by Timothy Robson
It came as no surprise that the March 1 Severance Hall concert by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra Youth Chorus was an excellent affair. Leading fine performances of music mostly off the beaten track, conductor Vinay Parameswaran helped prove that gloomy predictions of classical music performance fading into oblivion are misplaced. The audience was large and enthusiastic — I suspect with many rightfully proud family members.
by Timothy Robson
Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra celebrated the Valentine’s Day weekend with four performances of “L’Amore: An Old Italian Valentine.” I heard the second concert on the evening of Valentine’s Day itself at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. Apollo’s Fire conductor and harpsichordist Jeannette Sorrell greeted the audience with the adage, “Italian is the language of music, of the angels, and of love.” [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
On Sunday afternoon, February 16, The Cleveland Orchestra accomplished the seemingly impossible feat of performing two concerts simultaneously at different parts of the Cleveland metropolis. One was the final performance of this week’s subscription concert, the other a free community concert at Lakewood Civic Auditorium.
by Timothy Robson
Founded in 1912, the St. Olaf Choir from Northfield, Minnesota, has cultivated an international reputation as one of the best collegiate choirs in the United States. With their long-time conductor Anton Armstrong, the choir made a stop at Severance Hall in Cleveland on February 3 as part of their 100th annual tour that also included Carnegie Hall, Yale University, and the University of Illinois, Urbana. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
Despite predictions of snowy weather, there was a full house and enthusiastic audience at the Bop Stop on Friday evening, January 17, for the latest concert by the Cleveland-based new music group No Exit, collaborating with their Twin Cities counterpart Zeitgeist. The program was concise and wildly varied, with several first performances. Each work contained imaginative soundscapes and alluring musical ideas. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
Washington, D.C.-based choir The Thirteen sang a concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Cleveland on Wednesday evening, October 23, as part of their current tour. The group includes twelve singers, plus director Matthew Robertson, hence his joking suggestion of the hashtag #bakersdozen for social media. The ensemble, founded in 2012, was making its first Cleveland appearance. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
Ars Organi II, a multi-week series of organ recitals and lectures at St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, came to an end last weekend. Audiences had been treated to new music for saxophone and organ with Noa Even and St. Paul’s organ mastermind Karel Paukert, followed by a weekend tribute to the great Austrian organist and pedagogue Anton Heiller, including brilliant recitals by two of his former students, Jay Peterson and Christa Rakich.
by Timothy Robson
Chicago-based organist Jay Peterson, a former student of Anton Heiller (left), continued St. Paul’s Episcopal Church’s Ars Organi II series on Friday night, October 4. The recital was the first in a three-event mini series devoted to Heiller, the great Viennese organist, composer, and pedagogue who lived from 1923 to 1979. A panel discussion about Heiller on Saturday afternoon featured Peterson, Ars Organi mastermind Karel Paukert, and Oberlin Conservatory visiting organ professor Christa Rakich, also a Heiller student, who played a recital on Sunday afternoon. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
Karel Paukert has been an intrepid and fierce advocate for contemporary music in Cleveland for the better part of fifty years. Although he has retired from his position as Curator of Musical Arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art, he continues as the organist and choirmaster at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. Now in his 80s, Paukert is still commissioning and performing new music. His latest venture is Ars organi II, an eight-concert series at St. Paul’s continuing through October 20. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
American organist Kimberly Marshall gave the first of a series of dedicatory recitals on Oberlin’s Fenner Douglass Memorial Organ on Sunday, September 22. An Oberlin alumnus, Douglass was Professor of Organ at the Conservatory from 1949 to 1974. The organ was originally built by Greg Harrold in 1989 for Pacific Lutheran Seminary in Berkeley, California. It was dismantled in 2017 and reinstalled at the rear of Warner Concert Hall in August 2018, where it sits at the opposite end of the room from its Dutch cousin, the large Flentrop organ in the front organ loft. [Read more…]