by Daniel Hathaway

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Molly Walsh reports on Cleveland.com that The Ohio Arts Council has awarded nearly $182,000 in grants to arts organizations in Lake and Geauga counties as part of a record $23.3 million funding round for the agency.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1612, Italian composer Giovanni Gabrieli died in Venice. He advanced the tradition of polychoral music at the Basilica of San Marco to the point where northern composers like Heinrich Schütz paid extended visits to study with him and take his techniques back home.

These works have provided great material for modern brass ensembles, as you can hear in the 1969 recording The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli, reissued in 1996 and featuring brass players from the Chicago Symphony, and the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that single tickets for the 2025-2026 season will go on sale today for subscribers, donors, and membership club members, and will be available to the general public on Wednesday, August 13 beginning at 10 am. View the announcement here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1873, American composer J. Rosamond Johnson (pictured) was born in Jacksonville, Florida. Trained at the New England Conservatory and in London, he’s best known for his setting of Lift Every Voice and Sing, the poem by his brother, James Weldon Johnson, that has come to be known as the Black National Anthem. During his active career in show business, he produced several Broadway operettas, and edited two volumes of Spirituals in the mid-20s.

Click here to hear three of Johnson’s Spirituals sung by the late Cleveland soprano A. Grace Lee Mims.

And on August 11, 1996, Czech conductor, composer and pianist Rafael Kubelik died in Lucerne, Switzerland. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN MEMORIAM: 

David A. Tidyman, 73, who passed away on August 4, was a significant presence in Cleveland liturgical music for over 45 years as organist, harpsichordist and choral conductor. He was Music Director at Parma Lutheran and Rocky River Presbyterian early in his career. Appointed Director of Music at St. Angela Merici Parish in Fairview Park in 1995, he served there until retirement. For several years afterward, he served at St. Mel Parish in Cleveland. Read an obituary here.

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

FRIDAY: 12:15 Noon – Friends of the McGaffin Carillon Lunchtime Concert by George Leggiero | 7:30 Apollo’s Fire Fencing Match: dueling double concertos at the Bath Church.

SATURDAY: 3 pm & 7:30 Apollo’s Fire Fencing Match: dueling double concertos at Harkness Chapel, CWRU | 3 pm – Cleveland Silent Film Festival. Lorain filmmaker John Baumgartner’s War Story (2001), followed by Charlie Chaplin’s beloved short Sunnyside (1919). both screened with a live original score performed by pianist Mike Petrone. Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium, main Cleveland Public Library | 7:00 pm — The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom, Elim Chan, conductor, and Christiane Karg, soprano. Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.

SUNDAY: 4 pm – First Annual Katherine Plank Memorial Benefit Concert featuring the Aidan Plank Big Band. All donations go to the ALS Association. First Church in Oberlin | 4 pm – Apollo’s Fire Fencing Match: dueling double concertos at Rocky River Presbyterian. | 7 pm – The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom. The Music of Billy Joel. Stuart Chafetz, conductor, and Tony DeSare, piano & vocals.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced its 2025–2026 Family Concert Series and Music Explorers Series at Severance Music Center, “designed to introduce children and families to the magical world of classical music.” Read a press release here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN MEMORIAM: 

Oberlin Faculty Sopranos Daune Mahy and Marlene Rosen

Daune Mahy, a member of the Oberlin voice faculty for 39 years, died July 31 in Paris. A beloved teacher and gifted soprano who performed on stages across America and Europe, she joined the Oberlin faculty in 1980 and worked with nearly every Oberlin singer during her tenure.

Mahy was a co-founder and driving force behind Oberlin in Italy, which for 30 years attracted internationally distinguished artists, teachers, coaches, and others to work with the program’s gifted pre-professional musicians. Learn more about Mahy at Oberlin.edu.

Marlene Rosen, who served as professor of voice at Oberlin for 36 years, died on August 5 in Nyack, N.Y., where she had moved with Mike Rosen, her husband of 62 years after their retirement from Oberlin (he was professor of percussion at the Conservatory).

Conservatory Dean William Quillen has passed along a webpage where individuals can leave memories about Marlene, find information about the services, and more.

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7 pm at Blossom, The Cleveland Orchestra presents Laufey: A Night at the Symphony. with Ross Jamie Collins, conductor, and Laufey (Laufey Lín Bing Jónsdóttir, the Icelandic-Chinese singer-songwriter and musician). [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

INTERESTING READ:

Those who attended Oberlin Conservatory’s production of the opera Omar last year may remember the music was co-written by Michael Abels, who also wrote the score for Jordan Peele’s film Get Out.

Anastasia Tsioulcas recently profiled the composer for The New York Times ahead of the performance of his work More Seasons by the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center. Check out that article here.

