by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, CityMusic Chamber Orchestra begins its final peripatetic series of the season at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights. Jeannette Sorrell conducts Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, and Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin and Piano features violinist Diana Cohen, violin, and pianist Roman Rabinovich. Concerts continue through Sunday afternoon.

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

HEADLINES:

Baltimore Public Media Presents “Classical Music for People With Short Attention Spans.” This summer, WYPR, the Baltimore-based radio station, is hosting an accessible concert for old and newcomers of classical music. Read the Violin Channel story here.

The woodwind quintet ZaRiah took home the Grand Prize and the Senior Wind Division Gold Medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition this week. Four of the members of the Connecticut-based group are Oberlin Conservatory graduates. A post on the school’s Facebook page adds:

“ZaRiah is the first woodwind quintet to win the Fischoff Grand Prize since Quintet Attacca in 2002. The win also continues a remarkable recent run for Oberlin at the competition, following the Poiesis Quartet’s Grand Prize win in 2023.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Before lighting the birthday candles for historical figures born on May 14, let’s observe the passing of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel in 1847 at the too-young age of 43. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 6 pm, Piano Cleveland Live presents Chaeyoung Park and friends at Edwins in Cleveland Heights. And at 7:30 the Cleveland Museum of Art hosts Grammy Award–winning jazz pianist Brad Mehldau and his Trio with Felix Moseholm and Jorge Rossy in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

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

NEWS BRIEFS:

This weekend marks an unusual collaboration between three of Cleveland’s musical organizations as Apollo’s Fire artistic director Jeannette Sorrell conducts CityMusic Chamber Orchestra with two of ChamberFest Cleveland’s artistic directors, violinist Diana Cohen and pianist Roman Rabinovich, in Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture, Mendelssohn’s Concerto for violin, piano, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in four different venues from Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon. See our concert listings for details about the free performances.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1842, composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan was born in London. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at 12 Noon, organist Daesean Lawson (pictured) plays a varied program on the Tuesday Organ Plus series at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle. (Click here to view the program), and Piano Cleveland presents Chaeyoung Park in the Atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

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

NEWS BRIEFS:

From the New York Times’ The Morning: “A cigarette tax has generated $270 million for cultural organizations in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland. It has also led to declining smoking rates in the region. Which is a win-win — except the arts organizations now need to replace what they’re losing as people buy fewer smokes. “It’s a double-edged sword,” one arts leader told The Times.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

The Amati are one of the most important families of luthiers in the history of the violin, and on this date in 1684, the greatest instrument maker in that family, Nicola Amati, died in Cremona, Italy. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Rocky River Chamber Music Society ends its season by presenting baritone Edward Vogel (pictured) with pianist Jenny Parker in A Palace in the Wild: Journeys in British Art Song (7:30 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church).

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

CLEVELANDCLASSICAL.COM SETS END-OF-YEAR ANNUAL FUND GOAL:

On Saturday, founder and editor Daniel Hathaway wrote in an email, “Thanks to the continuing support of our readers, we have once again set our annual fund goal at $23,000 for this fiscal year.

“That leaves us with only $6,500 to raise before June 30. We hope you will want to pitch in with a gift at this time, either with a check or with a credit or debit card. Visit the Donate page on our website for details.”

TODAY’S  HEADLINES:

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra announces 2026–27 season, celebrating 40th anniversary (Press release.) James Feddeck will lead three concerts, all of which will be free in celebration of the anniversary.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1849, German composer Otto Nicolai died of a stroke at the age of 38, Russian composer Anatoly Liadov was born in St. Petersburg in 1855, American songsmith Irving Berlin was born (as Israel Belin) in Russia in 1888, American choreographer Martha Graham was born in Pittsburgh in 1894, African American composer William Grant Still was born in Mississippi in 1895 (some sources say 1898), and German composer Max Reger died in Leipzig in 1916 (of a heart attack at the age of 43). [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

R.I.P. Michel Debost

Oberlin College and Conservatory have announced the passing of Michel Debost, the internationally celebrated flutist who taught at Oberlin from 1989 until his retirement in 2011. He died on May 2 in his native France at the age of 92.

“He was the longtime principal flutist of the Orchestre de Paris from its founding in 1967 until 1989, a legendary soloist, and a revered professor at the Paris Conservatory, where he succeeded fellow luminary Jean-Pierre Rampal. He recorded a wealth of flute repertoire for EMI and a variety of other labels.”

