by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
A concert by Dana percussionist Brett Weigel, a profile of Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov (pictured), a job opening at CIM, an issue facing the Rock Hall, the official song for the Cleveland Guardians, Garrison Keillor rescheduled, and the confusion, anger, and division surrounding the birthday of Bach.
by Emmy Hensley
As the ongoing climate crisis continues to grow in severity, artists across all disciplines have turned to their work to bring about a call to action for members of society to do better — or perhaps, to remind them that this issue isn’t going to just go away. Brooklyn-based Unheard-of//Ensemble’s artistry takes this idea to a new level, inviting their audiences to fully engage with the music, space, and of course, nature that surrounds them during the evening.
Clarinetist Ford Fourqurean, cellist Issei Herr, pianist Daniel Anastasio, and violinist Matheus Souza make up the electroacoustic ensemble that has been touring together for over half a decade. Most recently, the group played for numerous colleges, universities, and performing arts centers in the southern part of the country. Along with their upcoming concert in Cleveland, the ensemble will return to Bowling Green State University to finish their Klingler ElectroAcoustic Residency (KEAR).
Unheard-of//Ensemble will perform Christopher Stark’s Fire Ecologies on Saturday, April 2nd, at 8:00 pm at SPACES. This 55-minute, multimedia work views the environment through the lens of climate change, with video and audio captured by Stark and Zlatko Ćosić. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Half Mozart and half British, the repertory at Severance Music Center on Sunday afternoon, March 27 gave The Cleveland Orchestra multiple opportunities to shine under the baton of Dame Jane Glover, who organized the proceedings with a keen sense of style and narrative. And Dame Imogen Cooper, her compatriot in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, crafted a memorable account of Mozart’s richly symphonic Piano Concerto No. 22.
The geography of the event was established immediately with Benjamin Britten’s Suite on English Folk Tunes, a collection of five pieces completed in 1974, two years before the composer’s death. With folksy titles like “The Bitter Withy” and “Hankin Booby” (the latter commissioned for the 1967 opening of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London), you expect rustic charm, which Britten delivers along with his own batterie of compositional devices and orchestral effects. [Read more…]
by Peter Feher
The Cleveland Museum of Art showed off a new piece last week, though one that didn’t hang on a wall. The musical work in question — Stacy Garrop’s In a House Besieged — had its world premiere at Gartner Auditorium on Friday, March 25.
From conception to instrumentation, the score was crafted with CMA in mind. The performance (brought together by the museum’s director of performing arts, Tom Welsh) honored the late Robert G. Schneider, combining the two musical passions of that Cleveland choir director and organist. In fact, Friday’s entire program, which featured the Philadelphia-based chamber choir The Crossing, made the most of Gartner Auditorium’s organ. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Although Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas was set to make her Cleveland debut on March 14, 2020, the coronavirus had other plans.
In August of that year, Rojas gave a free, pre-recorded online concert for the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: a program entirely devoted to the music of fellow Paraguayan Agustín Barrios Mangoré.
Now, after a two-year wait, Berta Rojas will make her in-person Cleveland debut on Saturday, April 2 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. The program celebrates Argentine guitarist-composer Maria Luisa Anido and French guitarist-composer Ida Presti, both of whom were pioneering virtuosos during a time when concert stages were dominated by men. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]
by Jacob Strauss
On March 12, the audience was invited to sit on the floor in the middle of Wurtzel Theater for a program of compositions and soundscapes created by faculty members of Oberlin Conservatory’s TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts) program. This was the first public presentation of their work since March 2020.
Each piece was individually introduced by the artist. After telling us a little bit about what we were about to hear, the environment changed: colorful washes of light fell over us, and we became surrounded by music. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
ON TODAY:
Faculty and student musicians at Youngstown State and Oberlin are featured in a trio of performances today.
YSU’s Music at Noon features select woodwinds from the Dana School of Music.
This evening, the Dana Trio — Misook Yun, soprano, Sean Yancer, horn, and Caroline Oltmanns, piano — perform “Beyond Auf dem Strom,” featuring commissioned music by James Wilding, Margaret Griebling-Haigh, Cara Haxo, and Elliot Bark, and the preview of a work by Andres Weinkemeyer in advance of its future premiere.
And an Oberlin Faculty Recital by the Verona Quartet (pictured) — Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro, violins, Abigail Rojansky, viola, and Jonathan Dormand, cello, with pianist Peter Takacs — includes Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 9 and Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2, with an introduction by Professor Vladimir Ivantsov of the Russia and East European Studies Department. You can watch a live stream. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Organ and piano trio music this afternoon and evening on World Piano Day
•Articles about two new works inspired by Emmett Till and George Floyd
•Almanac: Beethoven’s first public concert appearance, and his funeral — plus his other two burials
by Mike Telin
For centuries the fairy tale of Puss in Boots, the wily cat who stops at nothing to gain power and wealth for his penniless master, has been a source of inspiration for composers and choreographers.
“For some time I’ve been thinking about how to bring attention to the women authors of fairy tales from late 17th-century France,” Debra Nagy said during a telephone conversation. “I started reading them and thinking about which stories would be appealing to a 21st-century reader, and Catherine D’Aulnoy’s The White Cat really drew my attention. It’s an interesting rewrite of Puss-in-boots from the point of view of her humility, kindness, and generosity which is in contrast to the manipulative Puss-in-boots who gets ahead almost entirely through trickery.”
On Friday, April 1st at 7:30 pm at the Akron Public Library, Les Délices will present their new 65-minute opera, The White Cat. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
They moved my station!
Beginning today, Monday, March 28, WCLV, Ideastream Public Media’s classical music service, will migrate from 104.9 FM to 90.3 FM. This frequency change will extend classical music access to approximately 1 million additional listeners. National Public Radio news will now come from WKSU, which will begin broadcasting at 89.7 and 104.9 on March 28. Click here to read more about the changes, which are designed to expand coverage for the region.
Eric Charnofsky is spending his two-hour Monday slot on WRUW radio in the company of Karl Goldmark, James Primosch, Charles Wakefield Cadman, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Jacob Druckman. Join him for the internet feed at 2 pm.
Tonight at 7:30 pm, and for the first time in a long while, Oberlin’s jazz faculty will share the stage with their students in the Oberlin Jazz Ensemble in a side-by-side from Finney Chapel. The program featuring music by Ray Brown, Marian McPartland, Ivan Lins, and Jay Ashby will be livestreamed. [Read more…]