Archives for April 2026

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 6:30, Tuesday Musical presents soprano Renée Fleming in “Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts to Heal and Connect” at the Hudson Library and Historical Society, 96 Library St., Hudson. Click here to register.

Tonight at 7:30, the Helen D. Schubert Concert Series presents the Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips, director, who are currently singing a 14-concert tour in the U.S. Over five decades, the British ensemble has helped establish sacred vocal music of the Renaissance as one of the great repertoires of Western classical music. The performance at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist is free.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

An interesting coincidence today: Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars are in Cleveland for a concert tonight at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on the birthdate in 1941 of British conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Fontmell Magna, Dorset, where he grew up with the famous Elias Gottlob Haussmann portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach hanging on the wall. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

April brings showers and the annual Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival in Berea. Music director Dirk Garner leads the three major festival concerts, beginning on Friday with a “Concerto Countdown” of Johann Sebastian Bach’s concerti for four, three, and two harpsichords. On Saturday at 2, he conducts BWV: Cleveland’s Bach Choir in Arvo Pärt’s Berliner Mass and Magnificat, and the Festival culminates on Saturday with the Bach Festival Orchestra, and BW Motet Choir performing J.S. Bach’s Mass in g & Magnificat. Evening concerts are at 7 in Gamble Auditorium, the afternoon performance in Lindsay-Crossman Chapel.

There are four concerts to highlight on Sunday. At 3:30 pm The Cleveland Women’s Orchestra plays its 91st Anniversary Concert under Eric Benjamin at Severance Music Center with pianist Angelin Chang. At 4 pm – Linking Legacies, a collective of African-American classical musicians, raises awareness of local African-American composers with historical significance in First Church of Christ, Scientist in Rocky River.

On Sunday at 4, Sounds of St. James offers an afternoon of Sacred Music performed by the Case Western Reserve University Early Music Singers, Elena Bailey, director, the Aeterna Chamber Choir, James Flood, director, and guests in St. James Church in Lakewood.

And at 4:30, Steven Smith and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony collaborate with Cleveland Contemporary Ballet for the world premiere of Margaret Brouwer’s City Life and her Mandala, & Inner Voices at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Piano Cleveland has named the thirteen young artists who will be invited to Cleveland in July for the Semi-Final Round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists: three contestants from the Rising Star Division (ages 10-12) and five pianists from each of the Junior (ages 13-15) and Senior (ages 16-18) Divisions. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 pm in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, pianist Alexandre Kantorow will play works by J.S. Bach, Medtner, Chopin, Scriabin, & Beethoven, and Apollo’s Fire will reprise its Fencing Match program as a pre-tour send-off at Avon Lake UCC. At the same hour in Mixon Hall, CIM Perspectives will present cellist Timmy Mesa and pianist Michelle Michelle Cann in works by Debussy and Rachmaninoff.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

On Wednesday, The Cleveland Orchestra announced its 2026-2027 Season, which marks music director Franz Welser-Möst’s 25th and final year with the ensemble. Read the press release here.

R.I.P. jazz pianist Dan Wall, 72

Oberlin Conservatory Dean William Quillen writes that “The Oberlin community mourns the loss of Dan Wall, beloved professor of jazz piano, who passed away at 72. A gifted musician and teacher, Wall served on the Oberlin faculty from 2001 until his retirement in 2025. He inspired generations of students through his mentorship, generosity, and unwavering dedication to the art of jazz. “Information regarding a memorial service will be shared when available.’ [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 Noon, the Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concert series will present Lea Marra and The River Boys.

Tonight at 7:30 in Gartner Auditorium, the Cleveland Museum of Art will host trio El Khat performing original Arabic tunes from Yemen on self-made instruments.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion was first performed on Good Friday, April 15, 1729 in Leipzig. One of the composer’s most astonishing feats is its opening chorus (manuscript pictured below), which employs two orchestras, two choirs, and a boy’s choir and weaves the chorale melody O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig into its complex tapestry of sound. Finally, both choirs come together, intensifying the inexorable progress of the movement. Click here to watch a performance by the Netherlands Bach Society at the Grote Kerk in Naarden led by Jos van Veldhoven. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at 12 noon, organist Chase Olson will divide his Tuesday noon program at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle between the Covenant’s 17th-century-style gallery instrument (music by Heinrich Scheidemann, Melchior Schildt, and Dietrich Buxtehude), and its American classic-style chancel instrument (music by Olson, Charles-Marie Widor, and Franz Liszt).

And at 7:30 pm – CIM Perspectives will present pianist Inna Faliks in Mixon Hall,

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Yesterday’s Diary mentioned the first performance of Handel’s Messiah in Dublin in April of 1742. Seven years later, in 1759, the composer died on this date at the age of 74. A crowd of 3,000 attended his funeral and burial in London’s Westminster Abbey on April 20, a service led by the Bishop of Rochester with music provided by the combined choirs of the Abbey, the Chapel Royal, and St. Paul’s Cathedral. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

This evening at 7:30 the LCCC Signature Recital Series will present the Poiesis Quartet in 20th and 21st-century music in Cinema Hall at Lorain County Community College in Elyria.

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced a change of conductor for its forthcoming performances of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. Due to family reasons, Daniel Harding has withdrawn and Klaus Mäkelä will step in to lead the April 23, 25, and 26 performances by The Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus, and Children’s Chorus, and vocalists Tamara Wilson, Andrew Staples, and Ludwig Mittelhammer.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Medieval French poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut died in April of 1377, presumably on this day. He ably straddled the worlds of sacred and secular music, as shown by two selections. Click here to listen to the Gloria from his Messe de Nostre Dame sung by the Gesualdo Six in Ely Cathedral. And Les Délice’s artistic director Debra Nagy channeled Machaut to create her Estampie Dame, vostre dous viaire for a live performance in January, 2018. Watch here. [Read more…]