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Marriage, divorce, musical tourism, and a bit of mystery: a conversation with Nic McGegan

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by Mike Telin

Although conductor Nic McGegan has only worked with Cleveland Orchestra principal clarinet Afendi Yusuf on one occasion, he said it was pure heaven. “It was a couple of years ago when we did the suite from Schubert’s Rosamunde, which has a wonderful clarinet part and he just blew me away. You don’t hear clarinet playing that classy everyday. I’m thrilled that he’s going to play this concerto and I’m just so happy to be able to stand next to him.”

On Saturday, August 12, at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, McGegan will lead Afendi Yusuf and The Cleveland Orchestra in a performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. The program also includes Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, Elena Langer’s Suite from Figaro Gets a Divorce, and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, “Italian.” Tickets are available online.

Saturday’s concert also marks Yusuf’s debut as a concerto soloist with his Cleveland colleagues. “That’s an extra treat for me,” McGegan said during a recent phone conversation. “And it’s one of those pieces which an audience always warms to, so it’s going to be great fun.”

Unlike a lot of Mozart’s music — which McGegan said was often written for a performance “next week” — this is not true of the clarinet concerto. “Obviously it dates from the last month he was alive, but it appears that he may have been thinking about it at least two years earlier.”

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The Cleveland Orchestra: a conversation with composer Sarah Kirkland Snider

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by Mike Telin

“I’m thrilled to be able to make it out for the performance of Something for the Dark,” Sarah Kirkland Snider said during a recent interview. “And to have it played by The Cleveland Orchestra with David Robertson conducting, I mean, that’s just the best kind of performance a composer could ask for.”

On Saturday, August 5 at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Robertson will lead Snider’s work along with John Adams’ Century Rolls featuring pianist Conrad Tao as soloist, and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1. At 6:00 pm, Daniel Reith will lead the Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra in Beethoven’s Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane, and Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 “Classical.” Tickets are available online.

I reached the composer by phone at her home in Princeton, New Jersey and began by asking her if she ever thought Something for the Dark would acquire the legs that it has.

Sarah Kirkland Snider: No, of course not — many new pieces get performed once or twice, and then that’s it. That’s sort of the fate of most orchestral music being written these days, because orchestras feel a tremendous pressure to cater to the pieces that audiences know.

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Pianist Conrad Tao returns to Blossom with Century Rolls

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by Mike Telin

Although Conrad Tao first performed John Adams’ Century Rolls in 2015 when he was 21, the pianist said that his history with the concerto goes back to when he was 11 — when, on the advice of his composition teacher Christopher Theofanidis, he listened to the Nonesuch recording with Emanuel Ax and The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi. “I was like, ‘Wow, Adams wrote a piano concerto.’ I was so excited to discover that as a child, so this piece is quite special to me.”

On Saturday, August 5 at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Tao will perform Century Rolls with David Robertson and The Cleveland Orchestra. The program also includes Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Something for the Dark, and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1. At 6:00 pm, Daniel Reith will lead the Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra in Beethoven’s Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane, and Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 “Classical.” Tickets are available online.

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CIPC for Young Artists Senior winner: A conversation with Saehyun Kim

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by Mike Telin

A native of Seoul, South Korea, 16-year-old Saehyun Kim is no stranger to international competitions — in 2022 he won First Prize at both the Morningside Music Bridge International Concerto Competition and the New England Conservatory (NEC) Preparatory School Concerto Competition.

Kim has appeared as a soloist with the Sendai Philharmonic, and Korean Symphony, and was invited to give interviews and performances for national music channels such as JTBC Classic Today and KBS Classic FM. Currently he is a Young Scholar of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation and a junior at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, studying with HaeSun Paik, faculty at the New England Conservatory.

On Saturday July 15, Kim added another win to his list when he was awarded First Prize ($10,000) in the Senior Division of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists. He was also awarded the Audience Prize, Senior Division ($500) and the Junior Jury Prize, Senior Division ($500).

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CIPC for Young Artists Junior Winner: A conversation with Elisey Mysin

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by Mike Telin

Born in Stavropol, Russia, 12-year-old Elisey Mysin began studying piano at the age of four. He currently attends the Central Music School in Moscow where he is a student of Natalia Trull and Daniil Tsvetkov.

Mysin has already amassed several wins at international competitions including First Prize at the 2022, 4th Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians in China, and has performed concertos with the State Symphony Orchestra of Leningrad, and the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Mysin has appeared at many festivals including the Baikal Stars, InClassica International Music Festival (Dubai, UAE, 2021), and Bieszczady bez granic (Sanok, Poland, 2022, main prize of the festival).

On Saturday July 15, Mysin added another win to his list when he was awarded First Prize ($5,000) in the Junior Division of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists. He was also awarded the Audience Prize, Junior Division ($500) and shared the Mozart Prize (tie, $250 each) with Yanyan Bao (16, China).

