by Daniel Hathaway

ARTICLE LINKS:

Washington National Opera Is Leaving the Kennedy Center (NY Times)

In Memoriam: Remembering the Extraordinary Artists We lost in 2025 (The Violin Channel)

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

Today marks the passing of American composer and conductor Arthur Shepherd (pictured) in 1958 in Cleveland. Born in Idaho on February 19, 1880, Shepherd entered the New England Conservatory at age 12 and upon graduation moved to Salt Lake City, leading a local orchestra for six years. He would later accept a teaching position at his alma mater. After serving as a bandmaster during World War I, at the invitation of Nikolai Sokoloff he was appointed The Cleveland Orchestra’s assistant conductor and program book editor. His tenure with the Orchestra lasted from 1920 until 1928. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

On Thursday at 7 pm, No Exit & Zeitgeist’s “An Evocation of Our Current Time” will premiere at Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral, and will travel on Friday to SPACES and on Saturday to Heights Arts.

On Thursday at 7:30, The Cleveland Orchestra will play Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, which have been subtitled “the Jupiter” and “The Year 1905” respectively. Read the program notes here to find out why. The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday.

On Saturday at 1 pm, the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series will feature Vincenzo Bellini’s I Puritani in a number of local theaters, conducted by Marco Armiliato, with Lisette Oropesa, soprano, Lawrence Brownlee, tenor, Artur Ruciński, baritone, and Christian Van Horn, bass-baritone.

On Sunday at 4 pm, organist Kevin Jones will continue the long-standing January tradition of a complete performance of Olivier Messiaen’s La Nativité on the Holtkamp organ at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, in Cleveland Heights.

The weekend will conclude on Sunday at 7 pm in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center with another long-standing tradition: The Cleveland Orchestra’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert. This edition will be led by Taichi Fukumura, and features Latonia Moore, soprano, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Chorus.

For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

TODAY’S FEATURED ARTICLES:

Terence Blanchard to curate The Cleveland Orchestra’s fourth annual Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival May 15–24 (Orchestra Press Release)

Piano Cleveland to present Concerts Around Town (Web Page)

Semyon Bychkov Appointed Music Director of Paris National Opera (The Violin Channel)

Béla Fleck cancels Kennedy Center shows (NY Times) [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

12:00 Noon – Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concert. The Horizon Trio (Garrett Folger, trumpet & composer, Carmen Castaldi, drums & Anthony Fuoco, piano). Jazz at Trinity Cathedral.

TODAY’S HEADLINES (from Arts Journal):

Corporation or Public Broadcasting Has Officially Dissolved (The Guardian)

Ultimately, NPR Will Be Okay, Says Ari Shapiro (Substack)

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

French composer Francis Poulenc (pictured) was born on this date in 1899, making January 7 a good occasion to revisit his Flute Sonata. Demarre McGill plays it here with pianist Michael McHale, but you can simultaneously raise a glass to a second musician, Jean-Pierre Rampal, born on this date in 1922, with a performance of the work he recorded with pianist Robert Veyron-Lacroix.

His Gloria exemplifies his compositional style, aptly described by a YouTube commentator: “His ingenious ability to join the secular and the sacred, in this case, French cabaret and High liturgy is unmatched, except maybe for Mozart.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Tuesday Musical announces 70th Scholarship Competition deadlines

The Violin Channel reports more Trump-Kennedy Center cancellations

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

In Western Christian communities, January 6 marks the Feast of the Epiphany or the visit of astrologers from the East to worship the infant Jesus, bringing symbolic gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The story, told only in the Gospel according to Matthew, has spawned a rich mythology and inspired multiple works of art.

Visit the YouTube playlist of 130 titles of music for the Epiphany here, including Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, Peter Cornelius’s Die Könige, and Gian Carlo Menotti’s 1951 made-for-television opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Pierre Boulez, who died on this date in 2016, is considered one of the most — if not the most — important figures in classical music from the latter half of the 20th century. That reputation derives from all aspects of his work: composer, conductor, writer, and administrator.

Contained under that large umbrella is a decades-long relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra: his American professional debut at Severance Hall in 1965 led to more than 220 concerts with the Orchestra. He became its first principal guest conductor in 1969, served as musical advisor for two seasons after the death of George Szell in 1970, and made many recordings with the Orchestra, including five that received Grammy Awards.

Longtime principal keyboardist Joela Jones memorably described his personality in an interview in 2015 with Mike Telin, as the Orchestra prepared to celebrate Boulez’s 90th birthday: “…to me it’s amazing that somebody who is so great, so brilliant, and so gifted, could also be so humble and modest. He just makes you feel so comfortable, like you are his equal, which of course you’re not. And, if you have enough intelligence you know that.” [Read more…]

The daily Diary is on holiday and will resume on Monday, January 5.

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

7:00 pm – Apollo’s Fire: Michael Praetorius’ Christmas Vespers at Trinity Cathedral & Burning River Brass: Christmas Around the World at The Bath Church, Akron.

7:30 pm – The Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concert in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

By some calendars, the first Saturnalia festival was held on this date in Rome in 497 BCE, just one of the ancient Winter Solstice-centered events that might have influenced modern Christmas celebrations way down the line, including such traditions as the Christmas card, the first example having been commissioned on this date in 1843 by Henry Cole, founder of London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

INTERESTING READS:

The New York Times reports from Naples, Italy that “Ennio Morricone is getting a posthumous opera premiere, correcting a decades-old snub that dismissed him as a mere ‘film composer.’” Read the article by Elisabetta Povoledo here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

On this date in 1938, violinist Joseph Szigeti, conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos, and The Cleveland Orchestra gave the first performance of Ernest Bloch’s Violin Concerto.

Bloch had been appointed the first Musical Director of the Cleveland Institute of Music upon its opening in 1920, at its original location of 3146 Euclid Avenue. (The school’s mission as proclaimed by Bloch: “Musical education, in addition to the thorough study of technique, ought above all else, to develop qualities of appreciation, judgment and taste, and to stimulate understanding and love of music.”) [Read more…]

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

by Daniel Hathaway

On Friday at 6 pm, the Cleveland Museum of Art presents Chamber Music in the Atrium: A Musical Prelude for the Holidays featuring M.U.S.i.C. — Stars in the Classics in a selection of vocal works, piano duets, and other musical delights celebrating the season, including excerpts from The Nutcracker performed by Ohio Contemporary Ballet. 

And on Friday at 7 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, in Akron, Jeannette Sorrell leads Apollo’s Fire in Michael Praetorius’ elaborate Christmas Vespers, featuring antiphonal choirs, trumpets, sackbuts, cornettos, lutes, harp, strings and recorders. Singers include sopranos Rebecca Myers, Andréa Walker and Molly Netter, countertenor Doug Dodson, tenors Michael Jones & Matthew Newhouse, baritone Matthew Dexter, and Apollo’s Singers and Apollo’s Musettes (Treble Youth Choir). This late Renaissance extravaganza will be repeated four times next week.

The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus plus guest choirs will present thirteen Holiday Concerts with guest conductor Sarah Hicks in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center during the month of December, beginning on Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30, and continuing on Sunday at 2:30 and 7:30 (note correction of start date).

And if you’re interested in singing Handel’s Messiah rather than just listening to that famous oratorio, the Oberlin Conservatory invites you to join conductor Peter Slowik in a Messiah Sing-along featuring soloists and orchestra from the Conservatory and Credo Music in Finney Chapel on Sunday at 7:30. Rent a score for $5,

For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Neighborhood Connections has approved $273,778 in grants to support 81 projects in Cleveland and East Cleveland. [Read more…]