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ChamberFest: a conversation with cellist Peter Wiley

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by Jeremy Reynolds

WileyUpon entering the Curtis Institute of Music at age 13, cellist Peter Wiley embarked on a colorful career that now spans over five decades. In the 1980s, he began performing with the Beaux Arts Trio. In the 1990s, he co-founded the Opus One piano quartet with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott. And in 2001, he inherited his mentor David Soyer’s position in the Guarneri Quartet — Wiley has been nominated for Grammy Awards with the Beaux Arts Trio as well as the Guarneri Quartet.

This year marks Wiley’s first year performing in ChamberFest Cleveland, during which he will play in the first four concerts on June 17, 18, 19, and 21. (See our interview with the Frank and Diana Cohen for details about each concert.)

I spoke with Wiley on the phone a few hours after he arrived in Cleveland, and I asked him how he came to be involved in ChamberFest. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: a conversation with violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti

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by Mike Telin

Schwartz-Moretti-Amy“When Diana and Frank came up with this fantastic idea of starting ChamberFest, I was so happy when they invited me to be part of the first festival,” violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti said during a telephone conversation while enroute to Cleveland. “Diana and I were both in Donald Weilerstein’s studio at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Of course, back then Frank was ‘Mr. Cohen,’ but I got to hear him play all the time at Severance Hall, and I got to know him through school because he also teaches at CIM. I always had a wonderful relationship with both of them.”

In addition to reconnecting with the Cohens, the opportunity to be part of ChamberFest also gave Schwartz Moretti the chance to rediscover a city she had not visited in some time. “When I came back to Cleveland after not having been there since the 1990s, I was so impressed with all the changes in the University Circle area, and with all that was happening in Cleveland in general — it is such a vibrant city. And ChamberFest is just a wonderful addition, with all the great musicians it brings to town.” [Read more…]

League of American Orchestras Conference: reports by ClevelandClassical staff (May 27-29)

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by Jeremy Reynolds, Mike Telin & Daniel Hathaway

LOA-Cleveland-SkylineBelying its name, this year’s League of American Orchestras Conference hosted representatives from a wide range of countries including the United States, Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Kenya, Norway, New Zealand, and the UK. Total attendance reached 1,068, an increase of 10% compared to last year. 67 companies signed up as exhibitors, peddling innovative technology and business strategies, as well as the services of famous artists, in the Cleveland Convention Center from May 27-29. Evening concerts during the conference featured The Cleveland Orchestra and CityMusic Cleveland.

Opening events

On the first day, attendees trekked across the street from the Convention Center to Public Auditorium for the welcoming session and concert. Brett Mitchell led cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in a polished performance of Saint-Saëns’s “The Swan” and a rambunctious interpretation of the “Finale” from Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony. Weilerstein, an alumna of the youth orchestra, performed as principal cellist during the Tchaikovsky. [Read more…]

Great Lakes Trombone Ensemble performs at Drinko Hall.

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by Jeremy Reynolds

CTS-060915Two trombones led the opening melody of Giovanni Gabrieli’s Jubilate Deo with seven more close at hand to join in the counterpoint. On Tuesday, June 9 the Great Lakes Trombone Ensemble delivered a program of fanfares, folk tunes, film music and more in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University.

The group comprises members of The Cleveland Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony, the Pittsburg Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, Toledo Symphony, and faculty members from Akron and Cleveland State University. The Ensemble performed during the annual Cleveland Trombone Seminar, which Cleveland assistant principal trombone Shachar Israel initiated in 2011. [Read more…]

Baroque flutist Kathie Stewart talks Bach and Telemann

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by Jeremy Reynolds

STEWART-KathieIn Zimmerman’s famous Coffee-Garden in Leipzig, Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann presented an outdoor concert series of their own music in 18th century. On Thursday, June 11 and Friday, June 12 at the Baroque Music Barn in Hunting Valley, Apollo’s Fire will recreate this rustic aesthetic with a concert of Bach’s fifth Brandenburg concerto, his “Trio Sonata” from A Musical Offering, and Telemann’s tragicomic Canary Cantata.

In a recent phone conversation, baroque flutist Kathie Stewart shared her thoughts on keeping Bach’s Brandenburg fresh. “We’ve done it lots of times, and there’s no one I enjoy playing it with more than Olivier Braut (violin) and Jeannette Sorrell (harpsichord). We’ve really worked it out in a way that’s comfortable for us. It’s just such great music! It’s the most beautiful piece ever — it’s so life-affirming,” she said. “He wrote it in the best key possible for the flute — not that he was thinking of that — but he put it in D Major, which is the natural key of the baroque flute. It’s idiomatic. In fact, it’s probably the only piece he ever wrote that’s idiomatic for the flute. So it’s a joy to play and it feels good. I never get tired of it.” [Read more…]

Tina Bergman discusses Apollo’s Fire’s upcoming Sugarloaf Mountain concert series

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by Jeremy Reynolds

“BERGMANN-TinaMy background is with American Old Time and Celtic, so this is right up my alley — like putting on an old pair of shoes,” said hammered dulcimer player Tina Bergman. We chatted about Apollo’s Fire’s Sugarloaf Mountain rogram in a recent telephone conversation. Performances of this crossover concert will take place from Sunday, June 14 through Sunday, June 21 in a variety of venues including the Huntington Playhouse in Bay Village and the Geauga Lyric Theatre in Chardon (see concert listings for full details).

The ensemble — which also includes Amanda Powell (soprano), Ross Hauck (tenor), Susanna Gilmore (fiddle), Kathie Stewart (flute), Brian Kay (lute, guitar, banjo), René Schiffer (cello), Jeannette Sorrell (harpsichord and direction) — is celebrating its newest album of the same title with CD release parties held after select concerts. [Read more…]

COYO Goes to China: Conversations with Brett Mitchell and Henry Shapard

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by Jeremy Reynolds and Mike Telin

After conductCOYO-Mitchell-250sqing the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in their final US concert of the year on Sunday, June 14 at 3:00 pm in Severance Hall, Brett Mitchell will pack his bags to travel with the musicians to China to direct the same program in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Ningbo. In recent telephone conversations, Mitchell and principal cellist Henry Shapard shared their excitement and concerns about the upcoming international tour.

Jeremy Reynolds: You’re headed a long way from home! Have you or any of your students ever been to China?

Brett Mitchell: Actually, the only place I’ve ever been in Asia is Tokyo. But we have a good number of kids from China. Our concertmaster for the tour is originally from China, and he’s the best musician for that job.

[Read more…]

Contemporary Youth Orchestra: A conversation with Graham Nash

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by Mike Telin

NASH-Graham“Kids are 25% of the population and 100% of our future,” the legendary Graham Nash said during a recent telephone conversation. “I think it’s one of those truths so simple to understand that it strikes the heart immediately.” On Friday, June 5 at 8:00 pm in Severance Hall, Liza Grossman will lead the 115-member Contemporary Youth Orchestra and 70-member chorus in GNASH, the first-ever concert devoted solely to Nash’s music with orchestra.

“A few years ago I did sing with CYO, but it was not an entire concert of my music,” Nash recalled. “I must tell you that I’m looking forward to the show.” It was Nash himself who came up with the concert’s unusual title, GNASH. “It always intrigued me that my first initial and my last name spells the word gnash, as in gnashing your teeth.” [Read more…]

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