The Diary will be on hiatus from December 23 through January 1.

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

It’s the Winter Solstice, the longest night and shortest day of the year. (Left: the sun rises over Stonehenge in England.)

At 7 pm, Arts Renaissance Tremont hosts Burning River Brass — a longstanding tradition — for a holiday pops concert at St. Wendelin Church.

At 7:30, Cleveland Chamber Choir presents a concert centered around David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion, a modern day retelling of the 1845 Hans Christian Andersen story, influenced by Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, at the Cleveland School of the Arts. Read a preview article here.

Also at 7:30, Sarah Hicks presides over a Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concert featuring vocalist Jimmie Herrod, the Orchestra Chorus, the Youth Chorus Chamber Ensemble, and The College of Wooster chorus at Severance music Center.

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

NEWS BYTES:

The Hohens International Piano Competition has released the names of the 51 pianists who will compete in its quarterfinal rounds in Calgary, Alberta. Cleveland piano fans will recognize at least three of them: Maxim Lando, Evren Ozel, and Yuanfan Yang. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Burning River Brass plays its Holiday Pops program at the Bath Church in Akron tonight at 7 pm.

The Cleveland Orchestra’s live-to-picture screening of Disney’s The Muppet Christmas Carol is sold out.

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The annual Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition alternates between pianists and violinists. This year young violinists ages 13-18 will compete in the event, which moves from the summer to January. After the drawing for performance order on January 5, live rounds at the Oberlin Conservatory will begin on Monday, January 6 and conclude with Concerto Finals with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra on Friday, January 10. Each round will be open to the public and will be streamed live.

Click here to view the slate of participants.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

French composer, organist, and harpsichordist Louis Nicholas Clérambault was born on December 19, 1676 in Paris. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

If you feel like making a joyful noise, Trinity Cathedral’s Brownbag Concert Series hosts a Messiah Sing-a-long at 12 Noon.

If you want to admire art and music simultaneously, visit Claude Monet’s Water Lilies (Agapanthus) at the Cleveland Museum of Art at 6:00 pm. The Chamber Music in the Galleries series presents guitarist Craig Slagh, violinists Jenny Cluggish and McKenna Glorioso, and violist Christopher Jenkins in works by Jules Massenet, Erik Satie, Antoine L’Hoyer, and Antonín Dvořák.

And if you were lucky enough to already snag your tickets, the first of two sold-out performances of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Muppet Christmas Carol in Concert (pictured) is tonight at 7:30 pm. Sarah Hicks conducts the complete score live-to-picture.

For more details, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cleveland Institute of Music has announced the honorees for its 2025 Alumni Awards. During next May’s commencement ceremony, the Distinguished Alumni Award will be presented to conductor and violinist John McLaughlin Williams (BM ’97, MM ’97), while the Alumni Achievement Award will be presented to violist and arts administrator Jennifer Arnold (BM ’03, PS ’05).

The institution also reaffirmed that renovations for Kulas Hall remain on track, with an expected grand reopening in fall 2025. Read the full press release here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at Noon at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle, organists Michael Peters & Owen Metz, play Advent chorale settings, French Noëls, and Christmas Carols. Click here for the live stream.

And tonight at 7, the Singers’ Club of Cleveland marks The Longest Night of the Year with a meditative concert at Majestic Hall.

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

IN MEMORIAM ZAKIR HUSSAIN:

The BBC reports that Zakir Hussain, “the legendary tabla virtuoso and global ambassador of Indian classical music who has died aged 73, leaves behind a timeless rhythmic legacy that will inspire generations.

“A child prodigy, he collaborated with Indian classical icons like Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, and Shivkumar Sharma and global musicians like John McLaughlin and George Harrison.” Read the obituary here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Two events that have importantly impacted music history pop up on today’s calendar. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

Happy Monday! Believe it or not, December is now more than halfway over.

As The Cleveland Orchestra takes a break from their holiday programming today, The Rock Orchestra by Candlelight visits Severance Music Center. The 8:00 pm concert features 14 classical musicians in selections from rock and metal music, performed while surrounded by candles.

