by Daniel Hathaway

CLASSICAL MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS:

OCTOBER 30 – FRIDAY

6 pm – Chamber Music in the Galleries with Fire & Grace at the Cleveland Museum of Art | 7 pm – Stars in the Classics Halloween Musical Salon at a Private home in Cleveland Heights | 7:30 pm – The Cleveland Orchestra plays Mahler’s Fifth, Petr Popelka (pictured with violinist James Ehnes) conducting in Mandel Concert Hall, Severance Music Center | Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. Timothy Weiss, conductor, and Timothy LeFebvre, baritone, perform world premieres of works by Wesley Horner & Issac Santos & music by Sarah Kirkland Snider & Sean Shepherd in Warner Concert Hall | 11:59 pm – Friday Night Oberlin Organ Pump, Halloween Edition in Finney Chapel.

OCTOBER 31 – SATURDAY

1 pm – Oberlin Faculty & Guest Recital by Fire & Grace in Kulas Recital Hall. | 7:30 pm – The Cleveland Orchestra. Petr Popelka conducts Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in Mandel Concert Hall, Severance Music Center | 7:30 pm – Canton Symphony & Players Guild of Canton present Jekyll & Hyde in Umstattd Hall.

NOVEMBER 1 – SUNDAY (Standard Time at 2 am – set clocks back)

2:00 pm – Fire & Grace perform at Hudson Library & Historical Society | She Roars, music of Ellen Ruth Harrison presented by Local 4 Music Fund at the Bop Stop | 3:00 pm – The Cleveland Orchestra. Petr Popelka conducts Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in Mandel Concert Hall, Severance Music Center | 3:30 pm – Canton Symphony & Players Guild of Canton present Jekyll & Hyde in Umstattd Hall | 4:00 pm – Church of the Western Reserve Concert Series presents The Men of Independence Chorus in an afternoon of a cappella singing at the Church of the Western Reserve.

For details of these and other classical music events, please visit the ClevelandClassical.com concert listings.

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

On November 30, 1864, American music patroness and composer Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge was born in Chicago. Her generous advocacy for chamber music led to the founding of the Berkshire Music Festival in 1918, the precursor of Tanglewood. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

7:30 pm – CIM Insiders presents Fire & Grace (Edwin Huizinga, violin, William Coulter, guitar, Amanda Powell, voice, and Brian Bigley, pipes) in Mixon Hall.

7:30 pm – Oberlin Orchestra. Raphael Jiménez, conductor, and Brian Rice (pictured), pandeiro, play Dvořák’s Carnival Overture, Felipe Senna’s Danzas No. 4, and Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 7 in Finney Chapel.

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Whatever happened to Maria Anna Mozart, “Nannerl,” the composer’s beloved older sister, who died on this date in 1829? An accomplished pianist in her own right, she is said to have written music herself, although none survives. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 6:45 pm – Urban Troubadour presents Fire & Grace (Edwin Huizinga, violin, and William Coulter, guitar) in Akron’s Cascade Valley Metro Park.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

Because of his connection to Northeast Ohio — thirteen years as concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell — we’ll focus today on Josef Gingold, the Russian-born violinist who was born on this date in 1909, and became one of America’s foremost pedagogues of his instrument. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 Noon, trumpeter Sebastian Cole & organist Jonathan Moyer (pictured) play the Tuesday Noon Organ Plus Concert at the Church of the Covenant. Click here for the live stream.

And tonight at 7 pm, the Supertonics Flute Ensemble presents a Halloween Celebration in Lions Lincoln Theater in Massillon.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1782, Italian composer and guitar and violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini was born in Genoa. In spite of chronic illnesses, he became the premier violin soloist of his day. Although the guitar was his constant companion on concert tours, Paganini regarded it as a private instrument better suited for playing with friends. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND CLASSICAL HIGHLIGHTS:

OCTOBER 23 – FRIDAY

7:00 pm – No Exit: Cimbalom Sounds with Chester Englander (pictured) at Praxis Fiber Workshop | 7:30 pm – CityMusic Cleveland: American Roots at St. Noel Church, Willoughby Hills.

OCTOBER 24 – SATURDAY

7:00 pm – No Exit: Cimbalom Sounds with Chester Englander at SPACES, Cleveland | Snowbelt Symphony Orchestra: Magnificent Mozart with Julia Russ, piano, at North High School, Eastlake | 7:30 pm  Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in “The Chorus at 75” with Eric Whitacre in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center | CityMusic Cleveland: American Roots in the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus.

