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No Exit begins year sixteen with New Season, New Sounds

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by Mike Telin

After celebrating its sixteenth season with a deep dive into the world of Surreality, No Exit begins their 16th concert season on Thursday, October 17 at 7:00 pm at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Recital Hall with  “New Season, New Sounds.”

The evening will feature works by No Exit’s percussionist/composer Katy La Favre as well as Josef Marek, Hannah Kendall, Arthur Hernandez, James Praznik, and Timothy Beyer. The program will be repeated at 7:00 pm on Friday at Waterloo Arts, and Saturday at SPACES Gallery. All performances are free.

“After last season’s Surreality programs, we were so energized because the reception was so great. We want to continue to entertain, maybe enlighten, and even make some people angry,” the group’s artistic director Timothy Beyer said during a recent telephone conversation. He added that this program, which includes three world premieres, is anything but boring.

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Cleveland Chamber Music Society continues its 75th anniversary season with Imani Winds and pianist Michelle Cann

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by Mike Telin

For pianist Michelle Cann, returning to Cleveland always feels like coming home. “It was such a significant part of my life, having done my bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Cleveland Institute of Music,” she said. “I just love the city and I have so many memories, both musically and personally, that it always feels so great to be back.”

On Tuesday, October 15 at 7:30 pm at The Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church, Cann will join the Imani Winds for a Cleveland Chamber Music Society concert that will include works by Paquito D’Rivera, Lalo Schifrin, Valerie Coleman, and Francis Poulenc. Tickets are available online.

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Salonen to conduct his Cello Concerto with Senja Rummukainen at Severance

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by Mike Telin

“I’m looking forward to coming to the Severance Hall, and working with Esa-Pekka — who is a wonderful musician, conductor, and composer — is going to be an amazing experience for sure,” Finnish cellist Senja Rummukainen said during a recent interview. “But getting to play with The Cleveland Orchestra is the greatest thing that’s happened to me —  it’s still a bit unreal.”

On Thursday, October 10 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Rummukainen will make her Cleveland Orchestra debut with Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto. Under the direction of the composer, the concert will also include Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin and Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5. The program will be repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

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Salar Nader and Homayoun Sakhi bring Afghan music to Oberlin

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by Mike Telin

“I can’t wait to be back — Cleveland is like a second home,” tabla virtuoso Salar Nader said during a telephone conversation. “I have so many fond memories of performing at the Cleveland Museum of Art and in The Kite Runner at Cleveland Playhouse back in 2010. And of course working so many times with Jamey Haddad at the Bop Stop, Nighttown, and Tri-C JazzFest. And I love Oberlin — to be there with Homayoun and working with the students is going to be a beautiful thing.”

On Sunday, October 6 at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel, Salar Nader and rubâb player Homayoun Sakhi will present a program featuring music of their Afghan homeland, pushing artistic boundaries that reflect their country’s position at the confluence of Persian, Central Asian, and Indian cultures. The program also includes Oberlin Conservatory’s Performance and Improvisation (PI) Ensemble, directed by Jamey Haddad.

On Saturday, October 5 at 1:00 pm, Nader and Sakhi will present a public master class in Stull Recital Hall. Click here for more information. Both events are free.

Nader said that Haddad has been a longtime friend and mentor since meeting in the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain in 2007. “DJ Cheb i Sabbah brought us together, and it was like we were long-lost brothers by the time we played the show. Ever since then he has always been so welcoming. The thing that I learned from him and people like Stanley Clark, is that they all have a similar attitude when it comes to welcoming the different musics of the world.”

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BlueWater Chamber Orchestra begins its 15th season: a conversation with Neil Mueller

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by Mike Telin

When Carlton Woods was set to retire from his post at Michigan’s Midland Symphony Orchestra in 2007, the longtime music educator and conductor, along with his wife Ladonna, set his sights on Cleveland.

Why Cleveland? “I wanted to come where I could hear the best orchestra in the country and one of the greatest in the world every week,” Woods told The Plain Dealer in a 2015 interview. Once here, Woods quickly recognized the wealth of professional musicians living in the area who were looking for more opportunities to perform. In a sense, Woods seized the moment, and in 2010 with the tagline “From Cleveland for Cleveland,” the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra was born.

