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Conductor Santtu-Mathias Rouvali wears his heart on his sleeve in Cleveland Orchestra debut

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Change of plans recently led to unexpected opportunities at The Cleveland Orchestra. And so, this week, guest conductor Santtu-Mathias Rouvali seized the moment. With the Mahler “Das Lied von der Erde” program moved to next season, a rare blank slate appeared. Rouvali stepped in on short notice to make his Cleveland debut presenting an impassioned program.

The three pieces performed on Thursday, Nov. 21 — which will be heard again on Nov. 22 and 23 — share a distinctive expressivity, and each represented an introduction of their own.

Carl Nielsen’s Overture to “Maskarade“ set the scene for the Danish composer’s opera, a well-known work in his home county but rarely played elsewhere. Its five minutes include a whirling ballroom waltz, which Rouvali accentuated by coaxing the brass to cut through the texture. The conductor quickly revealed his taste for flourishes, his motions imbued with a fluttery, cursive affect.

[Read more…]

Finding the Joy with Seckou Keita: Senegalese kora player visits the Oberlin Artist Recital Series

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by Stephanie Manning

Reposted with the permission of Oberlin Conservatory

The kora, a West African stringed instrument akin to a harp or guitar, doesn’t appear in most orchestral works. So Seckou Keita wrote his own.

Creating African Rhapsodies — which he released in 2023 with the BBC Concert Orchestra — was an “amazing” endeavor, he says. But his entry into the world of opera later that year was another thing entirely.

“When you have classical music meeting the kora, it’s amazing. But then when you have opera on top of that, it’s something else,” says the UK-based Senegalese musician. “That made me really excited.”

The opera he’s referring to is Omar’s Journey, a shortened version of Rhiannon Giddens’ Omar scored for voices and chamber ensemble. Keita was among the small group of musicians who performed Omar’s Journey at the Ojai Music Festival last year. “It kind of confirmed to me that voice is one of the really pure instruments in life. All those other instruments in the world have been made by humankind — but this, people are born with it,” Keita says.

Keita is no stranger to using his voice either, singing to accompany his playing in much of his solo material. And Oberlin audiences have a chance to experience his music making on December 7 at 7:30 pm, when he performs in Finney Chapel as part of the Artist Recital Series. [Read more…]

CIM Opera: all smiles in L’Étoile (Nov. 17)

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by Stephanie Manning

A black box theater might not be the first-choice location for an opera — but with a clever creative team, a smaller production can still get big results. Audiences at the Westfield Studio Theater on November 17 know this firsthand thanks to the Cleveland Institute of Music Opera Theater’s scaled-down L’Étoile, which came wrapped in a bundle of laughs and topped with a ribbon of genuine heart.

It’s true that the Playhouse Square venue — the CIM company’s temporary home while their primary hall is under construction — wasn’t ideal. Interrupted sightlines, occasional volume disparities, and the lack of a proper curtain simply had to be par for the course. But artistic director JJ Hudson’s choice of a comedic opera, especially one that relies on spoken dialogue and physical comedy as heavily as this one by Emmanuel Chabrier, was the perfect decision. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, November 24, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

This holiday week is, unsurprisingly, pretty quiet. But be on the lookout for the upcoming offerings from the Fryderyk Chopin Institute of Ohio, West Shore Chorale and Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, and Cleveland Pops.

For details on these and more, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Musical America has revealed the 2024 winners of its annual “of the year” awards, which includes some faces familiar to Clevelanders.

Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson (pictured) earned Instrumentalist of the Year. He’s performed with The Cleveland Orchestra on multiple occasions — most recently at Blossom in August — and will return to Severance Hall in February for a duo recital with fellow pianist Yuja Wang.

Barbara Hannigan — who made her Cleveland Orchestra conducting debut in 2023 — was honored as Artist of the Year, while Jake Heggie was named Composer of the Year. Nightingale Opera Theater staged Heggie’s operas If I Were You in 2022 and Two Remain in 2024. Read more about all the winners here.
[Read more…]

Seraph Brass dances through musical travels in Rocky River (Nov. 11)

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by Stephanie Manning

Before Seraph Brass arrived in Ohio on November 11, the group’s fall touring season had taken them on the road to Missouri, Florida, New York, and even Peru. And at the Rocky River Chamber Music Society, they gave the audience a taste of the traveling life right from the first piece.

The “Prelude” from Edvard Greig’s Holberg Suite whisked listeners away to Norway, with a melody surely familiar to many. It was extra familiar to the brass quintet themselves, who launched into their opening number without sheet music. Playing memorized is part of the group’s trademark, and they smoothly alternated using music and no music throughout the evening. Either way, the wide-ranging program had those at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church spellbound.

Trumpet players Mary Elizabeth Bowden and Raquel Samayoa, horn player Layan Atieh, trombonist Lauren Casey-Clyde, and tuba player Robyn Black sounded equally comfortable in Romantic and contemporary repertoire, flipping between both with practiced ease. [Read more…]

Meridian Arts Ensemble cast a wide net at the Bop Stop (Nov. 8)

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by Stephanie Manning

The Meridian Arts Ensemble specialize in the avant garde, but they’re dextrous enough to flip between all kinds of genres. So, what was Joseph Haydn’s Feldpartie — written in 1780 — doing on the program next to George Lewis’ uber-contemporary Tightrope? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

Presented by No Exit, the brass quintet’s November 8 concert at the Bop Stop had something to satisfy fans of modern and traditional music alike. The cheery Feldpartie, appearing just after intermission, balanced out some of the evening’s more thorny works.

Originally written for an outdoor band, this arrangement by trumpet player and group founder Jon Nelson allowed the five players to anchor themselves in a satisfying blend. Nelson, fellow trumpet player Matthew Onstad, horn player Daniel Grabois, trombonist Faustino Díaz Mendez, and tuba player Tom Curry treated the charming mini symphony with love and care. [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, November 20, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:00 noon, both of the usual Wednesday series: Music Near the Market features organist Linda Kempke in music of “Thanksgiving and praise,” while Trinity Cathedral’s Brownbag Concert Series presents the Cleveland State University Chorale and Chorus.

And at 7:30 pm: Ross Karre directs the Oberlin Percussion Group featuring Oberlin College Taiko in Warner Concert Hall, and Todd Phillis leads the CIM Orchestra in works by Caroline Shaw, Benjamin Britten, and Mozart at the Mentor High School Fine Arts Center.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

If you’re already dreaming of warmer weather, you can start planning — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced three of its concerts for the 2025 Blossom season. Multi-hyphenate singer and actress Cynthia Erivo (pictured) joins the Orchestra on July 27, and the group will play live-to-film scores for two movies: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on July 5 & 6, and The Lion King on August 29, 30, & 31.

Tickets go on sale today at 10:00 am for donors and subscribers — click here — and the general public can get tickets starting tomorrow, November 21, at 10:00 am. Read the full press release here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Daniel Hathaway

On November 20, pianist Ruth Laredo made her life debut in Detroit in 1937 as Ruth Meckler, and American composer Orianna Webb was born in Akron in 1974. [Read more…]

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…]

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