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Archives for March 2024

DIARY: Tuesday, March 12, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At Noon, organist Evan de Jong will play works by George Muffat and John Bull, and J.S. Bach’s Partita on ‘Sei Gegrüßet, Jesu Gütig” at the Church of the Covenant (live stream available). 

And three events are scheduled for tonight at 7:30 pm. The Cleveland Chamber Music Society presents the Dover Quartet (pictured) at Plymouth Church in Shaker Hts., Akron’s Tuesday Musical presents the Kyiv Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra on its “Tour of Peace” with members of the MultiPiano Ensemble (Israel) at E.J. Thomas Hall, and harpsichordist Jay Krasnow plays 18th century German transcriptions in Harkness Chapel at CWRU.

For details, visit our Concert Listings.

PASSINGS:

Today’s New York Times reports that “Eric Carmen, whose plaintive vocals soared above the crunching guitars of the 1970s power-pop pioneers the Raspberries before his soft rock crooning made him a mainstay of 1980s music, has died. He was 74. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir sparkles in “Choral Splendor: Old and New” (Mar. 2)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Composers are always looking back to their elders — and whether out of deference, anxiety, homage, or a desire to understand, it is right and good to admit your debt to the past.

Several contemporary composers (Claudia Hinsdale, Jeff Scott, Joshua Estok, Andrew Rindfleisch, and Caroline Shaw) honored old masters — and did themselves honor in return — in a satisfying program of pairings on Saturday, March 2, at the First Lutheran Church of Lorain. Artistic director Gregory Ristow and the exceptional voices of the Cleveland Chamber Choir were their co-travelers in time.

As one of the earliest examples of a composer referencing an older style, Crucifixum in carne (probably by Medieval composer Pérotin, looking back at the anonymous original) served as an appropriate introduction. Here, the old was intertwined with the new as an elongated cantus firmus undergirded fancy new polyphony. Sung by thirteen unaccompanied male voices led by assistant conductor Peter Wright, the piece resonated warmly in the sanctuary.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Jazz Orchestra celebrates Rhapsody in Blue alongside more ‘20s music & four premieres

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by Jarrett Hoffman

The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra is taking an intriguing approach to the 100th anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue. This weekend’s program will feature the Gershwin classic alongside more music from the 1920s — not to mention four world premieres by Aidan Plank and Brad Wagner of the CJO, and Margi Griebling-Haigh and Ty Alan Emerson of the Cleveland Composers Guild.

At the piano in the Gershwin will be the Orchestra’s own Jackie Warren. At the podium will be Cleveland Pops Orchestra music director Carl Topilow. And joining the CJO will be string players from the Cleveland Pops, BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, and Case Western Reserve University.

Performances take place Friday, March 15 at 7:30 pm at the Maltz Performing Arts Center and Saturday, March 16 at 8:00 pm at BLU Jazz+. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, March 11, 2024

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Opportunities: a beginner songwriting workshop from Piano Cleveland, adult piano classes at Steinway Gallery, Contemporary Youth Orchestra auditions, and Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus open rehearsals

•Almanac: an embarrassment of riches on March 11, including Astor Piazzolla (pictured)

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra’s principal piccolo Mary Kay Fink shines in premiere of Oden Zehavi’s ‘Aurora’

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Originally posted on Cleveland.com

by Daniel Hathaway | Cleveland Classical

CLEVELAND, Ohio — It’s become fashionable to blame COVID for everything that didn’t happen in the past few years, but in the case of Oded Zehavi’s piccolo concerto, the pandemic truly kept the work waiting in the wings of Severance Music Center for four long years past its originally scheduled premiere in April of 2020.

On Thursday evening, Cleveland Orchestra principal piccolo Mary Kay Fink finally unveiled the 14-minute work in a performance led by guest conductor Fabio Luisi that was as glistering as the soloist’s silver concert gown.

Titled Aurora after the classical goddess of the dawn, the time of day Zehavi set aside for composition after young children came into his domestic life, the piece is an extended aria for the smallest but by no means the least expressive instrument in the orchestra. In the hands of a player like Fink, who completely unlocks the potential of the piccolo, the instrument can sing like the best of divas. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: Kyiv Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra Tour of Peace

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by Mike Telin

This week the Kyiv Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra will embark on its first North American tour. Under the direction of Dmitry Yablonsky, the “Tour of Peace” will stop in Akron for a performance at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, March 12 at E.J. Thomas Hall.  Presented by Tuesday Musical, the program will include music by Myroslav Skoryk, Ignaz Moscheles, Felix Mendelssohn, Baruch Berliner, and Ludwig van Beethoven. Tickets are available online.

