by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

ON FRIDAY, University of Akron JazzWeek presents Hubb’s Groove Jazz Vespers (7 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church), the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival (pictured) features Bach’s solo cello suites and motets (7 pm in Gamble Auditorium), The Singers’ Club of Cleveland’s Spring Concert theme is “Let Me Tell You a Story” (7 pm at The Church of the Saviour), Carl Topilow and Cleveland Pops Orchestra revisit Rock ‘n’ roll from the ’50s through the ’00s (7:30 at Severance Music Center), Raphael Jiménez leads the Oberlin Orchestra in Mahler’s First Symphony (7:30 in Finney Chapel), and The Chinese Association Musicians of North America presents “The Sound of Blooming: A Musical Tale of Spring” (7:30 in Gartner Auditorium at the Art Museum).

ON SATURDAY, for the first time, the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival presents George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, Dirk Garner, conducting, with BWV: Cleveland’s Bach Choir, BW Motet Choir, and the BW Festival Orchestra with ACRONYM (7 pm in Gamble Auditorium), Baldwin Wallace Men’s Chorus joins the University School Glee Club (7:30 at Federated Church, in Chagrin Falls), and Carl Topilow leads Firelands Symphony Orchestra in “Through Space and Time” (7:30 at Sawmill Creek Convention Center in Huron.)

ON SUNDAY, Young Artist Anthony Yang solos in the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with the Euclid Symphony Orchestra (3 pm at Shore Cultural Centre), Heights Arts Close Encounters presents “Music from an Age of Empires” (3 pm at a private villa in Shaker Heights to be announced), Cleveland Composers Guild and Sestina Cleveland introduce new music by members Geoffrey Peterson, Jeffrey Quick, Eric Charnofsky, Inna Onofrei, Lorenzo Salvagni, and Nick Puin (4 pm at Holy Rosary Church in Little Italy, and Good Company: A Vocal Ensemble presents “Voices of Earth” with works by Ola Gjeilo, Joan Szymko, Johannes Brahms, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Katerina Gimon “Earth” from Elements, as well as works by Good Company members Adam Smith, Jennifer Scolnick, and Michael Carney (4 pm at Lakewood Presbyterian).

For details of these and other events, please visit our Concert Listings page. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 8, the University of Akron JazzWeek 2025 continues with sets by the UA Jazz Ensemble and Birth of the Cool Ensemble at Musica.

For details of these and other events, please visit our Concert Listings page.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Roger Mastroianni, the photographer probably best known to our readers for his images of the Cleveland Orchestra, points his cameras at other Cleveland subjects as well.

As Peter Chakerian writes on Cleveland.com, “His photo exhibition, “Long View of Cleveland – Capturing Time and Motion,” features photo exposures up to as long as 10-minutes long – capturing landmarks and cityscapes with quiet majesty, evolving energy, and beauty with remarkable clarity and depth.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 6 pm, Heights Arts Close Encounters will hold an open rehearsal of its program, “Music from an Age of Empires” at Cleveland Violins.

At 7:30, the Cleveland Museum of Art will host the cross-generational Khalife Trio in Lebanese classics, including new arrangements and original compositions, in Gartner Auditorium.

Also at 7:30. Kenneth Bean will lead the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble in works by Brian Raphael Nabors, Missy Mazzoli, Kristin Kuster, Sasha Paris-Carter, and Dai Fujikura in Warner Concert Hall.

For details of these and other events, please visit our Concert Listings page.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Les Délices announces that its latest SalonEra episode is now available on YouTube, Facebook, and all major podcast platforms. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

7:00 pm – In The Fiddler’s House. Itzhak Perlman plays traditional klezmer music with the Klezmer Conservatory Band at Severance Music Center.

7:30 pm – Apollo’s Fire presents J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor at Trinity Cathedral.

7:30 pm – University of Akron JazzWeek 2025 hosts the Joshua Redman Group (opening act: Sean Jones and the UA Jazz Ensemble) at E.J. Thomas Hall.

For details of these and other events, please visit our Concert Listings page.

ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

Today we remember three composers of note who took their leave of this world on April 8. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 pm, Rocky River Chamber Music Society presents the North Coast Winds in music by Valerie Coleman, Gunther Schuller, Darius Milhaud, Elliot Carter, William Grant Still, George Gershwin, and Paquito de Rivera at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church.

And tonight at 8, the University of Akron JazzWeek 2025 presents Sean Jones, trumpet, with special guests SmokeFace & Floco Torres. UA’s Birth of the Cool Ensemble opens the evening at Akron’s Blu Jazz.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Tri-C JazzFest writes that individual event tickets are now on sale for this year’s festival. “You can purchase tickets by visiting the Playhouse Square website or calling 216-241-6000. Buy early to get the best seats. Trombone Shorty, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Stanley Clarke, Dianne Reeves, Kirk Whalum and many more await you!”

HONORS:

Tri-C JazzFest sends its “Congratulations to Amber Rogers and Daniel Bruce, founders of the Hingetown Jazz Festival, for being recognized for their work with a Jazz Heroes Award from the Jazz Journalists Association.” Read more here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Friday, the Cleveland Cello Society produces its annual extravaganza, i Cellisti, YSU presents the Imani Winds, Apollo’s Fire (pictured) gives the first of four performances of J.S. Bach’s Mass in b in Akron, and Oberlin Sinfonietta performs under Kenneth Bean.

On Saturday, join a “Carillon Crawl” in Cleveland Heights, hear the Andrew Sords Quintet at Bath Church, experience the debut of the Cleveland Photoplayers creating a live score for a 1929 Hitchcock silent film, go on the road with Journey and the Canton Symphony, and catch up with Apollo’s Fire at Trinity Cathedral.

On Sunday, enjoy Clayton Stephenson on the Tri-C Classical Piano Series, hear the CIM New Music Ensemble at the Art Museum or the Firelands Symphony Chorale in Sandusky, follow Apollo’s Fire or the Andrew Sords Quintet to Rocky River, immerse yourself in the music of Five Composers and a Pianist on the Kent Keyboard Series, and experience the Martha Redbone Roots Project at Oberlin.

See our Concert Listings for more information about these and other events.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cleveland Orchestra will present Grammy Award–winning composer and jazz musician Herbie Hancock at Severance Music Center on November 4. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 in Finney Chapel, Raphael Jiménez conducts the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra in Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour, Quinn Mason’s Serenade (premiere), and Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 3.

See our Concert Listings for more information about these and other events

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

Italian-American composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was born on this date in Florence in 1895, as was American pianist Garrick Ohlsson in Bronxville, NY in 1948. Meanwhile, German composer Johannes Brahms died of liver cancer at age 63 in Vienna on this date in 1897, while German-born American composer Kurt Weill suffered a heart attack at 50 and passed away not long after, on April 3, 1950 in New York City. Finally, British tenor Peter Pears died in Aldeburgh in 1986 at the age of 75. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 noon on the Brownbag Concert Series at Trinity Cathedral, vocalist Naomi Columna and percussionist Katalin La Favre will perform early music by John Dowland, Claudin de Sermisy, Alfonso Ferrabosco, Guillaume de Machaut, and others.

And there’s a double-header tonight at the Art Museum: at 6 pm in the galleries, young artists from Case Western Reserve University’s Historical Performance Practice Program will play a variety of pieces surrounded by Italian Baroque artworks.

And at 7:30, YAGODY, the contemporary Ukrainian folk band, will feature theatrical singers supported by drums, percussion, guitar, bass, and accordion in Gartner Auditorium.

See our Concert Listings for more information about these and other events

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Canton Symphony has released the latest podcast in its Orchestrating Change series. The episode (pictured above) features operatic baritone Brian Keith Johnson, a local hero in Northeast Ohio. In addition to his distinguished performing credits, Johnson taught vocal music in the Akron Public Schools for more than 34 years before retiring last spring. Listen here.

While bells and mechanisms of the McGaffin Carillon in University Circle are enjoying some R&R in the Netherlands, Friends of the McGaffin instrument have organized two Saturday morning tours of their sister instruments in Cleveland. [Read more…]