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DIARY: Monday, November 18, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

Coming up, groups are packing in their concerts before next week’s Thanksgiving holiday.

Tomorrow, pianist Simone Dinnerstein visits Tuesday Musical; and from Thursday through Saturday, conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali (pictured) and violinist Stefan Jackiw visit The Cleveland Orchestra.

Other ensembles presenting this week include Les Délices, BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, CUSP, Heights Chamber Orchestra, and more. For more information, visit our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING READ:

Ahead of Santtu-Matias Rouvali’s debut with The Cleveland Orchestra this week, learn more about the Finnish conductor by revisiting this 2022 New York Times profile. Joshua Barone discusses not only Rouvali’s career at the podium, but also his history as a rock percussionist and his dedication to taking care of his farm in rural Finland.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

Today we celebrate the births of Carl Maria von Weber (1786), conductor Eugene Ormandy (1899), and violist/composer Lillian Fuchs (1901). As I scrolled through the list of other musical figures who were born on this day, I was curious to know who many of them were, or are. So today we celebrate the births of three people who were randomly selected from the list. [Read more…]

Cleveland Repertory Orchestra’s season opener contemplates circles of life (Nov. 2)

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by Stephanie Manning

“This moment is full of wonders.” Composer Anna Clyne meditated on those words — written by Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh — as she wrote her orchestral work This Moment. That theme, of learning to cherish life more by reflecting on death, underscored most of the music chosen for the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra’s program on November 2.

The Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Christian Church hosted the season-opening concert, titled “Reflection and Revelations.” The venue’s dry acoustic helped the textures remain clear in Clyne’s piece, a somber and meditative seven minutes. [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, November 13, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

Two options from local conservatories round out this evening at 7:30.

For the CIM Insiders Series, violinist Ilya Kaler and pianist Michelle Bushkova perform works by Szymanowski, Ravel, and Enescu in Mixon Hall. And the Oberlin Historical Performance Department presents a faculty concert from violinist Edwin Huizinga, cellist Rebecca Landell, and fortepianist David Breitman (pictured).

Plus, at 12:00 noon, organist Florence Mustric performs the music of Charles-Marie Widor for Music Near the Market.

For more information, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Changes continue for The Cleveland Orchestra’s concerts at Severance. Stepping in for Franz Welser-Möst, conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali will make his Orchestra debut next week for the performances on November 21, 22, and 23.

He’ll lead a completely new program: Carl Nielsen’s Overture to Maskarade, Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1, and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with violinist Stefan Jackiw. Learn more here.

Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde,” featuring tenor Limmie Pulliam and baritone Iurii Samoilov, will now be performed in the 2025-26 season.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Daniel Hathaway

French organist and composer Louis-Lefébure-Wély was born on this date in Paris in 1817. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, November 11, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

Enjoy some brass quintet repertoire tonight at 7:30 pm, when the Rocky River Chamber Music Society presents Seraph Brass. The free concert from the all-female group (pictured) takes place at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. 

Click here for more information and the livestream link, and here to read our website’s interview with horn player Layan Atieh.

To see what else is in store for this week, visit our Concert Listings.

GRAMMYS HONOR CLEVELANDERS:

The Grammy nominations are out, and with them comes some well-deserved celebrations for people and groups with ties to Northeast Ohio. We’ll compile a complete list soon, but here are the big headlines.

Cleveland producers Erika Brenner and Elaine Martone are both nominated for Producer of the Year, Classical. Martone’s credits this year include four albums with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra, while Brenner worked on two albums from Apollo’s Fire.

Handel: Israel in Egypt, which Brenner produced, is also up for Best Choral Performance. The nomination covers Apollo’s Fire, conductor Jeannette Sorrell, soloists Margaret Carpenter Haigh, Daniel Moody, Molly Netter, Jacob Perry, & Edward Vogel, and Apollo’s Singers.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Mahoning Matters reports that music director Sergey Bogza will leave the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, citing “personal, health, and family reasons.” Bogza leaves the group after only four months, having assumed the post on July 1. Guest conductors Dean Buck and Edward Leonard will lead the YSO performances through the end of the year.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Daniel Hathaway

Never to be forgotten, “The Great War” (to end all wars) ended rather messily with the signing of an armistice at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, having “claimed the lives of 116,000 Americans, through combat, disease and other causes, and killed millions more people around the world.” Read an article in The Washington Post here. The U.S. began marking Veterans Day in 1954, now called Memorial Day.

Never a better opportunity to hear (or re-hear) Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, built around WWI war poetry by Wilfrid Owen. Britten himself conducted this live television performance in August, 1964. The work was written for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral (the old building had been destroyed during German bombing in WWII), and received its first performance on May 30, 1962. Let’s leave it at that.

