by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

2:00 pm – Ohio Light Opera opens George and Ira Gershwin’s Tip-Toes in Freedlander Theatre, at the College of Wooster.

6:30 pm – Canton Symphony Summer Serenades presents a string quartet at Bimeler Park in Brewster.

7:30 pm – Oberlin Organ Academy Faculty Recital by Jonathan Moyer at Peace Community Church.

7:30 pm – ChamberFest Cleveland’s “Sing Hallelujah!” in Mixon Hall at CIM is sold out.

8:00 pm – Tri-C JazzFest opens with Trombone Shorty (pictured) & Orleans Avenue at Connor Palace.

For details, addresses, and ticket information, please visit our Concert Listings.:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cooper International Competition has released the names of the 21 pianists ages 13-18 who will compete in its 2025 event at the Oberlin Conservatory and Severance Music Center from July 20-24. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

2:00 pm – Ohio Light Opera. Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon. Freedlander Theatre, The College of Wooster.

7:00 pm – Kent Blossom Music Festival. WindSync (Garrett Hudson, flute, Noah Kay, oboe, Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet, Kara LaMoure, bassoon, Anni Hochhalter, horn) with Jon Kimura Parker, piano. Ludwig Recital Hall, Kent State University.

For details, addresses, and ticket information, please visit our Concert Listings.:

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1767, the super-prolific German composer George Philipp Telemann died in Hamburg, where he had earlier used his pending appointment to cantorships in Leipzig to negotiate a raise from the Hamburg authorities (J.S. Bach, Leipzig’s third choice after No. 2 had turned them down, remained a friend). [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

7:30 pm – Oberlin Organ Academy. Faculty Recital by Mark Edwards, harpsichord. Kulas Recital Hall. Free.

8:00 pm – ChamberFest Cleveland. “High Voltage.” Danish cellist Jonathan Swensen (pictured) at The Hermit Club, one of America’s oldest private clubs devoted to the performing arts (1629 Dodge Court, Cleveland.)

For details, addresses, and ticket information, please visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

New Board Members for Tuesday Musical

Justin Chenault and Jeff Stenroos are joining the board of Tuesday Musical after being elected during the arts organization’s annual meeting on June 3 at Stan Hywet Hall

Beginning July 1, Chenault will serve as an at-large member and Stenroos will serve as co-chair of Tuesday Musical’s Brahms Allegro Junior Music Club for K-12 students. Read more here.

David Finckel & Wu Han end 25 years with Music @ Menlo

After more than two decades of visionary leadership, world-renowned musicians David Finckel and Wu Han have announced that they will step away from their roles as Founding Artistic Directors of the acclaimed Music@Menlo festival and institute, following the 2026 summer season. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

7:30 pm – Oberlin Organ Academy. Guest Recital. Kirk Rich, organ (pictured). Warner Concert Hall. Free.

For details, addresses, and ticket information, please visit our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1887, American teacher and conductor John Finley Williamson was born in Canton. He died in Toledo in 1964 after an illustrious career that included the founding of the Westminster Choir School in Dayton. After a move to Princeton, NJ, the institution, renamed Westminster Choir College, became part of Ryder University. After merges and changes in ownership, its future is uncertain. [Read more…]

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

SATURDAY:

2:00 pm – Ohio Light Opera. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. Freedlander Theatre, Wooster.

7:30 pm – ChamberFest Cleveland. “Starry Night.” Program includes Errollyn Wallen’s Dervish for Cello and Piano, and Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht at Federated Church in Chagrin Falls.

SUNDAY:

Cancelled due to heat advisory: 3:30 pm – Canton Symphony Summer Serenades. Brass Quintet at Quail Hollow Park, Hartville.

4:00 pm – The Cleveland Opera. Gala concert featuring arias and duets in Saint Casimir Church.

7:30 pm – Oberlin Organ Academy. Guest Recital by Angela Kraft Cross in Finney Chapel.

For details, addresses, and ticket information, please visit our Concert Listings.

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

On June 21, 1899, Czech composer Pavel Haas was born in Brno, and died at the hands of the Nazis 45 years later at Auschwitz. [Read more…]

HAPPENING TODAY:

12:15 pm – Friends of the McGaffin Carillon. Lunchtime Carillon Concert by  Keiran Cantilina.

7:00 pm – Renovare Music. To Be Free: A Juneteenth Concert.

7:30 pm – ChamberFest Cleveland. Variations on Love and Loss, featuring the world premiere of Judith Markovich’s Oh, My Son…

7:30 pm – Solon Community Band. Summer Sounds: Songs That Make You Sing and Dance.

8:00 pm – Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. Faculty Recital (limited seating available).

For details, locations, and ticket information, consult our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

This feature has been delayed for technical reasons. Please check back later.

by Daniel Hathaway

NEWS BRIEFS:

On Wednesday, The Cleveland Orchestra announced four new appointments to its roster of musicians (pictured). “The Orchestra welcomed Second Violinist Gawon Kim last fall, and this summer will welcome three more members: Zubin Hathi as Principal Timpani and Brandon Mason as Section Bass in July, followed by Peter Nichols as Assistant Principal Timpani and Section Percussion in August. Now entering his 24th year as Music Director, Franz Welser-Möst has appointed more than half of the musicians currently performing with The Cleveland Orchestra.” Read more here.

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 2 pm, Ohio Light Opera raises the curtain on the second of its six summer shows, Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon, in Freedlander Theatre at The College of Wooster.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

Today is Juneteenth — June 19, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

2:00 pm – Ohio Light Opera presents Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster. Tickets available online.

7:30 pm – ChamberFest Cleveland presents “Mood Swings.” Eight festival artists perform Mozart’s Ganz kleine Nachtmusik and Richard Strauss’ Piano Quartet in C minor. Then, composer-vocalist-pianist Errollyn Wallen joins them to perform selections from The Errollyn Wallen Songbook. Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music.

NEWS BRIEFS:

R.I.P. Alfred Brendel

Barry Millington writes in a Guardian obituary for Alfred Brendel, who has died at the age of 94, that “the pianist’s art was characterised by a paradox. On the one hand lay an intellectual discipline, academic rigour and search for perfection; on the other a delight in the absurd. He once listed “laughing” as his favourite occupation and was fond of observing that “humour is the sublime in reverse.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 2:30 this afternoon, ChamberFest Cleveland hosts “Meet Composer Errollyn Wallen!, a family-friendly event that begins with a performance of Remember, Marimba by percussionist Tanner Tanyeri, followed at 3:00 by a conversation with Errollyn Wallen CBE & Sandra Morgan OBE (interim mayor of East Cleveland).

From 4 to 5:30, a hands-on percussion activity will be led by Gabriel Globus-Hoenich. The day ends at 6 pm with a concert of Wallen’s music, — including selections from the Errollyn Wallen Songbook. The event at East Cleveland Public Library is free.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Neighborhood Connections has approved $325,792 in grants to support 83 projects in Cleveland and East Cleveland. Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC), the local public funder for arts and culture, will co-fund 24 of these resident-led arts and culture projects through a partnership with Neighborhood Connections. Read more here. [Read more…]

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…]