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Kahchun Wong brings Akutagawa, Shostakovich, and Debussy to Blossom this weekend

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by Mike Telin

The opportunity for conductor Kahchun Wong to make his Cleveland Orchestra debut in April of 2022 came when visa issues prevented François-Xavier Roth from leading that week’s concerts. On Saturday, July 22 at 7:00 pm, Wong will return to the podium, this time at Blossom Music Center, to lead a program that includes Yasushi Akutagawa’s Music for Symphony Orchestra, Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with Zlatomir Fung as soloist, and Debussy’s La mer. Tickets are available online.

“I’m so excited to be returning to Cleveland, especially with this program,” Wong said during a telephone call from his home near Kanagawa, Japan. He added that it was fitting for us to be talking on Monday, July 17. “Today is Sea Day — it’s a public holiday and there are a lot of festivals.” He noted that the holiday is a time for people to give thanks for the sea. “Where I live — on the coast — I can see Mt. Fuji. It always gives me inspiration. And today it, and the sea, are beautiful.”

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Cellist Zlatomir Fung brings Shostakovich for his July 22 Cleveland Orchestra debut

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by Mike Telin

If asked, many musicians can tell you exactly when they heard a piece of music that changed their lives. For Zlatomir Fung that piece was Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1. “I must have been eleven years old,” Fung recalled during a recent interview. “I believe it was the debut recording that Rostropovich made with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and it was one of the first cello videos that was on YouTube. I came across it and I was just blown away. And that was the recording that made me want to be a cellist.”

On Saturday, July 22 at 7:00 pm, Fung will bring that concerto to the Blossom Music Center stage when he makes his Cleveland Orchestra debut. The program, under the direction of Kahchun Wong, also includes Yasushi Akutagawa’s Music for Symphony Orchestra and Debussy’s La mer. Tickets are available online.

I caught up with the celebrated young cellist by phone and began by asking him to share his thoughts about playing with The Cleveland Orchestra for the first time.

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ChamberFest Cleveland: “Words Misunderstood” (June 30)

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by Mike Telin

On Friday, June 30, ChamberFest Cleveland presented a delightful evening of chamber music to a capacity audience at Dunham Tavern. The program, “Words Misunderstood,” included an oddity by György Ligeti, ear-catching 21st-century works by Caroline Shaw and Gabriella Smith, and some engaging German Romanticism by Max Bruch.

Performed without the “obligatory” intermission, the concert began with György Ligeti’s Poème symphonique (for 100 metronomes). An oddity or an absurdity, depending on your point of view, here the work was presented as Ligeti intended — as a serious piece of music. Ten musicians made their way to their groups of ten mechanical metronomes, each set to a different tempo, all of them sitting on the wooden shelf that ran along three walls of the venue.

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Stanislav Kochanovsky brings Rachmaninoff for his Cleveland Orchestra debut

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by Mike Telin

“Every debut with a new orchestra is a special moment you never forget. But the famous Cleveland Orchestra is definitely one of the most extraordinary musical institutions in the world,” Russian conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky wrote in an email. “I have so many of their historical recordings with Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, and Lorin Maazel in my private collection and I can’t wait to hear the unique voice of the orchestra with my own ears.”

Next week he will have just that opportunity. On Saturday, July 15 at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Kochanovsky will lead an all-Rachmaninoff program featuring the Symphony No. 1 and the Piano Concerto No. 3 with Nikolai Lugansky as soloist. Tickets are available online.

Mike Telin: You’re bringing a wonderful program. Why did you choose these particular pieces?

Stanislav Kochanovsky: This year the whole world is celebrating Rachmaninoff’s 150th  anniversary. As I have almost all of his works in my repertoire, I proposed the rarely performed and not so well known First Symphony. Later I found out that The Cleveland Orchestra has never performed it in their history. This fact makes my debut even more exciting! As for the Piano Concerto, I think it was the soloist’s choice.

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ChamberFest Cleveland: “Vortex” (June 25)

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by Mike Telin

If you are familiar with William Cowper’s 1785 poem The Task, then you know the famous line “Variety is the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor.” On Sunday, June 25 at Harkness Chapel, ChamberFest Cleveland presented a program that was steeped in musical variety and spices for the ear.

Written in 1977, Alfred Schnittke’s Moz-Art (after the fragment K. 416d) is based on the first violin part from Mozart’s unpublished pantomime, with dollops of the opening theme of his 40th Symphony stirred into the mix. The quirky five-minute work for two violins asks the players to throw caution to the winds as they seemingly compete to see who can turn a classical line into something absurd faster than the other.

The performance by Itamar Zorman and Diana Cohen was bust-your-gut funny. Bowed notes turned into plucked ones, then scratchings, in tune became out of tune, and slow tempos became fast enough to break the sound barrier. Hilarity ensued when the players swapped out their instruments, Zorman grabbing a very tiny violin while Cohen opted for a viola. After reclaiming their rightful fiddles, the players mischievously walked away whistling.

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