by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

Ohio Light opera now has five of its six summer shows up and running at Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster. Catch Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers (Friday at 2), Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls (Friday at 7:30), Me and My Girl (Saturday at 2), Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Sound of Music (Saturday at 7:30) & Franz Lehár’s The Count of Luxembourg (Sunday at 2).

On Saturday at 7 at Blossom, guest conductor Domingo Hindoyan leads The Cleveland Orchestra & Blossom Festival Chorus in Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, trumpeter Michael Sachs will be featured in Alexander Arutiuian’s Trumpet Concerto, and the program will conclude with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3.

Jodi Kanter’s Stars in the Classics offers two “Summer Music in the Garden” events on Friday and Sunday at 6 in a private garden in Orange Village. Check out the details of “From the Classics to Jazz” and make reservations here.

The McGaffin Carillon in University Circle will get a workout on Friday, with two separate programs by University of Denver carillonneur Carol Jickling Lens at 12:15 and 7 pm.

On Friday at 6:30 pm in Westlake’s Crocker Park, Piano Cleveland Live will present an outdoor concert with Steinway artist Shuai Wang, and a quartet from Cleveland’s Italian folk group, Alla Boara.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The New York Times reports that “Gary Ginstling, the New York Philharmonic’s president and chief executive, abruptly resigned on Thursday after just a year on the job, leaving the orchestra in limbo as it grapples with challenges including heated labor talks and an investigation into its workplace culture after two players were accused of misconduct.

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

With the opening performance of Franz Lehár’s Count of Luxembourg at 2 pm and an evening staging of The Sound of Music at 7:30, Ohio Light Opera will have five of its six summer shows running — and its stage crew busy changing sets — from now through July 28.

Read our group interview with members of the team that makes it all happen in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster. And check out our conversation with artistic director Steven Daigle about the last two shows on this summer’s menu.

Meanwhile in Cleveland, The Cleveland Orchestra is reviving its Summers at Severance series, and tonight at 7 will welcome guest conductor Oksana Lyniv & pianist Inon Barnatan to Mandel Concert Hall for music by Janáček, Rachmaninoff, Borys Lyatoshynsky & Stravinsky. Read our preview here.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On July 11, 1937, American composer George Gershwin died of a brain tumor in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 38. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 12:15 Noon, organist Florence Mustric will play Pachelbel and music by Americans Samuel Barber, Derek Healey, and Charles Ives on the Beckerath organ in Ohio City’s Trinity Lutheran Church, and Ohio Light Opera presents a 2 pm matinee performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers at the College of Wooster.

Weather forecasts have forced a venue change for the Cleveland Museum of Art’s 7:30 City Stages concert by Pahua (Mexico), which now moves to the Museum’s Atrium.

And at 7:30 the Poiesis Quartet (pictured) will play the third Kent/Blossom Faculty Concert in Ludwig Recital Hall at Kent State, surrounding Johannes Brahms’ Third Quartet with contemporary works by Kevin Lau, Joe Hisaischi & Eleanor Alberga. Read a preview here.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

The League of American Orchestras writes, “This summer, YMCA of the Rockies will host the inaugural Arts at Altitude Music Festival featuring the renowned Cleveland Pops Orchestra, led by founding conductor, Carl Topilow. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Venues are dark on this summer Monday. For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Heights Chamber Orchestra will hold auditions for trombone and all strings positions for their 2024-2025 season on Monday, August 19 at 7:30. Musicians interested in auditioning can find information on the 2024-2025 season, excerpts, and a sign-up form on the orchestra’s website, Questions? Call 216.751.7816.

INTERESTING READ:

NPR writes, “You may not know the name Leslie Bricusse (pronounced Brick’-us), but you very likely hum some of the songs he’s written: “Pure Imagination,” “What Kind of Fool Am I?,” “Talk to the Animals,” Superman’s theme “Can You Read My Mind,” “Goldfinger.”

