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Archives for February 2023

DIARY: Thursday, February 2, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Tonight: Apollo’s Fire, Verona Quartet, Cleveland Orchestra, No Exit with Zeitgeist, and a TMA Black History Month concert

•News: Applications for EMA’s Emerging Artists Showcase, and the latest from Canton Symphony’s Orchestrating Change

•Almanac: Kreisler & Heifetz, Oppens & Harrison, and Palestrina

HAPPENING TODAY:

Five concerts fill the schedule tonight. You can choose between two events in Akron (Apollo’s Fire in a chamber program titled “Muse of Fire,” and a Tuesday Musical Association concert celebrating Black History Month), one in Oberlin (the Verona Quartet), and two in Cleveland (The Cleveland Orchestra, and the combination of No Exit and St. Paul-based Zeitgeist). Pictured above: pianist Damien Sneed, who is part of the TMA program.

Read our previews of the Apollo’s Fire and No Exit concerts at those links, and find all the details you need in our Concert Listings.

[Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire: early Baroque treasures feature the bow of violinist Alan Choo

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by Daniel Hathaway

Most people who work multiple jobs have to factor commuting time into their schedules, but Apollo’s Fire concertmaster Alan Choo, recently also appointed assistant artistic director of the ensemble, doesn’t reckon his travel in hours. Home is in Singapore, where Choo founded Red Dot Baroque in 2018, and that’s 9,465 air miles from Cleveland.

Choo is in town for a few weeks this time to be featured in Apollo’s Fire’s “Muse of Fire” programs that begin on Thursday, February 2, in Akron and end on Sunday, February 5 in Rocky River, with two nights at St. Paul’s in Cleveland Heights in between.

His main assignment is the solo violin role in two of 17th-century Bohemian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber’s Rosary Sonatas — musical meditations on the five Joyful Mysteries, the five Sorrowful Mysteries, and the five Glorious Mysteries of the life of Christ.

Probably written in the 1670s, but unknown to modern ears until first published in 1905, the devotional work is preserved in a beautiful manuscript held in the Bavarian State Library. [Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society to present the Butler Trio

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by Mike Telin

If you were to ask just about any musician why they enjoy playing chamber music, they will tell you that it’s because they get to make music with people they enjoy. Case in point, the Butler Trio — Sandy Yamamoto (violin), Joshua Gindele (cello), and Colette Valentine (piano).

“We are all on faculty at the University of Texas, but the Trio formed when I left the Miró Quartet back in 2011,” Yamamoto said by telephone from Austin. “Josh [the cellist in the Miró] and I weren’t quite ready to be done with making music together, so we talked about playing in a piano trio. At the time Colette had joined the faculty so we asked her if she would play some trios with us.”

On Monday, February 6 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the  Rocky River Chamber Music Society will play host to the Butler Trio. The program will include Rachmaninoff’s Trio Élégiaque No. 1, Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D (“Ghost”), and Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat with guest violist Lembi Veskimets. The concert is free. Click here to access the live stream.

[Read more…]

No Exit and Zeitgeist: together again

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by Mike Telin

It’s no secret that the pandemic caused many arts organizations to alter their plans. And while presenting concerts online was a suitable and often enjoyable alternative, they were no replacement for the shared experience of live performances.

On Thursday, February 2 at 8:00 pm at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Recital Hall, No Exit and St. Paul’s Zeitgeist will once again share the stage. “This is the first time in a few years that we’ll be performing together live and in person, and we’re really looking forward to it,” No Exit artistic director Timothy Beyer said during a recent telephone conversation.

The concerts are part of the two ensembles’ annual “Here and There” concert series. No Exit will perform a recent composition by Luis Daniel Jiménez Rojas and give the world premiere of works by Philip Blackburn and Jonathan Posthuma. Zeitgeist will present music by Alvin Lucier and Frederic Rzewski, and the ensembles will collectively perform George Lewis’s Shadowgraph, 5. The program will be repeated on Saturday at 7:00 pm at Heights Arts, and both are free.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: René Izquierdo at Plymouth (Jan. 28)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

The Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series made an auspicious start to 2023 with a recital by Cuban-born guitarist René Izquierdo on January 28. In a program of Cuban and Spanish composers, Izquierdo — who ranks among his country’s great exponents of classical guitar — did not disappoint the near-capacity audience at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights.

The guitarist displayed technical mastery, warmth of spirit, and a prodigious memory throughout the evening. Though a 90-minute performance featuring music by 13 different composers may be old hat to guitar recitalists, the assuredness with which Izquierdo accomplished this was a cause for wonder. In a moment of candor toward the end, he acknowledged the challenge of “having to keep five different programs in his head” on his current tour.

[Read more…]

DIARY Wednesday, February 1, 2023

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Four interesting events, all FREE!

. 91st BW Bach Festival

. Competition winners and chamber music encounters

. Giacomo Puccini and George Walker have premieres

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 12 Noon, the spring series of BrownBag Concerts at Trinity will feature Dancing Wheels — “Art in motion, celebrating the spirit of dance” (pictured). Trinity Cathedral. Free.

At 6:30, you can join Piano Cleveland Live at Phunkenship. Performers include Gastón Frydman, Yaron Kohlberg, and Rachel Brown,“The Honky Tonk Queen of Cleveland.” Free. [Read more…]

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