by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7, the Baldwin Wallace FOCUS Festival will shine a light on the compositions of Omar Thomas, while Local #4 Music Fund will present “Dynamic Deviations: Works Featuring Living and Underrepresented Composers at Convivium 33 Gallery.

Tonight at 7:30, two British guests — composer and conductor George Benjamin and countertenor Tim Mead — will join The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in Benjamin’s Dream of the Song, and Apollo’s Fire concertmaster Alan Choo (pictured) will solo in “Sacred Mysteries: Biber’s Rosary Sonatas for Violin” in Rocky River (the first of four concerts). Read our previews of the Benjamin here, and of the Biber here.

At the same hour, Jonathon Turner and Emorja Roberson, voice & Rylan Harris, voice/piano will perform music by Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Leslie Adams, Three Mo’ Tenors, and William T. Burleigh at CIM, and The Oberlin Trio, pianist Haewon Song, violinist David Bowlin, and cellist Dmitry Kouzov will give a faculty concert in Kulas Recital Hall.

INTERESTING READS:

Dance Magazine interviews Cleveland Ballet’s new artistic director Timour Bourtasenkov about his plans to reset the 9-year-old company after “a series of recent scandals.” Read the conversation here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 noon, Oberlin second-year student Owen Metz, who is double-majoring  in organ performance and mathematics, will play Louis Vierne’s Third Symphony on the Church of the Covenant’s Tuesday Noon Organ Plus series. Attend in  person or click here for the live stream.

And tonight at 7:30 on Akron’s Tuesday Musical series in E.J. Thomas Hall, pianist Aaron Diehl (pictured) will play solo piano works by Duke Ellington, William Grant Still, and Margaret Bonds, before joining bassist David Wong and drummer Aaron Kimmel, the other members of his trio, in jazz selections.

Visit our Concert Listings for details.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

February 13 witnessed the baptism of Spanish composer Fernando Sor in Barcelona in 1778, the final curtain call for German composer Richard Wagner in Bayreuth in 1883, and the birth of American composer George Kleinsinger in 1914. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

A number of Black History Month events are scheduled for Saturday. At 7:30, the Akron Symphony (pictured) will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Gospel Meets Symphony, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series will present Trey McLaughlin & The Sounds of Zamar (preceded at 4 by a Community Gospel Singing Workshop), and also at 7:30, Christian McBride will host The Movement Revisited, an epic concert event at the Maltz PAC honoring Civil Rights icons Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr. and former President Barack Obama.

Other orchestral performances include The Cleveland Orchestra in Beethoven’s Fifth and Schubert’s Sixth with guest conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste on Saturday at 8, and Sunday at 3 (both are now sold out), the final pair of CityMusic Cleveland “Symphony of Secrets” programs led by Brendan Slocumb on Saturday at 7:30 in Rocky River and Sunday at 4 in Akron, and your choice of the Suburban Symphony in Mahler’s Fourth under Martin Kessler or Heights Chamber Orchestra with hornist Richard King under Travis Jürgenson, both on Sunday at 3:30.

Also on Sunday, at 4  pm, Les Délices will present harpsichordist Mark Edwards in Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” at First Congregational in Hudson, and Oberlin will present a faculty recital on Sunday at 7:30 by the Verona Quartet with pianist Angela Cheng.

And off the beaten path, Oberlin’s 60-minute TIMARA event led by percussionist Ross Karre will feature “ homemade percussion instruments, subtle drones, energetic rhythms, live electronic music, and video projections” on Saturday at 1 pm at the Birenbaum, and the CIM New Music Ensemble will showcase works by composer Carlos Sanchez- Gutierrez on Sunday at 2 at the Art Museum.

Visit our Concert Listings for details. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Two events scheduled for tonight are sold out: The Linking Legacies Project at the Music Settlement and The Cleveland Orchestra with Jukka-Pekka Saraste. That leaves the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra, which plays at 7 under Doug Droste in Gamble Auditorium, No Exit new music ensemble, who make their debut at the Art Museum at 7:30 with a program of Surrealist films and piano music, Part 1 of Oberlin’s Danenberg Honors Recital at 8 in Warner Concert Hall, and CityMusic Cleveland at 8:30 at Sagrada Familia on Cleveland’s West Side. Visit our Concert Listings for details.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Long-time Boston Symphony music director Seiji Ozawa (pictured above) died at his home in Tokyo on February 6 at the age of 88. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30,  CityMusic Cleveland presents the first of several performances around town of Symphony of Secrets. Brendan Slocumb (pictured) leads works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Florence Price, Domenico Cimarosa, Astor Piazzolla, Felix Mendelssohn, and Arturo Marquez at East Mount Zion Baptist Church. (Repeated at other venues this week).

Visit our Concert Listings for details.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Piano Cleveland has announced the 56 contestants who will participate in the 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer from July 28 through August 10. Click here to view the photo gallery and personal bios. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Back home from leading a group of Oberlin organ majors who spent Winter Term organ-hopping in Germany, Jonathan W. Moyer plays works by Claude Balbastre, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Jehan Alain, and his own Fanfare: “The Trumpet Sounds Within-a-my Soul” on the Tuesday noon series at the Church of the Covenant. Listen in person or catch a live stream.

Visit our Concert Listings for details.

INTERESTING READ:

“Composer and conductor John Williams is one of the most respected and beloved figures in music. He reflects with League [of American Orchestras] President and CEO Simon Woods on the beginnings of his career, a lifetime in music, and his love for orchestras.” Read the article from Symphony here.

NEW PODCAST:

Kevin McLaughlin has released a new podcast on his “At The Jazz Band Ball” platform. Jazz Soundies 1940-1946 features early music video soundtracks from Louis Jordan, Duke Ellington, Roy Eldridge, Anita O’Day, Fats Waller, The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, et al. [Read more…]