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CIM Opera Theater presents Don Giovanni

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by Mike Telin

“He is like the great seducer — Don Juan — and there is cosmic revenge taken on him. But he does his best to ruin many lives in the process.” This is how JJ Hudson, interim artistic director of CIM Opera Theater, described the title character of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni.

On April 23 and 25 at 7:00 pm in Playhouse Square’s Mimi Ohio Theatre, CIM Opera Theatre will present Mozart’s masterpiece. The show is directed by Hudson and conducted by Harry Davidson. Tickets are available online.

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Cleveland Chamber Music Society celebrates 75th birthday with Shostakovich & the Jerusalem Quartet

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by Mike Telin

In 1948, when three faculty friends from Western Reserve University convinced the Budapest Quartet to come to Cleveland to perform a three-concert series, who could have predicted that the humble event would lead to the creation of one of the city’s venerable presenters of classical music. Since its founding in 1950, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society has gone on to create one of the most respected chamber music series in the country.

In honor of its 75th anniversary, CCMS has planned a five-concert celebration from April 21 through 30 featuring the complete Shostakovich quartet cycle performed by the Jerusalem Quartet —  violinists Alexander Pavlovsky and Sergei Bresler, violist Ori Kam, and cellist Kyril Zlotnikov.

The performances will be held in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. James Wilding will give pre-concert lectures at 6:30pm before each event. Tickets are available online. On April 23 at 3:00 pm in the Museum’s Morley Lecture Hall, there will be a free screening of the 1964 Grigori Kozintsev adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, featuring a searing score by Dmitri Shostakovich. Click here for more information and to view a full schedule of events.

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The Cleveland Orchestra: fifteen minutes with tenor Andrew Haji

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by Mike Telin

The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus will appropriately mark Easter weekend with three performances of Johann Sebastian Bach’s dramatic Easter Oratorio led by guest conductor Bernard Labadie on Thursday, April 17 and Friday, April 18 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, April 19 at 8 pm in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center. Tickets are available online.

Bach re-purposed a secular cantata to create his narrative of the resurrection of Jesus in 1725. Labadie will pair the Easter Oratorio on these programs with Bach’s Magnificat, a lovely (and unique for Bach) setting of the song Mary sang after learning she would bear Jesus, as reported in the Gospel of Luke.

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No Exit Presents: Patchwork, Audra Duo, and the Cleveland State Percussion Ensemble

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by Mike Telin

On Saturday, March 22 “No Exit Presents” welcomes Patchwork — Noa Even, saxophone and Stephen Klunk, drums — back to Cleveland for a free 7:00 pm concert at  Praxis Fiber Workshop.

The performance, which is part of the Duo’s 10th Anniversary tour, will feature works by Jason Charney, Hong-Da Chin, Erin Rogers, and Osnat Netzer.

In an interview with No Exit’s Laura King, Even said that Charney’s Interstittch is one of their earlier commissions and the most melodic, rock-inflected piece on the program.

She added that the other three works are drawn from their debut album, released in May 2020 by New Focus Recordings. “You’ll hear some similar sounds in these pieces — the term “extended technique” seems almost antiquated when multi-phonics, slap tonguing, and superball mallets are now as much a part of the basic vocabulary of our instruments as major scales and drum rudiments are… but each of the composers we worked with use those sounds in their own unique voice and syntax. Hong-Da Chin’s  …time was not passing… it was turning in a circle… is a musical reflection on the cyclical nature of humanity’s path through history. Erin Rogers is a saxophonist herself, and Fast Love has a lot of the eclectic, noisy, improvisatory playing for which she’s known.

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CIM Young Composers Program: a conversation with Jessie Montgomery

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By Mike Telin

“I’m very excited to be part of the CIM summer community,” Grammy Award-winning composer, violinist, and educator Jessie Montgomery said during a recent conversation.

From June 22 through 27, Montgomery will serve as the creative partner for CIM’s Young Composers Program — a five-day intensive for emerging composers consisting of personalized lessons, masterclasses, and workshops with Montgomery, as well as with CIM faculty.

The 2025 program is open to composers ages 12-17 in the Young Innovators division, and ages 18-28 in the Next Gen division. Applications are being accepted now through March 24. Click here for more information.

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Ravel at 150: a conversation with Antonio Pompa-Baldi

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by Mike Telin

Born on March 7, 1875, Maurice Ravel without question is one of the most popular French composers to date. He is admired for his attention to form and craftsmanship and for his masterful orchestration. Although he is frequently associated with Impressionism, he famously rejected the term.

