by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1986, French composer Maurice Duruflé (pictured) died in Paris. Appointed titular organist of St-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris in 1929 while he was still Louis Vierne’s assistant at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Duruflé held the post for the rest of his life, eventually sharing it with his wife, Marie-Madeleine.

A severe self-critic, Duruflé wrote only a few pieces which he kept revising, and only played some of them in public. Listen here to his own performance of the Prélude et Fugue sur le nom de Alain, which encodes the name of fellow composer Jehan Alain (Duruflé plays the Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles in 1953).

The most famous of Duruflé’s works is his 1947 Requiem, which reveals his lifelong commitment to Gregorian Chant. Watch a performance by Matthew Robertson and The Thirteen from 2018, recorded at the Church of the Epiphany in Washington, DC, with Jeremy Filsell at the organ. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

June has become summer festival month in Northeast Ohio, and our classical music listings this weekend are either part of ChamberFest Cleveland, the ENCORE Music & Ideas Festival, or the Ohio Light Opera summer season. Here’s what they’re offering, in alphabetical order:

ChamberFest Cleveland continues on Friday, June 13 with “Reflections” at 7:30 at the Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights), and two events on Saturday, June 14: “Rhythm & Clues,” a free, family-friendly concert by the Nate’s World Trio including a scavenger hunt (11 am at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes), and “A Musical Feast” featuring a new work by Errollyn Wallen (pictured, 7:30 at Heights Theater in Cleveland Hts.)

Wallen returns to ChamberFest on Tuesday, June 17 for an afternoon-long series of free “Meet Composer Errollyn Wallen” events beginning with a 2:30 performance of her Remember, Marimba and ending with a 6 pm concert of her works, all at the East Cleveland Public Library. ChamberFest tickets are available online.

On Friday, June 13, ENCORE Music & Ideas Festival will present faculty and guest pianist Shuai Wang in “1, 2, 4, 8…Tango!” and on Saturday, June 14 will host Trio Seoul in “The Ringing of Cimbalom.” On Sunday, ENCORE will present “The Golden Waltz,” with guest pianist Kyu Yeon Kim at  the Maltz Performing Arts Center, Cleveland.) Tickets for all events available online.

On Saturday, June 14, Ohio Light Opera will raise the curtain on its 46th summer season at the College of Wooster with the first of fourteen performances of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel. Five more shows will open this summer through August 3. (7:30 in Freedlander Theater, Wooster. Tickets available online.

For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

NEWS BRIEFS:

Friends of the McGaffin Carillon in University Circle have announced that carillonneur George Leggiero will take its newly-restored and expanded fleet of bells on a test drive on Friday, June 13 at 12:15 Noon in a program of Baroque favorites (view the program here).

“The clavier (pictured) is connected mechanically to the clappers of each of the fifty-one bells, a hand lever for each of the bells, and foot levers for the lowest twenty-five.  The bells have been hung on new framing that brings the smaller bells closer to the clavier. All of this makes for a quieter and more responsive action. The musicians will have an easier time bringing more subtle nuance to their performances.” The announcement notes that live streaming of carillon concerts will resume “at a future date.”

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that, for the first time since 1957 and only the fourth time in its history, the ensemble will play a special summer concert at Cain Park. To be conducted by Anthony Parnther, the 2 pm performance on Wednesday, July 2nd, will celebrate the rich tapestry of American music” with works by Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Margaret Bonds, Florence Price, William Grant Still, and German-American composer Bernard Herrmann. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music, ChamberFest Cleveland opens its 13th summer season with a sold-out concert, “Lost and Found.” Executive director Jessica Peek Sherwood presents the pre-concert festival welcome at 6:30 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music, 11021 East Blvd., Cleveland. Tickets available online.

TODAY’S ALMANAC: 

Composer Richard Strauss was born on this date in 1864 in Munich, as was Polish composer and pianist Alexander Tansmann (in Lodz in 1897), American composer George Frederick McKay (in Harrington, WA in 1899) and American opera composer Carlysle Floyd (in Latta, SC in 1926). The sole departure was French organist and composer Théodore Dubois in Paris in 1924 at the age of 86. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Composer Frederick Delius died on this date in 1934 in Grez-sur-Loing, near Paris, blind and paralyzed by syphilis. His music, a London Times critic wrote, “belongs to no school, follows no tradition and is like no other composer in the form, content or style of his music,” although other commentators have noted the influence of Debussy, Wagner and African American music — which Delius heard in England by the touring Fisk Jubilee Singers and on Florida plantations where he was sent by his father to manage a citrus grove.

