by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Question: “Ada, Countess of Lovelace and Lord Byron’s daughter, has been asked to help Charles Babbage with his work on the Difference Engine. Can she pursue her love of mathematics while upholding her reputation?”

Find out when Oberlin’s Winter Term Opera, The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace, with score by Kamala Sankaram and libretto by Rob Handel, opens in Warner Concert Hall for two performances on Friday and Sunday at 7:30. Cara Consilvio stage directs, Daniel Michalak is music director, and Matthew Brown conducts. Tickets  here.

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Arts Tax: Today’s “The Wake Up” from Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer notes that “When Cuyahoga County Council agreed to send a cigarette tax increase to the ballot last fall, their support came with a warning to the arts community to find a more sustainable funding source long-term. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

The Northeast Ohio classical music calendar is blank for this Thursday, but while Cleveland audiences are busy keeping snow, ice, and subzero wind chills at bay, The Cleveland Orchestra is in Miami preparing for the first concert of their 2025 residency on Friday.

Click here to find out more about the Orchestra’s activities during the three weeks they’ll spend this season in the Sunshine State.

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Cleveland Jazz Orchestra is offering its patrons a sneak peek at the program for its concert with the Musical Theater Project on Friday at the Maltz. Click here to save a tree and download a pdf of the program for “The Gershwins are ‘Girl Crazy.’”

The Cleveland Institute of Music has announced that faculty pianist Geraldo Tessionniér will again lead its Young Artist Piano Seminar this summer from July 6-12. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

Harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, upright bass, guitar, and maracas are just some of the instruments played by Larry & Joe, who perform at 7:00 pm this evening. The Cleveland Museum of Art presents the duo’s blend of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk traditions at Transformer Station in Ohio City. Tickets available online.

For more details, visit our Concert Listings.

BLOSSOM SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT:

We’re especially looking forward to summer during this bitterly cold week, and The Cleveland Orchestra has now revealed the classical and pops programs coming as part of the 2025 Blossom Music Festival.

Repertoire highlights include Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mahler’s “Titan” Symphony, and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Returning faces like conductors Osmo Vänskä and Elim Chan appear as well as artists making their Blossom debut, including conductor Jonathon Heyward, violinist Veronica Eberle, and pianist Alessio Bax.

Individual tickets are now available — learn more in the press release here. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

Welcome back from the long weekend. Tonight at 7:30 pm, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society presents flutist Emmanuel Pahud (pictured) and pianist Alessio Bax, who will play music by César Franck, Clara Schumann, J.S. Bach, and more.

That takes place at The Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights — tickets available online. Stay warm out there!

For more details and to check out what else is coming up this week, visit our Concert Listings.

MLK CONCERT REPLAY:

If you missed The Cleveland Orchestra’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert on Sunday, you can stream it for the next nine days on Youtube (here) or on the Adella platform. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Saturday, CityMusic Cleveland presents its January chamber music concert at 2 pm at Hudson Library, Minnesota’s Zeitgeist (“Spirit of the Times”), joins Cleveland’s No Exit at 7 at Heights Arts for the last of three joint concerts, Christopher Wilkins, pianist Theron Brown and the Akron Symphony celebrate the centennial of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at 7:30, and at the same hour, The Cleveland Orchestra welcomes violinist Augustin Hadelich and conductor Elim Chan to Severance Music Center for the third performance of a program featuring Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto and Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra.

On Sunday, Erik Ochsner leads the Youngstown Symphony at Stambaugh Auditorium at 2:30, and at 7:30, The Cleveland Orchestra and the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Chorus, Daniel Reith & William Henry Caldwell, conductors, take the audience on a journey through the life of civil rights leader and author Coretta Scott King, the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (pictured: the first MLK celebration concert, photo by Roger Mastroianni).

And on Monday, Severance Music Center welcomes the community to an open house with activities and performances for the MLK holiday. Click here for the schedule. At Noon, classical guitarist Damian Goggans plays works by African diasporic composers, arrangers, and musicians in the Cleveland Museum or Art’s contemporary art galleries.

