by Jarrett Hoffman
NOTE: ENCORE’S “Tales of the Body” scheduled for Sunday, July 10 has been postponed until next season. Details here.
IN THIS EDITION:
•Ohio Light Opera’s opening performance of Pirates of Penzance at 2:00
•July 4th reflections: the national anthem from the MLK Celebration Chorus, a new piece inspired by great women in politics, and a discussion about music and political upheaval
•Almanac: Paula M. Kimper and her TRUTH: An American Opera about Sojourner Truth
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Ohio Light Opera’s Cinderella
•This summer with Opus 216
•The passing of musicologist Richard Taruskin
•Oberlin music theory professor Brian Alegant on the Bulletproof Musician podcast
•Dorothy Rudd Moore’s setting of the famous Frederick Douglass speech What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•OLO’s The Student Prince at 2:00, ChamberFest Cleveland’s “Extrême Expressions” at 7:30 — and perhaps a drink or two at the end of the day
•Details about Quire Cleveland’s 15th season
•News from Les Délices: new episodes of Music Meditations, and a job opening
•Almanac: Esa-Pekka Salonen, Clarence Cameron White, and Federico Mompou
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•A new project from tenor Karim Sulayman, and a dive into pianistic excellence deep in the heart of Texas
•Ukraine: a ban on some Russian music, and Eurovision hosting duties taken away
•Almanac: Henry VIII, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joseph Joachim, and Richard Rodgers
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Ohio Light Opera and ChamberFest Cleveland continue their seasons, while Tri-C JazzFest and the Local 4 Music Fund’s “She Scores” series kick off their programming tonight.
•A report from the Institute for Composer Diversity, an article about jazz in Detroit, and the reopening of Odessa Opera
•Almanac: Canton-born conductor John Finley Williamson and his Westminster Choir
by Jarrett Hoffman
“The piece that you’re going to hear is not the piece that I wanted to write,” composer Yevgeniy Sharlat said during an interview.
Sharlat’s Dumka-22, a commission from ChamberFest Cleveland that will receive its premiere on Saturday, June 25 at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Institute of Music, was originally conceived around the idea of family — in particular the family at the core of ChamberFest.
That would be Franklin Cohen (clarinet), his daughter Diana Cohen (violin), and her husband Roman Rabinovich (piano) — the three co-artistic directors — as well as Diana’s brother Alexander Cohen (percussion), a frequent performer at the Festival.
So, how about a “family piece” written for that quartet? That was the pitch to Sharlat, the Russian-born composer who was a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow and who teaches composition at the University of Texas at Austin.
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•World music on the horizon from Tuesday Musical
•Winners of the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism announced
•Two storied institutions closing their doors: the San Antonio Symphony and the community music school McGill Conservatory
•Almanac: Pavel Haas, Alan Hovhaness, and Gunther Schuller
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Tonight: Irish traditional music and ChamberFest’s opening night
•In the news: Paul Jacobs celebrates Franck’s 200th, and The Onion “reports” on a conductor tampering with his baton
•Almanac: Franck’s wedding gift to Ysaÿe, premiered in the dark
by Jarrett Hoffman
In one way, the next event in ENCORE Chamber Music Institute’s Music & Ideas Festival has a wide appeal. As I said to artistic director Jinjoo Cho during an interview, the music on Friday’s program is both brilliant and, without a doubt, fun.
Still, Cho pointed out that it might not be for all audiences. One piece, Derek Bermel’s Coming Together for clarinet and cello, is composed entirely of glissandos, often wild ones. And depending on the listener, you might hear those as depicting — well, one half of the title of this program.
“Food & Desire” will be presented on Friday, June 17 at 7:00 pm at the Dodero Center for Performing Arts in Gates Mills, preceded by a 6:00 conversation featuring Brandon Chrostowski, founder of EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute. In addition to the Bermel, the program includes music by Svante Henryson, Andrew Rindfleisch, Paul Schoenfield, and Bohuslav Martinů — much of it influenced by jazz. In-person and livestream tickets are available here.
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•No Exit tonight at Cain Park
•Akron Community Foundation grants, an Oberlin Conservatory Global course on music theory, and five new categories for the 2023 Grammys
•Almanac: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson