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DIARY: Monday, October 2, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Announcements: Carlos Kalmar enters “leave of absence” from CIM

•Interesting reads: North Carolina radio station plans to withhold broadcasts of six contemporary operas from the Met because of objections to content

•Almanac: R. Nathaniel Dett (pictured) and The Ordering of Moses

HAPPENING TODAY:

Nothing on the schedule today, but check out our Concert Listings as you plan out your week.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

According to a spokesperson from the Cleveland Institute of Music, principal conductor and director of the orchestral studies program Carlos Kalmar has “entered into a leave of absence” for the rest of the semester. As Kabir Bhatia wrote for Ideastream on Saturday, “The move comes two weeks after students staged a sit-in to protest Kalmar. Many students attended rehearsal without instruments, and others sat in the audience space in support.” Read here.

[Read more…]

Come As You Are —
Banks & Bjerken at CIM

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by Jarrett Hoffman

In one way, saxophonist-composer Steven Banks’ Come As You Are is straightforward: it’s about family, and it’s about church. Its movements are dedicated to his mother and three sisters, and inspired by their favorite spirituals and works of sacred music.

In another way, the piece — which will conclude his free program with pianist Xak Bjerken on October 5 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall at CIM, where Banks is a visiting faculty member — is about something more abstract: a merging of different parts of his identity that previously didn’t feel as if they could coexist.

“As a classical musician, the vast majority of my colleagues have little knowledge or understanding of Black culture or how it influences my music-making,” Banks writes in his program note from 2021, when he performed the piece as part of his Young Concert Artists debut recital. “As a Black man from North Carolina, many of my family and friends don’t have a true sense of what I do and love as a classical performer and composer. I have also spent an incredible amount of time and energy on keeping these worlds separate and trying to show up in each as if the other didn’t exist.”

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, September 27, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: pianist-composer Aldo López-Gavilán plays his own works at BW, jazz vocalist Kurt Elling and guitarist Charlie Hunter visit CMA for “SuperBlue” (pictured), and Oberlin CME performs music by Aaron Copland and Augusta Read Thomas

•Announcements: a job listing at Oberlin (Assistant Professor in TIMARA) and a Double Reed Day at BW

•Interesting reads: Lyric Opera of Chicago’s SoundShirt, a wearable technology for deaf or hearing-impaired audience members

•Almanac: Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:00 in Gamble Auditorium, Baldwin Wallace Artist-in-Residence Aldo López-Gavilán sits down at the piano in a free program of his own compositions.

At 7:30 at Gartner Auditorium, the CMA Performing Arts Series presents “SuperBlue,” featuring jazz vocalist Kurt Elling and guitarist Charlie Hunter, joined by drummer Corey Fonville and bassist-keyboardist DJ Harrison for a “kaleidoscopic collection of new songs, surprising covers, and dynamic reinventions.” Tickets are available online.

Also at 7:30, Timothy Weiss leads the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble in Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Augusta Read Thomas’s The Auditions at Warner Concert Hall. It’s free.

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DIARY: Monday, September 25, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Poiesis Quartet (pictured) with mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby in Rocky River

•Announcements: OLO’s 2024 repertory, and honors for Tri-C JazzFest Academy vocalist Ava Preston and Assembly for the Arts president and CEO Jeremy Johnson

•Interesting reads: new Milwaukee Symphony musicians’ contract with provisions to promote inclusivity and diversity in auditions, and a nonprofit aiming to bring free babysitting to arts institutions

•Almanac: Johann Strauss Sr., Colin Davis, and Glenn Gould, including a “conductorial tiff” or two

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society presents the Poiesis Quartet with mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby in a program that includes a new work by Richard Stout inspired by the letters of Willa Cather. It’s free and will also be livestreamed. Read Mike Telin’s recent interview with Stout here.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, September 20, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: guitarist Jason Vieaux and cellist Bryan Dumm concertize together at CIM

•Submission deadlines: National Association of Latino Arts & Culture grants, Arts Impact Ohio conference session ideas, and Arts Midwest videography

Interesting read: Met Opera commission to highlight the heroism of Ukrainian mothers

•Almanac: composer Uuno Klami and violinist Kathleen Parlow, “the lady of the golden bow”

HAPPENING TODAY:

A CIM faculty recital at 7:30 pm at Mixon Hall will feature guitarist Jason Vieaux and cellist Bryan Dumm in music by Máximo Diego Pujol, Francis Kleynjans, John Williams, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Radamés Gnatalli, and Jason Vieaux himself. Reservations (free) are already sold out, but there’s also a livestream you can catch. Another option: call the box office to check on availability and join the waiting list. More information here.