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Minnesota’s Zeitgeist (“Spirit of the Times”), will join Cleveland’s No Exit for the second of three appearances tonight at 7 at the Bop Stop. On the agenda are world premieres by Christopher Goddard, Luis Daniel Jiménez, James Praznik & Timothy Beyer as well as works by John Cage and Jin Hi Kim.

And at 7:30, The Cleveland Orchestra welcomes violinist Augustin Hadelich (pictured) and conductor Elim Chan to Severance Music Center for the second of three performances of a program featuring Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto and Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra.

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

In London’s Daily Advertiser on January 17, 1745, George Frideric Handel advertised the return of three-fourths of the costs to subscribers of his concert series, indicating that he can’t please them. They responded with renewed support, and concerts resumed a week later. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Minnesota’s Zeitgeist (“Spirit of the Times”), will join Cleveland’s No Exit tonight at 7 in Drinko Recital Hall at Cleveland State University for world premieres by Christopher Goddard, Luis Daniel Jiménez, James Praznik & Timothy Beyer as well as works by John Cage and Jin Hi Kim (repeated at the same hour on January 17 at the Bop Stop, and January 18 at Heights Arts)).

The Baltic nations are renowned for their choral music, the latest of which the Latvian Youth Choir BALSIS will bring to these shores in a seven-concert tour led by conductor Ints Teteroviskis that stops in for a performance at the Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights tonight at 7. The performance is hosted by one of this country’s oldest male voice choirs, the Singers Club of Cleveland. A freewill offering will be received. Click here to view the tour program.

Also on Thursday, The Cleveland Orchestra will welcome violinist Augustin Hadelich and conductor Elim Chan to Severance Music Center for a 7:30 program featuring Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto and Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra (repeated on Friday at 7:30 and Saturday at 8).

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Violin Channel reports that “More than 100,000 scores and parts of music by the groundbreaking twentieth-century composer Arnold Schoenberg have been lost during the recent wildfires in Southern California. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

A MID-WEEK PAUSE:

No concerts on the calendar this Wednesday — so no need to brave the bitterly cold temperatures, either. Perhaps this is a sign to spend the day cozied up indoors.

To check out what the rest of the week has in store, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Know a young singing actor looking to take the stage this summer? The Ohio Light Opera has announced auditions for performers ages 8-18 for its 2025 productions of Brigadoon and Carousel. Sign ups for slots on Friday, February 7 and info about what to prepare can be found here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this day in 1929, Baptist minister, activist, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta. And today, we’re looking back on Dan Hathaway’s write-up about the woman who stood at his side: his wife, Coretta Scott King (pictured, above). [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at Noon, organist Jonathan Moyer plays a free recital using both organs in University Circle’s Church of the Covenant: works by Nico Muhly and Samuel Scheidt on the 17th-century North German-style gallery organ, and 20th-century French pieces on the chancel instrument. You can hear the performance online.

And at 7:00 pm, The Singers’ Club of Cleveland, one of the longest continuing men’s choirs in the country, welcomes interested singers to a two-hour open rehearsal led by artistic director Don Verkuijlen at the Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights.

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Several sources claim that the clarinet was invented by German woodwind builder Johann Christoph Denner on this date in 1690 in Nürnberg. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

No performances on the schedule today, but the rest of this week includes offerings from groups like No Exit & Zeitgeist, CityMusic Cleveland, the Akron Symphony, and The Cleveland Orchestra.

For more details and to check out what else is coming up, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Fans of The Princess Bride, rejoice — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced it will play the score to the film live-to-picture on Friday, February 21 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available online.

SUPPORT FOR MUSICIANS IN LA:

For those looking to give support to those in the music industry who have been affected by the devastating fires in southern California, consider donating to organizations like the Entertainment Community Fund, AGMA Relief Fund, and MusiCares.

[Read more…]