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Archives for April 2024

Cleveland Composers Guild partners with Factory Seconds Brass Trio & others (Apr. 21)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

The Cleveland Composers Guild found an ideal partner in the Factory Seconds Brass Trio (Jack Sutte, trumpet, Richard King, horn, and Rick Stout, trombone), who, along with other performers, assembled a recital program of the first order at Rocky River’s West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday, April 21.

Before the trio took the stage, a handful of instrumental and vocal performers drew welcome attention to non-brass works by Nicholas Puin, Matthew C. Saunders, Margaret Brouwer, and Andy Junttonen.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, April 30, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: At noon, organist Kingsley Price Wood plays Olivier Messiaen’s Mass for Pentecost (complete) at the Church of the Covenant. Hear it in person, or via livestream.

For details of these and other performances, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Tuesday Musical invites you to be in the audience when this year’s top scholarship winners compete again in the competition’s Final Round/Winners Concert on Sunday, May 5, 2:30 p.m. at The University of Akron’s Guzzetta Recital Hall, 157 University Ave. (across from EJ Thomas Hall).

Two additional adjudicated scholarships — one for $1,000 and one for $2,000 — will be awarded. The audience will also pick the winner of the John M. Ream Jr. DDS People’s Choice Award of $500. The May 5 concert and post-concert reception are free — no tickets or reservations needed. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, April 29, 2024

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Cristian Măcelaru to be Music Director of Cincinnati Symphony (“He understands that orchestras in American communities have the power to serve much better than we have in the past”)

•Anthony Roth Costanzo to be General Director and President of Opera Philadelphia (the rare “artist in his prime who is also working as an administrator”)

•Anthony Freud discusses European and American models of fundraising as he departs as General Director of Lyric Opera of Chicago (“I do think there is little depth of understanding on both sides of the Atlantic about life in the arts on the other side of the Atlantic”)

•Announcements: voting for The Music Settlement in the Parent Choice Awards, Akron Symphony’s Concerts for Kids, and Assembly for the Arts’ Small Biz Block Party

•Almanac: a playlist perfect for people whose musical tastes are all over the map

[Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, April 27-28, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

There are fourteen interesting events listed in our calendar for this weekend. Have fun choosing which concerts to attend!

ON SATURDAY, there’s a Song Recital Project concert by baritone Jason Fuh and pianist Edward Bak (2 pm in Gartner Auditorium at the Art Museum), Trobár Medieval performs 14th century Italian music (7 pm at Our Lady of Carmel), Summit Choral Society’s Metropolitan Chorus sings a concert (7 pm at St. Bernard, Akron), the Canton Symphony plays Rhapsodies from Bohemia (7:30 at Umstattd Hall), contralto Heidi Skok sings Wagner & Mahler (7:30 pm at Disciples Church), The Cleveland Orchestra hosts David Afkham & Beatrice Rana (pictured, 8 pm at Severance), Apollo’s Fire presents Bach Easter Cantatas (8 pm at St. Paul, Akron), and the Richard Bona Trio plays at Oberlin (8 pm in Finney Chapel.

ON SUNDAY, repeats of Saturday shows include The Cleveland Orchestra (3 pm at Severance), Trobár Medieval (3pm at St. Anselm, Chesterland), and Apollo’s Fire (5 pm at Gesú Church in University Hts.,). Cleveland Chamber Collective presents Ty Alan Emerson’s OATH BREAKER (3:30 pm at Pivot Center), Arts at Holy Trinity presents Bard College organist Renée Anne Louprette (4 pm at Holy Trinity Lutheran, Akron), and Lakeland Civic Orchestra features violinist Aika Birch (4 pm at Lakeland Community College.

For details of these and other performances, visit our Concert Listings. [Read more…]

DIARY: Friday, April 26, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight, the Singers Club of Cleveland presents a musical game-show concert (7 pm at First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland), and Trobár Medieval (pictured) performs music from 14th-century Italy (7 pm at St. Paul’s in Cleveland Hts.)

The Cleveland Orchestra hosts guest conductor David Afkham and pianist Beatrice Rana (7:30 pm at Severance Music Center), Apollo’s Fire performs J.S. Bach’s Easter Oratorio and Easter Cantata (7:30 at St. Raphael, Bay Village), Cleveland Jazz Orchestra features bassist and vocalist Richard Bona (7:30 at the Maltz), the Oberlin Artist Recital Series presents the Silkroad Ensemble in “Uplifted Voices” (7:30 in Finney Chapel), and Erik Ochsner conducts a collaboration between the Youngstown Symphony and The Vindys (7:30 at Powers Auditorium).

