by  Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At Noon, Florence Mustric plays J.S. Bach on the von Beckerath organ in Trinity Lutheran Church in Ohio City.

The last session in the Quarter-Final Round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition will take place today at 2 pm in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Music Center, when Yelaman Yernur, Mirabelle Kajenjeri, Giuseppe Guarrera, and Zijian Wei play 35 to 40-minute recitals of works of their choice. Following this session, the jury will announce the four pianists who will advance to the Semi-Finals.

And tonight at 7:30, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s City Stages will present Brazilian singer & multi-instrumentalist Bia Ferriera at Transformer Station.

IN MEMORIAM:

In a New York Times article posted from Berlin, Jeffrey Arlo Brown writes that “Wolfgang Rihm (pictured above), a composer whose forceful, shape-shifting output reinvigorated contemporary classical music, died on Saturday in Ettlingen, Germany. He was 72. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Sessions 3 & 4 of the Quarter-Finals of the Cleveland International Piano Competition will take place today in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Music Center.

At 2 pm, performers include Jacopo Giovannini, Antonio Chen Guang, and Michelle Candotti, and at 7 pm, Leo de Maria, Arisa Onoda, and Maxim Lando will play 35 to 40-minute recitals of works of their choice. Attend in person or watch a live stream (tickets and details here.)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Marc Weagraff, Baldwin Wallace professor of voice and choral studies has been named artistic director of the Master Singers Chorale of Northeast Ohio. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

This is a week full of competitive activity as both the Paris Olympics and the Cleveland International Piano Competition will be running at full tilt.

After preliminary rounds earlier this year in Paris and Berea, the Cleveland competition — now in its 50th year — continues with Quarter-Finals in Reinberger Recital Hall at Severance Music Center. This week, the sixteen remaining pianists will each play 35- to 40-minute programs of pieces they have chosen, “including cherished favorites, bold new works, and repertoire from underrepresented composers.” You can attend the sessions in person (tickets here) or watch a live stream. Read our overview of CIPC here.

INTERESTING READ:

Conductor Leonard Slatkin sat for an interview with the British magazine Gramophone on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Speaking about repertory, among other subjects, in a conversation with Thomas May published on July 16, he said “I’m leaving it to the younger generation to figure out what’s important.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

It’s a busy three days in Northeast Ohio. We’ll organize events by their organizers.

The Cleveland International Piano Competition moves forward with its Grand Piano Playoff on Sunday at 6 at the Hanna Theater, when the sixteen Quarter-Finalists will play transcriptions of 80s and 90s pop songs  (SOLD OUT). Before that, the CIPC Concert Truck will bring portable performances by the competitors to Cleveland City Hall (Friday at Noon) & North Union Farmers Market in Shaker Square (Saturday  at 10).

Stage crews will be busy in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster, changing sets for five of Ohio Light Opera’s six summer shows: The Sound of Music (Friday at 2), The Arcadians (Friday at 7:30), The Gondoliers (Saturday at 2), The Count of Luxembourg (Saturday at 7:30), and Guys and Dolls (Sunday at 2).

Apollo’s Fire “rediscovers” Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and programs stormy Italian arias sung by soprano Amanda Forsythe on Friday at 7:30 in Avon Lake, and at the same hour, a Cleveland Chamber Choir octet celebrates the Queens of England in Oberlin’s Kulas Recital Hall.

The Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra opens for The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom on Saturday at 6. The 7 pm side-by-side concert that follows, led by Hannu Lintu, will feature Mark Kosower in William Walton’s Cello Concerto and the combined orchestras in Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony.

The Akron Symphony plays an outdoor summer concert at Forest Lodge Park on Sunday at 7:30, at the same hour when Oberlin Piano Festival faculty recitalist Carl Cranmer plays indoors in Clonick Hall.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Ohio Light Opera stages two shows today: Me and My Girl at 2 pm, and Guys and Dolls at 7:30 in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster.

At 6 pm, the Canton Symphony’s Summer Serenades brings a string quartet to Beech Creek Botanical Garden in Alliance.

And at 7 pm The Cleveland Orchestra’s Summers at Severance series welcomes conductor Petr Popelka and violinist James Ehnes (pictured) for Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto, César Franck’s Le Chasseur maudit & Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 6. Read our pre-concert interview with Ehnes here.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Akron’s Tuesday Musical writes that all tickets for its 2024-2025 season will go on sale today. Read the announcement here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Organist Robert Myers plays a 12:15 noon recital, “Going Baroque,” on the Rudolph von Beckerath instrument in Trinity Lutheran Church, Ohio City, and The Cleveland International Piano Competition’s Concert Truck visits Wade Oval Wednesdays today at 5:30 with a payload of a baby grand and a selection of 2024 quarter-finalists. Bring a lawn chair and enjoy a free concert.

Ohio Light Opera presents a 2 pm matinee performance of Franz Lehár’s The Count of Luxembourg (pictured) and a 7:30 production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

CATCHING UP WITH GEORGE LI:

Gramophone reviews pianist George Li’s third album, Movements: Schumann, Ravel, Stravinsky.

Early on, Li, who is now 29, dazzled Northeast Ohio audiences by winning the inaugural Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition at the Oberlin Conservatory in 2010 at the age of 14. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

The Cleveland International Piano Competition’s Concert Truck makes an appearance at noon at Edgewater Beach bearing a baby grand and 2024 quarter-finalists Mirabelle Kajenjeri, 26 (France) & Zhu Wang, 27 (China). Bring a lawn chair and enjoy a free concert — which might include some Scarlatti (see the Almanac).

Ohio Light Opera presents a 2 pm matinee performance of The Arcadians in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster, and Oberlin Piano Festival hosts a Guest Faculty Recital by Zhou Ting and Tianying Zhao in Clonick Hall.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1757, Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti (pictured above) died in Madrid. Son of composer Alessandro, Domenico spent most of his career in Spain, producing mainly keyboard works — including the 555 sonatas that have become popular opening works for many piano recitals. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 6 pm today, Piano Cleveland takes the mound at Progressive Field to promote the upcoming Cleveland International Piano Competition with a piano-inspired evening as the Cleveland Guardians take on the Detroit Tigers. CEO Yaron Kohlberg will throw out the first pitch at 6:40 and play “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” live on a piano — a first for the venue. Tickets, available online, include food and drink in the new right field Pennant District.

Come early to hear The Concert Truck perform in Gateway Plaza and catch CIPC contestants jamming out on the piano.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page. [Read more…]