by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Piano Cleveland writes, “The First Round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists starts today at 9 AM. From March 26 through March 29, you’ll have a chance to stream the piano world’s most promising artists from the comfort of your home. We will broadcast two sessions each day — one at 9 AM and one at 2 PM. Each session lasts approximately three hours. To watch,  visit our main webpage or our YouTube channel. All sessions of the First Round will be saved to our YouTube channel so you can rewatch them later.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

ChamberFest Cleveland violinist Nathan Meltzer is one of the four artists to receive $25,000 Avery Fisher Career Grants this year. Read the Violin Channel story here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

One debut and three final acts to commemorate today: French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez was born on this date in 1925 in Montbrison, while Renaissance composers Heinrich Isaac and Antonio de Cabezon, and German composer Ludwig van Beethoven took their final bows in 1517, 1566, and 1827 in Florence, Madrid, and Vienna, respectively. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

This evening at 6 pm, the Cleveland Chamber Choir celebrates both the Madness and Melancholy of March in the Donna and James Reid Gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art, followed by a concert at 7 pm in Gartner Auditorium by the all-female sextet Maruja Limon (pictured) from Barcelona.

Also tonight in University Circle, the Cleveland Institute of Music will present its CIM Virtuosi at 7 pm, when Todd Phillips conducts music by Mozart, Grieg, and Copland in Mixon Hall.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

On March 25, 1881 composer, pianist, ethnomusicologist, and teacher Béla Viktor János Bartók was born in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary, now Sânnicolau Mare, Romania.

Bartók began studying piano with his mother, and at age nine started composing dance pieces. From 1899 to 1903, he studied piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. It was there that he met Zoltán Kodály and the two became lifelong friends and colleagues — they both shared an interest in folk music. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at 12 Noon, Piano Cleveland Live presents Cleveland International Piano Competition medalist Jiayan Sun & Friends in the Ames Family Atrium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and on the Tuesday Organ Plus Series, organist Walker Whitehouse plays music by Herbert Howells, J.S. Bach & César Franck at the Church of the Covenant, University Circle.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

On this date in 1721, J.S. Bach dedicated his Six Concerts à plusieurs instruments to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. That set of concerti grossi has since become known as the Brandenburg Concertos, hailed as some of the greatest works of the Baroque era.

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

MARCH 20 – FRIDAY

11:00 am – The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance. Elim Chan, conductor, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin. Repeated on Saturday at 7:30 pm.

7:00 pm – Cleveland Chamber Choir, BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, & Cleveland Ballet. Gregory Ristow leads a choreographed version of Handel’s Messiah. Repeated Saturday at 7, and Sunday at 2.

7:00 pm – Cleveland Cello Society. i Cellisti! Duos and trios for cello and other instruments performed by Cleveland Orchestra members at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights.

MARCH 21 – SATURDAY

3:00 pm – Studio Espressivo: Piano Portraits. Favorites from Baroque to Modern and hidden Italian gems. 2026 Murray Hill Rd. #111, Cleveland. Continued tonight at 7.

7:00 pm – CLE Concierto. celebrating Women’s History Month in Federated Church, Chagrin Falls.

8:00 pm – Studio Espressivo: Piano Portraits. Favorites from Baroque to Modern and hidden Italian gems. Music by Bach, Respighi, Saint-Saens, Mozart, Chaminade, Rachmaninoff, Boccerini, Einaud, and Corticelli. Studio Espressivo,. Repeated Sunday at 3.

MARCH 22 – SUNDAY

1:00-5:00 pm – Bach’s 341st Birthday Marathon, celebrating the composer’s 341st birthday. Come and go as you please. Church of the Covenant in University Circle.

3:00 pm – Cleveland Museum of Art. Les Délices illuminates the story of Marianne Mozart, who shared the spotlight with her younger brother through her teenage years.

3:00 pm – CIM Perspectives. Third Coast Percussion. Time Pieces: The New Classical, celebrating 20 years of genre-defying, award-winning music in Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music.

3:00 pm – Studio Espressivo: Piano Portraits. Favorites from Baroque to Modern and hidden Italian gems. 2026 Murray Hill Rd. #111, Cleveland.

3:30 pm – Heights Chamber Orchestra. Travis Jürgens, conductor, and Mark Kosower, cello. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2747 Fairmount Blvd., Cleveland Heights. Free.

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

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

Overshadowing the birth of Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter on this date in 1915, and the 1948 duel on that date between CBS and NBC to broadcast the first symphony orchestra concert (CBS won by 90 minutes with a Philadelphia Orchestra program, and NBC was the runner up with a Toscanini-led NBC Symphony performance), German composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

7:00 pm – Trobár at West Shore Church, Rocky River. Songbook for a King. Sacred and secular selections from the lavish thirteenth-century anthology of French music known as the “Manuscrit du Roi.”

