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DIARY: Tuesday, April 11, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Oberlin voice and organ students play music by Mendelssohn at Church of the Covenant

•Announcements: Keith Fitch receives a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the U.S. Department of Education announces a call for student performing artists

•Almanac: Czech conductor and Holocaust survivor Karel Ančerl

HAPPENING TODAY:

This week’s Tuesday Noon Organ Plus concert at Church of the Covenant is a collaboration with Oberlin Conservatory voice and organ students. The program is composed entirely of works by Felix Mendelssohn, including selections from the cantata Psalm 42 and from the oratorios St. Paul and Elijah — program details and livestream link here.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, April 6, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Cleveland Orchestra & Oberlin Orchestra 

•Interesting reads: Rachmaninoff at 150

•Job listings: Senior Strategist (Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy) at City Hall, and Conservatory Event Publicity and Marketing Specialist at Oberlin

•Honors for a CWRU composer

•Almanac: Carlos Salzedo, André Previn, Igor Stravinsky, Ray Charles

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Rafael Payare (pictured) leads The Cleveland Orchestra in Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony and Bernstein’s Second (“The Age of Anxiety”), which features pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist. Tickets are available here.

And at that same hour at Finney Chapel, pianist Annie Qin, one of the winners of Oberlin Conservatory’s Concerto Competition, will play Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto with the Oberlin Orchestra, led by Raphael Jiménez. The program also includes Pierre Jalbert’s Passage and the world premiere of Michael Frazier’s la flor nopal. It’s free, and you can catch the stream here.

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DIARY: Tuesday, April 4, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: organist Jonathan Moyer at the Covenant, and Apollo’s Fire’s European tour sendoff concert

•Applications & honors: CIM Young Composers Program, KSU’s Roy Minoff Composition Competition, CityMusic’s Diversity Fellowship open to violinists, and wind ensemble honors for three groups

•Almanac: composer Chen Yi, violinist Augustin Hadelich, and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason

HAPPENING TODAY:

A freewill offering will get you into the Church of the Covenant at 12 pm to hear organist Jonathan Moyer on the Tuesday Noon Organ Plus series (program to be announced).

And Apollo’s Fire will give its European tour sendoff concert at 7:30 at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium. The program, titled “Exile: Music of the Jewish & African Diasporas,” celebrates the connections of Sephardic, Ashkenazy, Palestinian, and African traditions. Jeannette Sorrell (pictured) directs, and the featured soloists include Rachel Weston (mezzo-soprano), Jacob Perry and Haitham Haidar (tenors), Jeffrey Strauss (baritone), and Daphna Mor, (recorder, ney, vocals). Tickets are available here.

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DIARY: Thursday, March 30, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Tonight: Cleveland Orchestra, Youngstown Symphony, and Renovare Music

•R.I.P. Dolores White, pictured

HAPPENING TODAY:

Three concerts tonight will take place at 7:30 pm.

The Cleveland Orchestra will be joined by conductor Thomas Adès and violinist Pekka Kuusisto in works by Sibelius (the Prelude and the Suite No. 1 from The Tempest, and the Six Humoresques) and by Adès himself (Märchentänze and The Tempest Symphony). Tickets are available here.

The Youngstown Symphony will present “A Night for Jazz,” featuring vocalist Brianna Thomas and led by conductor Dean Buck. Tickets here.

And at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, Renovare Music will put on a free concert composed of three different elements: string music, poetry by spoken word artist Vision, and African drumming by Ali Boyd, Rashon Blake and Derick Barnes. The program includes José Elizondo’s The Dawn of Hope, J.S. Bach’s Aria from the Goldberg Variations, Ludovico Einaudi’s Experience, Hirono Borter’s Goldberg Meditation, Sabrina Jean Louis’ Clair de Lune, William Travance’s Blood Runs Black, and more.

R.I.P. DOLORES WHITE:

ClevelandClassical.com mourns the passing of Cleveland-based composer and musical trailblazer Dolores White, who died on Friday at the age of 90.

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Cleveland Chamber Music Society:
an important second performance

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by Jarrett Hoffman

“First is the worst, second is the best…” It may not be the most profound of old sayings, but there might just be some slight bit of wisdom — I said slight — that can be gleaned from that schoolyard refrain. After all, when it comes to new music, premières get most of the attention, but the far-less-common deuxième performances (aren’t we fancy?) can be just as significant.

Perhaps that’s especially true when it comes to Chava’s Daughters Speak by James Lee III (left). Its premiere in May 2021 at New York City’s 92nd Street Y was presented virtually, with only a limited in-person audience due to the pandemic. And what was to have been the second performance, in Boston last year, was canceled at the last minute when soprano Susanna Phillips developed laryngitis.

