rachel Stenzel, violins, Eva Kennedy, viola, and Hannah Moses, cello — in a free, outdoor performance on Friday, July 16 at 7:00 pm in Solon Bicentennial Park. Formed at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2016, the ensemble won the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and took Second Prize at the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Currently serving as the Graduate String Quartet in Residence at the Shepherd School of Music at Houston’s Rice University, the Callisto have been appointed Fellowship Quartet in Residence at the Yale School of Music. Their concert on July 16 will include Haydn’s Quartet Op. 20, No. 1 & Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 59, No. 3. Details here. [Read more…]
by Cait Winston
In her pre-concert introduction, ENCORE artistic director Jinjoo Cho praised the Cavani String Quartet for their tradition of music-making that is rooted in friendship, selflessness, and a strong sense of community.
These principles were in full effect in the June 20th Sparked by Rosa concert, where the quartet’s synergy and graceful musical dialogue helped them to move effortlessly through a wide variety of musical styles. [Read more…]
by Cait Winston
Nature Emerging, the June 19 installment of ChamberFest Cleveland’s Together Again! created a space where audience members could meditate on and celebrate the beauty of nature, and the many sonic forms it can take. While rain prevented the concert from being held outdoors at The Grove amphitheater, natural scenery could still be appreciated through the many windows of St. Paschal Baylon church.
To begin a program intended to provide “wildly diverse portraits of natural elements,” clarinetist Frank Cohen and pianist Roman Rabinovich performed a set of four songs by Franz Schubert. [Read more…]