by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:
On Saturday, Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute puts its participants on display in chamber music of Paris & Versailles from 1660-1760 (1:30 to 5 pm, Orchestra Room & Kulas Recital Hall at the Conservatory), Ohio Light Opera presents Me and My Girl (2 pm) & The Sound of Music (7:30, in Freedlander Theater, College of Wooster), Tri-C JazzFest hosts sets by a wide range of artists with start times from 2:30 to 9 pm (Playhouse Square theaters), and ChamberFest Cleveland presents “In Other Worlds” featuring — among many other artists — soprano Susanna Phillips (pictured, 7:30, Federated Church, Chagrin Falls).
On Sunday, ChamberFest Cleveland sponsors a Music & Art Exploration (1-3 pm at the Pivot Center), Encore Chamber Music Institute presents its season finale, a family concert with Encore Camerata (3 pm, event moved indoors to Gates Mills Community House, 1460 Chagrin River Rd.), carillonneur Dennis Curry performs from the tower of St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights (6 pm), and Paul O’Dette headlines the week-long Cleveland Lute Fest (7:30, Harkness Chapel at Case).
For details, visit the Concert Listings page.
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
by Jarrett Hoffman
June 22 —
English tenor Peter Pears was born on this date in 1910 in Farnham. Pears was the partner of Benjamin Britten, both personally and professionally, and the composer wrote frequently with him in mind — Pears sang important roles in many Britten operas. They were also well-known for their recitals, in particular their performances of Lieder by Schubert and Schumann, and for co-founding the Britten-Pears School and the Aldeburgh Festival (along with librettist/producer/director Eric Crozier). In this video from 1968, Pears and Britten give beautiful performances of selections from Schubert’s Winterreise, in addition to discussing the work.
American composer Jeffrey Mumford came into the world on June 22, 1955 in the nation’s capital. A Distinguished Professor at Lorain County Community College, Mumford’s decorated resume includes a slew of commissions and high-profile performances, as well as awards from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the ASCAP Foundation.
Click here to listen to an interview with Frank J. Oteri in which they discuss Mumford’s compositional philosophies and his longtime interest in clouds as inspiration — dating back to when he planned to become a painter. And, perhaps related, click here to listen to his “through the filtering dawn of spreading daybright,” recorded by violist Eliesha Nelson and bassist Scott Dixon on the album through a stillness brightening.
And French composer Darius Milhaud died on this date in 1974. A hugely prolific member of Les Six, the group of composers known for reacting against both German romanticism and French impressionism, Milhaud created a brand of modernism characterized by an interest in polytonality and influences of jazz and Brazilian music. A great example is his 1921 set of dance suites Saudades do Brasil. Click here to listen to a performance by pianist Antonio Barbosa.
June 23:
Among several notable anniversaries on June 23 — including the death of English folk-song collector Cecil Sharp (1924), the birth of German composer Carl Reinecke (1824), and the birth of American conductor James Levine (1943) — we’ll focus on Canton’s own John Finley Williamson, that illustrious choral conductor born on this date in 1887.
Williamson’s history is closely intertwined with the Westminster Choir, which he founded in 1920 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton before establishing the Westminster Choir School some years later. The ensemble was soon touring the U.S. and performing for several sitting U.S. presidents — with national acclaim turning into international acclaim after two European tours.
In the years after moving to its longtime home in Princeton, NJ and becoming accredited as Westminster Choir College, the Choir began performing regularly with the New York Philharmonic (over 300 times) and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Capping off his career with a five-month world tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department Cultural Exchange Program, Williamson retired as president of the College in 1958. After he passed away six years later, his ashes were scattered on campus — which is said to have occurred during a performance of Verdi’s Requiem under Eugene Ormandy.
The history of the School is difficult to wrap your head around. After being born in Dayton, it spent a short time as part of Ithaca College, 88 years in Princeton — at first independently, then as part of Rider University — followed by a controversial move to the University’s Lawrenceville campus in 2020 just in time for the COVID pandemic. The Princeton campus is now listed for sale by the University, and vacant — save perhaps for one baton-wielding ghost from Canton.
