by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: The Busch Trio (pictured) visits Rocky River Chamber Music Society from Amsterdam
•Announcements: application deadlines for the Suburban Symphony’s Young Soloists Concerto Competition and the Kent Blossom Music Festival, and Jeannette Sorrell receives Ursuline College’s Women Who Light The Way award
•R.I.P. Kathleen Mylecraine, 71
•Almanac: Frederick Delius, Havergal Brian, Luigi Nono, and Matthias Pintscher
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society hosts Amsterdam’s The Busch Trio (pianist Omri Epstein, violinist Mathieu van Bellen, and cellist Ori Epstein) in trios by Ravel, Mozart (B-flat major, K. 502), and Tchaikovsky (a minor, Op. 50). A freewill offering will be taken up. The concert will also be livestreamed.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Applications are due February 9 for the Suburban Symphony’s Young Soloists Concerto Competition, open to students in grades 7-12 — find out more here. And as a reminder, applications for the Kent Blossom Music Festival are due February 1 — more info here.
Apollo’s Fire founder and artistic director Jeannette Sorrell has been named the 2024 recipient of Ursuline College’s Women Who Light The Way award. “She has been an unstoppable force in an industry dominated by men and a role model for the next generation of women leaders,” Ursuline president Sister Christine De Vinne said in a press release. A ceremony and reception featuring a dialogue between Sorrell and De Vinne will take place on March 14 from 6-9 pm at the Dodero Center for the Performing Arts on the Gilmour Academy campus. Read the press release here and get tickets here.
KATHLEEN MYLECRAINE, 71:
Kathleen Mylecraine — a flutist and flute teacher who was a member of the Greater Cleveland Flute Society and the Silver Wings Ensemble, who directed The Music Settlement’s flute ensemble for fifteen years, who served as president of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society, and who taught flute to hundreds of students in Great Falls, MT, Edmond, OK, and Cleveland — passed away on December 21 at her home in Chagrin Falls. She was 71.
As her obituary reads, “she was a pillar of the Cleveland music community and a musical gem for the entire world…She encouraged fellow musicians to enjoy their musical journeys. No matter a musician’s level of expertise or commitment, Kathleen was their biggest cheerleader.” A celebration of life will be held on February 10 at 1:00 pm at Unitarian Universal Congregation of Cleveland.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Daniel Hathaway
It’s interesting that two British composers who have achieved cult status rather than wide acceptance were both born on January 29 — Frederick Delius in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1862, and Havergal Brian in Dresden, Staffordshire in 1876.
Delius’ music was championed by conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, and one click will take you to an 8-1/2 hour compendium of his complete orchestral and choral music led by Beecham.
Brian, mostly self-taught and largely supported by a wealthy businessman, wrote 32 symphonies, including the mammoth “Gothic” Symphony No. 1, which Oscar Wilde might have foreseen in his bon not, “Nothing succeeds like excess.” Brian’s allies on the podium were Sir Adrian Boult, who was persuaded to conduct his 8th Symphony in 1954, and Leopold Stokowski, who led the 28th Symphony in a BBC broadcast in 1973 when both composer and conductor were 91.
Watch An Introduction to Havergal Brian’s symphonies and orchestral music by Malcolm MacDonald here, and follow the score along with a nearly two-hour-long performance of the “Gothic Symphony” by the Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Mark the birth on this date in 1924 of Italian composer Luigi Nono, with a performance of his Il canto sospeso, commemorating the victims of fascism. He wrote the work at the age of 32, a piece that first brought him to international prominence.
And celebrate the natal day in 1971 of German composer and conductor Matthias Pintscher, who became director of the Ensemble InterContemporain in 2013. An occasional guest conductor with The Cleveland Orchestra, Pintscher’s Chute d’Étoiles received its premiere by the ensemble at the Lucerne Festival in August of 2012 under Franz Welser-Möst with trumpet soloists Michael Sachs and Jack Sutte. Click here to listen to a performance of Pintscher’s Cello Concerto with Alisa Weilerstein and the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln led by François-Xavier Roth, recorded on October 1, 2019, in the Cologne Philharmonie.