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 at Severance Music Center, Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra in Sergei Prokofiev’s First Symphony, the U.S. premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Zones of Blue with clarinetist Jörg Widmann, and excerpts from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On May 7, 1747, Johann Sebastian Bach paid a visit to King Frederick II (“The Great”) of Prussia at his palace in Potsdam — where his son Carl Philipp Emanuel was a court musician. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 noon, Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concerts presents Edward Vogel, baritone (pictured) with Jenny Parker, piano, in Palace in the Wild: Journeys in British Art Song.

At 7 pm, The Stars of Summer Masters presents Beyond the Notes: Two Sonatas, Seven Portraits, with violinist Emilio Llinas, and pianist Halida Dinova in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

And at 7:30, Timothy Weiss conducts the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble in music by Steven Mackey, Brian Raphael Nabors, and Melinda Wagner and premieres of works by Soomin Kim, Isaac Santos, and Zola Saadi-Klein in Warner Concert Hall.

INTERESTING READ:

The recent uproar at the Boston Symphony over the non-renewal of music director Andris Nelsons’ contract has prompted a response from the editorial board of the Boston Globe. 

“If the BSO needs a role model, perhaps it should stop looking to LA, with its shiny new concert hall, plus its outdoor 17,000-seat Hollywood Bowl and a huge population center from which to draw patrons and donors. Instead it might look to Cleveland, which also ranks among the nation’s Big Five orchestras. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

NEWS BRIEFS:

Marlene Rosen Memorial Concert:

On Sunday evening, May 10 at 7:30, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music will host a memorial tribute concert for Marlene Rosen, who served on its voice faculty for 40 years before her passing on August 5, 2025. The event in Warner Concert Hall will feature performances and remarks by former students and colleagues, followed by a reception in Warner Lobby. Read Oberlin’s remembrance of Rosen here.

Tuesday Musical announces prize winners:

Fifteen musicians competed in the Final Round/Winners Concert of Akron’s Tuesday Musical 2026 Scholarship Competition in Guzzetta Recital Hall at the University of Akron on Sunday afternoon, May 3. First prize of $2,000 went to flutist Dylan Masariego, a master’s degree student at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and second prize of $1,000 was won by classical guitarist Solis Dornan, a student at Oberlin Conservatory. Violinist Christoforos Petridis, also an Oberlin student, claimed the People’s Choice Award of $500. Read more here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

May 4 in classical music history marks some important beginnings that ultimately led to the modern grand piano, the phonograph record, and the international orchestral tour. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

MAY 1 – FRIDAY

Cleveland Orchestra Family Concert. James Feddeck leads Mo Willems’s Because, a sensory-friendly concert designed for ages 7-12, with illustrations by Amber Ren and music by Jessie Montgomery. (7:30 in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, repeated on Sunday).

Oberlin Collegium Musicum. Steven Plank, director, leads the choir (pictured) in William Cornysh’s elaborate, pre-reformation polyphony from the Eton Choirbook, John Sheppard’s compline responsories, and anthems and motets by William Byrd (7:30 in Fairchild Chapel, repeated on Saturday).

MAY 2 – SATURDAY

Jörg Widmann conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in his own works plus Felix  Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony (7:30 in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center).

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra presents Rustic Reverie, Daniel Meyer, conducting, with Midori Marsh, soprano, in Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne, Douglas Moore’s Farm Journal, and Haydn’s Symphony No. 99 (7:30 at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle, repeated on Sunday at 3 in Morley Musical Hall in Painesville).

MAY 3 – SUNDAY

Oberlin College Choir and Musical Union with Oberlin Brass Ensemble. Gregory Ristow conducts Paul Hindemith’s Apparebit repentina dies and Joseph Jongen’s Mass (2:30 in Finney Chapel).

MAY 5 – TUESDAY

This weekend spills over into next week as Canadian virtuoso pianist Marc-André Hamelin returns to Severance Music Center for a “blockbuster recital” featuring works by Haydn, Beethoven, Weinberg, and Rachmaninoff, including the composer’s Second Piano Sonata, “the perfect vehicle for Hamelin’s astonishing technique.” (7:30 in Mandel Concert Hall).

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

Today’s honorees include Austro-Hungarian operetta composer Franz Lehár (born on April 30, 1870 in Komárom, now Komárno, Slovakia), American conductor Robert Shaw (born on this date in 1916 in Red Bluff, Iowa), and American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (who entered the world in Miami on this date in 1939). [Read more…]