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No Exit opens season with three premieres by Ohio composers

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by Mike Telin

no-exit-group72The inventive new music ensemble No Exit will launch their ninth concert season with a free concert on Saturday, September 23 at 8:00 pm at Heights Arts. Staying true to the ensemble’s mission, the program will feature three premieres by Ohio composers.

“We’ve always had a keen interest and deep commitment to commissioning and premiering new works by composers working and living in our area,” No Exit’s Artistic Director Timothy Beyer said during a telephone conversation. “There are so many artists in our neck of the woods who are creating interesting and worthwhile music. Cleveland — and for that matter, Ohio — has something special going on in this regard.”

The program will be repeated on September 29 at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Hall and on the 30th at SPACES Gallery. Both performances begin at 8:00 pm and are free of charge. [Read more…]

Les Délices begins ninth season with a celebration

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by Mike Telin

LesDelices5Over the past eight years, Les Délices has presented well-researched, thought-provoking, and highly entertaining concerts that explore music and topics of the French Baroque.

During recent seasons the ensemble’s founder and artistic director, Debra Nagy, has created imaginative programs such as A Woman Scorned, which explored universal themes of desire, jealousy, shame, and revenge by giving voice to the spurned lovers of antiquity.

She introduced audiences to the famous pair of viola da gamba players of the 18th century, Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray, during The Angel and the Devil. Nagy’s programs have often highlighted social issues of the time that remain relevant today. We’ve learned that finding ways to circumvent rules has always been a popular pastime. And the ensemble also presented the only area concert in living memory that featured the hurdy-gurdy.

[Read more…]

Around the World to begin third season in downtown Kent

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by Mike Telin

AppalAsiaThe Standing Rock Cultural Arts’ Around the World Music Series kicks off its third season later this week at the North Water Street Gallery, located at 300 North Water Street, Suite H in downtown Kent. “We’re so lucky that audiences have turned out in significant numbers during the past two seasons,” ethnomusicologist and series curator David Badagnani said during a recent conversation. “It’s nice to have a space to present these musicians who people will love, but have never had a chance to hear.” All concerts are preceded by a 7:30 pm meet-and-greet featuring light food and drinks. A donation of $10 at the door is suggested.

On Saturday, September 23, Pittsburgh-based trio, AppalAsia (above) — Mimi Jong, Jeff Berman, and Susan Powers — will explore the intersections between traditional Chinese and American Mountain music, using erhu and zhonghu (Chinese fiddles), lap dulcimer, clawhammer banjo, and voice.

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: a new season of concerts and educational programs

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by Mike Telin

CCGS-Showcase-2017To launch its International Series, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society puts on an annual showcase concert. This year’s edition on Saturday, September 16 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights will feature Jeremy Collins, Stephen Aron, and the Gruca White Ensemble — Robert Gruca, guitar, and Linda White, flute. The event is free, but donations are welcome.

During the concert, CCGS will present three awards: Volunteer of the Year to Simeon Brown, Student of the Year to Damian Goggans, and the Cleveland Guitar Award to Loris Chobanian, honoring an individual who has made a tremendous impact on the classical guitar in the Cleveland community.

[Read more…]

Tuesday Musical celebrates 130th Anniversary: a conversation with composer James Wilding

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by Mike Telin

JamesWildingDuring the year 1887, detective Sherlock Holmes made his first appearance in a novel, Emile Berliner was granted a patent for his Gramophone, Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello premiered at La Scala, and Dvořák wrote his Second Piano Quintet. The year also included the births of Nadia Boulanger, Arthur Rubinstein, and Heitor Villa-Lobos — and marked the birth of Akron’s Tuesday Musical Association.

On Saturday, September 16 at E.J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical will celebrate 130 years as an anchor arts organization in Northeast Ohio in style with “Prelude Party, Concert and Extraordinary Experiences.” The Party, which begins at 5:30, will be followed by a 7:30 concert that will showcase Tuesday Musical’s programs and collaborations. The concert will include performances by the Escher String Quartet, violinist Grace Brown of the Brahms Allegro Junior Music Club, soprano and 2017 Scholarship Competition winner Olivia Boen, and the 2016 Cleveland International Piano Competition Gold Medalist Nikita Mndoyants. Tickets may be purchased for the entire evening or for the concert only. Click here for more information. [Read more…]

Cavani String Quartet to perform at Happy Days in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Part One)

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by Mike Telin

Cavani-June-2017When two longtime members of a string quartet decide to leave the ensemble, the remaining musicians have to ask themselves what to do next.

