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Archives for November 2023

No Exit & Zeitgeist delve into “The Unconscious”

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by Mike Telin

No Exit continues their Year of Surreality this week with “The Unconscious.” The ensemble will be joined by longtime collaborators Zeitgeist for a program featuring four world premiere films — The Birdhouse, conceived and written by Timothy Beyer and filmed by James Praznik, breathing room by Luke Haaksmsa, In Fourteen Steps by James Praznik, and Between Here and There, a collaboration between Zeitgeist and composer and multimedia artist Philip Blackburn. The free, 7:00 pm performances will be held on Thursday, November 30 at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Recital Hall, Friday, December 1 at Waterloo Arts, and Saturday, December 2 at SPACES.

As part of “The Unconscious,” Cleveland-based artists Leila Khoury and Kristen Newell have created Revelations of the Unconscious Mind (a surrealist dreamscape), which will serve as an exhibit unto itself as well as a performance space. The exhibit is on display at SPACES through December 15.

[Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire at Lakewood Methodist — “Fire & Joy: from Bach & Vivaldi” (Nov. 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Baroque music reaches some of its loftiest heights in concertos, and those by Antonio Vivaldi (who left us some 500) and Johann Sebastian Bach (who seeded his cantatas with concerto-like movements, wrote a collection of six famous concertos, and rearranged — or lost — goodness knows how many others) are among the most popular with ensembles like Apollo’s Fire.

On Friday, November 17, the ensemble brought its program “Fire & Joy: from Bach & Vivaldi” to Lakewood Methodist Church as a stop on its local tour that included performances in Akron, Cleveland Heights, and University Circle. Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell chose concertos by Vivaldi and Bach, pairing them with brief Bach cantata sinfonias.

The concert began with Vivaldi’s D-minor Double Violin Concerto — which Bach arranged for organ during his time at Weimar, when Italian orchestra concertos were all the rage. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, November 30, 2023

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

This evening at 7:30, The Cleveland Orchestra begins a three-performance cycle featuring Mahler’s Fourth Symphony conducted by Daniel Harding, with soprano Lauren Snouffer and including the US premiere of Betsy Jolas’s Ces belles années, repeated on Friday at 7:30 and Saturday at 8.

Another three-performance run that begins this evening pairs Cleveland’s No Exit with the St. Paul-based new music ensemble Zeitgeist for the second installment of No Exit’s Year of Surreality: The Unconscious. The 7 pm free program at CSU’s Drinko Hall includes films by composer/filmmakers James Praznik, Luke Haaksma, and Timothy Beyer, and multimedia works by Philip Blackburn, Joe Horton, and Kathy McTavish. Repeated at 7 on Friday at Waterloo Arts and Saturday at 7 at SPACES Gallery.

And tonight at 7:30, pianist Jeremy Denk (pictured above) brings a slate of female composers — Clara Schumann, Tania León, Cécile Chaminade, Missy Mazzoli, Meredith Monk, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Louise Farrenc, and Phyllis Chen — plus works by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms to his Oberlin Artist Recital series recital in Finney Chapel.  Read a preview article here.

For details of this and other events, visit our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING READ:

It always makes the news when a lost or previously unknown piece of Baroque music turns up, but what if music in that popular style is still being written and premiered? [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, November 29, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols at Trinity, violinist Ilya Kaler and pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi in recital at CIM, and the premiere of a documentary about the 1988 Soviet Tour undertaken by the Cleveland Quartet (pictured)

•Announcements: Tuesday Musical Scholarship Competition applications, Gabe Pollack named 2023 Cleveland Jazz Hero, Double Reed Day at CSU, and instructors needed for U of A’s pre-professional Arts Academy

•Almanac: operatic tributes to Donizetti, Monteverdi, and Puccini

HAPPENING TODAY:

A Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concert at noon will showcase the sopranos and altos of the Cathedral Choir, harpist Jody Guinn, and conductor Todd Wilson in Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. A freewill offering will be taken up.

A CIM Faculty Recital at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall will feature violinist Ilya Kaler and pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi in sonatas by Respighi, Debussy, and Fauré. It’s free, but reservations are required.

Also at 7:30, at Reinberger Chamber Hall, will be the premiere of the documentary Notes From Behind the Iron Curtain: Cleveland Quartet’s 1988 Soviet Tour. The event will also include live performances by The Weilerstein Trio (pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, violinist Donald Weilerstein, and cellist Alisa Weilerstein) and a cello ensemble of Cleveland Orchestra members including Mark Kosower, Richard Weiss, Charles Bernard, and Bryan Dumm. Get tickets here, and read Mike Telin’s interview with cellist Paul Katz here.

