by Mike Telin
On Friday, May 4 at 8:00 pm at Praxis Fiber Workshop on Waterloo Road in Collinwood, Underground Classical will present violinist Alex DePue and guitarist Miguel DeHoyos in a free concert that will feature classically-hued takes on popular songs, original compositions, and a little bit of fiddling.
“There will be something for everybody, from classical music all the way to the classic rock of the ‘70s, The Beatles, and some show tunes,” DePue said during a telephone conversation. “We do a wonderful arrangement from The Phantom of the Opera that morphs into Santana’s Black Magic Woman.” To hear how stylishly the duo moves from Andrew Lloyd Webber to Carlos Santana, click here, where you’ll also find many videos of DePue’s and DeHoyos’ inventive and engaging playing.
DePue said that combining musical styles in one tune helps to expand audience demographics. “If you include a show tune like ‘All I Ask of You’ from Phantom and end with Black Magic Woman, you’ve got two completely different audiences who would never meet.”
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After first performing together at Music@Menlo in 2010, then following that up with an appearance at the Kennedy Center, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and guitarist Jason Vieaux have long had their eyes on a reunion concert.
A highlight of each Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra season is the concert featuring the annual concerto competition winner. On Saturday, May 5 at 8:00 pm at Severance Hall, trumpeter Charlie Jones will join his COYO colleagues in a performance of Haydn’s 
This Saturday evening’s concert by the Kent New Music Ensemble on April 28 at 7:30 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall will mark the end of an era at the University. Composer Frank Wiley, who founded the group in 1980 and now co-directs it with saxophonist Noa Even, is retiring from the KSU faculty at the end of the current academic year after nearly four decades — but not to a life of shuffleboard and crossword puzzles. When I asked him in a recent telephone conversation what he’d do first thing the morning after he retires, he didn’t have to think. “I’ll probably be composing,” he said.
For the West Shore Chorale, composer 
On Friday, April 27 at SPACES, the adventuresome new music ensemble 
Based on John Luther Long’s short story from 1898, Puccini’s opera 
“In many ways we’re long overdue for a collaboration, and I wanted to do something that neither group could do on their own,” 
Variety, virtuosity, and vitality: by inviting the Laredo-Robinson Duo to play the penultimate concert of its 27th season, Arts Renaissance Tremont virtually guaranteed that listeners would experience all of the above. In a concert in Pilgrim Church on Sunday, April 15, the distinguished spouses Jaime Laredo, violin, and Sharon Robinson, cello, championed 20th-century and new pieces alongside familiar favorites.