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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…]

DIARY: Monday, October 14, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

On this rainy, gloomy Monday with no events on the horizon, let’s do a rundown of some bright spots in this otherwise-packed week. The Cleveland Chamber Music Society hosts the Imani Winds and Michelle Cann, while CIM presents the Quince Ensemble. The season continues for Les Délices and begins for No Exit and Apollo’s Fire, and The Cleveland Orchestra puts on a massive performance of Mahler 3.

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

IN MEMORIAM:

The Grammy-winning classical music producer Adam Abeshouse (pictured) passed away on Thursday. The 63-year-old was diagnosed with bile duct cancer last spring. As his condition recently worsened, NPR reported on an at-home farewell concert organized by some of his closest collaborators. Quoted from that article:

“What he said to us before we saw him last is a reflection of how he is selfless,” said violinist Nick Kendall. “Before we left, he said, ‘Boys, just continue listening to each other.’ That hit us huge, and will always live with us.”

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Astral Artists — the Philly-based arts group that represents a number of young, up-and-coming musicians — will soon shut down. The board cited unstable finances as one of the primary reasons for the decision. [Read more…]

Caleb Hudson pushes his limits in upcoming Apollo’s Fire concerts

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by Stephanie Manning

For trumpet player Caleb Hudson, practicing J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 can feel like training for the Olympics.

“You kind of have to clear your schedule in terms of your repertoire,” Hudson said in a recent interview. “Not only does it take a lot of time to develop that endurance, but it’s just such a specialized piece that requires so much energy — it’s so nerve wracking.”

But Hudson loves the challenge, and Brandenburg No. 2 has become one of his signature pieces. The trumpeter has performed it with orchestras around the country and during the decade he spent as a member of the Canadian Brass. And he’s once again putting his Olympic training plan in action, as he gears up to perform the work with Apollo’s Fire on October 18, 19, 20, and 22. [Read more…]

Recording review: Poiesis Quartet fearlessly forges something new (Bright Shiny Things)

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by Stephanie Manning

Creating something new can come with a lot of expectations. Founding an ensemble. Releasing a debut album. Recording a world premiere, or two. But whatever you might expect from the Poiesis Quartet, they want you to take them exactly as they are.

It might sound like quite the proclamation for the young string quartet, founded two years ago at Oberlin Conservatory by violinists Sarah Ma and Max Ball, violist Jasper de Boor, and cellist Drew Dansby. But their debut recording, as we are — to be released on October 18 — sees the four players completely confident in themselves and the music they’re performing.

The name “Poiesis,” from the ancient Greek ποιεῖν, refers to this act of making what has never been made before. Accordingly, the two pieces on the album are each world premiere recordings (though each have had multiple live performances). Both works also have strong ties to Northeast Ohio, with one by Baldwin Wallace composer-in-residence Clint Needham and the other by Cleveland Orchestra trombonist Richard Stout. [Read more…]

Daniel Harding leads Cleveland Orchestra in wide-ranging and satisfying symphonic showcase (Oct. 3)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Given that symphonies have been a staple in the orchestral repertoire for 300 years, it would be impossible to cover their entire history in one evening. Even so, the three works on The Cleveland Orchestra’s October 4 program gave listeners a taste of the styles of composers writing in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

Fittingly, the evening opened with music by Franz Joseph Haydn, the “Father of the Symphony.” With 106 symphonies to choose from, the Orchestra selected No. 92, nicknamed “Oxford,” even though it was commissioned by the comte d’Ogny for performance in Paris in 1789. Guest conductor Daniel Harding, who happened to be born and raised in Oxford, led the performance with precision and without unnecessary dramatics.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, October 9, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:00 noon, Trinity Lutheran Church will host organist Florence Mustric again for Music Near the Market. On the Beckerath organ, she will perform a program of “simply perfect” music by composers ranging from Pachelbel to Mendelssohn and Grigny to Demessieux.

For more details, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cleveland Arts Prize awards ceremony (coming up on October 24) will honor composer Clint Needham with the Mid-Career Artist Prize. Needham (pictured) is a professor of composition and the current composer-in-residence at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. His latest work, Mustang Gallop, will be premiered at BW on Friday by the Strongsville Community Band. Read more about the Arts Prize here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Daniel Hathaway

Meet, if you haven’t already, two composers with Cleveland connections who were born on October 9 in 1869 and 1922 respectively.

Hearing a performance of Tannhäuser at the age of 18 inspired Cleveland-born Henry Lawrence Freeman to compose opera, and by his death in 1954, he had written scores for at least 23 titles, 21 of which are preserved in manuscript at Columbia University. He also founded two opera companies — one at the age of 22 in Denver that bore his name, and the Negro Grand Opera in 1920 in New York. The Martyr — the first opera to be produced by an all-black company, was staged in Chicago in 1893 and in Cleveland in 1894. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, October 7, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING FORWARD:

This week, BW Opera returns with Handel’s Radamisto, Severance Music Center welcomes the CIM Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen leads The Cleveland Orchestra in his own Cello Concerto, Heights Chamber Orchestra opens their season, and more.

For more details, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The ensemble Silkroad and its artistic director Rhiannon Giddens have announced an upcoming album (pictured) and podcast as part of the group’s “American Railroad” Project. Learn more here.

The album, which drops November 15, includes new arrangements of songs by Haruka Fujii, Maeve Gilcrest, and Pura Fé, who audiences may remember from Silkroad’s Oberlin concert in April. Giddens, an Oberlin graduate, succeeded the artistic director position from Yo-Yo Ma, who happens to be celebrated below in today’s almanac.

INTERESTING READ:

“Yes, Listening to Music is Therapy,” Daniel J. Levitin writes for The Walrus. The article — adapted from his recent book — highlights the creative connections between scientific and musical fields, and how music’s ability to mentally transport us somewhere is actually healing. Read it here. [Read more…]

Music gives voice to the unspoken in Two Remain (Sept. 26)

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by Stephanie Manning

“For some melodies, there are no words.”

More than just an inner monologue, this lyric from Jake Heggie’s Two Remain is really the thesis of the entire opera.

Telling the stories of two Auschwitz survivors through music is no easy task. But Heggie’s work approaches the subject with sensitivity and lyricism — as did the cast and crew of the Nightingale Opera Theatre on September 28.

After performances in Australia this summer, the production came to Cleveland for a one-night-only performance at Congregation Mishkan Or in Beachwood. [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, October 2, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

If you’re free around lunchtime today, you’re in luck, with two musical offerings at 12:00 noon.

At Trinity Cathedral’s Brownbag Concert Series, hear from the Cleveland Institute of Music Guitar Studio of Jason Vieaux. Or, venture slightly west to Ohio City and another Trinity — Trinity Lutheran Church — for Music Near the Market. Organist Florence Mustric (pictured) will perform “simply perfect” music by composers ranging from Pachelbel to Mendelssohn and Grigny to Demessieux.

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

TODAY’s ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

Composer, keyboardist, and choral director R. Nathaniel Dett, a champion of the use of African American folk songs and spirituals in composing for the concert stage, died of a heart attack in Battle Creek, Michigan on this date in 1943. He was on tour with a Women’s Army Corps chorus of the United Service Organization, having joined the USO as a choral advisor to support American troops during World War II. [Read more…]

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