by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: organist Abraham Ross at noon, and “A Romantic German Valentine” at 7:30
•News: Julia de Burgos Cultural Center announces a call for artists, while Cleveland Orchestra announces upcoming releases
•Almanac: Steven Mackey, Steven Stucky, Renée Fleming, and an amphibious Valentine’s Day
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 12 pm, the Church of the Covenant presents organist Abraham Ross (pictured) on the Tuesday Noon Organ Plus series — check out the program here. A freewill offering will be taken up.
And to celebrate the holiday, at 7:30 pm you can enjoy “A Romantic German Valentine,” a chamber program that includes music by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann as well as world premieres by Margi Griebling-Haigh. A freewill donation of $20 is suggested. Read a preview article here, and see our Concert Listings for details.
NEWS BRIEFS:
The Julia de Burgos Cultural Center has announced a call for artists of all kinds for the Unidos por el Arte initiative. Applicants should demonstrate an understanding of the Center and the community it serves. Ten people will be selected from Cuyahoga County, receiving a $5,000 award, access to the center and its resources, and a featured spot in the Center’s Hispanic Month celebration. Priority will be given to Latinx artists and artists of color. Apply here before March 3.
And The Cleveland Orchestra has announced a handful of audio recordings to be released this year via streaming and download. The focus: music by Prokofiev, Berg Strauss, and Schubert, beginning on March 3 with Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5. Read the press release here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Two contemporary American composers have anniversaries on this date: Steven Mackey was born on February 14, 1956, while Steven Stucky sadly passed away of cancer on this date in 2016 at the age of 66.
Among Mackey’s interests is the electric guitar, which he plays and frequently writes for in combination with other groupings of instruments, including orchestra — as in the electric guitar concerto Tuck and Roll, which he premiered as soloist along with the New World Symphony. Listen to those same players in a recording of the opening movement, “Anthem,” here.
We can recognize Stucky by highlighting his Pulitzer Prize-winning Concerto for Orchestra No. 2, commissioned by the LA Philharmonic for the opening season of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. With the piece, he aimed to showcase his musical influences, and thus it contains references to a range of works by Ravel, Oliver Knussen, Sibelius, Debussy, Brahms, and Stravinsky, as well as Stucky himself.
“What does this all mean for listeners and performers — for the ‘end users’ of the piece?” Stucky wrote. “Surely not that they should approach my new concerto as if it were a treasure hunt or a music history lecture, straining to catch musical souvenirs as they go by. (A good way to ruin a concert!) Instead, I hope that knowing something about my private hopes and allegiances can help others feel the security and freedom to listen and play their very best.”
Click here to listen to the opening movement — “Overture (With Friends)” — in a recording by the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic led by David Alan Miller.
Let’s close with American soprano Renée Fleming, who was born on this date in 1959 in Indiana, Pennsylvania. In classical music alone she has a stellar resume, full of Grammys, world premieres, and performances at a “where’s-where” of opera houses around the world. But perhaps what makes her especially unique is her involvement in all kinds of artistic spheres. She has acted on Broadway, collaborated with jazzers and indie-rockers, and recorded for film soundtracks — plus, the ultimate pop-culture cherry on top: singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl (she’s the only classical singer to have done so).
On this February 14, here’s a fitting example of Fleming’s work in film: click here to listen to the soprano in Alexandre Desplat’s You’ll Never Know from the 2017 romantic fantasy The Shape of Water. (May your Valentine’s Day be filled with more humanoid creatures with love to give — even if they are amphibious.)