Archives for March 2026

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša, a frequent guest, returns to the Mandel Concert Hall podium at Severance Music Center to lead The Cleveland Orchestra in Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, Bohuslav Martinů’s Symphony No. 3, and Vítĕzslava Kaprálová’s Military Sinfonietta. Repeated Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 3.

Tonight at 7:30, concertmaster Alan Choo takes Apollo’s Fire to Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles for works written for the court of the Sun King by Lully, Marais, and Rameau. The first of four performances is at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron, repeated on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Hts., and Sunday at 4 at Rocky River Presbyterian Church..

And tonight at 8 in Hall Auditorium, Oberlin Opera Theater raises the curtain on two one-act operas by John Musto, directed by Scott Skiba and conducted by Timothy Weiss. Later the Same Evening is set in a single evening in 1932 Manhattan and brings to life the characters and scenes from five Edward Hopper paintings. Bastianello wraps itself around an amusing series of encounters derived from several versions of an old Italian folk tale. Repeated Friday & Saturday at 8 & Sunday at 2.

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst will release a new spatial audio recording on April 17 celebrating their creative partnership with composer and flutist Allison Loggins-Hull. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 noon in Trinity Cathedral, Rosa Lee plays the Chinese zither, and at 6pm, the Cleveland Museum of Arts presents Will Dudley in an exploration of music for the kora in Toby’s Gallery for Contemporary Art.

ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

By Mike Telin

As we begin the gradual shift from winter into spring, we celebrate the birth of the composer whose name is synonymous with all four seasons. On this day in 1678 Antonio Vivaldi made his world debut in Venice, Italy.

Vivaldi’s page on London’s Classic FM highlights many fun facts about the red-haired composer, who was nicknamed il Prete Rosso (“The Red Priest”). Here are a few to ponder. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 Noon, organist Shiloh Roby (pictured), director of music at Trinity Cathedral, will play works by John Cook, Herbert Howells, David Briggs, Gerre Hancock, and Eugène Gigout on the Church of the Covenant’s Tuesday noon series.

And two chamber music events go head to head tonight at 7:30. At Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society presents the Leonkoro Quartet, while Tuesday Musical hosts the Marsalis-McAllister-Ames Trio (Branford Marsalis and Timothy McAllister, saxophones, and pianist Liz Ames) in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall. For details of this and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

Composer and pianist Margaret Bonds was born in Chicago on this date in 1913. On the performing side of her career, she made history as the first Black musician to solo with the Chicago Symphony when she performed John Alden Carpenter’s Concertino for Piano and Orchestra on June 15, 1933. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

This evening at 7:30 Pittsburgh’s Chatham Baroque — Andrew Fouts, Baroque violin, Patricia Halverson, viola da gamba, and Scott Pauley, theorbo & baroque guitar  — will make its long overdue Cleveland debut on the Rocky River Chamber Music Society series.

For details of this and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA APPOINTMENTS:

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced five new musician appointments to its violin and viola sections.

Elizabeth Fayette joins the Orchestra as First Associate Concertmaster in May, and Philip Marten assumes the role of Associate Concertmaster in August. Zhan Shu, a first violinist with The Cleveland Orchestra since 2018, was appointed Assistant Concertmaster and began serving in the role in January. In May, Dustin Wilkes-Kim joins the second violin section, and Gabriel Napoli joins the viola section Read more here.

MEMORIAL CONCERTS AT OBERLIN:

Two concerts this weekend will memorialize longtime faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory.

On Saturday at 2:30 in Warner Concert Hall, students, friends, and colleagues of Daune Mahy will present a program honoring the voice professor who taught at the Conservatory for 39 years.

And on Sunday at 4:30 in Finney Chapel, James O’Donnell, formerly organist of London’s Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, will play a memorial tribute to David Boe, Ninth Dean of the Conservatory and Professor of Organ from 1962 to 2008.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Kurt Weill was born into the world of musical theater, subcategory political, in Dessau, Germany on March 2, 1900, and Marc Blitzstein wasn’t far behind, entering the scene in Philadelphia on March 2, 1905. [Read more…]