On Saturday, October 4 at 7:30 pm at the Church of the Covenant, the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra will kick off its fifteenth anniversary with “Threads of Time, Struggle, and Hope.” [Read more…]

Les Délices opens its season with “Moonlit Mozart” Serenades

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by Mike Telin

It’s delightful to read that Wolfgang Amadè Mozart, whose music has charmed so many ears, could surprise and charm himself. He wrote in a letter to his father from Vienna on his name-day, November 3, 1781:

“At eleven o’clock at night I was treated to a serenade performed by two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons — and that of my own composition. These musicians asked that the street door might be opened and, placing themselves in the center of the courtyard, surprised me, just as I was about to undress, in the most pleasant fashion imaginable with the first chord in E-flat.”

This week, Les Délices will open their season with “Moonlit Mozart.” Oboists Debra Nagy and Kathryn Montoya, clarinetists Eric Hoeprich and Madison Vienna, bassoonists Stephanie Corwin and Clay Zeller-Townson, hornists Nathanael Udell and Sadie Glass, and double bassist Sue Yelanjian will perform selections from The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni, the Adagio from the Serenade in E-flat, K. 375, and the Serenade in C minor, K 388.

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Severance in Recital: Pavel Kolesnikov Plays J.S. Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations

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by Mike Telin

“I think the Goldberg Variations are one of the greatest achievements of the human mind and human soul of all times. And it is one of the most astonishing architectural creations in music — it’s like a wonder of the world,” pianist Pavel Kolesnikov said during a recent telephone conversation. “And hearing it live is just a tremendous experience that you cannot explain in words.”

On Tuesday, September 24 at 7:30 pm in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Music Center, the Siberian-born, London-based pianist will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Aria and Thirty Variations, aka “The Goldberg Variations,” in a recital sponsored by The Cleveland Orchestra. Tickets are available online.

I caught up with the pianist in England where he was serving on the jury of the Leeds International Piano Competition. I began our conversation by asking him what it was like to move from being a competitor to a juror.

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Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Chanticleer to open 75th Season

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by Mike Telin

In 1949 a small group of like-minded individuals came together to bring ensembles of the highest quality to Cleveland for chamber music performances. And thus, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society was born.

On Tuesday, September 24 at 7:30 pm at The Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church,  CCMS will launch its 75th anniversary season with a concert by the celebrated all-male vocal ensemble Chanticleer. “Music of a Silent World,” will feature Majel Connery’s The Rivers are Our Brothers, a new arrangement of Tom Petty’s Wildflowers, Lawrence’s The Weather, and I miss you like I miss the trees by the ensemble’s composer-in-residence Ayanna Woods. A gala reception will follow the performance. Tickets are available online.

I caught up with tenor and assistant music director Matthew Mazzola and baritone Matthew Knickman on Zoom and began our conversation by asking why they are excited about this nature inspired program.

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Cleveland Orchestra: A conversation with violin soloist Frank Peter Zimmermann

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by Mike Telin

After a six-year absence, violinist Frank Peter Zimmerman will return to the Severance Music Center stage on Thursday, September 19  to play Robert Schumann’s concerto with Osmo Vänskä and The Cleveland Orchestra in the first performance of the new season. The program will be repeated on Sunday the 22nd at 3:00 pm.

“I’m extremely happy to be returning to Cleveland. It’s my favorite orchestra in the States and maybe the world, and the public is also special,” the violinist said in a telephone conversation from his home in Germany. “I have a long relationship with them —  I think my first concerts were in 1987 with Christoph von Dohnányi  — and I have many friends there. So it’s going to be a joy to come back for the season opener.”

The Schumann concerto is a musically complicated piece with an intriguing history. He wrote it very late in his career for Joseph Joachim, and although the violinist was in possession of the manuscript for the rest of his life, he never performed the Concerto. It finally received its premiere by George Kulenkampff and the Berlin Philharmonic on 26 November 1937.

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Cirque de la Symphonie at Blossom: conversations with vocalists Hugh Panaro & Morgan James

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by Mike Telin

What can audiences expect to see and hear this weekend at Blossom Music Center? “Dizzying acrobatic heights and eye-popping feats together with top Broadway hits from Les Misérables, Frozen, Wicked, Chicago, and more…the perfect way to close out the summer.”

On Saturday, August 31 and Sunday September 1 at 7 pm, Cirque de la Symphonie joins the Akron Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Lucas Waldin in a show featuring Broadway stars Morgan James and Hugh Panaro. Tickets are available online.

I spoke with Hugh Panaro by Zoom at his country home in Connecticut.

Hugh Panaro: It’s a tiny farm town with deer, cows, and goats. Having grown up in Philadelphia, it’s not anything I would have imagined for myself.

[Read more…]

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