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ContempOpera/Cleveland debuts Incubator Series (June 9)

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by Mike Telin

With a mission to “give a voice to the composers of our time,” the latest addition to Northeast Ohio’s opera scene, ContempOpera/Cleveland, presented an impressive first installment of the company’s Incubator Series at Cleveland Public Theatre on Friday, June 9. The evening featured musical selections from five operas, some of them works in progress.

The evening began with two duets from Verlorene Heimat by Dawn L. Sonntag. The piece recounts the true story of East Prussian Nazi resistors and the Jewish-Ukrainian girl they sheltered during the final months of World War II. The haunting “Once I Had a Garden” was beautifully sung by sopranos Rebecca Freshwater and Andrea Anelli. Baritone Brian Keith Johnson joined Freshwater for the hopeful “I Promise I Will Find You.” Sonntag’s musical color palette is enticing, and the three singers gave heartfelt performances. [Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire: “Mediterranean Roots” at Avon Lake UCC (June 11)

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by Daniel Hathaway

AF-MRFor its annual plunge into the non-Baroque, Apollo’s Fire took its early summer audiences on a cultural excursion around the Mediterranean, a journey resembling the travels of Ziryab, a 9th-century African troubadour who was the Johann Gottlieb Goldberg of his era, the favorite oud player for the insomniac kalif of Baghdad.

Ziryab’s musical skills launched his wanderings — he was kicked out of the palace by its jealous regular minstrel — as well as inspiring co-curators Amanda Powell and Brian Kay to gather fifteen songs and dances from Medieval and Renaissance Spain, Cyprus, Italy, and Greece into an engaging program. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Opera: La bohème at the Ohio Theater (June 10)

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by Robert Rollin

TheCleOpBoheme1On Sunday evening, June 10, The Cleveland Opera presented an outstanding production of Puccini’s La bohème at the Ohio Theater in Playhouse Square. An exceptional cast and an exemplary orchestra made for a marvelous evening. Though tragic operas can often be overly melodramatic, Puccini’s sensitively beautiful music elevates the simple story of artists struggling to survive in a Paris to a higher plane. [Read more…]

Lauren Eberwein to make debut at ChamberFest Cleveland

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by Samantha Spaccasi

EberweinFrom the time she was able to speak, Lauren Eberwein sang. “I was the kid in the corner singing her thoughts to herself, or dancing around the playground writing my own musicals in my head, narrating my life through song,” the mezzo-soprano said in an email. Eberwein will be featured in Kurt Weill songs in the first of her three ChamberFest Cleveland programs tonight, June 16, at 6:30 and 8:30 at the Bop Stop. [Read more…]

Melissa Etheridge and Contemporary Youth Orchestra bring laughter and tears to Severance Hall

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by Samantha Spaccasi

CYO-June-2017A flurry of proud parents and enthusiastic Melissa Etheridge fans descended on Severance Hall last Wednesday at 7:30 for her concert with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra. The concert was part of CYO’s annual “Rock the Orchestra” series. Etheridge and the Orchestra played songs spanning the rocker’s entire catalog, ranging from hits like I’m The Only One and lesser-known songs like Kiss Me. After an instrumental introduction led by music director Liza Grossman, Etheridge stormed the stage, then the ensemble launched triumphantly into Fearless Love. [Read more…]

Jupiter Quartet celebrates teaching and playing at ENCORE Chamber Music

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by Samantha Spaccasi

Jupiter-QuartetFor the Jupiter Quartet, returning to Northeast Ohio is like returning home. Cellist Dan McDonough and violinists Meg Freivogel and Nelson Lee attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, and violist Liz Freivogel attended the Oberlin Conservatory. “We all started our careers in the Cleveland area, in a way,” said McDonough in a recent phone conversation. “We got a solid education in chamber music at those schools.”

The Jupiters return to Cleveland for a performance at ENCORE Chamber Music at the Gilmour Academy on June 16 at 7:00 pm. The program includes Beethoven’s Quartets Op. 18, No. 2 and Op. 131, and György Ligeti’s Quartet No. 1, “Metamorphoses Nocturnes.” [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: introducing bassist Xavier Foley

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Xavier-Foleyby Mike Telin

When asked, most musicians are able to pinpoint an event that led them to make the decision to pursue music as a career. For bassist Xavier Foley, it was in 2006 when at eleven years old and in the sixth grade, he shifted his attention away from his teacher Miss King’s discussion of nouns, adverbs, and clauses, in favor of making a bow and arrow out of a paper clip and a rubber band. Click here to watch a video where the Marietta, Georgia native explains all. And yes, it’s quite funny.

Since that fateful day, Foley has gone on to become a First Prize winner in 2014 at the Sphinx Competition and Astral Artists National Auditions, as well as a winner at the 2016 Young Concert Artists Auditions. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: a profile of cellist Oliver Herbert

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by Samantha Spaccasi

Herbert-OliverCellist Oliver Herbert has been busy this year. “I just got back from a three-week tour with the Curtis Orchestra,” he said in a phone interview. The tour spanned the globe, with stops in New York, Finland, the United Kingdom, and Austria. When he wasn’t touring, the San Francisco native was studying full-time at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Herbert also made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, playing Strauss’s Don Quixote.

“I was invited to play four family concerts with the Orchestra,” he said. “They wanted a young soloist because it was appropriate for the occasion. It was fantastic and really special to play with that group.” Oliver wasn’t the only Herbert in the orchestra that night, however: his father, David Herbert, is principal timpanist. “We played together in the same concert.” [Read more…]

The Cleveland Opera: conversations with La Bohème cast members

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by Mike Telin

Boheme-posterArguably one of the most popular operas ever written, Puccini’s La bohéme is third only to Verdi’s La traviata and Bizet’s Carmen in the most-performed-opera-of-all-time category. On Saturday, June 10 at 7:30 pm, The Cleveland Opera will bring the story of those beloved Parisian bohemians to the Ohio Theater in Playhouse Square. Grzegorz Nowak will conduct The Cleveland Opera Orchestra and Chorus. The production will be sung in Italian with English supertitles. [Read more…]

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