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“Fresh Perspectives” lives up to its name (Nov. 2)

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by Mike Telin

Walking into the Lab Studios by Glo, around 6:45 pm on Friday, November 2, I was met with a large crowd standing just inside the door listening attentively to poetry being recited from an adjoining, grotto-like space. Attractive art decorated the walls and a makeshift bar was set up in a kitchen area, while high-top tables held snacks. An area for a DJ was located against the back wall adjacent to a white stage area that resembled an in-ground pool turned on its side. It was clear from the get go that the evening was not going to be an ordinary classical music concert presented in an alternative space — this was going to be a happening. [Read more…]

Oberlin Opera Theater presents
“A Salute to Leonard Bernstein”

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by Mike Telin

When Leonard Bernstein wrote his one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti in 1951, Harry Truman was president, unemployment was at 3.3%, and new roads were built to accommodate the increasing numbers of cars. A gallon of gas cost 19 cents, a loaf of bread 16 cents, and a dozen eggs 24 cents. I Love Lucy debuted on television, Disney’s Alice in Wonderland was released in movie theaters, and, the American Dream could only be achieved by moving to the suburbs.

This week, Oberlin Opera Theater will celebrate the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein with a tribute that includes Trouble in Tahiti along with music from his hit Broadway shows West Side Story, Candide, On the Town, and Wonderful Town. Performances take place in Hall Auditorium at 8:00 pm on Wednesday, November 7, Friday, November 9, and Saturday, November 10, and at 2:00 pm on Sunday, November 11. Raphael Jiménez leads the Oberlin Orchestra. Tickets are available online.

“The opera is a social commentary on life in suburbia,” Oberlin Opera Theater Director Jonathon Field said during an interview. Trouble in Tahiti opens with a jazz vocal trio espousing the virtues of living in a little white house in places such as Scarsdale, Highland Park, and Shaker Heights. “They’re singing about what was supposed to be the good life and all the things you were supposed to strive for. But Sam and Dinah discover that in reality, the idyllic 1950s suburban life in America is not all it’s cracked up to be.” [Read more…]

BW Opera delivers powerful staging of Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied (Oct. 19)

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by Mike Telin

After serving their country, many veterans are faced with multiple challenges as they re-adjust to civilian life. At the top of that list is reconnecting with and re-establishing a role in the family. These issues were brought to the forefront on Friday, October 19 when Baldwin Wallace Opera presented the Midwest premiere of Tom Cipullo’s two-act, 77-minute chamber opera Glory Denied at Red Space in Cleveland. [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society welcomes the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

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by Mike Telin

When the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet last appeared in Cleveland in March of 2015, that occasion coincided with the release of their CD New Renaissance. When John Dearman, Matthew Greif, William Kanengiser, and Scott Tennant return to the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series on Saturday, November 3 at 7:30 pm at First Unitarian Church of Cleveland, there won’t be a new album, but you can hear the new work that Pat Metheny wrote for them. Tickets are available online.

“We met Pat at a guitar festival in Montana about four years ago,” Kanengiser said during a recent telephone conversation. “Unbeknownst to us, he was a closet LAGQ fan, which was a shock and an honor because we idolize him. He said, ‘Hey, I might write a piece for you guys,’ and we said that would be awesome.”  

As it is with busy people, Kanengiser said the Quartet did not hear from Metheny for a while — until an email arrived from him saying that he was indeed going to write that piece. Although the LAGQ members expected to receive a 10- to 12-minute work, a month later the composer/guitarist contacted them saying he had sketched out a 6-movement, 25-minute piece.  

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: Kirill Gerstein talks about Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto  

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by Mike Telin

“I’ve been looking forward to this concert,” pianist Kirill Gerstein said by telephone from his home in Berlin. “This was the piece with which I met The Cleveland Orchestra for the first time at Blossom, and it’s very nice to return with this wonderful concerto and to play it in Severance Hall.”

On Thursday, November 1 at 7:30 pm, Gerstein will perform Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Matthias Pintscher. The concert also includes the complete ballet suite from Béla Bartók’s The Wooden Prince. The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Gerstein called the concerto “amazing” and said that while it is famous for its melodic beauty and technical difficulty, its structural inventiveness is often overlooked. “It is incredibly virtuosic, beautiful for the ear, and exciting. But one of the difficulties is that the soloist plays the entire time. There’s also something about needing to play much of it wrapped in what I would call aristocratic elegance, so it’s not just brutal force. While you’re doing all of these challenging things, it still needs to sound elegant.”

[Read more…]

Fresh Perspectives launches November 2: a new approach to curating concerts

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by Mike Telin

When I called Devin Hinzo at our appointed time we exchanged hellos: “I was just working on staging a dance for next week’s concert,” he told me. The thing is, Devin Hinzo is an oboist. But he’s also a person who likes all kinds of artistic disciplines and enjoys discovering ways for those disciplines to work together.

