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Garrick Ohlsson returns to the Severance Music Center stage

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by Mike Telin

“The thing about playing Mozart concertos, especially with a great orchestra like Cleveland, is that when it goes well, it will leave me on such an adrenaline high I may not be able to sleep,” pianist Garrick Ohlsson said during a recent telephone conversation.

On Thursday, October 30 at 7:30 pm, Garrick Ohlsson will join Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center for a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23.

“Like Shakespeare, Mozart can find the appropriate way to express the full range of human emotions. He can write the saddest music and the happiest music. He can write an aria for a servant who’s upset because she’s lost a pin. But unlike a 19th century composer, he doesn’t lay it on thick, he doesn’t do what the English call making heavy weather of it.”

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No Exit opens season with “American Descent”

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by Mike Telin

The adventurous ensemble No Exit begins their 17th season this week with a variety of works that reflect on the unprecedented times in which we are living.

On October 23 at 7:00 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall at Kent State University, No Exit will present “American Descent.” The set list includes Garth Knox’s Viola Spaces, Geoffrey Burleson’s Cryptic Locomotion (premiere of 2025 version), June Young Will Kim’s After days of rain, construction fills the air, and Andrew Rindfleisch’s American Descent (world premiere).

The program will be repeated on Saturday, October 25 at 7:00 pm at Praxis Fiber Workshop. Both performances are free.

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Cleveland Chamber Choir: music to mark the hours and seasons

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by Mike Telin

This week, Cleveland Chamber Choir invites you to join them by candlelight for a concert of two works that take listeners on a musical journey from sunset to sunrise, and winter to spring.

On Friday October 24 at 7:30 pm at Trinity Cathedral, Gregory Ristow will lead the Cleveland Chamber Choir in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil and Reena Esmail’s A Winter Breviary.

The program will be repeated on Saturday at 7:00 in Fairchild Chapel in Oberlin. Charles Edward McGuire, PhD, from Oberlin College & Conservatory, will present a pre-concert talk 45 minutes prior to each performance. Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available online.

“In the traditional Eastern Orthodox All-Night Vigil service, prayers and chants would have been spaced through the entire night from just before sunset to just before the rising of the sun,” CCC artistic director Gregory Ristow said during a Zoom conversation. “But the service that Rachmaninoff would have had in mind combines all the prayers that would have been said through the night into one service.”

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The Cleveland Orchestra & Beethoven Nine: a conversation with tenor Miles Mykkanen

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by Mike Telin

“I think that Beethoven Nine is the ultimate piece about unity and human brotherhood,” tenor Miles Mykkanen said during a Zoom conversation from his home in Ironwood, Michigan. “Every time I sing it, I think about the millions of people who have either performed it or heard it over the last two centuries and how it reminds us of the goodness in all of us — that’s what life is all about.”

On Thursday, October 23 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Mykkanen will join soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven, and bass-baritone Dashon Burton, The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Conducted by music director Franz Welser-Möst, the performance also includes Jean Sibelius’ Tapiola. The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Mykkanen made his Cleveland Orchestra debut as Brighella in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in 2019 and he returned last spring to sing the role of Steva in Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa. “I’m just thrilled to be back to sing a piece that is 200 years old and still brings the audiences to their feet. And to perform it in Severance with The Cleveland Orchestra, my great quartet colleagues, and Franz Welser-Möst on the podium — that’s very special for any singer.”

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Les Délices opens new season with “Bohemian Rhapsody”

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by Mike Telin

The first thing you may think of when you hear the words “Bohemian Rhapsody” is that 1970’s iconic Rock song by Queen.

But when Les Délices launches their new season on Friday, October 17 at 7:30 pm at Westminster Presbyterian Church in  Akron their “Bohemian Rhapsody” will feature music by Bohemian and Moravian composers Franz Krommer (1759-1831), Georg Druschetzky (1745-1819), and Katerina Veronika Dusikova-Cianchettini (1769-1833).

Performed by oboist Debra Nagy, violinist Shelby Yamin, violist Allison Monroe, and cellist Rebecca Landell, the program also includes Mozart’s Oboe Quartet and a new work by Nathan Mondry.

