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Looking forward to the summer season: a conversation with Cleveland Orchestra artistic administrator Ilya Gidalevich

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by Mike Telin

Blossom-Lawn-071115Now that summer is officially upon us, it’s time to locate the picnic basket, fill it with your favorite summer foods, and head to the Cuyahoga National Park with family and friends to enjoy a Cleveland Orchestra concert at Blossom Music Center. And, if anyone in your vehicle is under the age of 18, their seat on the lawn is free.

If you can’t make it to Blossom, the Orchestra has scheduled three early Friday evening concerts in its Summers@Severance series. Special “happy hour” drink prices will be offered one hour prior to each concert on Severance Hall’s front terrace. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early and enjoy the outdoor delights of University Circle.

“As usual the summer season is a mix of musical genres and artists,” Cleveland Orchestra artistic administrator Ilya Gidalevich said during a recent telephone conversation. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: chatting with pianist Roman Rabinovich

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by Mike Telin

RabinovichThe fifth in a series of articles highlighting ChamberFest artists

“ChamberFest is very special,” pianist Roman Rabinovich said during a telephone conversation from Wales, where he was performing three solo recitals. “It’s not a generic festival at all. It has such a warm atmosphere, and such interesting programming. This will be my third Festival, and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Tonight, June 20 at 8:00 pm at Dobama Theatre, Roman Rabinovich will make his first 2016 ChamberFest Cleveland appearance during “Movie Night” when he teams up with pianists Marat Portan and Orion Weiss for some comical and lighter works, including Sousa marches and a piece for piano six-hands. [Read more…]

ENCORE Chamber Music: Calidore Quartet to make their Cleveland debut on June 25

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by Mike Telin

Calidore-Quartet2016 has been a good year at the office for the young Calidore String Quartet. In February they won England’s Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, becoming the first North American ensemble to receive the £20,000 award in the foundation’s history. During May, violinists Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, violist Jeremy Berry, and cellist Estelle Choi made their Carnegie Hall debut, and won the $100,000 grand prize at the inaugural M-Prize Chamber Music Competition.

On Saturday, June 25 at 8:00 pm at Our Lady Chapel on the campus of Gilmour Academy, the Calidore String Quartet will make their Cleveland area debut as part of ENCORE Chamber Music’s “Virtuoso Series.” Their program titled “Forbidden Voices: Censorship and Propaganda of WWII” will include music by Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Felix Mendelssohn. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland:
meet pianist Matan Porat

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by Mike Telin

The fourth in a series of articles highlighting ChamberFest artists

Porat-Matan“The first time I improvised to a silent film I was frightened because I didn’t know if I could,” pianist-composer Matan Porat recalled during a Skype conversation from his home in Berlin. “And I picked the hardest movie there is, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis from 1927 — which is quite long.”

On Monday, June 20 at 8:00 pm at Dobama Theater, the Israeli-born pianist will share his improvisational skills during ChamberFest Cleveland’s “Movie Night” screening of the 1928 Buster Keaton silent film Steamboat Bill, Jr. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: a chat with mezzo-soprano Marjorie Maltais

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by Mike Telin

MaltaisThe third in a series of articles highlighting ChamberFest artists

Musical inspiration can be found in many forms, from the literary —  revolving around stories including the profane and the divine — to the spinning of dreams. For the 2016 edition of ChamberFest Cleveland, running from June 15 through July 2, the twelve concerts presented under the theme Tales & Legends will take listeners on journeys that will explore the fantastical, the mystical, and the obsessive.

This year’s Festival programs will feature many programmatic firsts, one of which is the inclusion of vocal music — and there’s no better way to tell a story than through words set to music.

When mezzo-soprano Lauren Eberwein was forced to withdraw for health reasons, ChamberFest was fortunate to be able to secure the services of the young Canadian mezzo Marjorie Maltais. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: meeting up with accordionist-composer Merima Ključo

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by Mike Telin

KljucoThe second in a series of articles highlighting ChamberFest artists

In October of 2015, the extraordinary accordionist and composer Merima Ključo mesmerized audiences at the Cleveland Museum of Art during the performance of her composition The Sarajevo Haggadah: Music of the Book.

On Thursday, June 16 at 8:00 pm in Mixon Hall, Ključo returns to Northeast Ohio for the first of four performances presented as part of the 2016 edition of ChamberFest Cleveland. The concert, titled “Schumann Fantasies,” will include works by Robert Schumann and György Kurtág, as well as three movements from Stephen Coxe’s A Book of Dreams for accordion, piano, and percussion. A pre-concert talk by festival speaker Patrick Castillo will begin at 7:15.

“Everywhere I go, people are surprised by what the accordion is capable of doing. [Read more…]

FiveOne Experimental Orchestra to partner with Ensemble Theatre

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by Mike Telin

51XOEnsembleTheatreCreating mutually beneficial partnerships is the key to survival for arts organizations. As a result of seed grants from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, FiveOne Experimental Orchestra (51XO) and Ensemble Theatre have formed a strategic partnership that will allow both organizations to better serve their community-building goals.

The partnership will be celebrated at Ensemble Theater on April 8 and 9 at 7:30 pm when 51XO presents “Art Music in the Dark.” The program will feature classical musical works, all of which have been composed since 2010, accompanied by projected video art, largely manipulated in real time using iPad apps. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: conversations with English hornist Robert Walters and composer Bernard Rands

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by Mike Telin

WALTERS-RobertWhen Robert Walters performs the world premiere of Bernard Rands’ Concerto for English Horn with The Cleveland Orchestra on Friday, November 27 in Severance Hall, it will bring to fruition a composer-performer collaboration whose roots go back more than two decades.

The 8:00 pm concert, under the direction of Lionel Bringuier, will also feature Claude Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. The program will be repeated on Saturday, November 28 at 8:00 pm, and Sunday, November 29 at 3:00 pm. [Read more…]

Iron Composer returns to Baldwin Wallace: a conversation with director Joe Drew

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by Mike Telin

Joe-Drew-2On Friday, September 4 at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, the creativity of five composers will be tested when they have five hours to write a brand new piece of music in order to win the coveted titled of Iron Composer. Competition director Joe Drew said that this years contestants are all accomplished composers and college-level teachers whose musical styles are quite varied. “We try to select as diverse a group as possible. We are putting on a show, and it wouldn’t work if we had a group of composers who all write in similar styles, or who would all have a similar response to the stimulus of the challenge.”

What is that challenge? On Friday at 9:00 am in the Chamber Hall, the five finalists will be assigned an instrumentation and a secret musical ingredient that must be incorporated into their work. Past challenges have paired piano trio with a Monet painting, pipe organ with 19th-century music boxes, and brass trio with audience participation. After five hours, the composers must submit a score and parts for their finished piece. Their work will be performed and judged during a free public concert at 8 pm in Gamble Auditorium. Following the performance, prizes will be awarded, and the title of Iron Composer will be bestowed.

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra Celebrates 90th Birthday of Pierre Boulez: a conversation with Principal Keyboardist Joela Jones

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by Mike Telin

BOULEZ-Pierre“His personality is a tremendous contrast, because he seems so serious and intellectual, and of course he’s probably the person with the highest IQ that I ever met. Yet, he has this whimsical and humorous personality behind it.”

The person Cleveland Orchestra principal keyboardist Joela Jones is referring to is none other than Pierre Boulez. “To me it’s amazing that somebody who is so great, so brilliant, and so gifted, could also be so humble and modest. He just makes you feel so comfortable, like you are his equal, which of course you’re not. And, if you have enough intelligence you know that.” [Read more…]

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