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Oberlin Opera: Field & Larkin on Cimarosa’s ll matrimonio segreto

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by Mike Telin

Domenico Cimarosa’s ll matrimonio segreto (“The Secret Marriage”) was a hit with the public from its premiere at the Imperial Hofburg Theatre in Vienna in 1792. And still today the opera has not lost any of its audience appeal.

On Thursday, March 24 at 8:00 pm at Hall Auditorium, Oberlin Opera Theater will present Cimarosa’s two-act comic opera in a production directed by Jonathon Field, with Christopher Larkin conducting the Oberlin Orchestra. The opera will be sung in Italian with English supertitles. Performances run through Sunday. Tickets are available online.

Larkin has been a regular in the Hall Auditorium pit since 2007 when Field staged Mark Adamo’s Little Women, an opera for which he conducted the premiere in Houston. 

On a recent sunny morning at a popular Oberlin coffee shop, I sat down with Jonathon Field and Christopher Larkin to talk about the opera and the production. This conversation was one of those where you simply turned on the recorder and the two longtime collaborators took it from there.

[Read more…]

Harpist Parker Ramsay brings the Goldberg Variations to Trinity Cathedral

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by Mike Telin

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Aria with Thirty Variations — nicknamed (not by the composer) after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, the harpsichordist who was retained to play them on command for an insomniac patron — have been adapted by performers for many other instruments, most notably for the piano and most famously by Glenn Gould.

Joining a long list of arrangers, Parker Ramsay has transcribed the Variations for the modern pedal harp, an instrument for which he holds a master’s degree from Juilliard, in addition to a degree in history from Cambridge University, plus a master’s in historical performance (organ and harpsichord) and an artist diploma (organ) from Oberlin.

Ramsay returned to his undergraduate haunts to record the Goldbergs in Henry VI’s wonderful chapel at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was the first American to serve as organ scholar. Bach: Goldberg Variations was released in September of 2020 on King’s own label.

On Monday, March 21 at 7:30 pm, Parker Ramsay will perform his arrangement of Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations in a Bach Birthday Concert to benefit Music and Art at Trinity Cathedral. Click here for more information. [Read more…]

Céline Iris & Eddie Henderson to perform at the Bop Stop

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by Mike Telin

Every musician understands the important role that mentors play in their development as an artist.

When Cleveland-based jazz vocalist Céline Iris arrived at Oberlin, she said there was “an immediate connection” between her and the legendary trumpet player and faculty member Eddie Henderson. And while the Seattle native graduated last May with degrees in biology and jazz voice, Iris and her mentor have continued to stay in touch.

“A couple of months ago I said, ‘Eddie, I’d really just love to make some music with you. I don’t care where it is — it could even be in your office.’ And he said, ‘Why don’t we just do a gig?’” Iris recalled during a telephone conversation. “That was amazing, and I thought, absolutely, I will make this happen.”

On Tuesday, March 22 at 8:00 pm at the Bop Stop, Eddie Henderson and Céline Iris will be joined by Billy Hart (drums), Roger Friedman (piano), and Eli Naragon (bass) for an evening of fresh takes on classic jazz standards, as well as repertoire that gives a nod to Henderson’s impressive career. The performance will also be livestreamed on the venue’s Facebook page. Click here for tickets and more information. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Next up —  the Rosamunde String Quartet 

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by Mike Telin

When looking at the biographies of members of the next ensemble to perform on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series, you ask yourself: how do they possibly have the time to take on anything more?

On Tuesday, March 15 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society will present the Rosamunde String Quartet — Noah Bendix-Balgley (1st concertmaster, Berlin Philharmonic), Shanshan Yao (concert violinist and former member of the  New York Philharmonic), Teng Li (principal viola, Los Angeles Philharmonic), and Nathan Vickery (cello, New York. Philharmonic). The program will include works by Beethoven, Barber, and Schubert. Tickets are available online.

Turning on the Zoom camera in Asheville, North Carolina, Bendix-Balgley’s hometown, he and Yao said that their quartet colleagues would soon be arriving to begin rehearsing for their upcoming concerts. “Sometimes scheduling does get a little complicated,” Bendix-Balgley said. “But it always works out,” Yao added. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: Peter Otto discusses Walton’s Violin Concerto

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by Mike Telin

In 1936 British composer William Walton was faced with a decision: should he write a piece for violinist Joseph Szigeti and clarinetist Benny Goodman, or a concerto for Jascha Heifetz? On December 7, 1939 the famed violinist gave the premiere of Walton’s Violin Concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodziński.

