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Archives for April 2026

Soprano Midori Marsh marks a homecoming with BlueWater Chamber Orchestra

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by Stephanie Manning

When the Phantom of the Opera North American tour visits Playhouse Square in April 2027, Midori Marsh will have plenty of reasons to celebrate. The soprano — who is currently playing the role of Carlotta — grew up in Cleveland Heights, and the city is still home to many of her friends and family.

But Marsh’s first milestone homecoming actually arrives this week. On May 2 and 3, she will join BlueWater Chamber Orchestra for their program “Rustic Reverie,” singing Joseph Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne. Douglas Moore’s Farm Journal and Haydn’s Symphony No. 99 in E-flat Major round out the program, conducted by artistic director Daniel Meyer. Tickets and venue information are available online.

Marsh’s parents still live in Cleveland Heights, and she occasionally comes back to sing for the Church of the Covenant’s Christmas Eve service. “But when it comes to a capital ‘G’ gig, I think this might be my first one in Cleveland,” she said. “So it’s a bit of a thrill, really.” [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, April 27, 2026

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by Daniel Hathaway

INTERESTING READ:

Anthony Tomassini has written a tribute article in the New York Times about the life and career of conductor and composer Michael Tilson Thomas, who died on April 22 at his home in San Francisco at the age of 81.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On April 27, 1894, Russian-American musicologist, composer and conductor Nicolas Slonimsky entered the world in St. Petersburg. His literary credentials include serving as editor of Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (his own bio is priceless) as well as of his Lexicon of Musical Invective, a collection of “critical assaults on composers since Beethoven’s time.” [Read more…]

DIARY: WEEKEND, Friday-Sunday, April 24-26, 2026

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by Daniel Hathaway

NEWS BRIEFS:

Michael Tilson Thomas, 81

The Washington Post reports that “Michael Tilson Thomas, an American conductor who grew up in public from an imperious wunderkind into one of the grand old men of classical music, died April 22 at his home in San Francisco. He was 81.”

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

APRIL 24 – FRIDAY

This afternoon at 6, Classically Lake View presents Franz Schubert’s Cello Quintet and Zoltan Kodály’s Duo with Cleveland Orchestra concertmaster Joel Link, cellist Katarina Elise and friends in the Lake View Cemetery Mausoleum.

Tonight at 7:30 pm, Les Délices presents Starstruck, featuring soprano Hannah De Priest in a selection of George Frideric Handel’s rarely-heard Italian cantatas and chamber music, including Mi palpita il cor, Silete venti, and excerpts from Apollo e Dafne, in Westminster Presbyterian Church in Akron. Repeated Saturday at 4 in Heights Theater and Sunday at 4 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River.

Tonight at the same hour, in Gartner Auditorium, the Cleveland Museum of Art hosts Memphis-bred, Brooklyn-based composer and bassist Stephan Crump in Slow Water, a sextet and body of work  inspired by science journalist Erica Gies’ book Water Always Wins.

APRIL 25 – SATURDAY

Tonight at 7:30, Klaus Mäkelä leads The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and Children’s Chorus in the second of three performances of Benjamin Britten’s monumental War Requiem, with soprano Tamara Wilson, tenor Andrew Staples, and baritone Ludwig Mittelhammer, in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center. Repeated Sunday at 3.

APRIL 26 – SUNDAY

This afternoon at 5, Music from the Western Reserve presents a solo recital by pianist Maxim Lando at Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson.

For full details, please visit our Concert Listings.

Pianist Alexander Kantorow’s thoughtful artistry defines his Cleveland debut (Apr. 16)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — On the cover of the Severance Music Center’s April 16 program book, Alexandre Kantorow stares at the viewer from one end of the piano keyboard, his face mirrored in the glossy fallboard. That stylistic presentation felt quite fitting for the French pianist, a musician who brings out the contrasting sides in every piece and whose playing often produces a reflective, translucent quality.

Currently on a multi-week tour of the U.S., Kantorow made his Cleveland debut on Thursday night at Severance Music Center. Dressed in all black, he initially cut an unassuming figure, an impression that quickly dissolved with the intense opening chords of Franz Liszt’s Variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen after J.S. Bach.

[Read more…]

Verona Quartet to make its CCMS debut: a conversation with violinist Jonathan Ong

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by Mike Telin

After winning top prizes at the Wigmore Hall, Melbourne, Osaka, M-Prize, and Fischoff International Chamber Music Competitions, as well as the 2015 Concert Artists Guild Competition, the Verona Quartet have enjoyed a quick rise to the upper echelon of the chamber music world.