Discovering the magic of water-inspired music with Tan Dun and the Cleveland Orchestra (Oct. 31)

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This article was originally published on Cleveland.com.

By Stephanie Manning

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The gusty winds that buffeted Severance Music Center on Halloween night seemed an apt complement for music about the elements. Inside, though, the focus was on a different force of nature: water, both literal and figurative.

On the podium was composer-conductor Tan Dun, making his Cleveland Orchestra debut in a program that will be repeated on Saturday, November 2. With the composer himself present, it was only fitting that the ensemble should give the Cleveland premiere of two of his pieces: the Water Concerto and Concerto for Orchestra.

[Read more…]

Jorge Caballero presents concert influenced by Spirituals for the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society (Oct. 26)

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by Stephanie Manning

The theme of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s latest concert season emphasizes the new and different — with plenty of debuts, contemporary works, and creative ways of looking at music. That was the case on October 26 for Jorge Caballero’s program. All three pieces he brought to the Maltz Performing Arts Center were rare to hear, each for different reasons.

Thomas Flippin’s music has become a common appearance on CCGS programs, and the premiere of his Poor Mourner’s Got a Home at Last was certainly welcome. [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, November 6, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

If you need an excuse to escape into the solace of live music today, thankfully there are a few options.

At 12:00 noon, Trinity Cathedral’s BrownBag Series presents “Opera by Day” with Jacqueline Josten and Kira McGirr. At the same time, organist Florence Mustric performs music by Charles-Marie Widor at Music Near the Market.

Tonight at 7:30, The Cleveland Orchestra kicks off their Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle with some new additions: conductor Daniel Reith and pianists Orion Weiss and Sir Stephen Hough. Read more about those personnel changes here; tickets available online.

And at 7:00 pm at Treelawn Music Hall, Piano Cleveland Live@50 presents Daria Rabotkina in collaboration with Yaron Kohlberg.

For more information, visit our Concert Listings.

ISSUE 55 PASSES:

Cuyahoga County’s arts and culture groups have something to celebrate this morning, as Issue 55 passed with almost 70% support. This raise on the cigarette tax provides them a dependable source of funding through 2035. Read more from Ideastream Public Media here. [Read more…]

Seraph Brass visits Rocky River with their newest member

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by Stephanie Manning

Seraph Brass welcomed Layan Atieh as their newest core member two months ago — but it may as well have been a lifetime. “I feel like I’ve known them forever,” Atieh said about her new colleagues in a recent interview. “We spend so much time together, I feel like I know everything about them.”

2024 has been quite the busy year for the French horn player, who graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music shortly before winning her audition to be part of the all-female brass quintet. She also recently moved to Chicago to take up a position with the Civic Orchestra there.

But Atieh can’t stay away from Northeast Ohio for too long — and on Monday, November 11 at 7:30 pm, she’ll perform with Seraph Brass for the Rocky River Chamber Music Society. This free concert will take place at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. More information and the livestream link are available here. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, November 4, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

The first full week of November has arrived. Here’s a taste of what’s in store:

Starting mid-week, The Cleveland Orchestra kicks off their Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle featuring pianist Igor Levit. Oberlin Opera Theatre begins their performances of Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon, and No Exit presents the brass quintet Meridian Arts Ensemble in three different locations around the area.

For more information on these concerts and more, visit our Concert Listings.

NEW ALBUM RELEASES:

Some familiar names appear in the New York Times’ recap of recent classical albums. The first is Igor Levit, who joins The Cleveland Orchestra this week. The pianist’s latest release is the three-hour Brahms, with the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Christian Thielemann — Zachary Woolfe praises Levit’s solos as “elegantly autumnal.” [Read more…]

João Luiz embraces a fresh perspective for his Cleveland solo outing

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by Stephanie Manning

There’s a lot that’s new about the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s next concert, starting with the date. Instead of the usual Saturday, it’s a Friday — November 8, to be exact, at 7:30 pm. And although local audiences have only seen João Luiz as one half of the Brasil Guitar Duo, this time he’ll be taking the stage solo.

That’s just the beginning of the new things that await in the program “Brazil Meets Cuba.” The guitarist’s performance at the Maltz Performing Arts Center is chock full of premieres, all written for Luiz by composers Leo Brouwer, Sergio Assad, and Ronaldo Miranda.

“Those are such important composers for guitar,” Luiz said in a recent interview. “And I’m happy that I’ll be able to do that in Cleveland because I like this place, the Guitar Society, and its people so much. It’s going to be very special.”  [Read more…]

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