by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

To celebrate its 75th Anniversary, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society has booked Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art for five evenings and has engaged the Jerusalem Quartet to play all fifteen of Dmitri Shostaktovich’s string quartets in chronological order, creating something of a timeline of the composer’s life in Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. Tonight’s 7:30 program includes Quartets 1-3, and each evening will be preceded by a 6:30 lecture by James Wilding

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On April 21, 1749, a public rehearsal of Handel’s Royal Fireworks Music took place — against the composer’s wishes — at London’s Vauxhall Gardens. Obviously not respecting social distancing, an impressive crowd of 12,000 turned out, causing traffic jams for three hours on London Bridge. [Read more…]

The Diary is taking the weekend off and will return on Monday.

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 Noon, the Cleveland Celtic Ensemble will perform on the Brownbag Series at Trinity Cathedral.

At 6 pm, Piano Cleveland Live will present Zhu Wang and Cleveland Playhouse artists Madalyn Baker and Nathan Nelson in a medley of favorites from the American musical theater canon at Hofbräuhaus Cleveland.

Then at 7:30, Raul Midón, the blind singer-songwriter and guitarist will play a blend of “smooth folk, alt-pop, and jazz” in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Apollo’s Fire has announced its season plans for 2025-2026. Read the details here.

ENCORE Music & Ideas Festival has released its tenth anniversary season, which will take place from June 2-22 in Gates Mills. “This year’s theme, By Leaps and Bounds, will launch us into our next decade with a celebration of dazzling classical music inspired by movement and dance.” Read more here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

12 Noon — Chamber Music in the Atrium hosted by Piano Cleveland and featuring pianist Zhu Wang. Ames Family Atrium, Cleveland Museum of Art.

Also at 12 Noon – Organist Owen Metz plays Marcel Dupré’s Symphonie-Passion, Op. 23 on the Tuesday Noon Concerts at the Church of the Covenant, University Circle.

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

We begin today’s birthday celebrations back in 1688 when German violinist and composer Johann Friedrich Fasch entered this world on April 15 in Buttelstedt, Thuringia. [Read more…]

 by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 pm, Celia Hatton plays works for solo viola by Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti, Gyorgy Ligeti, Jeffrey Mumford, Reena Esmail, Garth Knox, and Benjamin Britten on the LCCC Signature Series in the Cirigliano Studio Theatre at Lorain County Community College in Elyria. Free admission.

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Piano Cleveland reminds us of two back-to-back events this week featuring 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition Semi-Finalist, Zhu Wang. On Tuesday at noon, he’ll play a lunchtime concert in the Atrium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and  on Wednesday at 6, he’ll be joined by Cleveland Play House artists Madalyn Baker and Nathan Nelson in a medley of favorites at Hofbräuhaus Cleveland. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

ON FRIDAY, University of Akron JazzWeek presents Hubb’s Groove Jazz Vespers (7 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church), the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival (pictured) features Bach’s solo cello suites and motets (7 pm in Gamble Auditorium), The Singers’ Club of Cleveland’s Spring Concert theme is “Let Me Tell You a Story” (7 pm at The Church of the Saviour), Carl Topilow and Cleveland Pops Orchestra revisit Rock ‘n’ roll from the ’50s through the ’00s (7:30 at Severance Music Center), Raphael Jiménez leads the Oberlin Orchestra in Mahler’s First Symphony (7:30 in Finney Chapel), and The Chinese Association Musicians of North America presents “The Sound of Blooming: A Musical Tale of Spring” (7:30 in Gartner Auditorium at the Art Museum).

ON SATURDAY, for the first time, the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival presents George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, Dirk Garner, conducting, with BWV: Cleveland’s Bach Choir, BW Motet Choir, and the BW Festival Orchestra with ACRONYM (7 pm in Gamble Auditorium), Baldwin Wallace Men’s Chorus joins the University School Glee Club (7:30 at Federated Church, in Chagrin Falls), and Carl Topilow leads Firelands Symphony Orchestra in “Through Space and Time” (7:30 at Sawmill Creek Convention Center in Huron.)