Committed to mentoring the upcoming generations of musicians, the Quartet serves on the faculty of Oberlin College and Conservatory, ENCORE! Chamber Music, and as Artistic Directors of the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance.

On Tuesday, April 28 at 7:30 pm in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Verona Quartet — Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro (violins), Abigail Rojansky (viola), and Jonathan Dormand (cello) — will make their Cleveland Chamber Music Society debut. Their program features music by Scarlatti, Glass, and Janáček. The ensemble will be joined by pianist Yaron Kohlberg for Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, April 23, 2026

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, Klaus Mäkelä leads The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and Children’s Chorus in the first of three performances of Benjamin Britten’s monumental War Requiem, with soprano Tamara Wilson, tenor Andrew Staples, and baritone Ludwig Mittelhammer, in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Violin Channel reports that “Cellist and composer Joshua Roman has been named a recipient of the 2026 Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator Awards. Roman and his research partner, Dr. Elizabeth Bast, will receive $25,000 to study musical treatments for long COVID symptoms.” Read the article here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

According to some sources, “The Bard of Avon,” William Shakespeare, was born on April 23, 1564, and it’s a fact that he died on the same date in 1616. Setting aside the contentious question of whether or not the son of a glove maker from Stratford-Upon-Avon actually authored the plays and poems attributed to him, we’ll honor both his arrival and departure dates with a setting of words from The Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Scene 1. [Read more…]

Baldwin Wallace BachFest: two inspired evening concerts (Apr. 17 & 18)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

From midday Friday through Saturday night, the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival presented a steady run of events in Gamble Auditorium — lectures, master classes, busking, and concerts. I heard the two evening anchors — “Concerto Countdown”  and Mass in G Minor and Magnificat — which gave a fair picture of the whole.

Friday night, April 17, offered something to look at as well as hear: an array of harpsichords drawn together for Bach’s concertos for multiple keyboards. Festival director Dirk Garner led the count — four, then three, then two — as players rotated in and out, trading bright sprays of plectral fancy-fare.

[Read more…]

Les Délices presents Edwards & Yamin in Marianne Mozart-era music at CMA (Mar. 22)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Whatever happened to the siblings of famous musicians?

That’s a particularly interesting question in the case of Marianne Mozart, Wolfgang Amadé’s beloved sister, nicknamed Nannerl, who in her youth was highly regarded as a pianist and composer, but whose works have completely disappeared.

On March 22  at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Les Délices honored the music of Mozart’s sister in its absence with a fascinating recital of music by women composers from her era performed by fortepianist Mark Edwards and violinist Shelby Yamin.

Edwards is a celebrated harpsichordist and organist on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory, but this performance marked his public debut as a fortepianist, as well as his inaugural appearance as a duo with Yamin.

[Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire revives the beautiful “O Jerusalem!” (Apr. 10)

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by Stephanie Manning

Every performance of “O Jerusalem! Crossroads of Three Faiths” is guaranteed to be a little different. Not only are there plenty of opportunities for the performers to improvise, but Apollo’s Fire has also made tweaks to the music selections in the years since the first performances.

Even so, “much has changed since I created this program in 2018,” artistic director Jeannette Sorrell acknowledged in the program book and onstage on April 10. Music that brings together Israeli and Palestinian performers feels heavier in 2026, two-and-a-half years after war erupted in the Gaza strip.

The concerts presented this April approached this reality with both seriousness and joy, a blend both true to the spirit of the original program and respectful of the current moment. I heard the Friday performance at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium. The two musical and cultural consultants, Daphna Mor (Jewish) and Ronnie Malley (Arab), worked with Sorrell to add some new repertoire for this revival. [Read more…]

Richard Goode’s Musical Short Stories

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by Stephanie Manning

Reposted with the permission of Oberlin Conservatory

In Richard Goode’s mental directory of acoustically great places, Finney Chapel easily makes the list.

“ I think about places partly in terms of how the hall sounds,” he says. So when he finds venues with fabulous acoustics, “I remember them with great affection. The atmosphere was so perfect that when you played, you felt that everything mattered.”

The highly-respected American pianist, known for his interpretation of Mozart and Beethoven, has performed on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series quite a few times. It’s been nine years since his last appearance in Finney. “I don’t remember what I played,” he says. “I just remember how good it felt.”

On Wednesday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m., Goode will return to Finney Chapel and the Artist Recital Series with his program “Fancies and Goodnights.” He will pair that personally curated selection of short works with two sonatas by Mozart and Schubert. [Read more…]

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