HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 6 pm, Cleveland Chamber Choir sings William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, English madrigals, and three pieces by Cleveland composer Judith Eckelmeyer, in the Donna and James Reid Gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Also at 7 pm, an Akron Bicentennial Concert features Christopher Wilkins and the Akron Symphony in E.J. Thomas Hall.

And at 7:30 pm, CIM Perspectives with Mike Block, cello, Yacouba Sissoko, kora, and Jamey Haddad, percussion, melds West African and American traditions in original compositions and folk repertoire in Kulas Hall.

Note: Tonight’s Oberlin Musical Theater debut is sold out.

INTERESTING READ:

Pianist and CIM professor Antonio Pompa-Baldi, who performed in Kyiv with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine over the weekend, published his account of visiting and giving a concert in a country during wartime. Click here to read his report in its entirety, which he shared on his public Facebook page.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Italian luthier Nicola Amati was born on this date in 1596 in Cremona. The most prominent member of the Amati dynasty, Nicola is said to have greatly influenced the work of Antonio Stradivari and Andrea Guarneri, although his cellos and violins appear more frequently in museum exhibits than in the hands of today’s artists. [Read more…]

The world-class concert music we enjoy in Northeast Ohio deserves robust promotion and coverage. Since 2008, ClevelandClassical.com has served as a one-stop guide to that art form with comprehensive concert listings, previews and reviews of performances, and links in the Daily Diary to the wider world of classical music — including jazz. On this Giving Tuesday, we hope you’ll consider a gift to help keep this publication alive and vital. Click here, and thank you!

HAPPENING TODAY: 

[Note: The Olson recital has been cancelled due to inclement weather.]

Two events take place at noon in University Circle. Organist Chase Olson plays Charles-Marie Widor’s Symphony No. 9 complete at the Church of the Covenant, and the Song Recital Project presents baritone Jason Fuh and pianist Betty Myers in a program inspired by Don Quixote, including selections from Jules Massenet’s opera, songs by Maurice Ravel and Jacques Ibert composed for G.W. Pabst’s 1933 film, and selections from Mitch Leigh’s Man of La Mancha, in the Atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

INTERESTING READS:

In the New York Times, concert pianist Jonathan Biss writes about the quest for perfection in music. Click here to read A Classical Pianist’s Plea To Let Art Be Messy, And Real.

And writing in Aeon, British classical guitarist Craig Ogden suggests How The Classical Guitar Becomes One Of The Most Complex Instruments, In A Good Musician’s Hands. Read his essay here. [Read more…]

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Tonight at 7 pm, the Glenn Miller Orchestra presents “In the Christmas Mood,” a program of timeless hits along with holiday classics and arrangements in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

As we turn the calendar page to the last month of 2025, our inboxes have replaced notices about Black Friday deals with reminders of what we might miss buying on Cyber Monday, and added Giving Tuesday appeals (a fine opportunity to support your favorite non-profit organizations). But we shouldn’t forget the continuing plague that led to the establishment of World AIDS Day, observed on December 1 each year since 1989.

In May, 2019, the New York Philharmonic dedicated an end-of-season concert to John Corigliano’s First Symphony, his 1990 tribute to those who lost their lives to AIDS. (Watch a Nashville Symphony video where the composer talks about the work, and hear a full performance by the Chicago Symphony under Daniel Barenboim). [Read more…]

HAPPENING THIS WEEK:

On Friday at 7:30, Petr Popelka conducts The Cleveland Orchestra with pianist Yuja Wang (pictured) in works by Ravel, Ligeti, and Mussorgsky at Severance Music Center (repeated on Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 3.)

On Saturday at 4 pm, The Cleveland Opera stages Georges Bizet’s Doctor Miracle, an hour-long, one-act comedy with sets and costumes, sung in English, and accompanied by chamber instrumentalists, at First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland in Shaker Heights (repeated Sunday at 4 at Saint Cyprian Catholic Church, Perry.

On Sunday at 2 pm and 6 pm, Carl Topilow conducts the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and Chorus with vocalist Natalie Green and guests in Jingle Bell Jamboree at KeyBank State Theater in Playhouse Square.

On Sunday at 2 pm, Cleveland Cello Society presents its Scholarship Winners Recital in Judson Manor Ballroom.

On Sunday at 3 pm, Tuesday Musical presents Christmas with Cantus: Three Tales of Christmas at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall, and at the same hour, Samuel Gordon conducts Singers Companye in The Call of Beauty at First United Methodist Church in Cuyahoga Falls.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING:

With nothing else on the concert calendar, we’ll send best wishes for a rejuvenating holiday weekend and safe and uncomplicated travel for those who are braving the airways and highways.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On November 25, 1731, Johann Sebastian Bach gave the first performance of his cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, in Leipzig on the 27th Sunday after Trinity, one of only two occasions during his tenure when an extra Sunday before Advent entered the calendar and required new music to be provided. [Read more…]

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7, The Cleveland Opera will stage Georges Bizet’s Doctor Miracle, an hour-long, one-act comedy,with sets and costumes, sung in English, and accompanied by chamber instrumentalists. Stewart Room of the Randall Campus Center, Malone University, Canton.

For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On November 24, 1868, American composer and pianist Scott Joplin (pictured) was born near Marshall, Texas. Most famous for single-handedly inventing ragtime — a syncopated American genre revived by William Bolcom and William Albright, who introduced the young musicologist Joshua Rifin to Joplin’s music in 1968, and further popularized it in the movie The Sting — Joplin wrote two operas as well.

The materials for A Guest of Honor have been lost, probably seized by a rooming house owner in lieu of rent during a tour in 1904, but Treemonisha enjoyed a full production by Houston Grand Opera in May, 1975. Watch a video (with subtitles in Portuguese!) here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

The Cleveland Orchestra celebrates the music of North America this weekend, as Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska (pictured) takes the podium to conduct Silvestre Revueltas’s La Noche de los Mayas and Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” Severance Music Center Friday at 11:00 am (without the Revueltas), Saturday at 7:30 pm, and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets available online.

The 8 pm Friday evening slot at Severance Music Center goes to the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra this week, when conductor James Feddeck will lead a suite from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet and César Franck’s Symphony in d. Tickets available online.

Daniel Meyer will lead the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra in “Waves of Passion” at the Church of the Covenant on Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 3 pm at Rocky River Presbyterian church. Music by Aaron Copland and Margaret Brouwer, plus Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with soloist David McCarroll. Find ticket information for Saturday’s concert here.

Oberlin’s Artist Recital Series welcomes the Danish String Quartet to Finney Chapel on Friday at 7:30 pm. Music by Jonny Greenwood & Beethoven, plus original arrangements and compositions. Tickets available online.

Baroque ensemble Les Délices presents four family-friendly events throughout the weekend. “The Aesop Project,” featuring puppets created by Ian Petroni, visits the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Community Arts Center at 11:30 am on Saturday, and the Akron Public Library at 3:30 that afternoon. Arrive at 10:30 am to join art-making activities. The same program will be repeated at the Akron Public Library Main Branch at 3:30 pm that day. And Les Délices’ “Wild Things” visits the Rocky River Public Library (Friday at 7:00 pm) and Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson (Sunday at 5:00 pm).

For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings. [Read more…]