by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Saturday, CityMusic Cleveland presents its January chamber music concert at 2 pm at Hudson Library, Minnesota’s Zeitgeist (“Spirit of the Times”), joins Cleveland’s No Exit at 7 at Heights Arts for the last of three joint concerts, Christopher Wilkins, pianist Theron Brown and the Akron Symphony celebrate the centennial of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at 7:30, and at the same hour, The Cleveland Orchestra welcomes violinist Augustin Hadelich and conductor Elim Chan to Severance Music Center for the third performance of a program featuring Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto and Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra.

On Sunday, Erik Ochsner leads the Youngstown Symphony at Stambaugh Auditorium at 2:30, and at 7:30, The Cleveland Orchestra and the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Chorus, Daniel Reith & William Henry Caldwell, conductors, take the audience on a journey through the life of civil rights leader and author Coretta Scott King, the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (pictured: the first MLK celebration concert, photo by Roger Mastroianni).

And on Monday, Severance Music Center welcomes the community to an open house with activities and performances for the MLK holiday. Click here for the schedule. At Noon, classical guitarist Damian Goggans plays works by African diasporic composers, arrangers, and musicians in the Cleveland Museum or Art’s contemporary art galleries.

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Minnesota’s Zeitgeist (“Spirit of the Times”), will join Cleveland’s No Exit for the second of three appearances tonight at 7 at the Bop Stop. On the agenda are world premieres by Christopher Goddard, Luis Daniel Jiménez, James Praznik & Timothy Beyer as well as works by John Cage and Jin Hi Kim.

And at 7:30, The Cleveland Orchestra welcomes violinist Augustin Hadelich (pictured) and conductor Elim Chan to Severance Music Center for the second of three performances of a program featuring Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto and Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra.

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

In London’s Daily Advertiser on January 17, 1745, George Frideric Handel advertised the return of three-fourths of the costs to subscribers of his concert series, indicating that he can’t please them. They responded with renewed support, and concerts resumed a week later. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Minnesota’s Zeitgeist (“Spirit of the Times”), will join Cleveland’s No Exit tonight at 7 in Drinko Recital Hall at Cleveland State University for world premieres by Christopher Goddard, Luis Daniel Jiménez, James Praznik & Timothy Beyer as well as works by John Cage and Jin Hi Kim (repeated at the same hour on January 17 at the Bop Stop, and January 18 at Heights Arts)).

The Baltic nations are renowned for their choral music, the latest of which the Latvian Youth Choir BALSIS will bring to these shores in a seven-concert tour led by conductor Ints Teteroviskis that stops in for a performance at the Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights tonight at 7. The performance is hosted by one of this country’s oldest male voice choirs, the Singers Club of Cleveland. A freewill offering will be received. Click here to view the tour program.

Also on Thursday, The Cleveland Orchestra will welcome violinist Augustin Hadelich and conductor Elim Chan to Severance Music Center for a 7:30 program featuring Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto and Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra (repeated on Friday at 7:30 and Saturday at 8).

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Violin Channel reports that “More than 100,000 scores and parts of music by the groundbreaking twentieth-century composer Arnold Schoenberg have been lost during the recent wildfires in Southern California. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at Noon, organist Jonathan Moyer plays a free recital using both organs in University Circle’s Church of the Covenant: works by Nico Muhly and Samuel Scheidt on the 17th-century North German-style gallery organ, and 20th-century French pieces on the chancel instrument. You can hear the performance online.

And at 7:00 pm, The Singers’ Club of Cleveland, one of the longest continuing men’s choirs in the country, welcomes interested singers to a two-hour open rehearsal led by artistic director Don Verkuijlen at the Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights.

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Several sources claim that the clarinet was invented by German woodwind builder Johann Christoph Denner on this date in 1690 in Nürnberg. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Saxophonist Steven Banks, guest conductor Stéphane Denève, and The Cleveland Orchestra reprise their stunning performance of Guillaume Connesson’s A Kind of Trane at Severance Music Center on Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 — read our review of Thursday’s concert in the Plain Dealer on cleveland.com (photo by Roger Mastroianni). Other French delights fill out the program.

On Sunday at 2 pm, the Cleveland Cello Society hosts a lecture by Dr. Damir Janigro, son of virtuoso 20th-century cellist Antonio Janigro, who will share historic recordings, film clips, and his own personal anecdotes in a one-of-a-kind program at Judson Park Auditorium.

And Sunday at 3, Cleveland Chamber Collective continues its Music of America series with episode VII, featuring music by Reena Esmail, Ellen Ruth Harrison, Gabriela Lena Frank, Ty Alan Emerson, Missy Mazzoli, Lou Harrison, and Astor Piazzolla at Disciples Christian Church.

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, in the final event of the Cooper International Violin Competition, Julia Xiaozhuo Wang, Edna Unseld, and Tiantian Lu perform complete concertos with the Columbus ProMusica Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Norman Huynh in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel. Free and streamed live at oberlin.edu and via The Violin Channel.

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING READ:

The Controversial Hams That Helped a French Cathedral Save Its Organ

Read Emily Monaco’s article in Atlas Obscura about a bell tower in the Saint-Pierre cathedral that hides a meaty secret.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

The great American baritone Sherrill Milnes, a native of Downer’s Grove, Illinois, turns 90 today. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, French conductor Stéphane Denève and The Cleveland Orchestra take the Severance Music Center audience on a guided tour of the City of Light, featuring George Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Elsewhere on the all-French program, saxophonist Steven Banks solos in the Cleveland premiere of Guillaume Connesson’s A Kind of Trane, a tribute to John Coltrane, and the Orchestra fills out the program with Darius Milhaud’s jazz-inspired La création du monde, and Francis Poulenc’s Suite from Les biches.

Also tonight at 7:30, the next-to-last event of the Cooper International Violin Competition is an Honors Recital featuring outstanding performances selected from the first three days of competition. It’s live in Oberlin’s Warner Concert but you can log into webcasts at oberlin.edu and The Violin Channel.

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cooper Violin Competition announced this morning on Facebook: “Last night, Thomas and Evon Cooper joined the judges in congratulating participants and presented awards at the conclusion of round two of the competition. Receiving awards and congratulations were Jinan Laurentia Woo (4th place), Emrik Revermann (5th place and audience prize), and Lauren Yoon (6th place). Continuing to the Concerto Finals are Julia Xiaozhuo Wang, Edna Unseld, and Tiantian Lu.” The final round takes place on Friday at 7:30 in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel with the Columbus Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra.

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that violinist Augustin Hadelich will step in for Hilary Hahn in concerts at Severance Music Center from January 16-18. Hahn continues to recover from injuries sustained last summer. Hadelich will be featured in the Brahms concerto, and Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra will be led by the previously announced conductor Elim Chan. [Read more…]