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DIARY: Wednesday, August 24, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Philadelphia Orchestra breaks off a date in Edinburgh over chorus masking

. remembering Louis Teicher

TODAY’S EVENTS: 

There’s nothing to highlight on the calendar today — late August has arrived!

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Philadelphia Orchestra, about to embark on a European tour, has canceled tomorrow’s scheduled performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Edinburgh Festival because the 130-voice Edinburgh Festival Chorus is refusing to perform wearing face masks. Read the Philadelphia Inquirer story here. [Read more…]

Piano Days @CLE: Igudesman & Joo (July 26)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Because it usually takes itself so seriously, classical music is a sitting duck for parody and satire. But the art form also has a divinely installed funny bone that allows its artists to lampoon themselves and their craft, even while producing high quality performances.

This humor can take many forms, from the deadpanning of that great Dane, Victor Borge (while unwrapping and eating a sandwich between solo passages in a concerto), and the plummy but wicked commentary of Anna Russell (particularly on Wagner), to the down-home musicological wackiness of Peter Shickele, often accompanied by his favorite prop, the bassoon.

Violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo, who originally met over a plate of fish and chips at England’s Yehudi Menuhin School, jack up the game significantly with slapstick and athleticism. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, August 22, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Passings of Hazel Zehner (pictured) & Abdul Wadud, New York audiences slow to return to live performances

. Claude Debussy born in Paris suburb in 1862

TODAY’S EVENTS: 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Radio Broadcast: Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Eric Charnofsky, host. Celebrating Claude Debussy’s birthday with his ballet score to La Boìte à joujoux (orchestrated by André Caplet) and music transcribed for harp featuring Yolanda Kondonassis, plus The Sea (Suite) by Frank Bridge, and music of Miklós Rózsa, and David Lang. WRUW, Case Western Reserve University. Click here to listen to the internet feed. [Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend August 19-21, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Cooper violin competition finals, Harry Potter and The Cleveland Orchestra, Stars of Summer, and Tuesday Musical Passport series

. Canton Symphony names Matthew Jenkins Jaroszewicz (pictured) as Music Director Designate, Oberlin Artist Recital Series returns, Stambaugh Youth Concert Band auditions announced

. Almanac celebrates August 20 birthdays: Akron-born Queena Mario, British-born conductor Hugh Ross, and mezzo soprano Dame Janet Baker

TODAY’S EVENTS:

Tonight at 7:30 pm the finals of the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Violin Competition will be held in Oberlin Conservatory’s Warner Concert Hall. Three violinists perform complete concertos with the Canton Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Gerhardt Zimmermann. [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, August 17, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Cooper International Competition

. 2022/23 Signature Series at LCCC

. Carlos Salzedo and Ira Gershwin make their exits — George William Warren and Thomas Jefferson (T.J.) Anderson make their entrances

TODAY’S EVENTS:

The Thomas and Evon Cooper International Violin Competition continues at the Oberlin Conservatory.

After two days of performances, six participants have been selected to advance to Round Two in sessions today at 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm, when they will perform 45-minute programs with piano. Congratulations to these outstanding musicians.

(Pictured left to right): Audrey Goodner, 16, Reston, Virginia (U.S.A.), Bianca Ciubancan, 16, Chicago, Illinois (U.S.A.), Seohyun Kim, 13, Seoul (SOUTH KOREA), Kento Hong, 16, Edgemont, New York (U.S.A.), Sameer Agrawal, 17, Chicago, Illinois (U.S.A.), and Calvin Alexander, 17, Shreveport, Louisiana (U.S.A.).

Both sessions are free and are held in Warner Concert Hall and will be streamed live on oberlin.edu and The Violin Channel. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, August 15, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Offbeat classical selections on WRUW, Cooper violin competition opens at Oberlin (pictured: contestants from 2017)

. Reviews of U.S. concerts by the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra in New York and Washington, D.C.

. Anniversaries of the developer of the metronome, the inventor of the Theremin, and an African British composer, and a few settings of the Magnificat to mark the Feast of the Assumption

TODAY’S EVENTS: [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: last opportunities this summer to see professional repertory theater

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by Daniel Hathaway

For over four decades Ohio Light Opera has enthralled audiences with performances of the complete Gilbert & Sullivan catalog as well as American and European operettas and titles from the Golden Age of musical theater. Performed in the intimate Freedlander Theatre located on the campus of the College of Wooster, Ohio Light Opera offers fully-staged, entertaining productions in the atmosphere of a charming college town.

This summer’s titles include Cinderella,  Hello, Dolly!, The Student Prince, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mock Marriage, and The Fantasticks. All six titles are currently running in repertoire until July 31, and all six are well worth the trip to Wooster.  Click here for ticket availability.

This is light opera and musical theatre at its best. The young professional ensemble exudes theatrical and vocal talent and the leads wouldn’t be out of place in any provincial opera company. The Orchestra, skillfully led by Michael Borowitz and Wilson Southerland is first class and in addition to the acting, singing, and dancing, the productions are visually gorgeous. [Read more…]

CONCERT UPDATES:

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Due to positive COVID tests among Blossom Festival Chorus members, The Cleveland Orchestra has cancelled its Blossom performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on August 7 at 7 pm. See the Concert Listings for the new program.

Note: due to staff vacations, the Diary is on hiatus until August 8, when daily posting resumes. Click here for Concert Listings.

Ohio Light Opera: Lehár’s The Mock Marriage (July 14)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Before Austrian composer Franz Lehár hit the Viennese operetta bull’s eye with The Merry Widow, he composed a less well-known show, The Mock Marriage (Die Juxheirat), whose complicated plot, set in America in 1904, gives a nod to such contemporary societal issues as gender identity and the empowerment of women.

After running for 39 performances, Die Juxheirat was sidelined and forgotten until the show was revived for an Austrian music festival in 2016. And in February 2019, OLO director Steven Daigle staged the English version for the University of Southern California Opera Theatre. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: 
The Fantasticks (July 19)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Fantasticks travels lightly, but it’s traveled a great distance since Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones adapted Les Romanesques, an 1894 play by Edmond Rostand, into a 1960 hit. The show opened in May of that year and ran off-Broadway for 42 years and over 17,000 performances.

It’s a boy-meets-girl tale simply and poignantly told along the lines of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (or e.e. cummings’ anyone lived in a pretty how town) by a troupe of traveling actors who begin by unpacking everything they need to tell the story from a trunk.

[Read more…]

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