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Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival: 
a recital by Hao Yang (June 4)

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by Mike Telin

The presentation of young and emerging artists has always been a priority for the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. And for Festival followers it’s an opportunity to be made aware of young guitarists, and then watch them mature as musicians.   

In 2017 CICGF introduced Cleveland audiences to Hao Yang (China). “[She] attended two years ago as a student [and] impressed everyone with the way that she played in the master classes,” Festival founder and artistic director Armin Kelly recalled during an interview that year with this publication. 

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Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival: the Patterson-Sutton Duo (June 4)

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by Mike Telin

The best chamber music performances are the ones where the synergy of the players is so captivating that you simply sit back, relax, and let yourself get lost in the music. Such was the case when the Patterson-Sutton Duo — Kimberly Patterson (cello) and Patrick Sutton (guitar) — made a return visit to the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival on Sunday afternoon, June 4.

With the spring sunshine flowing through the windows of the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall, the Duo led listeners down a path of musical delights drawn from the late 20th and 21st centuries. 

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ENCORE Chamber Music Institute Music & Ideas Festival gets underway

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by Mike Telin

Since June of 2016, young violinists, violists, and cellists have made their way to Northeast Ohio to take part in the ENCORE Chamber Music Institute. Earlier this week, 92 students ages 13 to 26 arrived on the campuses of Gilmour Academy and John Carroll University to participate in either the String Quartet Intensive or the Summer Academy.

Both programs include masterclasses and workshops under the guidance of renowned artists, teachers, and guests. Over the course of three weeks, students will also perform fifteen community concerts as part of ENCORE in Cle and the concluding Blooming Young Artist Concerts.

“The students also have movement classes, morning practice sessions, and lessons in the afternoon,” ENCORE founder and artistic director Jinjoo Cho said during a recent telephone conversation. “It’s a lot to handle, but this is probably the highest-level student pool that we have ever had. They come from all over the world, and it’s very exciting to hear them.”

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ChamberFest Cleveland: Music, literature, nature, and beer!

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by Mike Telin

From the beginning, ChamberFest Cleveland’s programming has centered around creative themes. For season eleven, which runs from June 14 through July 1, the Festival takes on a literary slant with Lightness of Being.

During a recent conversation with Roman Rabinovich and Diana Cohen — two of the Festival’s three artistic directors — Rabinovich said that he has been a fan of Milan Kundera’s 1984 novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being for many years. “It’s rich in ideas that are very deep but also entertaining and timeless. And Kundera is also an amazing writer about music — you can tell he has a deep knowledge of classical music.”

Cohen added that like music, that novel explores every aspect of the human condition with its archetypes of personalities, relationships, politics, war, and culture. “It explores so many different multitudes that we decided to see what we could do with it.”

On Thursday, June 8 at 7:00 pm at Loganberry Books, there will be a panel discussion that will view the novel through its historical context, cultural perspective, and place in modern fiction. Panelists include Dr. James Krukones (Professor of History at John Carroll University), Charles Oberndorf (Local Author and Instructor at University School), and John Sabol (Host of “New Czech Voice of Cleveland” on WHKW 1220 AM and Co-Author of Cleveland Czechs). Students from CIM’s Advanced String Quartet program will give a pop-up performance in the store leading up to the panel. The event is free.

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Click, Click, Click: ChamberFest Cleveland

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by Mike Telin

(This article was originally posted on April 12, 2023)

ChamberFest Cleveland is looking for metronomes! If you have a wind-up metronome, ChamberFest would love to borrow it for this performance of Ligeti’s Poème symphonique on Friday, June 30. Please contact the office at 216-471-8887 or info@chamberfestcleveland.com to arrange a pick-up. All metronomes will be returned to their owners after the festival ends.

There are a few works in the classical repertoire that leave you wondering what is going on. One example that comes to mind is John Cage’s 4’33” where the performers are instructed not to play for the duration of the work’s three movements.

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ChamberFest 2023:
Lightness of Being

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by Mike Telin

From the beginning, ChamberFest Cleveland’s programming has centered around creative themes such as The Big Bang (2012), Crossing Borders (2015), and most recently X (2022). For season eleven, which runs from June 14 through July 1, the Festival takes on a literary slant with Lightness of Being.

