by Jarrett Hoffman
Sometimes it feels appropriate to get right down to business. Last week, when I got in touch with Jinjoo Cho, that would have meant delving immediately into Korngold’s Concerto, which she played in the final round at the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis enroute to winning the Gold Medal. She’ll revisit the piece with Christopher Wilkins and the Akron Symphony this Saturday, March 16 at 8:00 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall.
But there was something I’d read at the bottom of her bio that I needed to clear up first. So when she picked up the phone, I quickly put on my reporter’s hat and began to investigate.
“In the beginning they were more like souvenirs,” Cho said of her collection of kitchen magnets. “I would get one that reminded me of someplace. Now I feel like it’s become a full-on obsession. Whenever I see a cute one, I just can’t not buy it.”
Just as species can become endangered, so can forms of art. During the mid-20th century, that was the case with pansori — a Korean style of musical storytelling where a solo vocalist takes on many roles, accompanied by a barrel drum. Pansori received official protections and recognition from the South Korean government in 1964 and from UNESCO in 2003.
If you’ve ever been sitting in a concert and just wanted to shout out what piece 
Local listeners might know that CityMusic Cleveland’s music director, Avner Dorman, is also a composer. His separate but related talents of the baton and of the pen will be on display when he leads the orchestra in the world premiere of 
François-Xavier Roth could certainly be called versatile, though there might be a better term for him. His orchestra Les Siècles, which he founded in 2003, harbors a collection of instruments spanning the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and modern eras, matching instruments with the appropriate repertoire. With all of that at his fingertips, maybe Roth would describe himself as a kind of musical scientist, always looking to experiment.
Some authors pull material from their own experiences. Others are fascinated by things that are totally foreign to them. If you had to guess, which of those types describes the writer of 
Dean Buck grew up on the West Side of Cleveland, then headed to New York City for four years of school and five years of work. Now he’s back, pursuing a master’s in conducting at the Cleveland Institute of Music and digging into the city’s freelance scene.
“We’ve heard this story before,” tenor Matt Jones said during a recent telephone conversation. We had been talking about the cartoon caricature of tennis star Serena Williams that was published in the 
If you ask a bunch of composers how they dreamed up their latest pieces, they’ll all have something completely different to say.
Asked to name a piece that uses sounds recorded from nature, many would think of Respighi’s 