by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7, Don Verkuijlen leads the Singers Club of Cleveland in“Holiday Twists” at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

At 7:30, Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus in the second of its fourteen Holiday Concerts at Severance Music Center (pictured) featuring vocalist Capathia Jenkins. Our review of the opening performance will appear later this morning on Cleveland.com (the Plain Dealer).

Also tonight at 7:30, Apollo’s Fire brings “Wassail! An Irish-Appalachian Christmas” to Gamble Auditorium at Baldwin Wallace.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these performances.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

On this date in 1788, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach passed away in Hamburg at age 74. That second surviving son of Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara Bach is known for retaining the influence of his father’s music while charting a path of his own in the early Classical period. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At Noon, organist Jonathan W. Moyer plays music by Dupré, Franck, Bruhns & Johann Sebastian Bach at the Church of the Covenant, and at 7:30, Timothy Weiss leads faculty baritone Timothy Lefebvre and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble & Oberlin Sinfonietta in the first performance of Jesse Jones’ Song Cycle (composer pictured) in Finney Chapel. Both free concerts will be webcast.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these performances.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

French president Emmanuel Macron has confirmed a new opening date for the Cathedral of Notre-Dame and plans for a new museum in Paris. Read a story in The Art Newspaper here.

The Cleveland Institute of Music has received a gift of $1 million toward the projected $21 million renovation of Kulas Hall from a generous previous donor who remains anonymous. Read a press release here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

We recommend 18 events in our calendar for Saturday and Sunday this week. Let’s cut to the chase and send you directly to our Concert Listings for details of these performances.

Recognize anyone in this photo? See the almanac!

ANNOUNCEMENT

The Board of Trustees of Cuyahoga Arts & Culture will hold its regular meeting on December 13 at 3:30 pm in the 2nd Floor Learning Commons, Louis Stokes Wing, of the Main Cleveland Public Library. The public is invited to attend either in person or via livestream.

The Agenda includes the approval of 2024 resident-led arts & culture grants, approval of a 2024 Support for Artists grant to Assembly for the Arts, and routine matters of business.

Click here to view the agenda and handout materials for the meeting.

INTERESTING READ:

Born before the outbreak of World War I, French pianist Colette Maze began making albums in the 1990s. She released her latest, 109 Ans de Piano, this year. Widely considered the world’s oldest recording pianist, Maze died on Nov. 19 in the same Paris apartment where she had lived since she was 18, with views of the Eiffel Tower and the Seine River. She was 109. Read an article in the New York Times here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Happy Hanukkah!

Many events to list for Friday, December 8!

City Music (7:30 at Lakewood Congregational Church), Cyrus Chestnut & Friends: A Charlie Brown Christmas (7:30 at Severance Music Center), Akron Symphony & Choruses (7:30 at E.J. Thomas Hall), Procession of Advent Lessons & Carols (7:30 at Holy Trinity Lutheran, Akron and online), Accent a cappella (pictured, 7:30 at the Cleveland Museum of Art), Oberlin Collegium Musicum (7:30 in Fairchild Chapel and online), and Oberlin Orchestra (7:30 in Finney Chapel and online).

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances,

INTERESTING READ:

James Gaffigan, former Cleveland Orchestra assistant conductor (not the comedian), is the new Music Director of Berlin’s Komische Oper. In a rangy Van Magazine interview, Olivia Giovetti speaks with him about the art of anticipation, his hope for an overhaul of the symphonic concert format, and shoplifting Toscanini records from the Metropolitan Opera gift shop. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

First opportunities to hear two repeating programs:

The Cleveland Orchestra welcomes guest conductor Semyon Bychkov for Martinů’s Concerto for Two Pianos with Katia and Marielle Labèque (pictured), Julian Anderson’s Symphony No. 2 (“Prague Panoramas”), and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture (7:30 at Severance Music Center, repeated on Saturday at 8).

And City Music presents “Christmas, Beethoven, and Mambo” with guest conductor Stefan Willich and Cleveland Orchestra French hornist Hans Clebsch (7:30 at Fairmount Presbyterian, repeated at the same hour on Friday at Lakewood Congregational Church and Saturday at the Shrine of St. Stanislaus, and Sunday at 4:00 at St. Noel Catholic Church).