On Thursday, March 10 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Peter Otto will perform Walton’s concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst. The program also includes Adès’s The Exterminating Angel Symphony and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5, and will be repeated on Friday at 11:00 am (no Adès) and Saturday at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

During a recent telephone conversation, the first associate concertmaster said he was surprised to discover that he is only the third soloist to perform the work with the orchestra. “I knew it was Heifetz who played the premiere, then it was Nigel Kennedy and now me, which is kind of unbelievable.” 

Unlike many concertos, which have long orchestral openings, this one introduces the soloist at the very beginning. “Here you just dive right in and present the main theme starting in measure two,” Otto said. “That’s something I really like — and to boot, it’s one of the most beautiful melodies ever written for the violin.”

[Read more…]

No Exit presents David & Jerome in live-processed piano works at the Bop Stop

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by Mike Telin

When composer/pianist Jerome Begin was in need of a pianist for a dance project he was working on, the Cleveland native was faced with a conundrum. “Being a pianist, I have never hired a pianist,” he said during a Zoom call.

After speaking to a number of acquaintances asking for recommendations, he decided to contact David Friend. “Jerome sent along some of the pieces and we set a time to meet at Juilliard where he teaches,” Friend recalled during that zoom conversation. “We played through some of the music and immediately everything felt great. And it’s continued to be a really good partnership.”

On Thursday, March 10 at the Bop Stop, David and Jerome will perform Post, a 50-minute set of pieces for solo piano with live processing that explore a different way of creating an uncanny valley-esque reality where human, acoustic and electronic- processed elements interact and overlap in hard-to-define, disorienting ways. The event, presented by No Exit, is free. [Read more…]

Orli Shaham: pianist, educator, curator, radio host, and mother

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by Mike Telin

“I’ve been on kind of a crusade to get the Schumann Concerto programmed as much as possible,” pianist Orli Shaham said during a telephone conversation. It’s a piece that I absolutely adore.” Although she performed the piece many times early in her career, she said that for many years orchestras were not interested in programming the concerto. “Just before the pandemic I was finally scheduled to play it and sure enough, that concert was canceled.”

Lucky for her, that concert was moved to this season, “so I had my chance to play it this past fall.” On Thursday, March 10 at 7:30 pm in Stambaugh Auditorium, Shaham will have another opportunity to play Schumann’s Concerto when she joins the   Youngstown Symphony Orchestra under the direction of André Raphel. The program also includes  Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra: musical magic from start to finish (Feb. 20)

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by Mike Telin

Over the years, audiences have had the privilege of hearing many outstanding performances by winners of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra’s annual concerto competition. But on Sunday, February 20, the sizable crowd at Severance Music Center witnessed nothing short of musical magic during Dasara Beta’s brilliant performance of Alexander Arutiunian’s Trumpet Concerto.

Playing with an unblemished, focused sound, the Rocky River High School senior embodied the concerto’s musical intricacies, beautifully capturing the soul of the Armenian folk-inspired melodies. His instinctive sense of meter served him well during the work’s numerous complex rhythmic and technical passages. The slower, muted section was thoroughly romantic and the long cadenza totally thrilling. [Read more…]

DIARY: Friday, March 4, 2022

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by Mike Telin

In today’s issue:

  • Concerts by carillonneur George Leggiero, The Cleveland Orchestra, Oberlin Orchestra, and Quire Cleveland.
  • Herbert Blomsted discusses the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
  • The Cleveland Orchestra debuts the next installment of their In Focus series, DANCECleveland  performance to feature pianist Simone Dinnerstein, and Anna Netrebko will not appear at the Metropolitan Opera this season or next.
  • Almanac: We celebrate the births of Antonio Vivaldi and MarioDavidovsky.

FRIDAY’S CONCERTS:

At 12:15 pm carillonneur George Leggiero performs a McGaffin Carillon Concert and Live Stream in support of the People of Ukraine. The concert is one of many from the 680 carillons worldwide this weekend. [Read more…]

Duo Noire to make Cleveland Classical Guitar Society Debut

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by Mike Telin

Although they wouldn’t meet for some time, Thomas Flippin and Christopher Mallett long shared a musical trajectory.

They both grew up in Southern California and were steeped in their local punk rock scenes, playing in bands during high school. They both found their way to the classical guitar in their late teens. They both did their undergraduate studies in the Midwest — Flippin at the University of Chicago and Mallett at Oberlin Conservatory — and they both went on to study at Yale University, becoming the first two African American guitarists to be admitted into the program. Yale was also where they formed Duo Noire, taking the name of the French term for both “black” and “quarter note.”

On Saturday, March 5 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society will present Duo Noire in a program that explores the many ways music expresses the essence of place. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

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