MORE AUDITIONS:

The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus is holding auditions on August 14, and they are looking for more tenors and basses in particular. Chorus members will have the opportunity to join the orchestra at Carnegie Hall and in Florida — and tenors and basses will also be able to audition for small roles in Beethoven’s Fidelio. Learn more and sign up for an audition at this link.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Although the weather is thankfully sunny today, the skies were dark and ominous one year ago, when a record-breaking storm system swept through Northeast Ohio. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Board of Trustees of Cleveland Arts Prize has announced that the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation will be awarded the 2025 Barbara S. Robinson Prize for the Advancement of the Arts.

This award acknowledges the Foundation’s investments in Cleveland cultural institutions, including The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Public Theatre. The Discipline and Special Prize winners will be announced on August 10.

AUDITIONS:

The Heights Chamber Orchestra will be holding auditions for violin, viola, and cello players on Monday, August 18. If you are interested, download the excerpts and sign up for a time slot at this link.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this day in 2012, violin virtuoso Ruggiero Ricci died at the age of 94. A child prodigy, Ricci was born in California to Italian immigrants, and he and his six siblings were all expected to play an instrument. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

Today marks the start of a pretty quiet week on the concert calendar. But there are some highlights waiting in the later half, including Laufey’s visit to Blossom on Thursday for “A Night at the Symphony” and the first round of the “Fencing Match” series from Apollo’s Fire.

For more details and to check out what else is coming up, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

After Barbara Bachtell’s retirement earlier this year, the Broadway School of Music and the Arts has named its new executive director. Christopher Kaboth will now lead the organization, which is based in the Slavic Village neighborhood and provides arts education to the residents of southeast Cleveland. Read the full press release here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

While not a major day for classical music anniversaries, August 4 marks a notable day in world history. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Three organizations have performances scheduled this weekend:

Ohio Light Opera ends its season with Brigadoon (Friday at 2 pm), Carousel (Friday at 7:30), Bitter Sweet (Saturday at 2 pm), Patience (Saturday at 7:30) and The Cousin from Batavia, (Sunday at 2 pm) in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster;

The Cleveland Orchestra plays at Blossom on Saturday at 7 pm (Daniele Rustioni conducts with pianist Alessio Bax, pictured).

And Piano Cleveland’s Piano Days presents Natalie Tenenbaum in “The Piano Re-Imagined” at the Hanna Theatre in Playhouse Square on Saturday at 7:30 pm.                                                

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

Pianist Leon Fleisher died in hospice in Baltimore on August 2, 2020 at the age of 92. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway:

HAPPENING TODAY:

Ohio Light Opera: next-to-last performance of Herman Haller and Eduard Künneke’s The Cousin from Batavia at 2 pm, & final performance of George and Ira Gershwin’s Tip-Toes at 7:30 pm in Freedlander Theatre at The College of Wooster. Tickets available online.

The Cleveland Orchestra’s Summers at Severance continues at 7 pm with Christoph Koncz conducting works by Liszt, Ernst von Dohnányi, and Bartók at Severance Music Center.

Piano Cleveland’s Piano Days wrap up this tonight at 7:30 pm, when Kotaro Fukuma, the 2003 Cleveland International Piano Competition First Prize Winner, returns to the Forest City to play Shimmering Water — 洸, a recital of French Impressionist music by Debussy and Ravel juxtaposed with works by contemporary Japanese composers in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Les Délices has announced their sixth season of free SalonEra webseries episodes and podcasts, which will begin airing on October 6. Video episodes are available on YouTube from their premiere date through June 30, 2026. Podcast episodes remain online in perpetuity. Read the press release here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On July 31, 1886, Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt died in Bayreuth, Germany at the age of 74. The 19th-century classical equivalent of a 20th-century rock star, Liszt’s solo piano performances gave rise to such pan-European fame that the poet Heinrich Heine characterized audience acclaim as “Lisztomania.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Ohio Light Opera presents the next-to-last performances of Noël Coward’s Bitter Sweet at 2 pm, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience (pictured) at 7:30 in Freedlander Theatre at The College of Wooster.

The last performances of these two titles will take place at the same times on Saturday.

Details in our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS: 

Cleveland State University tubist and music performance major Ephrem King of Elyria has been selected to participate in the International Wind Ensemble Academy and Festival in Bangkok, Thailand from July 31-August 13, where he will share the stage with musicians from across the globe.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

George Szell, The Cleveland Orchestra’s music director for 24 years, died on July 30, 1970 in Hannah House at University Hospitals during a Blossom concert conducted by Pierre Boulez, who had the task of informing the players following the performance. [Read more…]