by Mike Telin
Season thirteen of ChamberFest Cleveland gets under way on Wednesday, June 11 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
The program — “Lost and Found” — features J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Keyboards in C major, Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet, and Michael Stephen Brown’s The Lotos-Eaters (with the composer at the piano). Executive director Jessica Peek Sherwood presents the pre-concert festival welcome at 6:30 pm. Although this concert is sold out, the Festival runs through June 28. Tickets are available online.
I caught up with composer/pianist Michael Stephen Brown on Zoom and began our conversation by asking him if this year would be his second or third visit to ChamberFest.
Michael Stephen Brown: This will be my second, but I’ve known Roman and Diana for a long time, so I look forward to returning. I met them both at the Ravinia Festival, and with Roman being a fellow pianist, we had a lot in common. We became fast friends and loved to play for each other and play four-hand music together. Then he came to Juilliard — I was already there — and we both studied with Robert McDonald.
On Saturday, June 7 at 7:30 pm at Disciples Christian Church, Margi Griebling-Haigh’s tragi-comic chamber opera The Higgler will receive its world premiere, directed by Marla Berg and conducted by Steven Smith.
Not only did James (Zijian) Wei win First Prize at the 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition, he also won four special prizes, one of which was the ChamberFest Cleveland Prize. That prize was awarded for the first time during the 2024 CIPC and was the result of a new partnership between Piano Cleveland and ChamberFest Cleveland.
Big things are happening for the innovative new music ensemble No Exit. In June they will embark on a two-week European tour that will include stops in Greece, Italy, Poland, and the Netherlands.
