by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At Noon, organist Christa Rakich plays original works & music by J.S. Bach at the Church of the Covenant.

And three concerts are on the docket for tonight, all beginning at 7:30.

The Cleveland Chamber Music Society launches its 75th season with the all-male vocal ensemble Chanticleer (pictured). “Music of a Silent World,” at The Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church celebrates the music of nature in works by Majel Connery, William Byrd, Heinrich Isaac, Robert Schumann, Tom Petty, Lawrence, and Ayanna Woods, and a gala reception follows.

Meanwhile, two masters of the keyboard go head to head. The London-based, Siberian-born pianist Pavel Kolesnikov will present J.S. Bach’s complete “Goldberg Variations” in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Music Center, and British-born organist David Briggs, currently artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, will make the Holtkamp organ in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, sound orchestral in a program that includes his own Improvised Symphony in 4 Movements.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances.

SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT:

No Exit New Music has announced details of its 16th season, “New Season, New Sounds,” which begins with performances from October 17-19 at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Auditorium, Waterloo Arts, and SPACES. See the detailed schedule here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

On Friday at Noon, CIM Museum Melodies, brings one-hour programs featuring pianists from the Cleveland Institute of Music to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Tonight at 7:30, the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble makes its first appearance this season under conductor Timothy Weiss in Warner Concert Hall. Same day and time, the  temporarily venueless Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra visits John Hay High School Auditorium with guest conductor Anthony Parnther.

On Saturday at 7, led by Domenico Boyagian, the Suburban Symphony joins the Cleveland Chorale at First Baptist Church, and at 7:30 in E.J. Thomas Hall, the Akron Symphony will host pianist Gabriela Martinez. Same day and hour, conductor and Oberlin alum James Feddeck leads the Oberlin Orchestra in Finney Chapel. And Saturday at half past 7, The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra inaugurates its “Pops” series with “Sinatra at the Coliseum: Celebrating 50 Years.”

On Sunday at 3, Osmo Vänskä (pictured) and The Cleveland Orchestra repeat last Thursday’s program at Severance Music Center, and the rescheduled “Evening With John Legend” — interrupted by storms in August — will try again at Blossom (but without The Cleveland Orchestra).

Visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

CIM Museum Melodies, brings one-hour programs featuring pianists from the Cleveland Institute of Music to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Tonight at 7:30 at Severance Music Center, guest conductor Osmo Vänskä steps in for Franz Welser-Möst on The Cleveland Orchestra’s season openers, which include a rare performance of Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto featuring Frank Peter Zimmerman, Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 (“Classical”), and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pathétique”).

Visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The October issue of the U.K.’s Gramophone magazine will feature Swedish violinist Johan Dalene, who won first prize in the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition at Oberlin in July, 2017. Click here to preview the issue and read about his new album “paying tribute to virtuoso icons from the past.”

The Oberlin Conservatory has announced that “The 2025 Cooper International Competition for violinists will take place January 5 through 10. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: On Friday, CIM Museum Melodies features pianists in one-hour recitals (12 Noon, Natural History Museum), Sky Creature performs (7 pm at Transformer Station) & experimental cellist Ian Maskin plays original works (7:30 at the Maltz).

On Saturday, Les Délices reprises The Highland Lassie (1:30 at Waterloo Arts Fest), pianist Brian Wilson plays Beethoven, Chopin & Frank Martin (7 pm at Federated Church), Sammy DeLeon y su Orquesta & Las Sirenas mariachi band mark Hispanic Heritage Month (7 pm at Severance Music Center) & Cleveland Classical Guitar Society presents a showcase with Colin Davin & Moises Borges (pictured, 7:30 at the Maltz).

On Sunday, “The ____ Experiment” (oboist Ava Wirth, saxophonist Andrew Hosler & percussionist Joseph Fox) performs new works (2 pm at Kaiser Gallery, Tremont), trumpeter Jack Sutte gives a faculty recital with pianist Craig Ketter (3 pm at Baldwin Wallace), upright bassist Beth Hiser & guitarist Rachel Roberts play music from the 50s and 60s (4 pm at Bath Church) & Cleveland Chamber Symphony with pianist Mark George plays a tribute to two deceased Northeast Ohio musical giants, H. Leslie Adams & Loris Chobanian (7 pm at Baldwin-Wallace).

Visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 Noon, CIM Museum Melodies presents a one-hour program featuring pianists from the Cleveland Institute of Music at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Tonight at 7, Heights Arts hosts a Gallery Concert featuring the piano duo of Ralitsa Georgieva and Caroline Oltmanns. And at 7:30,  Cleveland Chamber Symphony presents the Antigone Music Collective (pictured) in works by Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson, Gregory Rowland Evans, Liza Lim, and Kaija Saariaho, as well as Pauline Oliveros’s sonic meditation Earth Ears at Murray Hill Galleries.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Violin Channel reports that, according to the Springfield News-Sun, a letter to Wittenberg University’s students and staff from university leadership revealed that 24 faculty positions will be removed. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Only a single event to list for today: at 12 Noon, Florence Mustric (pictured) plays Mendelssohn’s Sonatas No. 2 & No. 6 on the Beckerath Organ in Trinity Lutheran Church in Ohio City. Visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Cleveland Chamber Choir, the region’s premier professional choral ensemble, continues its mission of performances of unique and diverse repertoire in its 10th anniversary, 2024-25 season. The pay-what-you-wish concerts blend music by living composers with ten centuries of choral tradition, and emphasize the works of composers historically excluded from the concert hall. Additionally the ensemble has been named Artist-in-Residence at Trinity Cathedral. Click here for more information. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tuesdays at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle resume today at Noon with a recital of 16th & 17th century music by Jonathan W. Moyer on the Newberry organ. Click here to view the program. And visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances.

R.I.P. Michael Murray

The Violin Channel reports that organist Michael Murray has passed away at the age of 81. An Oberlin Conservatory graduate who made his performance debut in Cleveland playing the complete organ works of J.S. Bach in a series of twelve recitals, Murray was the first solo artist to be recorded on the Telarc label, which would continue to release his albums for the next three decades. The obituary includes a link to a recital Murray gave at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio in 2014. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

There are no events on the calendar for this Monday, but visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances.

SAVE THE DATE:

Cleveland Silent Film Festival director Emily Laurance announces that the festival will celebrate Silent Movie Day on September 29 with the screening of two films at the CIA’s Cinematheque: Ernst Lubitsch’s 1918 take on Carmen starring Pola Negri, and Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad from 1924. Both will be accompanied by pianist Philip Carli. Details here.

PASSINGS:

The Brazilian-born pianist, composer and arranger Sergio Mendez rose to fame with the group Brasil ’66 and continued to be  a force in popular music for more than sixty years. His death on Thursday in a Los Angeles hospital at the age of 83 was due to Long Covid. [Read more…]