During a Zoom conversation with Roman Rabinovich and Diana Cohen — two of the Festival’s three artistic directors — Rabinovich said that he has been a fan of Milan Kundera’s 1984 novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being for many years. “Last summer I reread it, I think for the third time, and it really pulled me in. It’s rich in ideas that are very deep but also entertaining and timeless. And Kundera is also an amazing writer about music — you can tell he has a deep knowledge of classical music.”

Cohen added that like music, that novel explores every aspect of the human condition with its archetypes of personalities, relationships, politics, war, and culture. “It explores so many different multitudes that we decided to see what we could do with it.”

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Local 4 Music Fund’s She Scores: Round Three

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by Mike Telin

When the Institute for Composer Diversity analyzed the 2019-20 seasons of 120 American orchestras, it found that just eight percent of all pieces performed were composed by women. For Amber Rogers, artistic director of the Local 4 Music Fund, that statistic was a call for action. “The idea of concerts featuring female composers isn’t new, but I didn’t see anything quite like this in Cleveland,” Rogers told ClevelandClassical.com’s Stephanie Manning in June of 2021.

On June 2 and 3 at 7:00 pm and June 4 at 4:00 pm at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Hall, She Scores 2023 will feature nineteen compositions by fourteen composers. Emily Laurance will present a pre-concert lecture 45 minutes prior to each free performance. Visit our Concert Listings page for composer names, composition titles, and performers.

“We are adding one piece to the June 3rd concert to honor the late composer Dolores White,” Rogers said during a recent telephone conversation. “Eric Charnofsky met with Dolores’s daughter Dianna and she gave him a couple of scores to pick from. We talked about them and looked at our instrumentation, and Eric and Drew Hosler are doing a piece for saxophone and piano.”

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Orlando Watson to host United in Song at Severance

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by Mike Telin

“I’m working in Pittsburgh now, but I will forever be a Clevelander,” spoken word poet Orlando Watson said in a telephone conversation. “And coming home to partner with The Cleveland Orchestra and to be able to create in that glorious hall that has been around since 1931, is quite an honor.”

On Saturday, May 13 at 2:00 pm at Severance Music Center, Watson will host United In Song. The afternoon of vocal performances celebrates the rich diversity of the Greater Cleveland community. Performing ensembles include the  Humbly Submitted Gospel Chorus, Andy Andino and Voces Hispanas, Tri-C Vocal Arts Academy, The Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus, and ensembles from Cleveland’s immigrant community. The event is free.

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The Girl of the Golden West: A conversation with tenor Limmie Pulliam

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by Mike Telin

Perhaps no seven-year period in history epitomizes the American dream more than that of the California Gold Rush. Between 1848 and 1855 approximately 300,000 people made their way west in search of the fortunes that were there for the taking in the California goldfields.

Giacomo Puccini immortalized that period of U.S. history in his three-act opera, La Fanciulla del West. Based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco, the opera centers around Minnie, the owner of the Polka saloon, her love interest, the bandit Dick Johnson, and the jealous suitor, sheriff Jack Rance.

On Sunday, May 14 at 3:00 pm at Severance Music Center, Franz Welser-Möst will lead the first of three performances of Puccini’s Girl of the Golden West. Sung in Italian with English subtitles, the cast features soprano Emily Magee as Minnie, bass Roman Burdenko as Jack, and tenor Limmie Pulliam as Dick, along with a horde of gold miners. Performances continue at 7:30 pm on Wednesday May 17 and Saturday May 20. Tickets are available online. The opera is presented as part of The Orchestra’s American Dream Festival.

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Alisa Weilerstein talks about FRAGMENTS

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by Mike Telin

When faced with the realities of the pandemic, like many cellists, Alisa Weilerstein found refuge on social media, streaming movements of Bach’s cello suites. “I just want to have a kind of outpouring of music, of thoughts, and everything else,” she told The New York Times in 2020. “Right now all I really want to do is give.”

Little did she know that spending time with her thoughts would eventually lead to the creation of FRAGMENTS. The multi-year project weaves together movements of Bach’s six solo cello suites with 27 newly commissioned works.

On Thursday, May 11 at Severance Music Center Weilerstein will present FRAGMENTS 1, in which Bach’s first cello suite will be combined with selections from the commissioned pieces. The hour-long program is enhanced by theatrical elements including responsive lighting and set designs.

The music will be performed without pause and without printed programs. Following the performance, audiences can attend a post-concert discussion with Weilerstein and the FRAGMENTS creative team. Tickets are available online. The evening is presented as part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s American Dream Festival.

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