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DIARY: Tuesday, January 9, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

There’s nothing on the concert calendar for today, but while waiting for Northeast Ohio’s classical concerts to rouse themselves from a well-deserved, post-holiday nap, here’s an interesting listen to recommend.

Les Délices has re-released its SalonEra second season program Phoenix of Mexico as an audio-only podcast. “Bassoonist Catalina Guevara Víquez Klein, violinist Karin Cuellar Rendon, and mezzo-soprano Raquel Winnica Young (pictured) explore personal connections to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695), the 17th Century Mexican nun who was a visionary poet, intellectual, and proto feminist. Our guests explore her legacy in music by Jose Marin, Antonio Durán de la Mota, Rafael de Castellanos, and others.” Listen here.

For details, visit our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

January 9 marks the birthdays of American professor and composer John Knowles Paine (1839, in Portland, Maine, pictured) and of longtime Metropolitan Opera administrator Rudolph Bing (1902, in Vienna). [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, January 8, 2024

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by Jarrett Hoffman

FOUR MUSIC MAJORS TO BE CUT, DANA SCHOOL OF MUSIC TO UNDERGO “IMMEDIATE REORGANIZATION”:

As Youngstown State University shared in a statement on its Facebook page yesterday:

Youngstown State University’s Dana School of Music is NOT closing, contrary to social media posts.

Four consistently low-enrolled majors, which have had approximately 12 graduates in the past five years, will be sunset this academic year. These majors include Bachelor of Arts in Music, Bachelor of Music in Composition, Master of Music in Composition and Master of Music in Jazz Studies. Students currently enrolled in these four majors will be able to graduate from their designated major. This step in Taking Charge of Our Future aligns with the Ohio Department of Higher Education’s review of duplicative and low-enrolled programs. 

The Dana School of Music will undergo an immediate reorganization to enhance and rejuvenate the school to better serve students and improve the marketability of graduates. This reorganization allows the university to re-envision and differentiate the undergraduate and graduate programs in Music Education and Music Performance as well as continue to support Music Recording and community initiatives, including the YSU Youth Orchestra.

YSU continues to value the Dana School of Music and the impact it has on the university and the surrounding community.

According to an article by Denise Dick in The Business Journal, over the weekend a petition began to circulate online urging people to “Save the Dana School of Music” and to attend a peaceful protest outside YSU’s Tod Hall on Wednesday, January 10 at 4:00 pm.

The petition also links to the website save-Dana.com, where the enrollment figures cited by the University are disputed and the findings of the analytics firm hired by the University are questioned.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, December 22-25, 2023

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Last call for Holiday Concerts.

On Friday and Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30, Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts continue at Severance Center with Brett Mitchell on the podium and soprano Capathia Jenkins in the spotlight.

On Friday & Saturday at 7, Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra presents Wassail concerts at Chagrin Valley Little theater, and on Friday at 7:30, Les Délice winds up its Noel, Noel series featuring soprano Amanda Powell at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights.

On Saturday at high Noon, TubaChristmas Akron (pictured) packs the stage of E.J. Thomas Hall with gleaming tubas and euphoniums.

And on Sunday, Christmas Eve, through a strange convergence of dates and time zones, the annual Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols from King’s College, Cambridge will be broadcast live at 10am, the same hour that churches in the US’s Eastern Time Zone are marking the last Sunday in Advent. Read a reflection from the Dean of Chapel, download the printed program and listen live here. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, December 21, 2023

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

The Winter Solstice is scheduled for today at 10:27 pm in the Northern Hemisphere, marking the point when we northerners are tilted as far away from the sun as possible, producing a Thursday with the shortest daylight and longest night of the year. Just the thing to warm our hearts as the latest news flows in from around the globe.

Time to shine light on darkness today, and as usual, music comes to the rescue.

At 7:30 this evening, Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts continue at Severance Center with Brett Mitchell on the podium and soprano Capathia Jenkins in the spotlight, and Les Délices presents Noel, Noel featuring soprano Amanda Powell at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River. Visit our Concert Listings for details..

Or if you’d like to contemplate the Solstice online, click here to watch Sting’s A Winter’s Night, broadcast live from England’s Durham Cathedral in 2009. The comments are exuberant, and “magical” is the most-used word to describe this 90-minute concert. [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, December 20, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: McGaffin Carillon holiday concert at lunch, The Cleveland Orchestra does Elf, and Les Délices with soprano Amanda Powell (pictured) in “Noel, Noel”

•Announcements: applying for fellowships and grants from Cleveland Arts Prize and National Endowment for the Arts

•Interesting read: an interview with one of the climate activists who protested from the audience during Tannhäuser at the Met last month

•Almanac: Cleveland native H. Leslie Adams turns 91

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:15 pm, David Osburn will give an “Around the world carillon concert for Christmas” from McGaffin Tower. It’s free. Click here for the program and to access the live stream.

At 7:30 pm at Severance, conductor Brett Mitchell and The Cleveland Orchestra will put on a screening of Elf, with live music from the Orchestra of course. Tickets are available here.