On Friday, November 2 Hinzo will launch his Fresh Perspectives series with a program titled “Then & Now: the evolution of tradition, at Lab Studios by Glo, a 5,000-square foot warehouse space in Cleveland’s Superior Arts District. The Art Gallery opens at 6:30 pm with dj white rims. The program, “Then & Now: the evolution of tradition,” featuring music for solo instrument + electronics including a new collaborative work for oboe, hip-hop dancer, and laptop begins at 7:30 pm. For more information visit the Fresh Perspectives Facebook page. A donation of $5 is suggested. RSVP here.

The evening will feature works by composers Brian Raphael Nabors, Elizabeth Hoffman, Carolina Heredia, Ivonne Paredes and J.S. Bach. Performers include Hinzo, hip-hop dancer Ron’dale Simpson, flutist Brittany Trotter, cellist Kellen Degnan, percussionist Torrell Moss, and violinist Julian Maddox. [Read more…]

Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project announces CUSP Concert Series

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by Mike Telin

With the debut of its highly successful Re:Sound New & Experimental Music Festival behind them, the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project sets its sights on a new endeavor: the free CUSP Concert Series. The inaugural event will be held on Sunday, November 4 at 7:30 pm at the Bop Stop.

“From the beginning we wanted to produce a concert series,” CUSP artistic director Sophie Benn said during a telephone conversation. “The lineup of artists is great, and we are so excited to share this music with the Cleveland community. We want CUSP to engage the community in different ways and this series is another way to do that.”

The concert will feature Nebraska-based tubist, composer, and audio engineer Aaron Hynds, who will perform his own project, Transformer, a large-scale, evolving work for tuba and computer. The work is inspired by the composer’s love of science fiction, and by the realization of the computer as an equal creative entity. [Read more…]

A concert of thought-provoking music at Cleveland State University (Sept. 17)

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by Mike Telin

Music can be a powerful tool for the expression of social discourse. Sometimes it is subtle. Other times it is overt and unapologetic. Such was the case with Andrew Rindfleisch’s American Monster, which received its premiere on September 17 in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University. The concert was presented as part of No Exit’s season-opening series of concerts and CSU’s Cleveland Contemporary Players Artist in Residency Series.

[Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland kicks off fifteenth season this week

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by Mike Telin

Since its founding in 2004, CityMusic Cleveland has been guided by a simple principle: that classical music should be available to all free of charge. Read a history of the ensemble here. This week the traveling chamber orchestra will kick off its fifteenth season with a program titled “A Bounty of Brahms.” Under the direction of Music Director Avner Dorman, the program includes the composer’s Double Concerto featuring a pair of CityMusic favorites, violinist Tessa Lark and cellist Edward Arron, and the Symphony No. 2.

The run begins on Wednesday, October 24 at 7:30 pm at St. Jerome Church in Collinwood, and continues on to Temple Tifereth-Israel in Beachwood (October 25 at 7:30 pm), St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills (October 26 at 7:30 pm), and the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus in Slavic Village (October 27 at 8:00 pm), finishing up at Lakewood Congregational Church on Sunday, October 28 at 5:00 pm. Concerts are free but you’ll want to leave a donation. Click here for further information.

On Sunday, November 4 at 7:00 pm at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, CityMusic will participate in the world premiere of Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard’s OUR VOICES: DEMOCRACY RE:visited. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society to present baritone Holger Falk and pianist Julius Drake

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by Mike Telin

If you don’t know the artistry of Holger Falk, you need to. On Tuesday, October 23 at 7:30 pm at Forest Hills Presbyterian Church, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society will present the German baritone and pianist Julius Drake. Their program will include songs by Schubert, Eisler, Poulenc and Satie. A pre-concert lecture by Eric Charnofsky will begin at 6:30 pm. Tickets are available online.

Equally at home with repertoire of the Baroque masters as with the music of the 21st century, Holger Falk has been described by Opernwelt magazine as “one of the most intellectually and vocally flexible singers on German stages.” He was honored with the German Record Critics Award in 2017 for his recording Hanns Eisler Lieder Vol. 1, the first of a four-album collection of songs by Eisler. In 2016 he received the ECHO Klassik Award for his recording of Erik Satie: Intégrale des Mélodies et Chansons.

Highlights of Falk’s 2018-19 season will include his debut as Jean-Charles in Hans Werner Henze’s Das Floß der Medusa at the Ruhr Triennale, and the world premiere of Michael Wertmüller‘s Diodati.Unendlich at Theater Basel. In addition to the recital in Cleveland, Falk will bring his program to The Frick Collection and The Phillips Collection as well as to Heidelberger Frühling, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Rathauskonzerte Regensburg and Megaron Athens. [Read more…]

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