For more details on this concert and more, visit our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING READ:

Preparing for an opera role is already difficult enough — but for soprano Elza van den Heever (pictured), living with dyslexia makes things much harder. In this recent profile from The New York Times, the South African-born singer discusses the complex process that goes into mastering her roles, including the Empress in Strauss’s Die Frau Ohne Schatten. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Events with multiple performances include The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus, Sara Hicks, conductor & emcee, in holiday concerts (Saturday & Sunday at 2:30 & 7:30 at Severance Music Center), the Cleveland Philharmonic, Victor Liva, conductor (Saturday at 7:30 at CSU & Sunday at 3 at Westlake PAC), CityMusic Cleveland, John McLaughlin Williams, conductor & Sibbi Bernhardsson, violin (Saturday at 7:30 at St. Stanislaus & Sunday at 4:30 at Our Lady of Angels). Note: Apollo’s Fire’s performances of Handel’s Messiah are sold out.

Sunday’s concerts include Candlelight Carols and Singalong (3 pm at Fairmount Presbyterian), Gaudete! bell choir and instrumentalists (4 pm at St. Noel, Willoughby Hills), and NOVA Ensemble (Northwest Ohio Vocal Arts, pictured) in “Songs of Wonder: The Nativity Through the Ages” (7 pm at Church of the Saviour, Cleveland Hts.)

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Cuyahoga Arts & Culture’s Board of Trustees will hold a regular meeting on Wednesday, December 18 on the 2nd floor of the Louis Stokes wing of the downtown Cleveland Public Library. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Oberlin violin professor Sibbi Bernhardsson joins conductor John McLaughlin Williams and  CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra for a 7:30 concert at St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills.

At the same hour, Christopher Wilkins leads  the Akron Symphony in Holiday Pops 2024 in E. J. Thomas Hall and Sara Hicks conducts and emcees a holiday concert by The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus at Severance Music Center.

Note: Apollo’s Fire’s performance of Handel’s Messiah tonight at Trinity Cathedral is sold out.

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING READ:

An article by Zachary Lewis posted yesterday in The Land features 85-year-old Cleveland composer Margaret Brouwer. Click here to read “Margaret Brouwer, Cleveland’s unofficial composer laureate, has no intention of stopping or slowing down.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC by Jarrett Hoffman

Polish-born American violinist Samuel Dushkin, who was born on this date in 1891 in Suwałki, was involved in bringing a number of important works to life, particularly in partnership with Igor Stravinsky during the early 1930s. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight’s 7 pm performance of Handel’s Messiah by Apollo’s Fire at St. Raphael in Bay Village is the only one of its four local presentations for which tickets were still available at press time.

The Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts continue at Severance Music Center tonight at 7:30, and at the same hour, CityMusic Cleveland continues its December Orchestra concerts at Fairmount Presbyterian in Cleveland Heights.

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

NEWS  BRIEFS:

Cleveland.com reports that “Baldwin Wallace University has named Jennifer Hemphill as professor of music theater and music theater director. The university described the hire as the first step in assembling a new leadership team to replace program director Victoria Bussert.”

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced its 45th anniversary concert honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 19. While the concert is free, tickets become available on a first-come, first-served basis on Jan. 4. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

The holidays have officially arrived for The Cleveland Orchestra, which kicks off its 12-performance run of festive concerts tonight at 7:30 pm.

Vocalist Jimmie Herrod (pictured), The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and Blossom Festival Chorus will deliver some holiday cheer, conducted by Sarah Hicks.

Or, for those looking for something different this Wednesday evening, you have two other choices.

Head east to the Cleveland Museum of Art to hear jazz singer-songwriter Magos Herrera and her quartet — or head west to hear the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble play music by Elizabeth Ogonek and Jesse Jones. Both concerts are at 7:30.

For more details, visit our Concert Listings.

THE YEAR’S CONCERT HIGHLIGHTS:

If you heard The Cleveland Orchestra perform Mozart’s The Magic Flute in May, you were lucky enough to witness one of the best classical concerts of 2024, according to the New York Times. Chief critic Zachary Woolfe praised the production’s “fresh, youthful voices” and playing of “elegant transparency.”

Later in the article, Joshua Barone singled out Asmik Grigorian, “one of the fiercest sopranos on the European scene.” We can look forward to her Cleveland Orchestra debut this coming March, when she’ll perform Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs and the final scene from Puccini’s Suor Angelica. [Read more…]