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Archives for December 2022

DIARY: Thursday, December 15, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Tonight: Cleveland Orchestra holiday concert

•Local News: MLK Celebration Concert scheduled, Western Reserve Chorale seeks singers, and CIM recognizes a pair of alumni (pictured)

•Further afield: R.I.P. composer Angelo Badalamenti, and New School adjunct strike comes to an end

•Almanac: first performances of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, Bloch’s Violin Concerto (in Cleveland), and Revueltas’ Sensemayá

HAPPENING TODAY:

The Cleveland Orchestra continues the run of its holiday program tonight at 7:30 at Severance Music Center. Brett Mitchell conducts, and the ensemble is joined by soprano Mikaela Bennett, the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and members of the Blossom Music Festival Chorus. Click here to read a preview article and here for tickets.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, December 14, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. No auditions or rehearsals for this Messiah

. Rindfleisch’s music featured by ENCORE & Oberlin Opera Scenes, Act II

. Anniversaries of Il Trittico, Wozzeck & Barber’s Op. 11

TODAYS EVENTS:

Trinity Cathedral’s Messiah Sing is back for the first time since 2019. Today at Noon, bring, borrow, or rent a score and sing the Christmas portion of Handel’s celebrated oratorio with Todd Wilson, Trinity Chamber Orchestra, Cathedral soloists, and fellow chorus members.

Tonight at 7:30 the ENCORE Chamber Music Institute String Faculty, Jinjoo Cho, artistic director, with special guests Pat O’Keefe, clarinet and Shuai Wang, piano, celebrate the music of Andrew Rindfleisch, including the Phantasmagoria for string octet (commissioned by ENCORE), Quiet Music for solo cello, Two Pieces for violin and piano, Hallucinations for solo viola, and The Lunatic for bass clarinet. Free in Drinko Hall, Cleveland State University, 2100 Euclid Ave. [Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, December 13, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Tonight: the Perry & Hana duo (saxophone and piano) and a holiday concert by the Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass

•Almanac: violinist Samuel Dushkin — what he played, and what he didn’t play (not by his own choosing)

HAPPENING TODAY:

Music for saxophone and piano is on the menu at 7:00 pm, when Perry & Hana — Perry Roth and Hana Chu — present a duo program at Church of the Western Reserve in Cleveland. A freewill offering will be taken up.

And at 7:30, the Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass will bring a holiday program of swing, classical music, and New Orleans jazz to E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron. The concert is part of the Tuesday Musical series. Read a preview article here, and get tickets here.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, December 12, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Charnofsky spins music you probably don’t know (but might)

. Having fun at the opera in Toronto

. Beethoven studies with Haydn

TODAYS EVENTS:

On the radio & the internet: from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm, Eric Charnofsky hosts “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, featuring Irving Fine’s Symphony (1962), Gabriel Pierné: Poème symphonique for piano and orchestra, Archduke Rudolph’s Trio in E-flat for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Five Preludes, for guitar, Clarice Assad’ Metamorfose, for viola and piano, and Stanley Leonard’s Quarimba, for four marimbas. Click here to listen to the internet feed or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area

INTERESTING READ:

Events by Toronto companies like Opera Revue, Against the Grain and Tapestry Opera are part of an effort to make the art form more accessible. Read Joshua Chong’s article in the Toronto Star, “Forget the ‘hoity-toity tuxes and gowns’ — at Opera Revue you can cheer and holler. No shushing allowed.” [Read more…]

Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis unveils Five minutes for Earth at CMA (Oct. 23)

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by Jacob Strauss

“When we see an idea expressed in the language of art, our sensory reactions often open the heart and mind to interaction in ways that mere facts may not,” writes the celebrated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, who is the founder and director of the Earth at Heart foundation. “Action is the goal, but a visceral call to engagement can be the catalyst. There is not a minute to lose in our battle to protect the future of our planet, and an inspired commitment can make all the difference.”

