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Archives for July 2024

DIARY: Wednesday, July 17, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 12:15 noon, organist Robert Myers plays “Going neo-Baroque” on the Beckerath organ in Trinity Lutheran Church in Ohio City, and at 2 pm, Ohio Light Opera stages Me And My Girl at the College of Wooster.

Three events are in the works at 7:30 tonight:

• the Cleveland Museum of Art’s City Stages presents Wesli (Canada/Haiti) at Transformer Station,

• the Kent/Blossom Festival features violinist William Hagen (pictured) with Stephen Tavani, violin, Afendi Yusuf, clarinet and friends from The Cleveland Orchestra performing Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet and Schubert’s Octet in Ludwig Recital Hall on the Kent State Campus,

• and Apollo’s Fire “Rediscovers” Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at Kirtland’s Holden Arboretum.

And at 8 pm, Classical Revolution rises anew at the Happy Dog on Detroit Ave., on Cleveland’s West Side.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera enchants with The Count of Luxembourg (July 11)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Operetta distinguishes itself when it is served by great voices and a captivating score. The stories and situations, which can be light and a little silly, pretty much stay in the sunshine. Franz Lehár’s The Count of Luxembourg, which opened in Ohio Light Opera’s production on Thursday, July 11, benefitted from uniformly excellent singing, comedic acting, and a perfectly winsome score — full of catchy waltzes and polkas with lush arias sprinkled in — that had you smiling and whistling like it was 1909. [Read more…]

Soprano Véronique Gens brings love of French music to Cleveland debut

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by Stephanie Manning

Véronique Gens feels a special connection to Hector Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été, a piece she’s performed for decades all around the world. But the 30-minute song cycle isn’t an easy one, both in length and in character.

“It’s a difficult cycle for your mind and for your soul, because the text is so sad and so depressive,” the soprano said in a recent interview. “But it’s a beautiful cycle.”

I reached Gens by phone in France, while she was preparing for her final performance at this year’s Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. While the piece may not be very upbeat, Gens sounded very excited to make her debut with The Cleveland Orchestra. She will join them at Blossom Music Center on Saturday, July 20 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Piano Competition: 50 years on, the future is grand

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by Mike Telin

What began in 1975 as the Casadesus International Piano Competition has gone on to become a premier event in the piano competition world. This year marks the 50th anniversary of what is now the Cleveland International Piano Competition. And so the 2024 edition has taken on a new look and a renewed purpose.

“A lot has changed in the classical music world during the past 50 years,” CIPC president Yaron Kohlberg said during a recent Zoom call, adding that this year’s competition is all about creating more and better ways for it to serve the contestants, the audience, and the community at large. [Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, July 16, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 2 pm, Ohio Light Opera presents a matinee performance of Rodgers &  Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music (pictured) in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Les Délices has announced details of its 2024-2025 season, which includes an all-Mozart program featuring a band of period-instrument wind players (October 3-6), music by visionary 14th-century composers with vocalists Sophie Michaux and James Reese (November 22-24), Baroque cantatas sung by tenor Nicolas Phan plus a new work by Viet Cuong (February 22-23), and The Mermaid featuring Irish bouzouki player Seán Dagher and soprano Elena Mullins Bailey (April 25-27). Three of the programs will be filmed and released via Vimeo as Virtual Concerts. Read the press release here.

The Violin Channel reports that “The Spanish violist Cristina Cordero has joined the Casals Quartet (Cuarteto Casals), succeeding violist Jonathan Brown, who will be departing the group after 22 years to pursue other music projects. Read more here. [Read more…]

Summers at Severance makes triumphant return (July 11)

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by Stephanie Manning

In between their already-packed schedule at Blossom Music Center, the musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra appeared at their usual venue — Severance Music Center — for an exciting offering on July 11. Returning after a five-year absence, the Summers at Severance series kicked off with a high-quality evening of Mandel Concert Hall debuts.