OCTOBER 25 – SUNDAY

1:00 pm –  Severance Music Center Halloween Spooktacular, Douglas Droste, conductor, Eric Charnofsky, special guest, and the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra plus a new work by Clint Needham in Mandel Concert Hall. Sensory-friendly performance includes American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation | 2:00 pm – Supertonics Flute Ensemble. Halloween Celebration at Akron Summit County Public Library, Akron | 2:30 pm – CityMusic Cleveland in American Roots, Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art, | 3:00 pm – Cleveland Composers Guild, Cleveland Cello Society & Bowling Green State U. Cello Studio in new works by Guild composers at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland Hts | 3:00 pm – University of Akron Faculty Recital, Stanislav Golovin, clarinet & James Wilding, piano in Guzzetta Recital Hall, Akron.

4:00 pm – Cleveland Classical Guitar Society Open Recital. Community of St. Peter Church, Cleveland | 4:00 pm – Severance Music Center Halloween Spooktacular (not a sensory-friendly performance — see 1 pm) | 5:00 pm – Music from the Western Reserve hosts the Harnsberger/Jones Marimba Duo in Christ Episcopal Church, Hudson | 8:00 pm – Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project. Ak’chamel performs before Moth Cock (Doug Gent and Pat Modugno). 1433 E. 33rd St., Cleveland.

For details of these and other classical music events, please visit the ClevelandClassical.com concert listings.

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

Russian choral director and composer Alexander Andreyevich Archangelsky was born on (or near) October 23 in 1846. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

7:30 pm – CityMusic Cleveland presents American Roots, John McLaughlin Williams, conducting at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights (pictured).

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Today’s calendar mostly records historic finales, perhaps none so tragic as that of French Baroque composer Jean-Marie Leclair. On this date in 1764, he was murdered in his home, supposedly by his jealous nephew, although no one was ever tried for the crime.

Making a more natural departure, Italian composer Alessandro Scarlatti, father of the prolific keyboard composer Domenico, died on this date in 1725 in Naples at the age of 65. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:10 Noon, the Amethyst String Quartet plays on the Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Series (lunches welcome), and tonight at 7:30, the Cleveland Cello Society hosts a solo recital by Colombian cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

And in Europe:

The Cleveland Orchestra performs tonight in the Megaron in Athens, the last stop on its three-week European tour.

INTERESTING READ:

After Decades On The Sidelines, American Contemporary Opera Is Now Thriving

“After a few decades when most US companies (especially the Met) treated new opera like kryptonite, many are now presenting a contemporary work almost every season — and selling lots of tickets. Michael Zwiebach examines why this is happening now.” – San Francisco Classical Voice

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Hungarian-British conductor Sir Georg Solti was born in Budapest on this date in 1912. The podium giant who amassed 32 Grammy Awards left an enormous legacy of more than 250 Decca recordings, among them 45 complete operas with companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and multiple recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Watch a documentary about the production of his legendary recording of Wagner’s Die Götterdämmerung here.

 

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at 12 Noon, organist Walker Whitehouse will play works by Felix Mendelssohn, J.S. Bach, Herbert Howells, and Hubert Parry on the Tuesday Noon Organ Plus series at the Church of the Covenant.

And tonight at 7:30, Akron’s Tuesday Musical will host the Sphinx Virtuosi with J’nai Bridges, mezzo-soprano in “American Dialogues 25” in E.J. Thomas Hall.

FROM EUROPE:

The Cleveland Orchestra’s Adella platform will stream the ensemble’s live concert from Paris today, and if you happen to be in Greece, you can hear the Orchestra in person tonight at 8:30 in Thessaloniki Concert Hall.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

American experimental composer Charles Ives, whose day job was serving as executive of several insurance companies in New York City, was born on October 20, 1875 in Danbury, Connecticut. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

7:30 pm – Cleveland Orchestra Recital Series. Lisa Batiashvili, violin, Gautier Capuçon, cello, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano. Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.

7:30 pm – LCCC Signature Recital Series. Jason Hardink, piano. Works by Maurice Ravel and Jeffrey Mumford. Cirigliano Studio Theatre, Stocker Center for the Arts, Elyria.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

The most famous name to celebrate today is Jacqueline du Pré, who died on this date in 1987 at the age of 42, and who is considered one of the greatest cellists in history, despite her career being cut short by multiple sclerosis. [Read more…]