Details in our Concert Listings.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra offers up Tchaikovsky, Dvořák as it continues holiday concert tradition

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by Daniel Hathaway
Originally published on Cleveland.com. Photo by Roger Mastroianni from an earlier Cleveland Orchestra concert

While other organizations are taking time off, The Cleveland Orchestra has continued its admirable tradition of playing concerts on the Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoon of Thanksgiving weekend at Severance Music Center.

Those Fridays in particular have seen some memorable performances, and the concert on November 24 was no exception. Played to a capacity, multi-generational crowd enlivened by an enthusiastic influx of families and young listeners, led by the insightful Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen making his debut with the orchestra, and featuring a defining performance of a beloved concerto by one of the most thrilling violin soloists on the international circuit, the experience was simply overwhelming.

From the ovation they gave when Augustin Hadelich merely appeared onstage, Friday’s audience suggested that he was a major factor that drew them to Severance Music Center. [Read more…]

Jeremy Denk brings a celebration of women composers to Oberlin Artist Recital Series

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by Mike Telin

Like many, Jeremy Denk’s time as an undergraduate at Oberlin was filled with emotion. “When I arrived I had so much growing up to do,” the celebrated pianist recalled. “So every place in Oberlin is kind of covered with those memories — emotional memories, discoveries, and stress, of course. I was trying to do a double degree — trying to be a pianist and a chemist, and in some ways I really wanted to be an English major. I wanted to be a lot of different things.”

As part of the Oberlin Artist Recital Series, Jeremy Denk will perform a program that celebrates women composers from the 19th to 21st centuries along with works by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms on Thursday, November 30 at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra: Jinjoo Cho soars in Barber Concerto (Nov. 17)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

In a pre-holiday offering, Bluewater Chamber Orchestra’s audience received gifts simple and somber, with intermittent thrills, on Friday evening, November 17. In an all-American program, the pleasures were many: Cindy McTee’s moving Adagio for strings, Barber’s firework of a Violin Concerto, and Copland’s wise portrait of rural America, Appalachian Spring.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, November 28, 2023

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today is Giving Tuesday, “a day when charities ask us to take a break from our holiday shopping and open our wallets to worthy causes.” Take 17 minutes to listen to an NPR story, How to donate to a charity with purpose and intention.

At noon, Melissa Brassard plays Franck, Bonnal, and Messiaen on The Church of the Covenant’s Tuesday Organ Plus series, and at 7:30 this evening, the Oberlin Percussion Group will bring a variety of 21st century works (and one from 1939) to life in Stull Recital Hall.

Spooked by the weather forecast? Both events will be live streamed, so no need to leave your couch!

For details of this and other events, visit our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Dean Bernard J Owens has announced that Shiloh Roby (pictured) will become Trinity Cathedral’s next Director of Music in March, following the retirement of Todd Wilson at the end of December. (Wilson will continue to teach at the Cleveland Institute of Music.) Roby currently serves as associate director of music at Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati. Read the message from Dean Owens here. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, November 27, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: bassoonist Barrick Stees gives a masterclass at University of Akron

•Announcements: a gear drive from Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project, and a new grant program aimed at increasing arts participation for underserved communities

•Interesting read: review of Moby Dick silent film

•Almanac: Margaret Ruthven Lang and Mabel Daniels, two Boston women composers who may not be as well-known as their contemporary, Amy Beach

HAPPENING TODAY:

High school bassoonists are invited to attend a masterclass by Cleveland Orchestra assistant principal bassoon Barrick Stees from 3:30-5:30 pm in room GH 05 at the University of Akron. Stay afterwards for pizza, warm-ups, and a rehearsal with the University’s bassoon ensemble, BassoonaRoo. Click here to email bassoon professor Cynthia Cioffari and reserve a spot.

[Read more…]

CelloBello Celebrates the Cleveland Quartet: a conversation with Paul Katz

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by Mike Telin

Prior to embarking on a tour of the Soviet Union in 1988, the Cleveland Quartet — Donald Weilerstein and Peter Salaff (violins), James Dunham (viola), and Paul Katz (cello), received word from Goskino USSR, the State Committee on Cinematography, that they wanted to make documentary about the tour. “They wanted it to be an English-language film made for American television.” Paul Katz recalled during a Zoom conversation.

But with the abolishing of Goskino in November of 1991 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December of that year, the film, although in its final edits, was never released. “I don’t know exactly how it resurfaced, but I noticed there was a video of Barber’s Adagio with the Cleveland Quartet on YouTube. It is footage from the film, so I thought that it had to live somewhere.”

On November 29 at 7:30 pm at Reinberger Chamber Hall in Severance Music Center, Notes From Behind the Iron Curtain: Cleveland Quartet’s 1988 Soviet Tour will finally receive its premiere. Following the screening, attendees will have the unique opportunity to engage in a Q&A session with Cleveland Quartet members.

[Read more…]

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