by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7 pm, Brendan Caldwell leads the Baldwin Wallace Symphonic Band & Chamber Winds in Gamble Auditorium.

The final trio of concerts in The Cleveland Orchestra’s Beethoven Piano Cycle continues on Friday at 7:30, when Yunchan Lim, winner of the 2023 Van Cliburn Competition, will solo in the Fifth Concerto, preceded by his New England Conservatory mentor, Minsoo Sohn, who will do the honors in Beethoven’s Concerto No. 1.

Apollo’s Fire continues its run of  “Hope and Solitude,” with countertenor Reginald Mobley, oboist Debra Nagy, and violinist Alan Choo performing music by Henry Purcell and J.S. Bach at 7:30 at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Hts.

And the Oberin Conservatory has planned a weekend of festivities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Flentrop organ (pictured) in Warner Concert Hall. It begins with a faculty recital by Jonathan Moyer and Christa Rakich on Friday at 7:30 (J.S. Bach’s German Organ Mass, free and live streamed.)

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

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Apollo’s Fire begins its run of  “Hope and Solitude,” with countertenor Reginald Mobley (pictured), oboist Debra Nagy, and violinist Alan Choo performing music by Henry Purcell and J.S. Bach at 7:30 in Akron’s First United Methodist Church

And at 8 at Cleveland’s Calicchia Gallery, Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project hosts Dani Dobkin & Matt Sargent, who are traveling in support of their new album, Bend.

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

DEPARTURES:

“Born in 1925 in Warren, Ohio, Walfrid Kujala served as flute and piccolo of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1954 until 2001 and was a professor of flute at the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music from 1962 to 2012.” He passed away at the age of 99. Read a Bienen School obituary here.

REINVENTIONS:

In today’s print edition of The New York Times, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim writes, “When the soprano Lucy Shelton opened a recital at Merkin Hall in 2019 with Adieu à la vie, a song by Rossini, she was about to turn 75. And though she was not bidding farewell to life as the song’s title suggests, she felt she was done with performing. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Three interesting concerts all begin tonight at 7:30.

• Cuarteto Casals joins the Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s 75th anniversary celebration tonight at The Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church,
• Garrick Ohlsson continues The Cleveland Orchestra’s Beethoven Piano Cycle with the Second & Fourth Concertos,
• Percussion professor Ross Karre and guest violinist Emily Cornelius play Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat on a program that includes works by Kevin Day, Sophie Dupuis and Arvo Pärt in Stull Recital Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory.

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

INTERESTING READ:

In a Guardian article, Jim Farber asks “was Nicky Hopkins, who played on over 250 albums, the greatest unsung pianist ever? “He helped shape classic songs by the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Beatles but his influence on music has been largely ignored. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

On Saturday, Snowbelt Symphony celebrates America (4 pm, New Promise Church in Chardon), No Exit presents the Median Arts Ensemble (7 pm in Kulas Hall at Baldwin Wallace), BW hosts an Alumni Chamber Music Recital (7 pm in Gamble Auditorium), Music at Bath presents the 7-piece ensemble Umojah Nation Reggae (7 pm at Bath Church in Akron), the Cleveland Orchestra plays Beethoven’s piano concertos No. 2 & 4 with Garrick Ohlsson (pictured, 8 pm in Severance Music Center), and Oberlin Opera continues its run of Cendrillon (8 pm in Hall Auditorium).

On Sunday, Oberlin Opera concludes its run of Cendrillon (2 pm in Hall Auditorium), the Gruca White Ensemble “expands the boundaries of the classical experience” (2 pm at Wadsworth Public Library), Eric Benjamin leads the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra with violin soloist Michael Ferri (3 pm at Maltz PAC), the Oberlin Opera continues its run of Cendrillon (8 pm in Hall Auditorium), the Dana Opera Ensemble presents scenes (3 pm at the McDonough Museum in Youngstown), Good Company hosts composer Joel Thompson (4 pm, Lakewood Presbyterian Church), Lakeland Civic Orchestra spotlights Nicholas Jacques in Elgar’s Cello Concert (4 pm, Lakeland Community College, Kirtland), and the BW New Music Series presents new works by composition majors (7 pm in Gamble Auditorium).

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

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Seven events to choose from today.

No Exit Presents the Meridian Arts Ensemble (7 pm at the Bop Stop), the BW Symphonic Wind Ensemble plays at 7 (Gamble Auditorium), the Marian Consort (pictured) from Norwich, England sings “a program of sumptuous Renaissance polyphony from some of Scotland’s few surviving sixteenth-century manuscripts” (7:30 at St. John’s Cathedral).

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society hosts João Luiz (7:30 at the Maltz PAC), Carolyn Kuan leads the CIM Orchestra and soloist Natalie Brennecke in Penderecki’s Viola Concerto (7:30 at Severance Music Center), New York Philharmonic principal clarinet Anthony McGill joins Timothy Weiss and the Oberin Sinfonietta in Warner Concert Hall, and across Tappan Square, Oberlin Opera Theater presents the second of four performances of Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon (8 pm Hall Auditorium).

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1890, Belgian-born French composer César Franck died in Paris, his demise partially attributed to the after effects of injuries he sustained when a cab he was riding in collided with a horse-drawn trolley. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Tonight at 7, No Exit New Music hosts the Meridian Arts Ensemble in Daniel Grabois’ Drift, Moshe Shulman’s Subito, George Lewis’s Tightrope, Joseph Haydn’s Feldpartie, and David Sanford’s Credo, free at Trinity Cathedral.

The Cleveland Orchestra continues its Beethoven Piano Concerto Cycle with a repeat of Wednesday’s program: the Triple Concerto (Orion Weiss, piano, Augustin Hadelich, violin, and Julia Hagen, cello) and Concerto No. 3 (Sir Stephen Hough, soloist — pictured). 7:30 in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.

And at 8 pm, Oberlin Opera Theater raises the curtain on the first of four performances of Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon (Cinderella), directed by Stephanie Havey, with James Feddeck conducting the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra (repeated in Hall Auditorium Friday & Saturday at 8 & Sunday at 2).

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

NEWS BRIEFS: 

The Violin Channel reports that “The principal performance space of the Opéra de Paris, the historic Palais Garnier, will close for at least two years to allow the organization to carry out urgent renovations on the building. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

12 Noon – vocalist and harpist Anna O’Connell and pianist Lorenzo Salvagni perform on the Tuesday Noon series at the Church of the Covenant.

12:30 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art — Chamber Music in the Atrium: opera singers perform selections from CIM’s production of Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’Étoile. Ames Family Atrium.

7:30 pm – Oberlin Baroque Orchestra. Edwin Huizinga and Rebecca Landell Reed lead this student group in Warner Concert Hall.

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

NEWS BRIEFS: 

On Monday, The Cleveland Orchestra announced major personnel changes for its Beethoven Concerto Cycle from November 6-17. See the article elsewhere on this page for details.

Quincy Jones, Giant of American Music, Dies at 91. “As a producer, he made the best-selling album of all time, Michael Jackson’s Thriller.” He was also a prolific arranger and composer of film music.” Read the New York Times obituary by Ben Ratliff here. [Read more…]