7:00 pm – Cleveland Composers Guild. 1776-2026: An American Mosaic. Music faculty at John Carroll University present a program of CCG music that celebrates the United States’ 250th birthday. Saint Francis Chapel, JCU.

7:30 pm – The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance. Elim Chan, conductor, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin (pictured). Daniel Kidane’s Sun Poem, Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1 & Dance Suite, and Scriabin’s The Poem of Ecstasy. Repeated on Friday at 11 (partly) & Saturday at 7:30 pm.

7:30 pm – Oberlin Artist Recital Series. Linda May Han Oh: “The Glass Hours. Linda May Han Oh, composer, Greg Ward, alto saxophone; Sara Serpa, voice, Fabian Almazan, piano/effects, and Mark Whitfield, Jr., drums. Works based on themes of the fragility of time and life. Finney Chapel, Oberlin.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

By Mike Telin

On March 18, 1927, legendary composer of musical theater John Kander was born in Kansas City, Missouri. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

12:00 pm – Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concert. CSU Percussion Ensemble. Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Free.

7:30 pm – CIM Insiders. Ilya Kaler, violin and Daniel Shapiro, piano. Mozart’s Sonata in A, K. 305, Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 1, and Strauss’ Violin Sonata in E-flat. Mixon Hall, 11021 East Blvd., Cleveland. Free.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

By Mike Telin

On March 18, 1927, legendary composer of musical theater John Kander was born in Kansas City, Missouri. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 Noon, Oberlin organ major Owen Reyda plays works by Juan Cabanilles, Robert Schumann & August Gottfried Ritter’s Sonata No. 3 on the Tuesday Noon Organ Plus series at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle.

At 5:30 pm, Fairmount Presbyterian’s Rush Hour Concerts presents soprano Andrea Walker, soprano, and pianist Mikhail Grazhdanov in Winds of Spring: Songs by Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. 2757 Fairmount Blvd., Cleveland Heights.

And tonight at 7:30 pm in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason plays Beethoven’s “Moonlight” & “Waldstein” Sonatas, Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, and Dobrinka Tabakova’s Nocturne & Halo.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Here are some classical music playlists to mark St. Patrick’s Day, honoring the patron saint of Ireland, who departed this life on this date in 461. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

MARCH 13 – FRIDAY

7:00 pm – No Exit New Music. Cleveland Renaissance: Art of the Cleveland School. An exploration of one of Cleveland’s greatest artistic legacies through music and poetry. World premiere musical works along with new poetic creations. Praxis Fiber Workshop. Repeated on Saturday at 7 at SPACES.

7:30 pm – The Cleveland Orchestra. Elim Chan, conducts, with Michael Sachs, trumpet (pictured). Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center. Repeated on Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 3.

MARCH 14 – SATURDAY

3:00 pm – Cleveland Silent Film Festival. A May Tale (1926). Live original score compiled from Central European folk music and performed by the Harmonia Ensemble in the Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium at the Main Cleveland Public Library.

7:30 pm – The Resonance Project. Chez Madame Singer: Portraits en Trio. The Poiema Trio presents an evening of French chamber music chez Madame Singer, whose Parisian salon fostered nearly all the great French composers of the 20th century. Forest Hill Church.

MARCH 15 – SUNDAY

3:30 pm – Western Reserve Chorale presents Mozart: Celebration and Solemnity at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights.

4:00 pm – Singers Companye performs music from 17th & 18th Century European Chapels at Faith Lutheran Church, Fairlawn.

7:00 pm – CityMusic Cleveland plays chamber music by Clint Needham and Béla Bartók at Praxis Fiber Workshop.

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

For details of these and other performances, please visit our Concert Listings page.

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

March 13: Austrian composer Hugo Wolf, most celebrated for his many Lieder, was born on this date in 1860 in Windisch. 127 years later, British pianist Gerald Moore died on March 13, 1987. Though composer and pianist obviously never met, we can conjoin their landmark dates today through German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, with whom Moore recorded Wolf’s Mörike Lieder — nearly two hours worth of music. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7 pm, No Exit New Music presents Cleveland Renaissance: Art of the Cleveland School at Praxis Fiber Workshop, and at 7:30 pm, guest conductor Elim Chan (pictured) begins her two weekends with The Cleveland Orchestra leading Igor Stravinsky’s Suite from Pulcinella, Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto with Michael Sachs, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Both concerts are repeated through Sunday.

For details of these and other performances, please visit our Concert Listings page.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On March 12, 1837, French organist and composer Alexandre Guilmant was born in Meudon. Titulaire of La Trinité for 30 years (Messiaen held the post even longer beginning in 1931), Guilmant founded Paris’s Schola Cantorum, taught Marcel Dupré at the Paris Conservatory, and left a large legacy of works for the organ — his sole compositional interest. [Read more…]