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM CUYAHOGA ARTS & CULTURE:

CAC’s Board of Trustees will hold a special open-to-the-public meeting on Monday, April 29, 2024 at 4:30 pm (to be livestreamed here. The purpose of the meeting is to vote on a Resolution regarding a tax levy to support Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. View the agenda and handout materials for more information. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical hosts Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (Apr. 20)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

On April 29, the world will celebrate Duke Ellington’s musical mastery on the 125th anniversary of his birth. A sophisticated giant of American music, Ellington wrote and performed as leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 until his death in 1974.

It was a double privilege, then, to experience the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in EJ Thomas Hall on Saturday, April 20. First, to hear the JLCO again in Akron “after forty years” (according to Marsalis), and second, to hear this ensemble perform the Ellington book at the very highest level of technical skill and as mindful stewards of jazz tradition.

[Read more…]

Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen to make Apollo’s Fire debut in two of J.S. Bach’s Easter works

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by Daniel Hathaway

Countertenors lead interesting and varied professional lives that are reflected in the wide range of roles they sing.

Take the example of Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, who will make his Apollo’s Fire debut this weekend in a pair of Johann Sebastian Bach’s rarely performed Easter works.

Cohen, who graduated from Princeton in 2015, will come to Cleveland immediately after returning to his alma mater to sing the role of the Angel in Edward Elgar’s mystical Roman Catholic oratorio The Dream of Gerontius. 

And with Apollo’s Fire, the countertenor, who grew up in a Jewish household, sang in synagogue, and studied cantorial music, will sing the allegorical role of Fear (Furcht) in Bach’s Cantata 66, then take on the persona of Mary Magdalene in the composer’s Easter Oratorio —  two Pietist Lutheran works.

“My two alter egos,” Cohen quipped in a recent telephone interview. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, April 25, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Beginning tonight at 7:30 pm at Federated Church in Chagrin Falls, Apollo’s Fire — under the direction of Jeannette Sorrell —  reaches back a mere 300 years to celebrate Easter with the closest Johann Sebastian Bach came to penning opera: the Easter Oratorio and an Easter Cantata with soloists Andréa Walker, soprano, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, countertenor, Haitham Haidar, tenor, and Edward Vogel, baritone, taking on dramatic roles. Festive baroque trumpets add to the celebration. Performances continue on Friday (7:30 at St. Raphael, Bay Village), Saturday (8 pm at St. Paul’s, Akron), and Sunday (5 pm at Church of the Gesu, University Hts.) Tickets available online.

For more performances, visit our Concert Listings.

[Read more…]

Conductor David Afkham to make Severance Music Center debut

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by Mike Telin

“I am looking forward to being back in Cleveland,” conductor David Afkham said over Zoom from his home in Germany. “This will be my third time with the Orchestra — the first two were at Blossom Music Center, so I’m excited to lead one of the world’s greatest orchestras in that wonderful hall.”

On Friday, April 26 at 7:30 pm, Afkham will make his Severance Music Center debut with a concert that features Unsuk Chin’s subito con forza, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Beatrice Rana, and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. The program will be repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Regarding this week’s concerts, Afkham, who serves as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquestra y Coro Nacional de España, said, “When I was asked to fill in for my friend Lahav Shani back in March, I looked at the program and thought — I like it a lot, I don’t want to change a thing.”

[Read more…]

“Game On!” — a night of game-show fun with the Singers’ Club 

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by Max Newman

“I am fairly certain that in the 131 years of the Singers’ Club, this will be our first event with an interactive audience element.”

What Don Verkuijlen is referring to is the “Game On!” program that the Singers’ Club of Cleveland will present on Friday, April 26 at 7:00 pm at First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland. Tickets are available here.

The brainchild of Verkuijlen, the program is “essentially going to be played like a game of Jeopardy,” he said during a telephone conversation. “When you walk in, there will be a big screen showing various categories. The audience will raise their hands and call out a category, and instead of video clues, the choir will actually be singing a piece of music for each category.”

[Read more…]

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