by Mike Telin
Those who were lucky enough to have a ticket to the Mantra Percussion concert on Friday, February 23 at Transformer Station were treated to a spectacular sonic feast for the ears.
The evening consisted of a single work, Michael Gordon’s hour-long Timber, scored for six instruments known as simantras — 2×4’s mounted on metal frames and struck with mallets and fingers. Rooted in the Eastern Orthodox liturgical tradition, the instruments were first introduced into classical music by composer Iannis Xenakis. The concert was presented as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Performing Arts Series.
A return to a concerto that brought with it a solo debut. The celebration of a long chamber music partnership and friendship. And one final concerto in a 22-year orchestral tenure.
Contrapunctus Early Music,
There is a lot that’s unique about the guitar duo of Randall Avers and Benoît Albert, including their background and repertoire — and of course, their name: 
Few composers in the classical tradition have successfully transformed stories for children into engrossing all-ages artworks. In a concert at the Cleveland Museum of Art last week, Third Coast Percussion — the Chicago-based quartet of Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore — made a strong case for their new work, 
Third Coast Percussion went bold with their latest project, a sprawling marine ecosystem of an album titled 
“In reality — in the wild — musics interact,” said Josh Ryan of Africa→West Percussion Trio. “Sometimes we play folkloric music, sometimes we play what sounds like experimental concert music, and sometimes we play a mix of the two. That’s just the reality of being a 21st-century person and percussionist, and it’s really fun.”
Each summer since 2005, the composition and performance exchange 
Suites from Stravinsky’s ballets are popular choices for orchestral programs, but it’s not often the works are actually presented as ballets. It’s even more rare for performances to feature modern, reimagined choreography.