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Archives for October 2024

Great Lakes Theater goes Into the Woods (Sept. 28)

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by Peter Feher

This season, Great Lakes Theater is uniquely positioned to put on a near-perfect production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.

The regional company, in residence at the Hanna Theatre, has time and again mounted some of the most appealing shows at Playhouse Square — more intimate than the Broadway tours that stop just down the street but no less lavishly performed.

You could say it was all for the best that the recent New York revival of Into the Woods — with its rotating celebrity cast paying larger-than-life tribute to Sondheim, who died in 2021 — never made it to Cleveland. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society continues its 75th anniversary season with Imani Winds and pianist Michelle Cann

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by Mike Telin

For pianist Michelle Cann, returning to Cleveland always feels like coming home. “It was such a significant part of my life, having done my bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Cleveland Institute of Music,” she said. “I just love the city and I have so many memories, both musically and personally, that it always feels so great to be back.”

On Tuesday, October 15 at 7:30 pm at The Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church, Cann will join the Imani Winds for a Cleveland Chamber Music Society concert that will include works by Paquito D’Rivera, Lalo Schifrin, Valerie Coleman, and Francis Poulenc. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Recording review: Poiesis Quartet fearlessly forges something new (Bright Shiny Things)

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by Stephanie Manning

Creating something new can come with a lot of expectations. Founding an ensemble. Releasing a debut album. Recording a world premiere, or two. But whatever you might expect from the Poiesis Quartet, they want you to take them exactly as they are.

It might sound like quite the proclamation for the young string quartet, founded two years ago at Oberlin Conservatory by violinists Sarah Ma and Max Ball, violist Jasper de Boor, and cellist Drew Dansby. But their debut recording, as we are — to be released on October 18 — sees the four players completely confident in themselves and the music they’re performing.

The name “Poiesis,” from the ancient Greek ποιεῖν, refers to this act of making what has never been made before. Accordingly, the two pieces on the album are each world premiere recordings (though each have had multiple live performances). Both works also have strong ties to Northeast Ohio, with one by Baldwin Wallace composer-in-residence Clint Needham and the other by Cleveland Orchestra trombonist Richard Stout. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Takács Quartet with Julien Labro (Sept. 28)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Oberlin Artist Recital Series opened its new season in Finney Chapel on September 28 with a late afternoon concert that brought a celebrated string quartet together with a virtuoso on a fascinating instrument.

The wonderfully constructed program, performed in a single 70-minute set without intermission, was created for the Takács Quartet’s 50th anniversary and features Julien Labro both as soloist and ensemble player on the bandoneon and accordina. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, October 10, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Two Finnish musicians — conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen and cellist Senja Rummukainen — will be featured in tonight’s Cleveland Orchestra concert at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center. The program includes Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, Salonen’s Cello Concerto, and Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5. Tickets available online. Read a preview interview with Rummukainen on this page.

SOME HEADLINES IN THE NEWS:

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra experiments with creative experiences for next-gen audiences — Cincinnati Business Courier

Decoding the Trend Busters: How Some Arts Organizations Are Increasing Participation as National Figures Decline — National Endowment for the Arts

In Salt Lake City, Sports Drive a New Vision for Downtown: A proposal to remake the area would please the owner of the city’s N.B.A. and N.H.L. teams. But others, including classical musicians, aren’t so thrilled. —New York Times

TODAY’S ALMANAC: [Read more…]

Daniel Harding leads Cleveland Orchestra in wide-ranging and satisfying symphonic showcase (Oct. 3)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Given that symphonies have been a staple in the orchestral repertoire for 300 years, it would be impossible to cover their entire history in one evening. Even so, the three works on The Cleveland Orchestra’s October 4 program gave listeners a taste of the styles of composers writing in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

Fittingly, the evening opened with music by Franz Joseph Haydn, the “Father of the Symphony.” With 106 symphonies to choose from, the Orchestra selected No. 92, nicknamed “Oxford,” even though it was commissioned by the comte d’Ogny for performance in Paris in 1789. Guest conductor Daniel Harding, who happened to be born and raised in Oxford, led the performance with precision and without unnecessary dramatics.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, October 9, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:00 noon, Trinity Lutheran Church will host organist Florence Mustric again for Music Near the Market. On the Beckerath organ, she will perform a program of “simply perfect” music by composers ranging from Pachelbel to Mendelssohn and Grigny to Demessieux.

For more details, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cleveland Arts Prize awards ceremony (coming up on October 24) will honor composer Clint Needham with the Mid-Career Artist Prize. Needham (pictured) is a professor of composition and the current composer-in-residence at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. His latest work, Mustang Gallop, will be premiered at BW on Friday by the Strongsville Community Band. Read more about the Arts Prize here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Daniel Hathaway

Meet, if you haven’t already, two composers with Cleveland connections who were born on October 9 in 1869 and 1922 respectively.

Hearing a performance of Tannhäuser at the age of 18 inspired Cleveland-born Henry Lawrence Freeman to compose opera, and by his death in 1954, he had written scores for at least 23 titles, 21 of which are preserved in manuscript at Columbia University. He also founded two opera companies — one at the age of 22 in Denver that bore his name, and the Negro Grand Opera in 1920 in New York. The Martyr — the first opera to be produced by an all-black company, was staged in Chicago in 1893 and in Cleveland in 1894. [Read more…]

CIM New Music Ensemble plays Ives & Stewart (Sept. 30)

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by Peyton Avery

On Sunday, September 30, the Cleveland Institute of Music’s New Music Ensemble presented a concert in Mixon Hall featuring music by Charles Ives, in celebration of his 150th birthday, as well as works by Kulas visiting artist Curtis Stewart.

The program opened with Ives’ three movement String Quartet No. 2 performed by violinists Maude Cloutier and Amelia Korbitz, violist Ben Carter, and cellist Liam Battle. This piece, which took Ives six years to complete, portrays four men — represented by the ensemble members — who converse, argue, and eventually ascend a mountain together. [Read more…]

Salonen to conduct his Cello Concerto with Senja Rummukainen at Severance

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by Mike Telin

“I’m looking forward to coming to the Severance Hall, and working with Esa-Pekka — who is a wonderful musician, conductor, and composer — is going to be an amazing experience for sure,” Finnish cellist Senja Rummukainen said during a recent interview. “But getting to play with The Cleveland Orchestra is the greatest thing that’s happened to me —  it’s still a bit unreal.”

On Thursday, October 10 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Rummukainen will make her Cleveland Orchestra debut with Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto. Under the direction of the composer, the concert will also include Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin and Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5. The program will be repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, October 8, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 12 Noon on Tuesdays at the Covenant series, organist Bernhard Klapprott (pictured left, from Weimar, Germany) will play 17th and 18th century music on the Newberry organ in the Church of the Covenant in University Circle. Click here to view the concert program.

And at 7:30 pm, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra will travel down the street to Severance Music Center, where Jake Taniguchi will lead a program of Beethoven, J.S. Bach, and Florence Price, featuring violinists Jaime Laredo and Jessica Lee.

BOP STOP TURNS TEN:

The BOP STOP will celebrate its tenth anniversary with a week of performances from October 15-20 including innovative jazz, local and national acts, experimental works and fan favorites. Donated to The Music Settlement in 2014, BOP STOP schedules more than 300 concerts and events each season in its Hingetown venue that reach some 12,000 audience members and engage more than 7,000 local and national artists.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

German composer Heinrich Schütz was born in Bad Köstritz on this date in 1585. [Read more…]

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