The Tokyo Quartet elected to disband, but after violist Kirsten Docter and cellist Merry Peckham moved on from the Cavani String Quartet to pursue new professional opportunities, violinists Annie Fullard and Mari Sato decided that the Cavani should live on. “We did ask ourselves that question,” Sato said, “but the quartet repertoire is so rich and we love working with students, so we quickly decided that, yes, we need to move forward.”

On Tuesday, August 22 at 7:00 pm at the Happy Days Lodge in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Cavani Quartet will present their first local performance with new members violist Eric Wong and cellist Si-Yan Li.

“Excitement doesn’t even begin to describe the feeling that I have,” Fullard said, “there are so many emotions that go through you when you make transitions. [Read more…]

Robert Trevino and Behzod Abduraimov to make their Cleveland Orchestra debuts

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by Mike Telin

Trevino-AbduraimovWhen it comes to the symphonies of Tchaikovsky, conductor Robert Trevino believes the composer’s Fifth is perhaps the most perfect in its construction and musical development. “In a way it’s almost the touchstone for his symphonic canon,” Trevino said during a recent interview. On Saturday, August 5 at 8:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, the Fort Worth, Texas native will make his Cleveland Orchestra debut in a concert featuring Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Behzod Abduraimov as soloist, and the Symphony No. 5.

Trevino, who was named Music Director of the Basque National Orchestra in 2016, said that he sees the symphony as part of a continuum that exists in the composer’s last four symphonies. “I think the Fourth, Fifth, the Manfred, and the Sixth are all dealing with fundamentally the same problem, and finding a different way of solving it,” he said, explaining that beginning with the Fourth Symphony the composer enters into a period of ever-present doom.

“I can’t help but feel that comes from his profound isolation, because he lived in a time when homosexuality was not just frowned upon, it was simply not allowed and I imagine that was very difficult for him. [Read more…]

Conductor Vasily Petrenko to make his debut with The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center

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by Mike Telin

Petrenko-Vasily-Mark-McNulty-IMG-Artists“It’s my first time in Wyoming and there’s some spectacular nature — I’m looking at the Teton Mountain from my window now,” the very friendly Vasily Petrenko said as we began our telephone conversation last Friday afternoon. The conductor said he was relaxing before leading the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in a concert later in the evening that would feature works by Brahms and Bartók.  

On Saturday, July 29, at 8:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Petrenko will make his Cleveland Orchestra debut in a concert that includes Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in c with David Fray as soloist, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in e. “I’m really looking forward this concert, and please tell everyone that I want them to come,” the 41-year old St. Petersburg, Russia native said in his ever-present upbeat style.      [Read more…]

Johan Dalene takes first prize at Cooper International Competition

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by Mike Telin

Cooper-Dalene-072117CroppedOn Friday evening, July 21 at Severance Hall, violinist Johan Dalene, 16, from Sweden, was named first place winner in Oberlin’s Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition following his stellar performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra. Two American competitors — Christina Jihee Nam, 14, who also played the Tchaikovsky, and Qing Yu Chen, 17, who was featured in Prokofiev’s Second Concerto — shared second place.

Dalene, who had already captured the Audience Prize of $500 following Wednesday’s Recital Round, takes home $20,000 in cash. Nam and Chen receive $7,500 each. All three were also offered full-tuition scholarships to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, pending admission. [Read more…]

Jasper String Quartet: a conversation with violist Sam Quintal

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by Mike Telin

jasper-6216Since embarking on a professional career in 2006, the Jasper String Quartet has been guided by the philosophy of pursuing projects they are passionate about.

On Tuesday, July 18 at 8:00 pm in Kulas Recital Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory, Credo Chamber Music will present a faculty concert by the Jasper String Quartet, J Freivogel and Sae Chonabayashi, violins, Sam Quintal, viola, and Rachel Henderson Freivogel, cello. The program will include music by Haydn and Brahms and selections from Aaron Jay Kernis’s Quartet No. 3, “River.”

The Ensemble recently performed Kernis’s Third Quartet at London’s Wigmore Hall, one of the work’s co-commissioners. [Read more…]

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