by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: two solo recitals, three chamber programs, some light opera, and an orchestra concert
•Announcements: a grant program from National Endowment for the Arts, and submissions for the Ohio Creativity Trail
•Almanac: American pianist-conductor Antonia Brico and Dutch composer Henk Badings
HAPPENING TODAY:
There’s a lot going on today.
If you like solo recitals, you can spend your afternoon with organist Robert Myers at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cleveland (12:15 pm, freewill offering), and your evening with lutenist Xavier Diaz-Latorre as part of Cleveland Lute Fest at Case Western’s Harkness Chapel (7:30 pm, tickets at the door).
If chamber music is more to your taste, there’s a pair of faculty recitals on the schedule: one at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute featuring soprano Emma Kirkby and guitarist Lucas Harris (2:00, free), the other at Kent Blossom Music Festival with violinist Arnaud Sussmann and pianist Orion Weiss at Kent State’s Ludwig Recital Hall (7:30 pm, tickets). On top of that, ChamberFest Cleveland will be presenting “Innocence and Experience” at CIM’s Mixon Hall (7:30 pm, now sold out).
If you have a fondness for light opera, see a production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers at Ohio Light Opera in Wooster (2:00, tickets).
And if orchestra music is more your thing, Vinay Parameswaran will lead The Cleveland Orchestra at Wade Oval (7:00 pm, free).
Visit our Concert Listings for more details.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Two pieces of news from the Ohio Arts Council.
First, the National Endowment for the Arts is now taking applications for their Grants for Arts Projects program, which supports public engagement and access when it comes to the arts. Among the categories listed are music, musical theater, opera, and multidisciplinary arts. The deadline for this round of funding is July 11. Click here for more information.
Second, the Ohio Travel Association (OTA) is taking submissions for the Ohio Creativity Trail, which is being launched to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026. OTA is looking for sites around the state that highlight the story of an Ohio artist who has made a significant contribution to disciplines such as music, literature, visual arts, and architecture. Click here to learn more about what makes an ideal site for the trail, here to make a submission by the deadline of July 9, and here to register for a Q&A session to be held on June 27 at 2:00 pm.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Daniel Hathaway
On June 26, we note the birth of American pianist and conductor Antonia Brico in 1902 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and the death of Dutch composer Henk Badings in Maarheeze.
Born to a Dutch single mother, Brico emigrated to California with her foster parents in 1908, where she studied at Berkeley and worked as assistant to the director of San Francisco Opera. She returned to Europe for conducting studies in Berlin and made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1930. Back in the States, she was the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic, and after settling in Denver, became conductor of what was eventually named the Denver Philharmonic.
Brico’s life and career are dramatized in the Shooting Star Filmcompany’s The Conductor. Watch a trailer here (the R-rated full-length film can be rented on YouTube). There are also some poor-quality documentaries about the conductor, but you can listen here to her interview with Northwest Public Radio.
Like a number of his fellow Netherlanders, Henk Badings was born in Indonesia during the Dutch colonial period, but was orphaned early on and returned to the Netherlands to study mining and palaeontology in Delft and worked as a mining engineer before turning to a career in music. His fifteen numbered symphonies and other orchestral works were championed by such conductors as van Beinum and Mengelberg, and his catalogue of 1,000 works includes various experimental pieces.
For a taste of Badings’ music, listen to his 1954 symphony Louisville, dedicated to the Louisville Orchestra and performed by the Janacek Philharmonic under David Porcelijn.