“We’re opening with Franz Krommer’s Quartet no. 2 in F major for oboe & strings, and he is probably the best-known of these lesser-known composers,” Debra Nagy said during a telephone conversation. “He was a very popular composer during his time along with Beethoven. He wrote 100 string quartets, but today he’s known mostly for his wind partitas.”

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Classically Lake View: November 3 Bach-a-thon at Wade Chapel

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by Mike Telin

Autumn is a magical time of year in Cleveland, and there couldn’t be a better place to experience the season’s natural splendor than Lake View Cemetery. And while you’re there, why not take in a concert featuring music by J.S. Bach in the magnificent Jeptha Wade Memorial Chapel, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and completed in 1901.

On Monday, November 3 beginning at 4:00 pm, musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra will perform some of the composer’s greatest masterworks in a 3-part Bach-a-thon.
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Apollo’s Fire begins new season: a conversation with Jeannette Sorrell

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by Mike Telin

During a Zoom conversation, Apollo’s Fire artistic director Jeannette Sorrell gave us her insights into the Orchestra’s 2025-2026 Northeast Ohio season as well as a sneak peek into its April residency at London’s historic Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Tickets and more information are available on the Orchestra’s website.

Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas — October 3 through 12.

Aryssa Leigh Burrs, mezzo-soprano (Dido), Edward Vogel, baritone (Aeneas), Andréa Walker, soprano (Belinda), and Cody Bowers, countertenor (Sorceress) with the Apollo’s Singers.

Jeannette Sorrell: I think Purcell’s music is just so exquisite. And the story of Dido and Aeneas is timeless and as poignant today as it was thousands of years ago when Virgil wrote it — the noble, brilliant queen who is jilted and abandoned by a man who says he’s leaving to follow his destiny.

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Cleveland Silent Film Festival opens with Phantom of the Opera centennial screening

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by Mike Telin

The Cleveland premiere of Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, lit up the screen at the Stillman Theatre on Sunday, January 17, 1926. In his Plain Dealer review, W. Ward Marsh wrote: “If your heart is strong, I recommend it to you. If your heart isn’t so strong, go see this film anyway, to find out how strong it is.”

On Sunday, September 14, the Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium will open its 2025 edition with that iconic film. The special screening at 3:00 pm in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art will celebrate Phantom’s 100th anniversary and feature its original score, performed live by American Musical Productions’ 17-piece orchestra conducted by Joseph Rubin.

Lon Chaney’s performance as the Phantom still captivates a century later, while the music of the original 1925 orchestral score brings the gothic grandeur of Gaston Leroux’s tale to life.

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Cleveland Orchestra Associate Conductor Daniel Reith: a final Blossom concert and a fond farewell

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by Mike Telin

Daniel Reith was appointed assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst at the beginning of the 2022–23 season. In June of 2024, following a one-year contract extension, he was promoted to the position of associate conductor through the end of the 2024–25 season.

On Saturday, August 16 at 7:00 pm, Reith will conclude his tenure when he leads The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center in a program of music by Edward Elgar, Gabriella Smith, and Max Bruch (tickets are available online.)

He made his Cleveland Orchestra subscription debut in February 2023 when he replaced Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä on very short notice. He also stepped in for Welser-Möst to lead the Orchestra as part of the first annual Mandel Opera & Humanities festival concert in May 2023.

Reith has also led the Orchestra in many performances, including Education Concerts in Cleveland and Miami, the Family Concert series, the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert, and the Orchestra’s inaugural Sensory-Friendly Concerts.

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A conversation with Cooper International Piano Competition winner Anna Avramidou

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by Mike Telin

On Thursday, July 24 during the finals of the Cooper International Piano Competition at Severance Music Center, Anna Avramidou made a major statement with her performance of Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Samy Rachid.

In his review, Daniel Hathaway of ClevelandClassical.com described the 17-year old Cypriot as “a thoughtful player who is well in command of dynamic changes. In the opening movement, she balanced well-rounded phrases with lightning bolts of technical passages and a beautiful cadenza.”

Although she was up against some stiff competition from Anwen Deng (16, Australia) and Sawako Harada (18, Japan), both of whom were awarded second prize, in the end the jury bestowed the $20,000 first prize on Avramidou.

We reached Anna Avramidou by phone in Oxford, England, where she was participating in the annual Oxford Piano Festival. I began our conversation by congratulating her on winning the Cooper Competition.

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