That brings us to tomorrow, Tuesday, March 28, when the piece will receive that long-awaited second hearing — its first in front of a full audience — as part of a Cleveland Chamber Music Society concert at Disciples Christian Church. Two of the three performers are holdovers from the premiere: clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Myra Huang, who will be joined here by soprano Elena Perroni. Tickets are available here. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, March 23, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Folk musician Ben Gage performs with Canton Symphony members, violist Eliesha Nelson (pictured) is featured on LCCC Signature Series, Chattanooga Guitar Duo visits the Dana School of Music, and BW Opera presents Pirates of Penzance 

•Announcement: audition appointments are open for the Cleveland Orchestra Choruses

•Almanac: two major works from the short life of composer Julius Reubke, and a preface to World Tuberculosis Day

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DIARY: Tuesday, March 21, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: organist Ralph Holzhauser makes a noon-time visit to Church of the Covenant

•Announcement: applications open for Assembly for the Arts’ Creative Impact Fund

•In the news: Met ordered to pay $200K to Netrebko, and a look at the “Violin Capital of China”

•Almanac: electronic music composer Ruth Anderson and one brilliant, funny sound collage

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today’s Tuesday Noon Organ Plus Concert from Church of the Covenant features organist Ralph Holzhauser, who will play music by J.S. Bach (Prelude and Fugue in C, BWV 547), Florence Price (Elf on a Moonbeam), Charles-Marie Widor (Final from Symphony No. 8), George Shearing (I Love Thee, Lord and There is a Happy Land), and Marcel Dupré (Prelude and Fugue in B, Op. 7, No. 3). A freewill offering will be taken up.

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Folk musician Ben Gage to visit
CSO’s Divergent Sounds series

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by Jarrett Hoffman

One of the unique offerings of crossover music in Northeast Ohio is the Canton Symphony Orchestra’s Divergent Sounds. The series pairs select bands and singer-songwriters from the area with their own hand-picked group of instruments from the Orchestra. Then arranger Kevin Martinez creates new chamber-ensemble versions of their songs to be performed at Zimmermann Symphony Center.

The next Divergent Sounds concert on Thursday, March 23 at 7:30 pm will feature the Ben Gage Band, led by Akron-based folk musician Ben Gage. Armed with guitar, harmonica, and his own voice, Gage will be joined by electric guitarist Dan Socha, double bassist Brant Novak, and drummer Spencer Cindia — plus an ensemble of clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and cello from the Canton Symphony. Also making appearances will be a trio of guest vocalists: Bethany Joy, Josee McGee, and Chrissy Strong. Tickets are available here.

Both contemplative and down-to-earth, Gage is an absorbing conversationalist, as I found out during an interview earlier this week. Among the topics we touched on: his choice of instruments from the orchestra (influenced by a recent trip to New Orleans), writing songs about the area, growing up in rural Ashtabula County, sharing early versions of his songs on his website, and the people he meets while out on tour.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, March 14, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: organist Keith Reas (pictured), Musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra, and the Bennewitz Quartet

•Announcements: a call for visual artists as part of a collaboration between Heights Arts and No Exit New Music, and a webinar about the Ohio Arts Economic Relief Grant program

•Almanac: Peter Maxwell Davies and musical funhouse mirrors

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:00 pm, organist Keith Reas plays music from Nicolaus Bruhns, the Susanne van Soldt manuscript, Tarquinio Merulo, Heinrich Scheidemann, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Dietrich Buxtehude, and J.S. Bach (program details here) on the Church of the Covenant’s Tuesday Noon Organ Plus series. The recital will also be livestreamed. A freewill offering will be taken up.

At 7, Musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra will head to Severance Music Center’s Reinberger Chamber Hall for a concert to benefit UNICEF’s response to the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria. Click here for more information and here to purchase tickets.

And at 7:30 at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society will present the Bennewitz Quartet. Their program is bookended by C-Major string quartets — beginning with Haydn’s Op. 54, No. 2, and ending with Dvořák’s Op. 61 — with Hans Krása’s Theme and Variations for String Quartet and Erwin Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet in between. Tickets are available here.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, March 9, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Apollo’s Fire, The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project, and Oberlin Opera Theater

•Announcements & job listings: Janet Barlow (pictured) retires from Stocker Arts Center, Credo Music seeks an executive director, and Lima Symphony holds horn and flute auditions

•Almanac: Zakir Hussain, Anna Clyne, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:30, you have your choice between Apollo’s Fire in a new program titled “Exile: Music of the Jewish & African Diasporas,” and The Cleveland Orchestra, who will be joined by the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus for a playlist that includes Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen and Mozart’s Requiem.

And at 8, you can check in with the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project for a program featuring The Evolution of the Arm (a quartet made up of oboe, piano, violin, and cello) with cellist Khari Joyner as the opener. Or you can head to Oberlin Opera Theater for Bernstein’s Candide in director Jonathon Field’s final production before retiring. (Read an interview with Field here.)

Ticket links and more details in our Concert Listings.

[Read more…]

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