Delius’s physical condition toward the end of his life prevented him from personally preserving his legacy as a composer, but the struggling young Yorkshire composer Eric Fenby stepped in and became his amanuensis during the last six years of Delius’s life. That period was captured in the 1968 b/w film Song of Summer, co-written, produced, and directed by Ken Russell for the BBC’s Omnibus series. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway:

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 is the last local opportunity to hear Apollo’s Fire’s Countryside Concert ¡HISPANIA! with music by Diego Ortiz, Gaspar Sanz, and Santiago de Murcia, plus René Schiffer’s Concerto for Two Violas da Gamba. Jeannette Sorrell conducts from the harpsichord at Avon Lake UCC, 32801 Electric Blvd., Avon Lake. Tickets available online.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Violin Channel reports that, following the final rounds in Fort Worth over the weekend, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition awarded its First Prize of $100,000 to 29-year-old pianist Aristo Sham from Hong Kong/China.

Second Prize was won by 30-year-old Vitaly Starikov from Israel/Russia, who received a cash award of $50,000. Third prize was claimed by 26-year-old Evren Ozel from the United States, who will receive $25,000.

Videos of all rounds of the Cliburn Competition are now available on YouTube.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Danish composer Carl Nielsen was born on this date in 1865 in Norre-Lyndelse. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

The Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival gets up to speed for the weekend today at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Click here for details about the numerous events on the docket for this weekend, culminating in the Final Round of the James Stroud Youth Competition on Sunday evening at 6:30.

Jinjoo Cho’s ENCORE Festival of Music and Ideas has events scheduled this weekend in Peninsula, at Gilmour Academy’s Dodero Center in Gates Mills, and Federated Church in Chagrin Falls. Tickets available online.

Margi Griebling Haigh’s opera The Higgler receives its world premieres on Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 3:30 in a production directed by Marla Berg and conducted by Steven Smith, featuring tenor Brian Skoog in the title role at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights. Tickets available online.

Apollo’s Fire repeats its Countryside Concert ¡HISPANIA! on June 6 at 7:30 pm, June 7 at 3:30 and 7:30 pm, and June 8 at 3:00 pm, but better check venue updates here. It’s safe to assume that the indoor performance on June 9 at 7:30 pm at Avon Lake UCC, will proceed as planned. Tickets available online.

On Saturday at 3 pm, Studio Espressivo Sunday Studio Series presents Sounds of the Cinema at Murray Hill Galleries, repeated on June 7 at 8 pm and June 8 at 3 pm. Pay-what-you-wish, suggested donation $15. At 7 pm, Matthew Salvaggio will conduct the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra, featuring hornist Van Parker, in Federated Church, in Chagrin Falls. Freewill offering.

And on Sunday at 3:30, Western Reserve Chorale will perform Dan Forrest’s Jubilate Deo, with chamber orchestra and soloists conducted by David Gilson, at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights. (Freewill offering, concert to be live streamed here.)

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Notable births on June 8 in music history include German composer Robert Schumann in Zwickau (1810), Czech composer Ervin Schulhoff in Prague (1894), and Polish-American pianist Emanuel Ax (1949). [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

R.I.P. Karen Holtkamp, 83

Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc. writes on their website, “It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Karen Elizabeth (McFarlane) Holtkamp in Cleveland on June 3, 2025, at the age of 83 following a two-year battle with cancer.” Read more here.

HAPPENING TODAY:

9:45 am -12:15 pm & 1:30 pm – 4:00 pm – Sixth Annual James Stroud Classical Guitar Youth Competition: Semi-final Round. Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music. Free and open to the public.

7:30 pm – Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Hao Yang, guitar, with Helen Zhibing Huang, soprano (China). Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music.

7:30 pm – Apollo’s Fire. ¡HISPANIA! Countryside Concerts. VENUE CHANGE: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights. Tickets available online. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

A blank date on the performance calendar is an opportunity to look ahead to events later in the week, when the pace begins picking up fast. The Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival and the James Stroud Youth Competition fill up the weekend along with the premiere of Margi Griebling-Haigh’s opera The Higgler, Apollo’s Fire’s Spanish programs, and the beginnings of the ENCORE Festival and ChamberFest Cleveland (note: opening night in Mixon Hall is sold out), to mention only a few. Have a look here.

Or you can hop on to one of several live streams of the 2025 Van Cliburn Piano Competition, now in its final round in Fort Worth, Texas. Click here to choose, and scroll down to learn about some of the innovative video techniques the Cliburn is introducing to bring the contest to worldwide computer screens.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On June 4, 1951, Russian-American conductor Serge Koussevitzky (pictured above with Bernstein and Copland), who led the Boston Symphony for a quarter of a century, died in Boston. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:00 pm, organist Jonathan Moyer presents this week’s program of the Tuesday Noon Organ Plus Concerts. Moyer, who is the Church of the Covenant’s primary organist, is also an assistant professor at Oberlin Conservatory.

If you can’t make it to University Circle in person, you can listen to the live stream here.

INTERESTING READ:

Should the Met stage all their operas in English? Absolutely, argues John McWhorter in a recent New York Times opinion piece. “Many opera fans object to translation on the grounds that composers set the music to the words carefully, according to the accent patterns and vowel colors of the language in question,” he writes. But “opera is better when you can understand it.”

Needless to say, this article has generated plenty of debate in the comments — there are almost 250 of them. Form your own opinion by giving those and McWhorter’s article a read here. [Read more…]