by Jarrett Hoffman

REFLECTING ON MLK:

On Monday, we featured a video of Metropolitan Opera principal trumpet Billy Hunter playing The Star-Spangled Banner, but going quiet at the end at two key words: “free” and “brave.” One possible takeaway from that is a message that has become more and more of a refrain in society over the past year, from the killing of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, to the violence inflicted on peaceful protesters this past summer, to the lenient treatment of insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol last week: “We live in two different Americas.”

The phrase “two Americas” was most famously uttered by Martin Luther King, Jr. during a speech at Stanford University in 1967. King was not addressing discriminatory treatment at the hands of police: he was speaking about the economic stratification of society, especially in relationship to race. But it’s a timeless phrase with many applications, as was made more clear than ever one week ago today in Washington, D.C., and it serves as one possible avenue through which to reflect on the legacy of human rights and activism that King left behind.

On the day of the Capitol insurrection, Senator-elect Raphael Warnock — who is also the senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, a former congregation of King’s — offered up another quote that never ceases to be relevant. Warnock wrote on Twitter:

In this moment of unrest, violence and anger, we must remember the words of Dr. King, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Let each of us try to be a light to see our country out of this dark moment.

It’s impossible to summarize King through a couple of statements. But both the incredible ability to inspire, as seen in that quote, and the keen awareness of society’s injustices (“Two Americas”) are part of who he was.

On that note, let us proceed to a collection of arts-related events in the area that will be accessible virtually over the coming days, and that are designed to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 14:

The Cleveland Orchestra’s Annual MLK Celebration will be a re-broadcast of the 2018 event, which was held during the 50th anniversary year of King’s assassination. It’s available for free on the Orchestra’s Adella platform from 7:00 pm on January 14 until April 14.

Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Orchestra, which is joined by narrator James Pickens Jr., bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, and the MLK Celebration Chorus, directed by William Henry Caldwell.

The program includes Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont, Mendelssohn’s “Lord God of Abraham” from Elijah and his Symphony No. 5 finale, Walker’s Lyric for Strings, Respighi’s “Pines of the Appian Way” from Pines of Rome, Verdi’s “Va pensiero” from Nabucco, the spiritual Down by the Riverside (arr. Floyd), Dorsey’s Precious Lord (arr. Floyd), Steffe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic (arr. Wilhousky), and Johnson’s Lift Every Voice and Sing.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17:

The Bop Stop offers two live streams on Sunday. First up, at 3:00 pm, is the free MLK Memorial Concert, curated by Linda Allen and Matthew Jones and featuring performances by Music Settlement faculty and students. Click here at start time.

Then at 7:00 pm, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra Little Big Band joins with the Roots of American Music to present “The Blues and the Self Evident Truth.” The program, featuring vocalist Reginald Bowens, includes excerpts from Chris Coles’ Nine Lives Suite, music by Oliver Nelson to accompany a reading of King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” and works by Herbie Hancock and Paul Ferguson. Click here at start time (free but donations accepted).

(An excerpt from that famous letter — You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue…I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.)

Also on Sunday (7:00 pm on WUAB Channel 43) — before repeating on Monday, January 18 (9:00 am on WOIO Channel 19, and 11:00 am on Channel 43) — the Cleveland Public Library will host its 36th Annual Commemorative Celebration of MLK.

The event includes performances by the Karamu House (which will reenact Robert Kennedy’s 1968 eulogy for King), as well as the Cleveland Metropolitan School District All-City Arts Choir, The Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival, and members of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Delta Alpha Lambda Chapter.

And as part of a mission to honor “unsung heroes who exemplify Dr. King’s legacy,” the program will incorporate a conversation with Rev. Dr. Marvin A. McMickle, Pastor Emeritus at Antioch Baptist Church, in addition to recognizing 2021 Drum Major For Change recipient India Pierce Lee, Cleveland Foundation Senior Vice President and community leader. [Read more…]

by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY’S ALMANAC: NATIONAL ANTHEMS

The 178th anniversary today of the death of Francis Scott Key got me reflecting on memorable performances of The Star-Spangled Banner. Here are five that came to mind.

Accompanied by Jahja Ling and The Florida Orchestra, pop icon Whitney Houston’s rendition at the 1991 Super Bowl is rightfully one of the most famous, often serving as a point of comparison to those that have come since. Its enduring appeal comes both from its context (in the midst of the Persian Gulf War) and of course from the performance itself, which is absolutely staggering — a snapshot of what it truly is for a voice to soar.