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances,

NEWS BRIEFS:

Baldwin Wallace reports that the university has claimed two national awards for opera productions this month, the latest on Monday night in New York. “The national recognition includes kudos for a virtual opera festival featuring new Micro Operas performed by BW voice students, as well as applause for the spring production of We’ve Got Our Eye On You.” Read the article here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At noon, Oberlin organ professor Christa Rakich will play music by J.S. Bach and her own compositions on the Tuesday Organ Plus series at the Church of the Covenant.

And this evening at 7:30, The King’s Singers, six alumni of the Choir of King’s College at Cambridge University, will sing a wide variety of music — from William Byrd to Walt Disney — on the Tuesday Musical Association series at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall (program available for downloading).

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

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Cleveland Art Song Festival, which was founded by George Vassos at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1985, moved to Baldwin Wallace for a decade, then returned to CIM in 2017, is to be discontinued after a Winter Festival that runs from December 9-11 at CIM. A valedictory recital on Sunday, December 10 at 5 pm will feature mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, pianist Kirill Kuzmin, and guitarist Jason Vieaux. Click here for tickets and details.

Cellist Joshua Roman, who received his bachelors and masters degrees from CIM, presented a concert on December 3 in New York’s Carnegie Hall exploring the effects of Long COVID. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Saturday at 2 pm, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory presents its Christmas Concert in Gamble Auditorium, at 7 pm Cleveland’s No Exit completes its trio of performances with the St. Paul new music ensemble Zeitgeist — the second installment of No Exit’s Year of Surreality: The Unconscious — at SPACES, and at 7:30, the Stow Symphony presents its Christmas Concert in Tallmadge.

On Saturday at 8 pm, Daniel Harding (pictured above in the cockpit of an Airbus — he’s also worked as an Air France pilot) will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in its final performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with soprano Lauren Snouffer, as well as of the U.S. premiere of Betsy Jolas’s Ces belles années. 

On Sunday at 3, Good Company, A Vocal Ensemble will host composer and guest conductor René Clausen in a program of his works at Lakewood Presbyterian Church, Oberlin Conservatory will launch its end-of-semester ChamberFest! in Stull Recital Hall beginning at 4:30, and organist Marcia Snavely’s 30-year career will be celebrated in a 7 pm concert by the Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra at Federated Church.

Holiday concerts abound on Sunday, including a 2 pm  & 5pm performances by the Baldwin Wallace Men’s Chorus, a 3 pm Holiday Carol Sing with carilloneur George Leggiero from the McGaffin Tower in University Circle, and a Parma Symphony Christmas Concert, a 3:30 performance by Western Reserve Chorale at Church of the Saviour with Brass and Percussion, a 4 pm Festival of Advent Lessons & Carols at Trinity Cathedral, a 4 pm tag-team recital by members of the Cleveland Chapter of the American Guild of Organists at Church of the Ascension in Lakewood, a 4 pm Holiday Concert by the choral forces of the University of Akron, and a 7:30 program by the West Shore Chorale at Rocky River Methodist. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

This evening at 7:30 at Severance Music Center, The Cleveland Orchestra continues its three-performance cycle featuring Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, conducted by Daniel Harding, and featuring soprano Lauren Snouffer (pictured). (Repeated on Saturday at 8.)

Another three-performance run that continues this evening pairs Cleveland’s No Exit with the St. Paul-based new music ensemble Zeitgeist for the second installment of No Exit’s Year of Surreality: The Unconscious. The 7 pm free program at Waterloo Arts includes films by composer/filmmakers James Praznik, Luke Haaksma, and Timothy Beyer, and multimedia works by Philip Blackburn, Joe Horton, and Kathy McTavish. (Repeated at 7 on Saturday at 7 at SPACES Gallery.

Two Oberlin events both happen at 7:30 this evening. A Brass Extravaganza features organist Jonathan Moyer in Warner Concert Hall (click here to watch remotely), and Gregory Ristow will lead the Oberlin Chamber Singers in a performance of David Lang’s the little match girl passion in Fairchild Chapel (click here for a live stream). [Read more…]