ON SUNDAY, Young Artist Anthony Yang solos in the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with the Euclid Symphony Orchestra (3 pm at Shore Cultural Centre), Heights Arts Close Encounters presents “Music from an Age of Empires” (3 pm at a private villa in Shaker Heights to be announced), Cleveland Composers Guild and Sestina Cleveland introduce new music by members Geoffrey Peterson, Jeffrey Quick, Eric Charnofsky, Inna Onofrei, Lorenzo Salvagni, and Nick Puin (4 pm at Holy Rosary Church in Little Italy, and Good Company: A Vocal Ensemble presents “Voices of Earth” with works by Ola Gjeilo, Joan Szymko, Johannes Brahms, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Katerina Gimon “Earth” from Elements, as well as works by Good Company members Adam Smith, Jennifer Scolnick, and Michael Carney (4 pm at Lakewood Presbyterian).

For details of these and other events, please visit our Concert Listings page. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 8, the University of Akron JazzWeek 2025 continues with sets by the UA Jazz Ensemble and Birth of the Cool Ensemble at Musica.

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Roger Mastroianni, the photographer probably best known to our readers for his images of the Cleveland Orchestra, points his cameras at other Cleveland subjects as well.

As Peter Chakerian writes on Cleveland.com, “His photo exhibition, “Long View of Cleveland – Capturing Time and Motion,” features photo exposures up to as long as 10-minutes long – capturing landmarks and cityscapes with quiet majesty, evolving energy, and beauty with remarkable clarity and depth.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 6 pm, Heights Arts Close Encounters will hold an open rehearsal of its program, “Music from an Age of Empires” at Cleveland Violins.

At 7:30, the Cleveland Museum of Art will host the cross-generational Khalife Trio in Lebanese classics, including new arrangements and original compositions, in Gartner Auditorium.

Also at 7:30. Kenneth Bean will lead the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble in works by Brian Raphael Nabors, Missy Mazzoli, Kristin Kuster, Sasha Paris-Carter, and Dai Fujikura in Warner Concert Hall.

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Les Délices announces that its latest SalonEra episode is now available on YouTube, Facebook, and all major podcast platforms. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

7:00 pm – In The Fiddler’s House. Itzhak Perlman plays traditional klezmer music with the Klezmer Conservatory Band at Severance Music Center.

7:30 pm – Apollo’s Fire presents J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor at Trinity Cathedral.

7:30 pm – University of Akron JazzWeek 2025 hosts the Joshua Redman Group (opening act: Sean Jones and the UA Jazz Ensemble) at E.J. Thomas Hall.

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

ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

Today we remember three composers of note who took their leave of this world on April 8. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 pm, Rocky River Chamber Music Society presents the North Coast Winds in music by Valerie Coleman, Gunther Schuller, Darius Milhaud, Elliot Carter, William Grant Still, George Gershwin, and Paquito de Rivera at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church.

And tonight at 8, the University of Akron JazzWeek 2025 presents Sean Jones, trumpet, with special guests SmokeFace & Floco Torres. UA’s Birth of the Cool Ensemble opens the evening at Akron’s Blu Jazz.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Tri-C JazzFest writes that individual event tickets are now on sale for this year’s festival. “You can purchase tickets by visiting the Playhouse Square website or calling 216-241-6000. Buy early to get the best seats. Trombone Shorty, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Stanley Clarke, Dianne Reeves, Kirk Whalum and many more await you!”

HONORS:

Tri-C JazzFest sends its “Congratulations to Amber Rogers and Daniel Bruce, founders of the Hingetown Jazz Festival, for being recognized for their work with a Jazz Heroes Award from the Jazz Journalists Association.” Read more here. [Read more…]