Here’s another important Super Bowl performance: in 2014, Renée Fleming became the first opera singer to perform the National Anthem at that event. It was a big moment in the mainstream spotlight for classical music, and her mixture of pop and operatic style largely received high marks. Critic Anne Midgette gave a deep analysis here for The Washington Post.

On the more experimental side, I was fortunate enough to be in person for organist Cameron Carpenter’s adventurous National Anthem before his appearance with the Hawaii Symphony in 2018. Sadly it’s nowhere to be found online — you’ll just have to imagine one surprising chord after another, and plenty of grinding dissonance. Here’s a fitting substitute, though: Carpenter’s wild Stars and Stripes Forever.

When vocalists tinker around with the National Anthem, usually what they’re doing is adding more and more dramatic ornamentation (or occasionally forgetting the lyrics). But at the 2019 NBA All-Star Game, singer-songwriter Anthony Hamilton bucked convention in a truly unique and refreshing way. He reimagines much of the melody in an understated way, while still holding onto the signature moments, and he delivers it all with plenty of smooth soulfulness — brilliant.

The circumstances of this last performance are completely different. No stage, no crowd, just one man in a room. As part of clarinetist Anthony McGill’s #TakeTwoKnees movement for racial justice in the spring of 2020, Metropolitan Opera principal trumpet Billy Hunter shared a powerful rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner that notably goes quiet at two key words at the end. Explaining it here doesn’t do it justice. Listen, and feel the emptiness of those silences.

SUMMIT COUNTY ARTIST RELIEF

ArtsNow has announced an Artist Relief Fund for artists who live and/or work in Summit County and who have been impacted by the pandemic. Grants of $500 or $1000 per person will be awarded from the $50,000 that has been provided by the GAR Foundation. Applications will be accepted through January 28 at midnight. Click here for more details and to apply.

CLEVELANDCLASSICAL “ALUMS”:

Let’s check in with three past contributors to ClevelandClassical.com by reading some of their most recent stories.

In The Boston Globe, Zoë Madonna writes about the Boston Hope Music Teaching Project, which connected frontline health care workers with conservatory students for music lessons this past fall. “The goal wasn’t to teach them skill or technique, but to provide a refuge from day-to-day life on the COVID ward…”

In San Francisco Classical Voice, Jeremy Reynolds talks to members of Sō Percussion, Third Coast Percussion, and Yarn/Wire about the proliferation of percussion ensembles in the contemporary classical scene. “The new is being embraced in a more important way than it ever has been.”

And for WTTW in Chicago, Daniel Hautzinger writes about the death of democracy — but not in the United States. Instead, he covers the documentary A Thousand Cuts, about the Philippines under the regime of Rodrigo Duterte. “You really have to be vigilant, because you can take your eyes off the ball, and then so quickly democratic institutions crumble.”

by Jarrett Hoffman

PEACH-STATE CLASSICAL

Someone wrote on social media about being surprised to realize how many counties in the state of Georgia they’re now familiar with. The backdrop, of course, was the pair of January 5 runoff elections that will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. One race remains too close to call this afternoon.

With that in mind, we’re featuring a few classical musicians and groups from Georgia today. There are many worthy options, and for variety’s sake, we’ve chosen a vocalist, a composer, and a contemporary ensemble, beginning with Augusta native Jessye Norman, the internationally beloved soprano who passed away in September 2020. It’s difficult to describe the beauty of her voice — one description that came close is from the pen of critic Edward Rothstein, who compared it to a “grand mansion of sound” in a 1992 review in The New York Times.

It defines an extraordinary space. It has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous halls. Ms. Norman is the regal mistress of this domain…

One of Norman’s most celebrated recordings is Strauss’s Four Last Songs with conductor Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Listen to the fourth movement here on YouTube (Norman enters at the two-minute mark).

Next we move southwest to Albany, the birthplace of Wallingford Riegger, known as one of the first American composers to adopt a form of Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique — most famously in his Symphony No. 3, a hybrid of that style and conventional writing. Another important piece, Dance Rhythms, bears no trace of twelve-tone. Listen to that charming work here in a recording by the Cleveland Pops Orchestra in 1961, the year of Riegger’s passing.

And finally north to Atlanta, the home base of Faun And A Pan Flute, which visited Cleveland in 2018 in a presentation by the Syndicate for the New Arts. The ensemble, which ranged in size over the years from four to twelve members, has since closed up shop, but their music is still very much worth a listen — a delightful and offbeat blend of styles right at home in the absorbing world of contemporary classical-jazz-pop.

