by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

On Saturday, Sororii — cellist Carolina Borja and bassoonist Arleigh Savage — play instrumental grooves (2 pm at the Main Cleveland Library) the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra performs with violinist Ken Johnston (7 pm at Disciples Church), the Youngstown Symphony plays the score during a screening of Back to the Future (7:30 at Powers Auditorium, repeated Sunday at 7:30), and Tan Dun conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in his Water Concerto with percussionist Marc Damoulakis (8 pm at Severance Music Center).

Don’t forget to turn your clocks back at 2 am. Sunday’s calendar is overflowing with ten events: Heights Arts’ Music for Winds by Women of the Gilded Age (3 pm at Heights Theater), the Euclid Symphony with bassist Derek Zadinski (3 pm at Shore Cultural Center), Keyboard Conversations with Jeffrey Siegel (3 pm at the Maltz PAC), CIM New Music Ensemble with Marilyn Shrude (4 pm  in Mixon Hall), organist Jack Mitchener (4 pm at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights), Paragon Brass Ensemble (pictured) with organist Abby Haake  (4 pm at Holy Trinity Lutheran, Akron), Urban Troubadour with a Cleveland Orchestra horn quartet (4 pm at Cuyahoga Falls Sheraton), Kent Keyboard Series with Kenny Werner (5 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall), Appalachian Chamber Music Players (5:30, Guzzetta Recital Hall, U. of Akron) and a repeat of Saturday’s Youngstown Symphony screening (7:30, Powers Auditorium).

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

NEWS BRIEFS: 

The Cleveland Orchestra will present its 28th Distinguished Service Award to cultural arts activist Nancy McCann before the evening’s concert on November 7 at Severance Music Center. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Tonight at 7, Cleveland Orchestra clarinetist Daniel McKelway (pictured) will be featured in the Mozart concerto with the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra in Gamble Auditorium.

Four events all begin tonight at 7:30:

Cleveland Jazz Orchestra celebrates Sean Jones in “The Sean is You” (Maltz PAC),

The Cleveland Orchestra led by Lawrence Loh marks Hallowe’en with a screening of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (Severance Music Center),

The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Timothy Weiss, conductor, presents harpist Rosanna Moore, cellist Nick Photinos, percussionist Ross Karre, and the Oberlin Percussion Group in works by Han Lash, Pamela Z, Christopher Stark, and Carlos Carrillo (Warner Concert Hall, live stream available), and

The Resonance Project hosts mezzo-soprano Kameryn Lueng and pianist Irwin Shung in “Dreams and Disillusionment: Songs of Love” (Forest Hill Presbyterian Church).

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

NEWS BRIEFS: 

The Violin Channel reports that soprano Renée Fleming has been named director of Cincinnati’s 2025 May Festival. The article includes the interesting news that since its founding in 1873, “…choral works that have premiered at the Festival include J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, and Britten’s Gloriana. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Chinese-born American composer Tan Dun leads The Cleveland Orchestra tonight at 7:30 at Severance Music Center in original works — his Water Concerto & Concerto for Orchestra — plus Igor Stravinsky’s Fireworks, and Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. Marc Damoulakis (pictured), the Orchestra’s principal percussion, will be featured in the Water Concerto, and the program will be repeated on Saturday at 8. Damoulakis previews the piece in a Cleveland Orchestra video here.

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

NEWS BRIEFS:

“The Baltimore Sun has dissolved its entire features section, reassigning some of its most celebrated writers to news departments and leaving the paper without any culture coverage for the first time since 1888,” the paper’s guild announced Tuesday on Yahoo News. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 12 Noon, Tuesdays at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle presents harpsichordist Mikhail Grazhdanov (pictured) in suites by Jean-Philippe Rameau & George Frideric Handel.

At 5:30 pm, a Rush Hour Concert at Fairmount Presbyterian Church presents soprano Lauren Vanden Broeck, pianist Adam Whiting, and guests in a program featuring J.S. Bach’s Cantata 51.

And tonight at 8 pm – Oberlin hosts a Warner Concert Hall guest recital by The Ize Trio (pianist Chase Morrin, cellist Naseem Alatrash, and percussionist George Lernis), who combine the American art form of Jazz with Middle Eastern traditions.

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

OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMPOSERS:

The Violin Channel reports that “The American Composers Orchestra (ACO) has advertised five opportunities for composers, including calls for scores and composer residencies. At the heart of these is the ACO’s Earshot Call for Scores, in partnership with the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music.”

TODAY’S HEADLINES FROM ARTSJOURNAL:

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

Halloween events include The Cleveland Orchestra’s Halloween Spooktacular: Heroes & Villains! (Saturday at 2 — a “relaxed, sensory-friendly” version — and Sunday at 2 at Severance Music Center,) and a screening of The Hunchback of Notre Dame with organ score played by David Blazer (Sunday at 7 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River).

Multiple performances (take your choice) include Cleveland Chamber Choir in “Meditations and Mysticism” (Saturday at 7 in Trinity Cathedral, Sunday at 4 at First Lutheran Church in  Lorain), CityMusic Cleveland featuring violist Eleisha Nelson in a concerto by Margaret Brouwer (Saturday at 7:30 at St. Stanislaus Shrine, Sunday at 4:30 in Our Lady of Angels in Rocky River).

