by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, guest conductor Klaus Mäkelä begins his second week of Cleveland Orchestra performances featuring pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in George Gershwin’s Concerto in F. Mäkelä begins the program with Darius Milhaud’s Le Boeuf sur le toit, and ends with Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (program repeated Friday at 7:30 and Saturday at 8).

And tonight at 7, the Avon High School Chamber Orchestra will present Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons featuring professional soloists Mary Beth Ions, Victor Beyans, Samuel Rotberg and Carrie Singler. Proceeds benefit the student musicians and the Avon Local School District music program.

For other forthcoming performances, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

On Wednesday, The Cleveland Orchestra announced details of its 80th international tour. “Over the course of two weeks from August 26 to September 7, the Orchestra will travel to Berlin, Helsinki, Lucerne, Ansfelden, Bratislava, and Vienna, and will be joined by Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson in Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto for four of the performances.” Download a press release here.

Violinist Jinjoo Cho has been appointed to the faculty of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL beginning in September.

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Two of Cleveland’s distinguished pianists will be featured in events today. At noon, Antonio Pompa-Baldi will play in the Atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and tonight at 7:30, faculty pianist Sergei Babyan will solo in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with guest conductor Sarah Hicks and the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra in Mandel Hall at Severance Music Center. Also on the program, Boulanger’s D’un matin du printemps & Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite (1919).

Also today at noon, organist Noah Duckwall will play works by Francisco Correa de Arauxo, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Matthias Weckmann, J.S.Bach & Dieterich Buxtehude at the Church of the Covenant. Click here for the live stream.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Cleveland Orchestra violinist Jessica Lee is leaving the ensemble to take up a position as full time chair of the violin department at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Read a press release here.

“Rhiannon Giddens, the genre-defying singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who trained as an operatic soprano at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, will deliver the keynote address for Oberlin College and Conservatory’s Commencement ceremony honoring the Class of 2024 on Monday, May 27. She will also be awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music degree.” Read a press release here.

The Canton Symphony has announced the opening of part-time positions on its administrative staff for marketing & development assistant and personnel manager. Read more here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Many events to enjoy on Saturday —

The Canton Symphony and Canton Youth Symphony play side-by-side (3 pm, Umstattd Hall), leading up to Sunday’s presentation of the St. John Passion, the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival presents works the Cantor of Leipzig composed in 1724, (7 pm in Gamble Auditorium), Brazilian guitarist Badi Assad performs for the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society (7:30 at the Maltz), violinist Steven Greenman solos with the Firelands Symphony and Chorus (7:30 at Sawmill Creek), Les Délices presents “Seasons Transformed” (7:30 at Disciples Center), and conductor Klaus Mäkelä and cellist Sol Gabetta join The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus (8 pm at Severance — read our Plain Dealer review of Thursday’s concert here).

And more on Sunday —

Dirk Garner will lead the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival forces (pictured) in J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion with Margaret Carpenter Haigh as the Evangelist & Tyler Duncan as Jesus (2 pm in Gamble Auditorium), pianist Evgeny Kissin & baritone Matthias Goerne collaborate in Schumann & Brahms (3 pm at Severance), Heights Arts presents “Close Encounters” with piano trios (3 pm at a Shaker Hts. villa), Music at Bath hosts world percussionist Dan Shiller (4 pm at Bath Church), Les Délices wraps up its “Seasons Transformed” series (4 pm at West Shore Church), Halida Dinova plays “Great Piano Miniatures” (4 pm at St. James, Lakewood), [CANCELLED] Kent State pianist Andrew Le plays a faculty recital (5 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall), and participants in CIM’s Advanced Piano Trio Program perform on the Music from the Western Reserve series (5 pm in Christ Church, Hudson). [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Friday’s calendar is loaded!

The Cleveland Orchestra plays an 11 am matinee with conductor Klaus Mäkelä and cello soloist Sol Gabetta, Lake View Cemetery honors Adella Prentiss Hughes with clarinet quintets at 6pm, the 92nd Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival begins with a concert by ACRONYM (pictured) at 7:30, the Cleveland Art Museum presents Aleksandra Vrebalov’s evening-length work Antennae, inspired by an icon in its collection, Les Délices takes its “Seasons Transformed” to Akron Civic Theater at 7:30, Oberlin Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble mix Shostakovich’s 9th Symphony with a concerto for Cello and Jazz Band at 7:30, and Cleveland Pops Orchestra brings Broadway to Severance Center at 8 pm. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, during the first week of his two-week Cleveland Orchestra residency, 28-year-old Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä will lead a pair of iconic 20th-century British works: William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast (with baritone Thomas Hampson and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus) and Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto (with soloist Sol Gabetta) in a program to be repeated Friday at 11 and Saturday at 8.

You can preview the Walton here in a performance by the Leeds Festival Chorus with the BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis. (At 23:31, baritone Sir Willard White dramatically announces the fateful writing on the wall of the Babylonian king’s banqueting hall and the chorus responds with its famous outcry).

Also at 7:30 tonight, Timothy Weiss will lead the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble in George Crumb’s Black Angels, Jerry Achtermann’s It Sneaks Up On You (world premiere), and Christopher Theofanidis’ If Falling is a Leaf & Artemis (2023 revision) in Warner Concert Hall or via live stream..

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Hang on tight – April 11 was a busy day in the annals of classical music. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

In a follow-up to Monday’s spectacular solar event, at noon today at the Church of the Covenant, organist Jonathan W. Moyer will present “Total Eclipse: Music inspired by the theme of light and darkness.” Click here for the live stream.

And tonight at 7:30, CIM Perspectives will host oboist Titus Underwood & pianist in Mixon Hall, and Cleveland Chamber Music Society will present tenor Matthew Polenzani & pianist Julius Drake (pictured) at Disciples Church.

INTERESTING READ:

New milestone in concert stats. The Violin Channel reports that “In January 2023, pianist Yuja Wang completed an unprecedented Rachmaninoff marathon — in which she played all four Rachmaninoff concerti, as well as the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, in a single performance. She was joined by The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. [Read more…]