On Friday, March 21 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music, pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi will present “Ravel at 150: A Celebration.” The program will feature the composer’s Gaspard de la nuit and the Piano Trio in a, as well as Roberto Piana’s Ravel en Rêve. The evening will also include the world premiere of Luca Moscardi’s Theme and Variations on the name Maurice Ravel. The program is presented as part of CIM’s Insiders Series. The concert is free, but reservations are required.

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Suburban Symphony celebrates 70th anniversary

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by Mike Telin

Since its founding in 1955 by a group of eight musicians, all of whom were high school friends, the Suburban Symphony Orchestra has garnered the reputation of being one of Cleveland’s top-shelf community orchestras. And since turning 70 is always cause for celebration, this weekend the SSO is going to do just that.

On Sunday, March 16 at 2:00 pm at Severance Music Center, Domenico Boyagian will preside over “Seventy at Severance.”

The program opens with Jean Sibelius’ Karelia Suite. For the featured work, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Boyagian and the Orchestra will be joined by the Western Reserve Chorale and West Shore Chorale, and soloists soprano Emily Margevich, mezzo-soprano Quinn Middleman, tenor John Pickle, and baritone Young-Kwang Yoo. WCLV’s Bill O’Connell will emcee the event. Tickets are available online.

I caught up with Domenico Boyagian on Zoom.

Mike Telin: 70 years is cause for a celebration. It’s easy to imagine why you programmed Beethoven No. 9, but how did you come to choose the Sibelius?

Domenico Boyagian: It’s a piece that we’ve wanted to do for a long time. Every once in a while we like to feature certain sections of the orchestra. In this case it’s the horns and brass.

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No Exit Presents: John Faieta at Trinity Cathedral (Feb. 28)

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by Mike Telin

Although seventy-six trombones may have led the big parade, when John Faieta brought his one-man show to Trinity Cathedral on Friday, February 28, the trombone virtuoso proved that one trombone —  matched with an acoustically pleasing space —  is all that is needed to provide a fascinating listening experience.

Under the banner of No Exit Presents, Faieta’s beautifully-constructed program treated the good-sized audience to five musically diverse works that stretched the sound and technical capabilities of the instrument. And a subtle sense of humor imbued his charming and informative stories about each work and how it came to be written.

The program opened with Leonard Bernstein’s Mippy II, a tune the composer wrote as a eulogy for his brother’s beloved dog. It’s a jaunty work with a smooth-talking melody, and Faieta delivered a sparkling performance.

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BlueWater Chamber Orchestra turns fifteen! (Part 1)

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by Mike Telin

Conductor Carlton Woods led the Midland, Michigan Symphony from 1997 to 2007 while teaching at Central Michigan University. When he and his wife Ladonna retired, they chose to relocate to Westlake, where they spent their first year soaking up all that Northeast Ohio’s classical music scene had to offer.

“We had season tickets to everything — The Cleveland Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire — and we went to concerts at CIM, Baldwin Wallace, Oberlin, and Cleveland State University,” Ladonna said during a Zoom conversation.

Describing her late husband as the quintessential promoter in the world of classical music, Ladonna Woods said that after spending a lifetime in music, during that first year of retirement she could see that her husband was getting bored. Then one day he asked her what she would think if he started a chamber orchestra.

“I thought, ‘Oh, no, here we go.’ I knew that he wasn’t asking my permission, he was telling me that he had already worked all out. So I told him, ‘I think you’re crazy, and I was really looking forward to us just going places and being a normal everyday couple.’ The interesting thing was that he had so much fun conducting. It was his love. And he kept saying, ‘Ladonna, someday they’re going to find out how much fun I’m having.’ When he said that, I thought, ‘Well, this is a done deal.’”  [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical presents the Isidore Quartet and pianist Jeremy Denk

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by Mike Telin

If something is meant to be, even a global pandemic can’t keep it from happening. Case in point: the Isidore String Quartet. “Technically we formed at Juilliard in 2019, but we were sent home shortly afterwards. We had not even played together for a full semester.” cellist Joshua McClendon recalled.

After reforming at Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival during the summer of 2021, McClendon and his colleagues — violinists Adrian Steele & Phoenix Avalon and violist Devin Moore — went on to win the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022. In 2023 the group was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Tuesday Musical will host the Isidore String Quartet and pianist Jeremy Denk on Tuesday, March 4 at 7:30 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron. The program includes Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F, Gabriella Smith’s Carrot Revolution, and Johannes Brahms’ Quintet for Piano and Strings in f. Tickets are available online.

I caught up with Joshua McClendon via Zoom in Dallas, where the Quartet is the Peak Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence at Southern Methodist University. I began our conversation by asking him about the program they’re bringing to Akron.

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