Born in Moscow to a musical family, Dmitry Yablonsky was accepted into the Central Music School for gifted children at the age of six, where the cello became his instrument of choice. “I have to thank my mother, who took me out of the Soviet Union in the 70s,” Yablonsky said during an interview. Growing up in New York City, he went on to study cello at the Juilliard School of Music. During graduate school at Yale University he studied conducting with OttoWerner Muller.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, March 9-10, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

There are sixteen events in our calendar that we’ll file by title here, and give further information in our Concert Listings.

Saturday: Apollo’s Fire’s family concert (11am at the Art Museum), Irish singer-songwriter Andrew McManus (2pm at the Main Cleveland  Public Library), pianist Shuai Wang in No Exit’s Piano Dada (7pm at the Bop Stop), Cleveland Repertory Orchestra (7pm at Disciples), Les Délices in Jonathan Woody’s Song of Orpheus (7:30 at Inlet Dance @ Pivot Center), the Stow Symphony (7:30 at Tallmadge Alliance Church) and The Cleveland Orchestra with guest conductor Fabbio Luisi & principal piccolo Mary K. Fink (pictured with composer Oded Zehavi, photo by Roger Mastroianni, 8pm at Severance).

Sunday: Youngstown Symphony (2:30 at Stambaugh Auditorium), pianist Yefim Bronfman in a solo recital (3pm at Severance), the Parma Symphony with violinist Andrew Sords (3pm at Valley Forge H.S.), Cleveland Winds with the Cincinnati Wind Band (3pm at the Maltz), Western Reserve Chorale and orchestra in Brahms’s German Requiem (3pm at Church of the Saviour, Cleveland Hts.), Les Délices in Jonathan Woody’s Song of Orpheus (4pm at Disciples) & CityMusic Chamber Series (6pm at Praxis Fiber Workshop). [Read more…]

Oberlin Opera Theater: The Dark Side of Orpheus

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by Stephanie Manning

Reposted courtesy of Oberlin College and Conservatory

The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice has appeared in art for centuries, in everything from books, to paintings, to music. So why do we keep telling it? That question weighed on Stephanie Havey’s mind as the stage director began planning for Oberlin Opera Theater’s production of L’Orfeo.

“There’s something very relatable in that doubt that Orpheus has,” Havey says about the bard’s quest to rescue his wife from the underworld. “That fear of losing his loved one, and also doubting himself—I think these themes are all very universal.”

Written at the turn of the 17th century, Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo is one of the earliest examples of opera as an art form. But it’s not the only operatic take on Orpheus. Havey, Oberlin’s visiting assistant professor of opera theater for 2023-24, has directed the versions by Gluck and Offenbach at other points in her career. But she says Monteverdi’s has a distinct perspective on the dark side to Orpheus’ musical power.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Friday, March 8, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

No Exit’s Year of Surreality presents Piano Dada with Shuai Wang (7pm at CSU’s Drinko Hall), The Cleveland Orchestra led by Fabbio Luisi (pictured) gives the second performance this weekend of the new piccolo concerto commissioned for Mary Kay Fink (7:30, Severance Music Center, repeated Sunday at 3), the Kenyon College Chamber Singers perform on their Spring Tour (7:30 at Fairmount Presbyterian), Les Délices follows Orpheus to the Underworld in the premiere of a new work by Jonathan Woody (7:30 at Akron Civic Theater), and the Western Reserve Chorale & Chamber Orchestra perform Brahms’ German Requiem (7:30 at Lakewood Methodist, repeated Sunday at 3:30 at Church of the Saviour).

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information.

MERCH FOR WOMEN’S DAY:

Van Magazine is offering a perpetual calendar for International Women’s Day that features 250 female composers. “Hang it on your wall, and automatically refute ‘but there just weren’t any women composers back then’ arguments, no verbal effort required. The best news: this calendar can be reused year after year.” Price reduced to $8.50. Click here to order. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society Welcomes The Dover Quartet

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by Mike Telin

Part of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s mission is to present ensembles who are at the beginning of their careers. “We’re always looking at young ensembles that have gotten management and have won chamber music competitions,” Steve Somach, the head of CCMS’s program committee said in an interview with this publication.

One example is The Dover Quartet, who, after having won the grand prize and three special prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, made their debut on the series in May of 2016. On Tuesday, March 12 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, The Dovers — Joel Link and Bryan Lee (violins), Julianne Lee (viola), and Camden Shaw (cello) — will make their fourth appearance on the Chamber Music Society’s series with a program of music by Joaquín Turina, Leoš Janáček, and Franz Schubert. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

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