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Magic Circle Mime to visit Cleveland Orchestra one last time

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by Jarrett Hoffman

“Mimes go silent” doesn’t sound like news exactly, but that’s the case with Magic Circle Mime this year.

The company is built around collaborating with orchestras, so their shows actually contain plenty of sound, if not speech. And by the end of 2022, they’ll call it quits, having completed 43 years of touring.

“We’ve had a great run, and we’re superbly happy that we get to do this kind of ‘goodbye tour,’ particularly in places like Cleveland,” Douglas MacIntyre said during a recent interview. MacIntyre co-founded Magic Circle with Maggie Petersen, and that creative partnership remains the foundation of the company.

On Sunday, March 13 at 3:00 pm at Mandel Hall, the mime duo will join conductor Vinay Parameswaran and The Cleveland Orchestra in “The Listener,” a family program that introduces audiences ages 6+ to the workings of an orchestra and the art of listening. Humor, drama, and dance are all part of the show, as are musical selections by Britten, Bernstein, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Mozart, and John Williams, representing genres such as orchestra, opera, ballet, and film. Tickets are available here.

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DIARY: Tuesday, March 8, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•On the calendar: a period-instrument trio, and solo piano plus electronics

•MLK Community Chorus visits the Cavs, and competition news from Cleveland Chamber Choir

•An article about cultural institutions facing decisions about presenting Russian art and artists

•Almanac: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, and a musical memorial offered by flutist and composer Hong-Da Chin

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Cleveland Museum of Art
to present Wu Wei, sheng

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Wu Wei, the Chinese-born, German-based virtuoso of the free reed instrument known as the sheng, discovered the instrument in, of all places, an animated film.

“It told a famous Chinese story about someone who cannot really play this instrument,” he said during a recent interview on Zoom. “There is a queen who wants to have 300 sheng players perform together. So sheng players are requested, and one volunteer decides to make a fake sheng and just gesture with his body, as if he’s playing,” Wu Wei said, swaying back and forth on camera to demonstrate.

Rest assured, when a man carrying a sheng enters the stage of Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Friday, March 11 at 7:30 pm, he will be someone who knows a thing or two about how to play it.

An internationally-renowned sheng virtuoso who teaches at the Shanghai Conservatory, Wu Wei is also considered the instrument’s leading avant-garde figure, having dedicated a significant portion of his career to expanding its repertoire through arranging, commissioning, and composing.

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DIARY: Thursday, March 3, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: The Cleveland Orchestra features soprano Latonia Moore (pictured), and the Silver Hall series presents the Case Camerata Chamber Orchestra

•In the Industry: postcard campaigns for arts funding in Cleveland, a recent conversation at the Bop Stop, and a date for the Ohio Arts Professionals Network

•Educational opportunities from The Music Settlement, Piano Cleveland, and Tri-C

•Articles about cultural exchange and politics during wartime

•Our almanac, featuring Margaret Bonds and her partnerships with Florence Price and Langston Hughes

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DIARY: Tuesday, March 1, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today’s concerts: organist Daniel Jacky at Church of the Covenant, Trio Terzetto at Holy Trinity Lutheran, an homage to Robert Casadesus at the McDonough Museum, and the Harlem Quartet with pianist/composer Aldo López-Gavilán at Tuesday Musical

•R.I.P. Megan Thompson

•A kids concert with “Miss Jody,” and auditions for the Ohio Light Opera orchestra

•Almanac: the ties between two pianist-composers (Chopin and Adés)

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DIARY: Thursday, February 24, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN TODAY’S ISSUE:

•An article about Ukrainian musicians and national pride

•Concerts from CIM Opera Theater, Cleveland Composers Guild, The Cleveland Orchestra, and Oberlin faculty and guests, plus a jazz piano master class and more from CSU

•Micro-operas now on-demand from the Operas [in Place] festival, an extended deadline for Orchestrating Change Leadership Program nominations, and a piano and keyboard donation program from Piano Cleveland

•Coming up on the calendar: Apollo’s Fire’s “Feeling Blue: Baroque Meets Jazz”

•Almanac: Ukrainian-born American composer and pianist Leo Ornstein, once one of the most recognizable names in American classical music

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Harlem Quartet at Tuesday Musical:
“Los hermanos” López-Gavilán reunited

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Among the wide-ranging works of pianist and composer Aldo López-Gavilán is one that was inspired by the relationship between him and his brother, violinist and Harlem Quartet founder Ilmar López-Gavilán.

As Ilmar said during a recent telephone call, “This piece speaks to the moments that we did not have together.”

On Tuesday, March 1 at 7:30 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical will present a program titled “Los Hermanos Reunited.” The two Cuban-born brothers will come together with Ilmar’s quartet-mates in Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat and Aldo’s classically-influenced, stylistically-varied brand of Afro-Cuban jazz. Tickets are available here.

As a prelude to the concert, Tuesday Musical is collaborating with Akron’s Nightlight Cinema for screenings of Los Hermanos / The Brothers on Monday, February 28 at 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm. (Tickets are still available for the matinee.) The documentary is about their shared childhood, their separation as a result of geopolitics — Ilmar lives in the U.S., Aldo in Cuba — their reunion, and their subsequent performances across America.

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Fatoumata Diawara makes her visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Balance is a key word in describing singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor Fatoumata Diawara.

There’s her music, where she aims to respect her Malian roots while embracing international influences.

There’s her love of pop music, contrasted with her lyrics, which can venture into heavy subjects — the antithesis of bubblegum.

And there’s the fact that, against those sometimes dark lines of text, she radiates joy onstage.

Clevelanders were deprived of that music and that stage presence two years ago, when Diawara’s trip to the Cleveland Museum of Art was canceled. So it was good news when her name appeared on the lineup for the Museum’s Performing Arts Series this season: she’ll finally make her visit to Gartner Auditorium next Wednesday, March 2 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available here.

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DIARY: Tuesday, February 22, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Events today from Church of the Covenant and Cleveland Chamber Music Society

•Job openings and a new position from Piano Cleveland, The Cleveland Orchestra, and Oberlin Conservatory

•Fairs to learn about The Music Settlement’s summer offerings, and guitarists at the Bop Stop this weekend

•Jazz- and basketball-inspired artists, with works at the Cleveland Museum of Art

•Almanac: Andy Warhol and music, including his series of Beethoven prints

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The live return of Les Délices:
“Of Gods and Heroes”
and a sense of the meta

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by Jarrett Hoffman

The next concert from Les Délices is indeed about gods and heroes, built around 14th-century songs referencing characters such as Jason and Medea, Ulysses and Circe, and Tristan and Isolde.

But if you’re familiar with artistic director Debra Nagy, who makes a habit of crafting programs both musically and intellectually stimulating, you won’t be surprised that there’s more to these selections than just mythology.

The central idea behind the program — to be presented live February 25-27 in Shaker Heights and Akron — is something more meta. “The funny thing about these 14th-century translations is that they’re not so much about the characters, but about seeing yourself in them, or contrasting your experience with theirs,” Nagy said during a recent Zoom call. “There’s a sense of timeless relatability.”

That timelessness ties into another aspect of the program: the integration of contemporary poetry, including a new poem by former Ohio Poet Laureate Dave Lucas on commission from the ensemble. “A lot of his work draws on or is inspired by myth and storytelling,” Nagy said.

[Read more…]

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