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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…]

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…]

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