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Archives for February 2022

Pianist Michelle Cann joins Cavani Quartet to open new season of Arts Renaissance Tremont

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by Daniel Hathaway

Thanks (or no thanks) to the pandemic, Arts Renaissance Tremont will open its new season in mid-winter rather than the fall, and due to other circumstances will move its performances from Pilgrim to St. Wendelin Church. The series will also be under new management: the Cavani Quartet will take over its artistic leadership following the passing of its founder, Christine Haff-Paluck.

On Sunday, February 20 at 4:00 pm, pianist Michelle Cann will join the Cavani in a program of piano quintets by Johannes Brahms and Florence Price. Admission is free, but offerings will be gratefully accepted.

Cann, a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music who is on the faculty of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, is treating her visit as something of a homecoming.

I chatted with her earlier this week on her mobile phone while she was driving from Santa Rosa to San José in California for a recording session with a flutist friend. (Not to worry: Bluetooth was operational.) [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

• Today’s events: the YSU flute studio, Duo Anime, Marginalized Composers at Oberlin, Classical Revolution Cleveland returns to the Happy Dog, CSU Composition Students, Buster Keaton Silent Film Classic Steamboat Bill, Jr. with Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and the world premiere of Matthew Recio’s new opera The Puppy Episode

• More about the Cooper Competition, and the premiere of a Holocaust opera eighty years later

• A new book about the life of a professional percussionist and businessman with sage career advice for young musicians

• The Almanac: more information about John Corigliano and Healey Willan. [Read more…]

Joshua Bell and Larisa Martinez present an evening of romance with Tuesday Musical (Feb. 8)

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by Stephanie Manning

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Tuesday Musical delivered a sweet, romantic evening on Tuesday, February 8. Violinist Joshua Bell and soprano Larisa Martinez, who were wed shortly before the pandemic, made one of the first stops in their inaugural concert tour as a married couple at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall. Joined by pianist Peter Dugan, the pair presented “Voice and the Violin,” a variety of short selections that highlighted both their personal and musical partnership.

Given the theme of the evening, it seemed fitting to open the concert in the Romantic era with Mendelssohn’s “Ah, ritorna, età dell’oro” (Cavatina) from Infelice. Bell’s and Martinez’s musical sensibilities were evenly matched, the soprano’s delicate voice fitting well with the violinist’s effortless playing.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra: a conversation with trumpeter Dasara Beta  

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by Mike Telin

Think of works for trumpet and orchestra, and two pieces immediately come to mind. “When I tell someone that I’m playing a concerto, they always say — are you playing Haydn or Hummel?” Dasara Beta said during a recent telephone conversation. “This is a pretty popular piece for trumpet players, but if you don’t play the trumpet, you might not know it.”

On Sunday, February 20 at 3:00 pm at Severance Music Center, Beta will perform Alexander Arutunian’s Trumpet Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. Under the direction of Vinay Parameswaran, the program will also include Jennifer Higdon’s Blue Cathedral and Manuel de Falla’s Suites No. 1 & 2 from El Sombrero de Tres Picos (Three-Cornered Hat). Tickets are available online.

2021 was a good year for the Rocky River High School senior. In addition to winning the COYO concerto competition, Beta was also the First Prize winner of the High School Division of the World Trumpet Society’s Daniel Patrylak Memorial Orchestral Competition as well as a member of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, February 15, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Concerts from organist Rowan Draper and the Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium

•Cooper Competition returns

•Applications for Kent Blossom Music Festival and camps from The Music Settlement

•In the news: Beethoven’s Fidelio reimagined in light of Black Lives Matter, and an emphasis on Florence Price at Carnegie Hall

•The almanac: Mikhail Glinka and The Czar’s Guitars

[Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, February 14, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: Happy Valentine’s Day, that feast day in the early Christian calendar that originally celebrated two martyrs, but through mysterious processes like the medieval tradition of courtly love, has transmogrified into a festival celebrating human love and passion — and has become a boon for the greeting card, chocolate, and flower industry. Eric Charnofsky promises some Valentine’s Day surprises on today’s Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music. Click here to listen to the WRUW internet feed.

