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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…]

Les Délices conjures Arcadia in high quality (Oct. 20)

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by Stephanie Manning

Arcadia: that mythological Eden, that utopian natural paradise. The members of Italy’s Arcadian Academy, established in the late 17th century, aimed to replicate that pastoral life via the arts. And on October 20, Les Délices sought to do the same, by performing the music of composers from the Academy and beyond.

“Arcadian Dreams,” a program featuring soprano Hannah De Priest, gave the Harkness Chapel audience a taste of the early music group’s next recording. In fact, the musicians were gearing up to get in the studio the very next day — and they delivered a suitably high-quality performance in the process. [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, October 30, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

We’re halfway through the week, with two concerts to celebrate. At 12:00 noon, hear organist Shane Brandes perform at Trinity Lutheran Church for Music Near the Market.

Or, at 6:00, hear students from the CIM Guitar Studio perform at the Cleveland Museum of Art (pictured). This free concert takes place in Gallery 212, Baroque Painting and Sculpture.

For more information, visit our Concert Listings.

ANOTHER NEW DISCOVERY:

First Mozart, now Chopin — it’s been a big year for unearthing music by long-dead composers. That’s right — a previously unknown waltz by Frédéric Chopin has emerged from the collection at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. The brief, though complete, manuscript is said to be from when the composer is in his early 20s. Read more about it and hear a performance from the pianist Lang Lang here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Daniel Hathaway

On this date in 1864, American music patroness and composer Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge was born in Chicago. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, October 28, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

Leading up to Halloween, things are relatively calmer, but there are still plenty of options. It’s a big week for new music, with The Cleveland Orchestra welcoming composer/conductor Tan Dun (pictured) on Thursday and Saturday, and the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra performing an all-modern program on Saturday.

It’s also a good week for jazz, with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra teaming up with Sean Jones on Friday and the BW Jazz Ensemble playing on Thursday.

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

NEWS BRIEFS:

Some Cleveland arts organizations were praised in a recent report from SMU DataArts, which looked at how arts agencies helped their local communities during the pandemic. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony traverses the cosmos in “The Planets” (Oct. 19)

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by Stephanie Manning

Just before the Akron Symphony began their October 19 concert with Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question, the audience was suddenly presented with a question of their own. Why were the musicians leaving the stage right after tuning?

Although bemused clapping and laughter followed, this conundrum luckily had an easy answer. Ives specifies that the string orchestra be hidden, which left only the four flute players and conductor Christopher Wilkins visible. So E.J. Thomas Hall darkened even further, leaving only the music stand lights and the haze diffused from backstage. In other words, it was an auspicious start to a concert with some deep ideas about the cosmos. [Read more…]

Quince Ensemble at CIM: patience pays off (Oct. 16)

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by Stephanie Manning

The Quince Ensemble doesn’t specialize in instant gratification. The vocal quartet likes “slow music,” as soprano Amanda DeBoer Bartlett has explained in interviews, and she repeated that sentiment onstage on October 16. “Not slow in tempo, but slow in development.”

That ethos can also form the arc of entire programs, as Quince demonstrated to its audience at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Before the concert in Mixon Hall reached its apex with Courtney Bryan’s Requiem, the quartet built up to the finale by demonstrating just what their voices can do.
[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, October 23, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:00 noon, hear organist Robert Myers perform reformation music” by J.S. Bach, Buxtehude, Kaufmann, and more at Trinity Lutheran Church. As always, the Music Near the Market series is free.

And tonight at 7:00 pm, hear some chamber music at the Cleveland Museum of Art from the young musicians of Stars in the Classics (pictured). “An Enchanted Program” is themed around the Halloween season. This free performance takes place in the Ames Family Atrium.

For more information, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Ohio Light Opera has unveiled the six shows on their summer 2025 calendar: Carousel, Brigadoon, Tip-Toes, Patience, Bittersweet, and The Cousin from Batavia. The performances will run from June 14 to August 3 at the College of Wooster. Check out the calendar and learn more about the shows here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Daniel Hathaway

Russian choral director and composer Alexander Andreyevich Archangelsky was born on (or near) this date in 1846. A niche figure in the greater stream of Russian music, he mainly wrote Russian Orthodox Church music, including an All Night Vigil and masses, and led a choir that made successful tours of Russia and Europe, eventually transitioning from all-male voices to male and female singers. [Read more…]

Jorge Caballero tries something new for the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society

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by Stephanie Manning

Playing an entire symphony on classical guitar? It’s more possible than you’d think. And it’s become second nature for Jorge Caballero, known for performing transcriptions of works like Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

But Caballero’s upcoming program with Cleveland Classical Guitar Society is something a bit different. “For me, it’s somewhat of a departure from what I’ve been doing recently,” he said in a recent interview. True, his setlist at the Maltz Performing Arts Center includes Antonín Dvořák’s entire Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”). But not just because it’s a technical achievement — it’s also part of a broader thematic connection between Black spirituals and Western classical music.

The concert on Saturday, October 26 begins at 7:30 pm, and tickets are available online. And a free prelude event, “Strings of the Spirit,” takes place at Karamu House on Thursday, October 24 at 7:00 pm. Learn more here. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, October 21, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

It’s a rare Monday with some concert options — one each on the west and east side.

At West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society presents the Gropius String Quartet (pictured) in a free program of Mendelssohn, Haydn, and Dvořák. That’s at 7:30 pm. At the same time and across town, Apollo’s Fire continues their run of Brandenburg Concerto concerts at Harkness Chapel. Note that tonight’s performance replaces Brandenburg No. 2 with Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3. Tickets available online.

For more details and to check out what the rest of the week holds, visit our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING READ:

If you keep up with Deutsche Grammophon, you might recognize the name María Dueñas. The Spanish violinist’s debut album, Beethoven and Beyond, made waves in 2023, and her Paganini: 24 Caprices recording arrives next year. The New York Times recently profiled Dueñas, talking with her collaborators about what makes this young musician stand out. She’ll join the Cleveland Orchestra during their Miami residency in January — so maybe we’ll see her at Severance Hall sometime soon? Read the NYT article here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Daniel Hathaway

On October 21, 1896 American composer and conductor Howard Hanson was born in Wahoo, Nebraska, 26 years after its founding by Czech, German, and Scandinavian settlers (and named after the eastern wahoo, a shrub indigenous to the area). [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, October 16, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

Two lunchtime and three evening concerts round out the mid-week.

At 12:00 noon, the “Feel Good Music” group Gruve Tonic entertains Trinity Cathedral as part of their Brownbag Concert Series, while organist Robert Myers plays reformation music at Trinity Lutheran Church’s Music Near the Market.

And tonight, 7:30 pm concerts abound at three local educational institutions. At CIM, the four female vocalists of the Quince Ensemble (pictured) present a variety of contemporary repertoire; at Oberlin, Maurice Cohn leads the Oberlin Orchestra in a program featuring Schoenberg’s Cello Concerto; and Tri-C’s Metropolitan Campus hosts the Amina Figarova Sextet as they join forces with the Matsiko World Orphan Choir, an ensemble of at-risk Liberian children.

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

English-born violist and composer Rebecca Clarke died on this date in 1979 in New Dutch composer-organist Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck died on this date in music history (1621), as did German composer and lutenist Silvius Leopold Weiss (1750). [Read more…]

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