by Jarrett Hoffman
“Although Myer isn’t an official member,” ClevelandClassical.com wrote last year, “his performance…made it sound as if he were a bona fide Miami.”
Pianist Spencer Myer will continue his long-standing collaboration with the Miami String Quartet on Wednesday, July 11 at 7:30 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall at Kent State — the second faculty concert of this year’s Kent/Blossom Music Festival. The program includes Haydn’s String Quartet in d, Op. 76, No. 2, Pēteris Vasks’ 1995 String Quartet No. 3, and Dvořák’s Op. 5 Quintet for Piano and Strings in A.
Last week I caught up with Myer by phone, and began our conversation by asking about his busy June.
Credo Music’s official summer concert season of over 12 performances will kick off on Tuesday, July 3 at 7:30 pm with a performance by the Arianna String Quartet at Oberlin Conservatory’s Kulas Recital Hall. Returning as festival faculty for the third time, the Quartet has programmed chamber music fan favorites as well as some less-often heard pieces.
The Syndicate for the New Arts has brought a host of interesting artists and groups to the Cleveland area this summer, including the Buffalo, NY-based Sotto Voce Vocal Collective. On Saturday afternoon, June 9, the ensemble presented a dazzling program of not-often heard contemporary vocal music in the dreamy acoustic of Ohio City’s St. John’s Episcopal Church, the oldest-standing religious building in Northeast Ohio. 
The Lute Society of America’s annual LuteFest draws people from all over the world, and is the largest early plucked instrument festival of its kind. From Sunday, June 24 through Friday, June 29 on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, LuteFest-2018! will present concerts by world-class faculty, and festival participants will take part in all kinds of workshops — they’ll learn about lute technique as well as the instrument’s history and repertoire
After mixing up the start time, I arrived to the Miró Quartet concert on Friday evening, June 8 just in time to witness the aftermath of violist John Largess’ two broken strings. For their relatively short length and narrow width, those strings caused quite the wave of amused chatter in the Tudor House at Gilmour Academy. 
ChamberFest’s Tuesday, June 19 concert, “A Free for All,” will take place in the Crawford Rotunda at The Cleveland History Center, which houses the restored Euclid Beach Park Grand Carousel. Bassist Nathan Farrington says it will feature “a spectrum of pieces,” offering everyone at least one thing they can “dip their toes into.”
Violinist David Bowlin, pianist Roman Rabinovich, and cellist Oliver Herbert left no heartstrings un-tugged in ChamberFest Cleveland’s debut performance at the AHA! Festival on Friday afternoon, June 8 in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University.