It’s also fun to go back and read the words of John Gregg, their former percussionist, who’s actually a native of Shaker Heights. In an interview before that 2018 concert, he offered a glimpse into the group’s collective process of composition, always a fascinating topic. “There’s a lot of talking, a lot of back and forth, and cutting and pasting to put things together and try it out — and if it doesn’t work, we try something else,” he said. More on the miscellaneous side, he conjured up one image that has stuck with me ever since: going out on tour in an old Frito-Lay truck.

Now — back to refreshing those vote tallies over and over in a way that can only be described as healthy and productive.

ONE FEATURE ON THE WEB:

Tonight at 7:30 pm, Jazz at Lincoln Center presents “Clifford Brown at 90: Brownie Speaks,” featuring trumpeter Dominick Farinacci, pianists Aaron Diehl and Dan Tepfer, and the Spirit of the Groove student ensemble from the Tri-C JazzFest Academy. The one-hour concert, which includes new music inspired by Brown’s solos, is part of a festival celebrating the rising star trumpet player who died at 25 in an auto accident in 1956. Click here at start time.

by Jarrett Hoffman

A NEW SEASON FROM TUESDAY MUSICAL:

Tuesday Musical has announced its 2021 Akron Concert Series, set to begin in March at E.J. Thomas Hall after being shifted over from last fall. It includes performances by bassist Edgar Meyer, pianist Emanuel Ax, vocal ensemble Chanticleer, clarinetist Anthony McGill with the Pacifica Quartet, and the Sphinx Virtuosi chamber orchestra.

The five-concert season comes with what the organization promises to be stringent safety protocols, as well as flexible attendance options and concert cancellation protection. Subscriptions are now available, but because of limited seating due to social distancing, single-concert tickets will only be sold closer to the concert dates, pending availability.

“We’ve grappled with how, when, and even if we could again share the joys of live music during these challenging times,” executive director Cynthia Snider said in a press release. “Now we’re moving forward — carefully and creatively — so that music lovers can enjoy safe and expertly curated concert experiences.” More details here.

DVOŘÁK MUSIC MEDICINE VIDEOS:

The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Clinic sent out the last dose in their Music Medicine series this morning. Click here to watch violist Lynne Ramsey and violinists Jessica Lee and Stephen Rose play the Larghetto from Dvořák’s C-major Terzetto — not a vaccine, but still something healing. That also makes two-in-a-row for Dvořák: the previous entry in the series, which came during our holiday hibernation, featured the Serenade for Strings led by Vinay Parameswaran — watch that one here. 

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Now we move from Dvořák to the man who was both a favorite pupil and his son-in-law: Josef Suk, the Bohemian composer and violinist who was born on this date in 1874 (not to be confused with the succession of other men in his family with that same name, including his famous violinist grandson).

Suk’s music has cropped up here and there in Cleveland over the years, including at the debut concert from the Earth and Air String Orchestra in 2015, which featured the Op. 6 Serenade side by side with Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings — an interesting combination, as director David Ellis told ClevelandClassical.com’s Mike Telin in an interview:

In some ways, Suk carbon-copied from Dvořák, and if you put the two scores side by side there are places where they’re very much alike. But at the same time, there are places in the Suk where you expect Billie Holiday to show up. There are early — or what would later become — jazz chords, so there are a lot of early twentieth century influences coming through.

Listen for yourself: Suk here from the New York Classical Players, and Dvořák up above in The Cleveland Orchestra’s Music Medicine video.

Skipping in time and place to January 4, 1937 in St. Louis, Missouri, we come to the birth of opera singer Grace Bumbry, who hit stardom when she sang the role of Venus in a production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival Theatre, becoming the first African-American vocalist to appear there — and receiving 42 curtain calls, lasting half an hour.

In addition to her many honors, her trailblazing career, and her embrace of the term “diva,” she’s also known for transitioning from mezzo-soprano to soprano. Hear and appreciate her both ways: first in the “Habanera” from Carmen in a 1967 opera film directed by Herbert von Karajan, and then in “Vissi d’arte” from Tosca in 1992 in front of an unidentified orchestra led by Daniel Nazareth.

And finally, jumping backwards to 18th-century Italy, composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was born on this day in 1710. He’s best known for the work he wrote in the final weeks of his short life: the Stabat Mater. The British period-instrument Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment brought it to Oberlin’s Finney Chapel in 2019, and countertenor Iestyn Davies shared his thoughts about it with Mike Telin in a preview:

The penultimate movement, ‘Quando corpus morietur’ — when my body dies and gets delivered to paradise — is so evocative of somebody lying on their deathbed…It’s the dying moments of a composer and yet it’s his most celebrated work. Pergolesi was only in his late 20s when he died, so it’s tragic that he never saw the success of the piece.

Listen here to a recording of that last movement by Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony, then go have a good, cathartic cry.