On October 23 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Kondonassis gave the world premiere of the fifteen works on her latest album, Five Minutes for Earth, as well as two never-before-heard compositions by Steven Mark Kohn and the legendary  jazz artist and composer Arturo Sandoval. That’s seventeen premieres in a single evening. [Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, December 9 – 11, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. City Music & No Exit along with a load of holiday-themed concerts

. Remembering Franck and Messiaen (pictured) on their birth anniversaries

TODAYS EVENTS:

On Friday the 9th at 7:30 at Lakewood Congregational Church, CityMusic Orchestra, led by guest conductor Stefan Willich, and featuring trumpeter Jack Sutte and soprano Chabrelle Williams, will perform Mozart’s Overture and “Deh vieni non tardar” from The Marriage of Figaro and Symphony No. 40 along with Neruda’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat, Verdi’s “Caro nome” from Rigoletto, and Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro” from Gianni Schicchi. The program will be repeated on Saturday the 10th at 7:30 at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus, and Sunday the 11th at 3 at Federated Church. All performances are free.

Also on Friday. No Exit New Music will present a 7:30 concert at Kent State University’s Ludwig Recital Hall that includes three world premieres: David Glaser’s Aurora II, Max Friedman’s Butter-Iider, and Frank Wiley’s The Dream of Sisyphus, along with Henry Cowell’s The Banshee and Tiger, and Ladislav Kubik’s Nocturnes. Read a preview article here. The concert is free. [Read more…]

Oberlin Opera Theatre’s Offenbach & Rossini: “a little soufflé and a little spaghetti” (Nov. 12)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin Opera Theater’s fall double bill of Jacques Offenbach’s farce Le mariage aux lanternes and Rossini’s operetta L’occasione fa il ladro gave director Jonathon Field and two fine student casts a crack at producing both a puff piece and a classical bel canto title on the same program. They proved fully capable of meeting all challenges, bringing professional-level acting and singing to the Hall Auditorium stage. I saw the performance on November 12.

Le mariage aux lanternes, the evening’s curtain-raiser, is about Guillot (Bradley Boatright) and Denise (Genevieve Dilan), a couple working on a farm, who are in love with each other, though the clueless Guillot can’t acknowledge it. With the help of his Uncle Matthias (David Burgher), who sends them letters saying that when the Angelus rings, they’ll find what they are looking for beneath a big tree, they eventually find — each other. Meanwhile, two widows, Franchette (Isabel Merat) and Catherine (Kylie Buckham), are also vying for Guillot’s affection (or, more cynically, plotting to acquire his property). [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, December 8, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Assembly for the Arts’ 1:00 session on the Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 study, and concerts this evening by Apollo’s Fire, Singers’ Club, The Cleveland Orchestra, and CityMusic

•Interesting read: the effects of music (including improv) on dementia in “the here and now”

•Almanac: the Christmas carols of Jean Sibelius

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, December 7, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Britten at Trinity at noon, Apollo’s Fire and Trio Mediaeval in Lakewood and at CMA tonight

. Oberlin Orchestra concert available for replay

TODAYS EVENTS:

Today at Noon at Trinity Cathedral the high voices of the Cathedral Choir and harpist Jody Guinn will present Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. Freewill offering.

At 7:00 pm, Apollo’s Fire and Jeannette Sorrrell will continue their run of performances of Handel’s Messiah at  Lakewood United Methodist Church. Sopranos Sonya Headlam and Erica Schuller, mezzo-sopranos Amanda Crider and Kim Leeds, tenor Steven Caldicott Wilson, and baritone Edward Vogel are the soloists. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical:
The Rodney Marsalis
Philadelphia Big Brass

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Do you prefer your holiday programs to span several genres — and to have that special glint in the sound that only an array of brass can provide? Trumpeter Rodney Marsalis and the Philadelphia Big Brass will check both boxes when they visit Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall on Tuesday, December 13 at 7:30 pm as part of the Tuesday Musical series. Tickets are available here.

The band’s holiday mix is wide-ranging: there’s swing, classical, big band, musical theater, carols, and R&B, ranging from Messiah and Nutcracker selections to Silent Night, When the Saints Go Marching In, and a medley from Earth Wind & Fire. Not just any old holiday program, as I pointed out to Marsalis when we spoke last year over Zoom. (The group’s 2021 visit to Northeast Ohio was canceled.)

Jarrett Hoffman: Bringing together different genres is something that’s been intentional about this group from the start, is that right?

Rodney Marsalis: Yes, we do it with all of our programs. We’ve had a chance to test out this holiday program over the last few years. It’s not just Christmas music, but it’s in the spirit of Christmas, so that’s been our goal.

[Read more…]

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