Sweetest Day, a related celebration that casts a wider net and has probably become a boon for dentists, was established in 1922 in Cleveland. That’s when a dozen candy companies conspired “to make the day a little sweeter for some of the city’s most vulnerable people” by distributing some 20,000 boxes of candy “to newsboys, orphans, old folks, and the poor.” [Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend Feb. 12-13, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway.

THIS WEEKEND:

On Saturday, the U. of Akron highlights faculty saxophonist Todd Gaffke, Standing Rock sponsors a video by sitarist Hasu Patel, a Julia Child sendup and an Offenbach comedy continue their run at Kent Opera, and The Cleveland Orchestra winds up its trio of concerts led by Herbert Blomstedt.

Sunday sees the final Kent Opera performances, pianist Jeffrey Siegel holds forth on Beethoven, Suburban Symphony hosts four teenage concerto competition winners, and Stars in the Classics plays an early Valentine’s Day show (tickets were still available last we checked).  Details in the Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Cleveland Chamber Music Society announced on Friday that Cuarteto Casals has cut their U.S. tour short due to a medical emergency. Pianist Richard Goode will step in on February 22 at Disciples Christian Church with a program of works by Schumann, Schubert, Bartók, and Beethoven. Details here. [Read more…]

DIARY: Friday, February 11, 2022

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by Mike Telin

HAPPENING TODAY:

Bells at Noon: The McGaffin Carillon Concert & Live Stream features guest carillonneur Sheryl Modlin (pictured) in spirituals, hymns, and music by Black composers to mark Black History Month. Tonight’s agenda includes Opera at Kent (a Julia Child sendup and an Offenbach comedy), Symphonies at Severance (Herbert Blomstedt leads Beethoven’s Fifth and Nielsen’s Fourth), and a CD release party (McDaniel & Kirkwood’s new single, Patterns on Dufy) at the Bop Stops. Details in the Concert Listings.

IN THE NEWS: 

For Black History Month, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra will highlight some of the jazz artists who created music as a way to protest. Their latest newsletter tells you more about the artists and their songs. Access it on CJO’s Facebook page or view the newsletter here. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, February 10, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY’S SCHEDULE:

At 7:30 pm at Severance, Herbert Blomstedt begins a three-day run leading The Cleveland Orchestra in a pair of symphonies: Carl Nielsen’s Fourth and Beethoven’s Fifth. Tickets are available here.

IN THE NEWS:

Brothers Lounge has announced that it will reopen on March 20, just over two years after the Detroit Avenue venue closed in mid-March of 2020. Read the story by Anne Nickoloff for Cleveland.com here.

CityMusic Cleveland has announced a Diversity Fellowship for the 2022-23 season. Violinists, violists, and cellists of African American, Latin American, and/or Native American descent are invited to apply by April 30. More information here.

The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus is looking for singers to attend its mid-season auditions on February 12. Find out more here.

[Read more…]

The Puppy Episode: Oberlin premieres new chamber opera on Feb. 16 and 17

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Puppy Episode, the second in a series of three-year opera projects, will be premiered in Warner Concert Hall on February 16 and 17 (click here for tickets). The performance on the 16th will be live streamed.

“It takes so many people to put on a production, especially a new one,” Oberlin Opera professor and director Christopher Mirto said in a recent Zoom call. And most of them join the process like hopping onto a moving train.

In the case of The Puppy Episode, librettist Royce Vavrek and composer Matthew Recio were present from the first spark of an idea. “I was courting Royce as a collaborator,” said Recio, who was also on the call. “I finished the Vanguard program at Chicago Opera Theater in June, and Lydia, the conductor, gave me a list of librettists. I got to do some speed dating in three or four calls with each candidate.” [Read more…]

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