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DIARY: Monday, September 18, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: pianist Clare Longendyke on the Signature Series

•Announcements: Severance celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with Sammy DeLeon, The Music Settlement has openings in its Adult Orchestra, and Assembly for the Arts seeks input from local artists on making use of individual artist funds

•Almanac: Francesca Caccini, master of ornamentation

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:30 pm at the Stocker Arts Center’s Cirigliano Studio Theatre, the Signature Series presents pianist Clare Longendyke in music by Vivian Fung, Maurice Ravel, Anthony Cheung, Zosha di Castri, Jeffrey Mumford, Mel Bonis, Claude Debussy, Amy Williams, and Anthony R. Green. Click here for more information. It’s free.

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Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: 
the “return” of Stephanie Jones

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by Jarrett Hoffman

There are still so many ongoing effects from the pandemic: physical, mental, economic, and most devastating of all, linguistic, specifically when it comes to the word “debut.”

In early 2021, Stephanie Jones was featured in the local music scene for the first time through a video — and a very popular one at that — recorded at her home in Munich and presented by the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society. Now, an event that also feels deserving of that word, she’ll finally be visiting Cleveland in person.

Perhaps great minds can gather and hash all this out. In the meantime, the more Stephanie Jones, the better — and on Sunday, September 17 at 3:00 pm, she will bring works by J.S. Bach, Richard Charlton, Ross Edwards, Jakob Schmidt, Quique Sinesi, Rostislav Golubov, Astor Piazzolla, and Antônio Carlos Jobim to the Maltz Performing Arts Center in a presentation by CCGS. See the full program here, and get tickets here.

I sat down with the Australian-born guitarist on Zoom and began by catching up on some life updates: since we last spoke, she has finished her master’s degree and Konzertexamen at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar, and is now teaching at the University of Augsburg — in addition to teaching through her Patreon, where her 25-member online studio is currently maxed out.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, September 13, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Dana Ensemble plays music by Dave Morgan in “Remember to Remember”

•Announcements: paintings by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, but also by Akron Public Schools students in conjunction with Tuesday Musical’s “Mexico, A Musical Journey” program from Cuarteto Latinoamericano (pictured)

•Interesting read: Weston Sprott on why there hasn’t been more progress diversifying orchestras

•Almanac: the many sides of Clara Schumann

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:30 pm at Youngstown State’s Ford Theater, the Dana Ensemble presents “Remember to Remember,” a 70-minute program by faculty composer Dave Morgan that will feature fourteen Dana faculty members, including soprano Misook Yun, as well as four guest improvisers. It’s free.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, September 6, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: the opening event of the Silent Film Festival, and a lecture recital about “Gaspar Cassadó’s Iberian Legacy”

•Announcements: 20th season from CityMusic, new season of SalonEra from Les Délices, open positions with the Suburban Symphony, and volunteering with the Canton Symphony

•Almanac: Joan Tower and Made in America

HAPPENING TODAY:

The Cleveland Silent Film Festival begins today at 7:30 pm at Masonic Auditorium Performing Arts Center with a screening of a movie celebrating its 100th anniversary: the Harold Lloyd comedy Safety Last! (Pictured: an iconic shot from the film.) The screening will feature organist Clark Wilson, whose accompaniment will “reflect the techniques and materials of the musical performances given in major picture palaces during the heyday of silent film.” Tickets are available online. Read Daniel Hathaway’s interview with Wilson to learn more.

Also at 7:30, at Oberlin Conservatory’s Kulas Recital Hall, violinists Domenic Salerni and Rachelle Hunt, violist Danielle Wiebe Burke, and cellist Katie Tertell will join Hispanic studies scholar H. Rosi Song for a guest lecture recital titled “Lost in Plain Sight: Gaspar Cassadó’s Iberian Legacy.” The program includes two quartets by Cassadó — No. 2 in G and No. 1 in f — as well as the Ravel String Quartet. It’s free.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, August 31, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Canton Symphony closes out Summer Serenades with brass quintet

•Performing opportunities: Western Reserve Chorale, YSU Youth Orchestra (pictured), and Kent State Communiversity Band

•Almanac: Albert Riemenschneider and BW Bach Festival

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 6:30 pm, the Canton Symphony’s free Summer Serenades series finishes up with a brass quintet performance at Stadium Park in Canton. Bring a chair or blanket and some picnic food, and enjoy the music (and the weather).

[Read more…]

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