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Archives for June 2023

Dröhnen/Dröna — Re:Sound Festival of New and Experimental Music (June 11)

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by Mike Telin

My experience with sound installations is that you never know what to expect. Sometimes the sound adds ambience to — perhaps a walk through an enchanted garden. Other times it’s simply made me feel anxious.

But what is a sound installation? Basically it’s placing a sound system in a room. Yet describing a sound installation becomes a bit more complicated — is it visual art? Is it experimental music? Or is it a combination of both? In the end, does it need to fit into any category? After all, it is about the experience — aural and physical.

By far the most interesting experience I have had with sound was standing inside an organ case while the pipes were being tuned. To feel the dissonances and hear the beats gradually move into a perfect unison is something everyone should experience.

So it was a wonderful surprise to walk into the Pivot Center on June 11 at 11:30 am to be greeted by sound artist Bob Drake, whose installation Dröhnen/Dröna was featured as part of this month’s Re:Sound Festival of New and Experimental Music. Drake showed my colleague and me into a large room bathed in soft shades of blue. On the floor, along the left wall, were two ranks of organ pipes and a traditional pipe organ windchest.

[Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (June 15)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

How to explain the pleasure of Ohio Light Opera’s production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which opened on June 15 at Freedlander Theatre? With music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, it’s a good-natured romp from the Mad Men milieu of the early 1960s that tries not to recall the bad old days too clearly, or to at least do it in jest. With an excellent cast, sets, and costumes, it’s hard not to have a good time with this production directed by Jacob Allen. I did, even if some of the old-fashioned attitudes rankled a little.

You might suspect that How to Succeed, which won the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for drama, had been ahead of its time, shining a light as it did on the bad behavior of get-ahead businessmen. Nah… Some of the more obvious sexist jokes and lyrics of the original may have been toned down for this production, but a lot of the caddishness remains, even if obviously intended as a send-up.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, June 22, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: events from OLO, ChamberFest, Tri-C JazzFest, and CIPC for Young Artists

•Announcements: Guitar Society job listings, Les Délices SalonEra deadline, and Severance restoration work

•Almanac: Pears, Mumford, Milhaud, and a Saariaho premiere

HAPPENING TODAY:

One event in the afternoon, three in the evening.

At 2:00 pm, Ohio Light Opera presents the opening matinee of No, No, Nanette at Freedlander Theatre in Wooster. At 7:30, ChamberFest Cleveland taps into “Brahms, Bagatelles, and Brews” at Forest City Brewery’s Waldorf Beer Hall (free, 18+ with ID), Tri-C JazzFest presents Angélique Kidjo and Richard Bona (pictured) with the ASANTE Trio featuring pianist Osmany Paredes and drummer ÍIario Bell at Playhouse Square, and CIPC for Young Artists begins its First Round Broadcasts (head to Beachwood Community Center beginning at 5 pm for a free Watch Party).

Tickets and other details in our Concert Listings.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, June 21, 2023

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By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Musical theater continues in Wooster, chamber music in Cleveland Heights.

. Almanac: Remembering Pavel Haas, Alan Hovhaness, and Gunther Schuller (pictured)

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 2:00, Ohio Light Opera presents How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in Freedlander Theatre on the campus of The College of Wooster, and at 7:30, ChamberFest Cleveland presents “Mozart, Brahms, and Redemption” at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights. Details in our Concert Listings. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: 
Camelot (June 14)

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by Daniel Hathaway

In short, there’s simply not a more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here in Camelot

On June 10, Ohio Light Opera opened its 44th season with the first of thirteen performances of Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot, brilliantly time traveling its audiences in Freedlander Theater at the College of Wooster back to a legendary and evanescent Medieval era when knights in shining armor gathered with King Arthur at a round table (where all are equal) and pledged themselves to a code of purity and chivalry.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, June 20, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Oberlin BPI faculty recital and No Exit at Cain Park

•Announcements: Cleveland Orchestra travels to Austria and Israel, and NOYO holds auditions

•Almanac: Offenbach’s operettas and Abel’s gamba

HAPPENING TODAY:

2:00 pm brings an Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute faculty recital featuring Michael Lynn (pictured, performing on flûte traversière and recorder), Mark Edwards (harpsichord), and Rebecca Reed (viola da gamba). The program at Oberlin’s Kulas Recital Hall includes music by Marin Marais and Michel de La Barre. Download the program here. Tickets are $10 at the door (and there is very limited seating).

And at 7:00 at Cain Park’s Alma Theater, the Local 4 Music Fund presents No Exit in a free summer solstice concert that includes music by Chris Neiner, Kaija Saariaho, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, Elliot Cole, Shulamit Ran, Garth Knox, Donald Erb, and Luke Rinderknecht.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, June 19 (“Juneteenth”), 2023

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By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Charnofsky’s playlist celebrates Juneteenth, and some other suggestions for marking the date

.`League of American Orchestras diversity report

. Almanac: Henk Badings’ electronic TV chamber opera (pictured)

HAPPENING TODAY:

In the Juneteenth broadcast of Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Eric Charnofsky features music by African American Composers today from 2-4 pm: Adolphus Hailstork’s Symphony No. 1, Hailstork’s Spiritual Songs (choir), William Grant Still’s Africa (Symphonic Poem), George Walker’s Perimeters (clarinet and piano), Jeffrey Mumford’s the focus of blue light (violin and piano) & Samuel Barber’s Ballade (piano). Click here to listen to the internet feed, or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH

Since 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day, a contraction of June 19th, has been an official federal holiday, marking the anniversary of the 1865 emancipation order that freed enslaved people in Texas some two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

Here’s a selection of resources for marking  Juneteenth. [Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, June 16-18, 2023

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By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Weekend openings and performances

. $15k from NEA to Les Délices, Apollo’s Fire’s local programs next season

. Almanac: Births of Ysaÿe, Stravinsky, and Sir Paul McCartney

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

This weekend finds Ohio Light Opera, ChamberFest Cleveland, and Encore Chamber Music Institute in full swing. There’s lots to sample and dabble in alongside more well-known music. Visit our Concert Listings page for robust listings of these and other events — with composers, titles, and performers’ names.

Ohio Light Opera continues its run of Camelot at Freedlander Theater at The College of Wooster on Saturday. Read preview articles here, here, and here. [Read more…]

James Stroud Classical Guitar Competition announces four winners for 2023

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by Daniel Hathaway

The last event on the agenda of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival on Sunday, June 11 at the Cleveland Institute of Music was the final round of the James Stroud Classical Guitar Competition.

Four young guitarists who survived the semifinal round performed on the Mixon Hall stage in front of seven judges (Jonathan Leathwood, Matteo Mela, Lorenzo Micheli, Nigel North, Petra Poláčková, Mari Sato, and Jason Vieaux) and both a live and an online audience, to determine who would take away which of the generous cash prizes. [Read more…]

Re:Sound New and Experimental Music Festival (June 11)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

The Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project hosted its annual Re:Sound New and Experimental Music Festival June 8-11 at various Cleveland venues. I was lucky enough to catch the final two performances on Sunday afternoon at the Convivium 33 Art Gallery.

Pakistani-born Zeerak Ahmed, who performs under the name SLOWSPIN, and trumpeter Theresa May each held the audience in thrall in programs of live music interacting with pre-recorded sounds.

Ahmed’s music is mesmerizing. She sings with devotional yearning, eyes closed, left arm raised, and in perpetual movement, dancing out meanings of the words. Her songs are in English but also Urdu, Farsi, and Purbi. Whether or not words are understood, deeply felt emotion always cuts through. [Read more…]

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