“Mark Eden Horowitz, a senior music specialist at the Library of Congress, where the Bricusse papers join those of Leonard Bernstein, Richard Rodgers, the Gershwins and others, says that in addition to the scripts, musical scores, notes for ideas on shows that never came together, recordings and other items, what’s remarkable about this particular collection is Bricusse’s notebooks.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

Kent/Blossom Festival Young Artists performances begin in a number of locations on Friday (2 pm at Hudson’s Laurel Lake Retirement Community & 7:30 in Ludwig), Saturday (2 pm at Hudson Library) & Sunday (2 pm at CIM’s Mixon Hall & 7:30 in Ludwig).

Banjo sensation Béla Fleck (pictured) joins conductor Brett Mitchell & The Cleveland Orchestra on Saturday at 7 at Blossom for Fleck’s own arrangement of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, plus American music by Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber & William Grant Still.

Ohio Light Opera continues its rotation of its first three productions in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster: The Sound of Music (Friday at 2 & Sunday at 2), Guys and Dolls (Saturday at 2 & Tuesday at 2) & Me and My Girl (Saturday at 7:30).

A Lunchtime Carillon Concert by Sheryl Modlin begins at 12:15 Friday from the McGaffin tower in University Circle.

And a concert at 3 pm Sunday at Lake View Cemetery Community Mausoleum celebrates Cleveland’s forgotten composer, guitar hero, and abolitionist, Justin Holland with 280 years of chamber music by Black composers performed by Damian Goggans (guitar) & Cleveland Orchestra members Liyuan Xie & Isabel Trautwein (violins), Eliesha Nelson (viola) & Tanya Ell (cello).

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 2 pm, Ohio Light Opera presents a matinee performance of Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster.

And at 6:30, the Canton Symphony’s Summer Serenades present an outdoor performance by a string quartet at Lawrence Township Park in North Lawrence.

For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Friends of the McGaffin Carillon in University Circle write, “There are only a few more weeks to hear The McGaffin Carillon (pictured) before it is disassembled in mid-August in preparation for a complete restoration and renovation. The carillon will be silent until next spring when four new bells will be added to the instrument. Stay tuned for the exciting details.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Turning the calendar page, we find ourselves on the cusp between the end of June festivals and the opening of the Blossom Music Center season.

Today’s agenda is blank. For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

INTERESTING READ:

“This season, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin experimented with programming works by female composers at every performance. Results were mixed.” Read (or listen to) Jeffrey Arlo Brown’s report from Berlin in Sunday’s New York Times, “What Happened When an Orchestra Said Goodbye to All-Male Concerts.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Today marks the anniversaries of two births of note — German composer Hans Werner Henze in 1926 and American conductor Philip Brunelle in 1943. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS  WEEKEND: 

On Saturday afternoon, the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute will culminate in a marathon participant chamber music concert (1:30-5 pm in the Conservatory’s Kulas Recital Hall & Orchestra Room), the Cleveland Clinic Concert Band will anticipate Independence Day with American classics (2 pm, Eastman Reading Garden, downtown Cleveland Public Library), and Ohio Light Opera stages Me and My Girl (2 pm in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster.)

Events on Saturday evening include a screening of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark with John Williams’ live score played by Sarah Hicks & The Cleveland Orchestra (7 pm at Blossom), ChamberFest’s Closing Night (7:30 at the Maltz, pictured), Ohio Light Opera’s The Sound of Music (7:30 in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster), and the Stow Symphony (7:30 in Tallmadge Bible Church).

Sunday’s agenda, a bit lighter, includes Ohio Light Opera’s Guys and Dolls (2 pm), a summer carillon concert by Davis Osburn (6 pm, St. Paul’s, Cleveland Hts.,) and a repeat of Saturday’s Cleveland  Orchestra at the Movies (7pm at Blossom).

For details, visit the Concert Listings page.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Piano Cleveland writes, “In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Cleveland International Piano Competition (CIPC), Piano Cleveland has placed six golden pianos in prominent — and sometimes unexpected — locations throughout the city. [Read more…]