Conductor Oksana Lyniv, joining the Orchestra for the first time, brought a graceful precision and strong sense of tempo to the podium. The synergy between conductor and orchestra was evident from the opening piece, Leoš Janáček’s Suite from The Cunning Little Vixen, [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, July 15, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Venues are on hiatus this summer Monday. For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

IN MEMORIAM:  LaVert Stuart, 78

Lavert Levin Stuart (pictured), music teacher, and choir director, he was a church musician for almost 60 years and served as minister of music at a number of congregations in Northeast Ohio.” Read an obituary here.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Neighborhood Connections Announces $382,114 in Funding for 121 Projects, 27 co-funded by Cuyahoga Arts  & Culture. Read the press release here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

July 15 presents a number of noteworthy events beginning with the death of Carl Czerny in 1857 at age 66 in Vienna. [Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, July 12-14, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

Ohio Light opera now has five of its six summer shows up and running at Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster. Catch Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers (Friday at 2), Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls (Friday at 7:30), Me and My Girl (Saturday at 2), Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Sound of Music (Saturday at 7:30) & Franz Lehár’s The Count of Luxembourg (Sunday at 2).

On Saturday at 7 at Blossom, guest conductor Domingo Hindoyan leads The Cleveland Orchestra & Blossom Festival Chorus in Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, trumpeter Michael Sachs will be featured in Alexander Arutiuian’s Trumpet Concerto, and the program will conclude with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3.

Jodi Kanter’s Stars in the Classics offers two “Summer Music in the Garden” events on Friday and Sunday at 6 in a private garden in Orange Village. Check out the details of “From the Classics to Jazz” and make reservations here.

The McGaffin Carillon in University Circle will get a workout on Friday, with two separate programs by University of Denver carillonneur Carol Jickling Lens at 12:15 and 7 pm.

On Friday at 6:30 pm in Westlake’s Crocker Park, Piano Cleveland Live will present an outdoor concert with Steinway artist Shuai Wang, and a quartet from Cleveland’s Italian folk group, Alla Boara.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The New York Times reports that “Gary Ginstling, the New York Philharmonic’s president and chief executive, abruptly resigned on Thursday after just a year on the job, leaving the orchestra in limbo as it grapples with challenges including heated labor talks and an investigation into its workplace culture after two players were accused of misconduct.

[Read more…]

A peaceful afternoon at Classically Lake View (July 7)

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by Stephanie Manning

Choosing a mausoleum as a concert venue might imply a more somber occasion, but the atmosphere was distinctly lighthearted at the Classically Lake View concert on July 7. Held in the Lake View Cemetery’s Community Mausoleum on a sunny Sunday afternoon, a string quartet of Cleveland Orchestra members and an Oberlin student guitarist presented a spirited program of chamber music by Black composers.

First violinist Liyuan Xie confidently led the quartet as they kicked things off with two movements from Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ String Quartet No. 3, Op. 1. Despite the unconventional indoor space, the small stage helped with projection and the blend between the four musicians kept a balanced timbre. (Probably best not to add any wind instruments into the mix with that echo, though.) [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, July 11, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

With the opening performance of Franz Lehár’s Count of Luxembourg at 2 pm and an evening staging of The Sound of Music at 7:30, Ohio Light Opera will have five of its six summer shows running — and its stage crew busy changing sets — from now through July 28.

Read our group interview with members of the team that makes it all happen in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster. And check out our conversation with artistic director Steven Daigle about the last two shows on this summer’s menu.

Meanwhile in Cleveland, The Cleveland Orchestra is reviving its Summers at Severance series, and tonight at 7 will welcome guest conductor Oksana Lyniv & pianist Inon Barnatan to Mandel Concert Hall for music by Janáček, Rachmaninoff, Borys Lyatoshynsky & Stravinsky. Read our preview here.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On July 11, 1937, American composer George Gershwin died of a brain tumor in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 38. [Read more…]

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