by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: Oberlin BPI faculty recital and No Exit at Cain Park
•Announcements: Cleveland Orchestra travels to Austria and Israel, and NOYO holds auditions
•Almanac: Offenbach’s operettas and Abel’s gamba
HAPPENING TODAY:
2:00 pm brings an Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute faculty recital featuring Michael Lynn (pictured, performing on flûte traversière and recorder), Mark Edwards (harpsichord), and Rebecca Reed (viola da gamba). The program at Oberlin’s Kulas Recital Hall includes music by Marin Marais and Michel de La Barre. Download the program here. Tickets are $10 at the door (and there is very limited seating).
And at 7:00 at Cain Park’s Alma Theater, the Local 4 Music Fund presents No Exit in a free summer solstice concert that includes music by Chris Neiner, Kaija Saariaho, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, Elliot Cole, Shulamit Ran, Garth Knox, Donald Erb, and Luke Rinderknecht.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Yesterday, The Cleveland Orchestra announced details of its 54th international tour, which will bring the ensemble to Austria and Israel this fall. Performances will take place October 18-28 in Vienna, Linz, Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem, with programs featuring music by Mahler, Mozart, and Prokofiev — including Mahler songs performed by baritone Simon Keenlyside.
The tour marks the Orchestra’s first performances in Israel, and the first visit there by an American orchestra since 2018. No coincidence, the timing is aligned with the 75th anniversary of Israel’s Declaration of Independence and the recognition of Israel as an independent state by U.S. President Harry Truman.
And the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra (NOYO) is holding auditions in July, August, and September at the New Union Center for the Arts in Oberlin. Click here for details about audition dates and times, and to register.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach was born on this date in 1819 in Cologne. Probably his most famous work is the opera The Tales of Hoffmann, his final work, which he left unfinished. But looking at Offenbach’s career as a whole, his greatest contribution was in operetta, a genre in which he wrote nearly 100 works, influencing such composers as Johann Strauss Jr. and Arthur Sullivan. The satirical Orpheus in the Underworld, his first full-length operetta, is one of his most beloved. Click here to listen to the Overture (compiled by Carl Binder) performed by the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, led by Valery Platonov.
And German composer and viola da gambist Carl Friedrich Abel died on this date in 1787. Abel is known in part for his association with J.C. Bach, a partnership that produced England’s first subscription series: the Bach-Abel concerts. He’s also famous as a virtuoso of the gamba — and as is the case for many performing composers, those interests went hand in hand. Click here to listen to the Allegro in d, WKO 208 from the 27 Pieces for Unaccompanied Viola da Gamba, as performed by gambist Shirley Edith Hunt.