And at that same time at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Akron, Les Délices and guest soprano Amanda Powell will perform Noel, Noel, “a musical journey from darkness to light and from hope to joy featuring favorite carols and festive baroque music by Praetorius, Merula, Buxtehude, and others.” Performances continue tomorrow in Rocky River and on Friday in Cleveland Heights. Read a preview article by Mike Telin here, and get tickets here.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, December 19, 2023

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Anna O’Connell, soprano & harp, Jonathan Goya, cornetto & recorder & Mikhail Grazhdanov, organ will play renaissance and early baroque music at Noon on the Tuesday Organ Plus series at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle, a performance also available as a live stream. 

And tonight at 7:30 (repeated on Wednesday), The Cleveland Orchestra takes a break from its Holiday Concerts to play the live score for a screening of Elf in Concert at Severance Music Center. Brett Mitchell conducts. More information here.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these performances.

NEWS  BRIEFS:

Celebrate the December Holidays with the Bells of University Circle. Daily 12:15 concerts on the McGaffin Carillon at the Church of the Covenant will feature resident carillonneur George Leggiero (12/27), Patrick Macoska (12/21 & 12/22), Sheryl Modlin (12/26) & Keiran Cantilina (12/28 & 12/29). Cantilina will also play a special candlelight carillon concert on Christmas Eve (12/24) at 7pm. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, December 18, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Western Reserve Chorale invites interested vocalists to join for the remainder of the season, which includes performances of Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem in March and a program of American choral music in June. The ensemble rehearses on Tuesday evenings, 7:15-9:30 at Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights, resuming on January 9.

“WRC is a non-auditioned community chorus. Our repertoire does require prior musical experience and a willingness to spend time learning the music. We encourage interested singers to come to a rehearsal or two in order to determine if you would enjoy singing with the Chorale.” Send an email to let the ensemble know that they should expect you in January and what vocal part you sing.

Apollo’s Fire’s board president, Charles Bittenbender, has been nominated as a 2023 Notable Nonprofit Board Leader from Crain’s Cleveland Business. Read here.

INTERESTING READS:

An article in Wine Enthusiast delves into the intersection of A.I. and criticism — in this case wine criticism. On one hand, Jason Wilson notes how unnerving it is that artificial intelligence is doing “things we thought were innately human—to write, create art, make music… and perhaps now ‘taste’ wine.” On the other, he suggests that perhaps the astounding accuracy of A.I. wine identification “can free up the sommelier or critic to focus more on the emotional, romantic side…By leaving the blind tasting and quantifications to the robots, perhaps we can reclaim what’s human about wine.” Read here.

In another peculiar handshake between arts and technology, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra recently performed with soprano Maria Callas — 46 years after her passing — and Tim Byrne reviewed it for The Guardian. Click here to read “Maria Callas’s hologram concert: ersatz simulacrum of a dead diva is weird and depressing.”

[Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, December 16-17, 2023

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

First, the repeating events: On Saturday, *The Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus continues its series of holiday concerts with Capathia Jenkins (2:30 & 7:30 at Severance, repeated at the same times on Sunday), *Cleveland Chamber Choir offers Iberian holiday music (7 pm at first Baptist, a second performance), Summit Choral Society sings by candlelight (7:30 in St. Bernard, Akron, repeated on Sunday at 2:30) & *Apollo’s Fire’s celebrates an Irish-Appalachian Christmas (pictured) 8 pm at Federated Church in Chagrin Falls, repeated on Sunday at 4:30 at the Cleveland Museum of Art).

On Saturday, the MET Opera Matinee broadcast is an abridged, English language version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Noon on WCLV), Burning River Brass plays original arrangements (7:30 at The Bath Church, Akron), & TrueNorth Chorale & Chamber Orchestra perform Holiday Classics (7:30 at Avon Lake Presbyterian).

On Sunday, the Canton Symphony’s Holiday Pops is sold out, but the Chancel Choir of Bath Church presents a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (3 pm at Bath Church in Akron), & the Lake Erie Wind Quintet presents the tale of The Flutist Who Stole Christmas at Franklin Circle Church on Cleveland’s near West Side.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these performances, and see our Previews and Reviews for articles about starred events. [Read more…]

DIARY: Friday, December 15, 2023

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By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Holiday concerts begin at 7 with Burning River Brass at St. Wendelin in Tremont and continue at 7:30 with *Apollo’s Fire’s Irish-Appalachian Christmas at St. Raphael, Bay Village, *The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus with Capathia Jenkins at Severance, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra at the Maltz (pictured), and Summit Choral Society at St. Bernard, Akron. At 8 pm, *Cleveland Chamber Choir brings holiday music from  the Iberian Peninsula to Oberlin’s Fairchild Chapel.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these performances, and see our Previews and Reviews for articles about starred events.

CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA NEWS BRIEFS:

The Cleveland Orchestra will host its 44th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Concert in the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center on Sunday, January 14, at 7 p.m.  [Read more…]

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