Single events on Saturday: BW Faculty Recital by flutist Kaleb Checnic (Noon in Gamble Auditorium), the Canton Symphony’s “Star Wars and its Influences” (3 pm at Zimmermann Symphony Center), BW Percussion Ensemble (7 pm in Gamble Auditorium), Trobár Medieval (7 pm at Inlet Dance Theatre), classical guitarist Jorge Caballero (pictured, Cleveland Classical Guitar Society series, 7:30 at the Maltz PAC), and TrueNorth Chorale and Chamber Orchestra (7:30 in Bay Methodist Church in Bay Village).

And on Sunday, Music from the Western Reserve presents Singers Companye (5 pm, Christ Church in Hudson), and the BW New Music Series unveils new works by composition majors (7 pm in Gamble Auditorium).

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

SERIES ANNOUNCEMENT:

Tri-C Classical Piano Series director Emanuela Friscioni has announced a three-concert lineup for 2024-2025, all events to be held on Sundays at 2 pm in its Metropolitan Campus Auditorium. Admission is free but tickets are required. Details here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Tonight at 7, Trobár Medieval presents “A Room of Her Own: Christine de Pizan’s Defense of Women,” in the words of the 15th-c. author (pictured), performed by actor Chris Szajbert and reflected in the music of her contemporaries, played and sung by Allison Monroe. Elena Mullins Bailey, and Sian Ricketts (St. Paul’s Church, Cleveland Hts.)

Three orchestra concerts all begin at 7:30:

• CityMusic Cleveland continues its four-performance October Orchestra Series at St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills with a concert featuring Cleveland Orchestra violist Eliesha Nelson in Margaret Brouwer’s Viola Concerto, 
• the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra presents clarinetist Taein Yi in Carl Nielsen’s Concerto at the Maltz PAC,
• and Carl Topilow leads the Cleveland Pops Orchestra in Broadway’s Best at Severance Music Center.

Also at 7:30, Kent State Faculty & Graduate Students perform their works in the Roy Minoff Award Concert (Ludwig Recital Hall on the Kent State campus).

For details of these and other upcoming events, go to our Concert Listings. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Tonight at 7, Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach presents a Steel Drum Celebration with Joe Leaman and Friends at the Bop Stop.

Tonight at 7:30, CityMusic Cleveland begins its four-performance October Orchestra Series at Fairmount Presbyterian Church with a concert featuring Cleveland Orchestra violist Eliesha Nelson in Margaret Brouwer’s Viola Concerto.

At the same hour, the Lorain County Community College Signature Series will host pianist Ashlee Mack in James Romig’s Still, inspired by the American Abstract Expressionist painter Clyfford Still, and violinist Brendan Shea and pianist Yerin Kim will include Andrew Rindfleisch’s Two Pieces for Violin and Piano in a concert in Drinko Recital Hall at Cleveland State University.

Not happening today: Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project has canceled a performance by Natacha Diels/Uno Lady.

For details of these and other upcoming events, go to our Concert Listings. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 12 Noon, organist Sol Rizzato plays a program on the Church of the Covenant’s Tuesday Series that includes Peter Sykes’ transcriptions of two movements from Gustav Holst’s The Planets.

Tonight at 7:30 on the Tuesday Musical series in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall, vocalist and pianist Michael Feinstein joins the Carnegie Hall Big Band to celebrate the legacy of Tony Bennett.

And tonight at 7:30 is your last opportunity to hear Apollo’s Fire perform four of J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concertos as the Baroque orchestra’s current tour concludes at Rocky River Presbyterian Church.

For details of these and other upcoming events, go to our Concert Listings.

HONORED:

During its November 1 concert at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra will induct trumpeter and former artistic director (1992-2009) Jack Schantz into its CJO Preservation Circle. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

The schedule is packed.

On Saturday, Les Délices presents Arcadian Dreams (2 pm at Hudson Library), Klaus Mäkelä leads The Cleveland Orchestra and choruses in the last of three performances of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 (8 pm at Severance Music Center), No Exit New Music continues its new season with a triptych of concerts and a trio of world premieres (7 pm at SPACES), the Akron Symphony plays Charles Ives — pictured — and Gustav Holst (7:30 in E.J. Thomas Hall), Apollo’s Fire plays four of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos (7:30 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights), the Cleveland Philharmonic plays Liszt with Halida Dinova; The Cleveland Opera presents Puccini’s L’amico Fritz (7:30 at First Baptist, Shaker Hts., and Wit’s Folly plays early Iberian music (7:30 at St. Noel Church, Willoughby Hills).

On Sunday, stand-alone events include Cleveland Composers Guild (organ works at 3 pm in Morley Hall, Painesville), and Lakeland Civic Chorus (4 pm at Lakeland Community College, Kirtland). Repeated programs include the Cleveland Philharmonic (3 pm at CSU), Wit’s Folly (4 pm at Bath Church), The Cleveland Opera (4 pm at First Baptist, Shaker Hts.), Apollo’s Fire (5 pm at First Methodist Church, Akron) and Les Délices (7:30 in Harkness Chapel, CWRU).

For details of these and other upcoming events, go to our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING READS:

Writing for VAN Magazine, Hannah Edgar updates the situation at the Cleveland Institute of Music since the faculty voted to unionize, and reports on the effect the turmoil of the last year has had on student enrollment. Read her reporting here. (Note: the article is behind a paywall, but inexpensive subscriptions to the Berlin-based magazine are available).

Jeremy Denk on Charles Ives. In an essay this weekend in The New York Times, the pianist considers the thorny composer’s legacy on the 150th anniversary of his birth. Read At 150, Charles Ives Still Reflects the Darkness and Hope of America here. [Read more…]