By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Charnofsky from WRUW, summer organ institute faculty from Oberlin

. R.I.P. Peter Nero

. Nipper, an early audiophile?

HAPPENING TODAY:

From 2 to 4 this afternoon, Eric Charnofsky hosts Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music from the studios of WRUW. Today’s playlist includes unusual selections by Louis Aubert, Gerhard Stäbler, J.S. Bach, Philip Glass, Carl Orff & Elizabeth Austin.

And tonight at 7:30, an Oberlin Summer Organ Institute Faculty Concert features Jonathan W. Moyer & Kirk M. Rich performing on the organs by D.A. Flentrop (Dutch)  & Greg Harrold (Spanish) in Warner Concert Hall. Click here for webcast.

For details, click here. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Four OLO shows, Montero recital, three visits to Jurassic Park, and U.C. Bells

. Cleveland Pops’ season & William Byrd’s legacy

. Almanac remembers premiere of Paula M. Kimper’s Sojourner Truth & milestones for Percy Grainger, Fernando Sor, George Antheil & Randall Thompson

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

In Freedlander Theatre on the campus of the College of Wooster, Ohio Light Opera repeats Arizona Lady, an unusual Viennese operetta by Emmerich Kálmán with an American West theme on Sunday at 2, and continues its stagings of H.M.S. Pinafore (pictured, Friday at 2), No, No, Nanette (Saturday at 2), and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Saturday at 7:30). Check our reviews columns to read what our writers have had to say about the productions (we’ll eventually review all six of the shows). [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. OLO stages Pinafore, CIPC hosts Gevorgyan recital, Kent Blossom Festival presents first faculty concert

. Youngstown Symphony season, Opera Western Reserve grant for Carmen

. Almanac remembers famous Douglass anti-slavery speech that inspired an opera

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 2 pm, Ohio Light Opera continues its run of H.M.S. Pinafore or The Lass That Loved a Sailor in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster.

At 7:30, Eva Gevorgyan returns to Cleveland to kick off the 2023 Cleveland International Piano Competition and Institute for Young Artists with a program of Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

And Kent Blossom Music Festival Faculty Concerts begin at 7:30 pm with a performance by WindSync — Garrett Hudson, flute, Emily Tsai, oboe, Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet, Kara LaMoure, bassoon and Anni Hochhalter, horn — in  Ludwig Recital Hall on the Kent State campus. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Americana on Charnofsky’s Monday playlist, Blossom Band opens summer season with two concerts

. Almanac remembers Leoš Janáček & expensive 1876 centennial march commission from Wagner

HAPPENING THESE TWO DAYS:

Monday:

2:00 pm – Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Eric Charnofsky, host. Morton Gould’s Foster Gallery (orchestra), Arthur Foote’s Three Pieces for Flute and Piano, Leoš Janáček’s The Wild Duck, The Dove & The Weeping Fountain (choir), Aaron Copland’s Vocalise (flute and piano), Kristin Kuster’s Jellyfish (saxophone and piano), John Philip Sousa’s Dwellers of the Western World (orchestra), Peter Terry’s Rise (saxophone, piano, electronics) & Morton Gould’s Santa Fe Saga (concert band). Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

Monday & Tuesday:

8:00 pm – Blossom Festival Band, “Salute to America.” Loras John Schissel, conducting (photo above by Roger Mastroianni from 2001). Patriotic marches, Broadway favorites, an Armed Forces Salute, and more — concluding with fireworks. Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls. Tickets available online. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. A wealth of performances from lyric theater to chamber music to Bach’s complete Brandenburgs & the opening of the Blossom season

. Remembering Bang on a Can All Stars bassist Robert Black

. Almanac: three dates in music history featuring Salonen, Henze, Brunelle, W.F. Bach, Satie, Gluck, Rousseau, Brewster, Weinrich & Fennell

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Ohio Light Opera has four of its six shows playing in repertoire: this weekend, No, No, Nanette! (pictured, Saturday at 2), How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Friday & Sunday at 2), and Camelot (Saturday at 7:30).

ChamberFest Cleveland’s Friday’s concert at Dunham Tavern, Words Misunderstood, will feature György Ligeti’s Poème symphonique (for 100 metronomes), and Saturday’s Mixon Hall performance picks up the festival theme, Lightness of Being, with Helmut Lachenmann’s Pression, and works by Mozart and Mendelssohn, both concerts at 7:30. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Youmans show continues with Wooster matinee, Divas on display at the V&A (pictured: Adelina Patti)

. Almanac remembers Henry VIII, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joseph Joachim, Richard Rodgers

HAPPENING TODAY:

2:00 pm – Ohio Light Opera: No, No, Nanette. Book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. Lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach. Music by Vincent Youmans. Freedlander Theatre, 329 E. University St., Wooster. Tickets available online.

INTERESTING READ:

New Exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum

“Exploring the definition of diva-dom is the exhibition DIVA, just opened at the V&A, London. ‘The exhibition will show that there are many definitions and interpretations of a diva,’ lead curator Kate Bailey tells BBC Culture. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Meet the Sonic Sphere

. Check out the rarities in Eric Charnofsky’s Monday playlist

. Birthday salute to the late Jacob Druckman

HAPPENING TODAY:

2:00 pm – Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Eric Charnofsky, host. Richard Strauss’s Violin Concerto in d,, Charles Norman Mason’s Anthem of Despair and Hope (choir), Suzanne Farrin’s Undecim (string quartet), Frederick Delius’s Marche Caprice & A Song Before Sunrise (orchestra), Jacob Druckman’s Dark Upon the Harp (mezzo-soprano, brass quintet & percussion) & Franz Liszt’s Second Book of Songs for Solo Piano. Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

INTERESTING READ:

“At the Shed in Manhattan, audience members can take in live, spatially designed music inside a suspended hall called the Sonic Sphere.” Click here to read the New York Times story, “Enter the 50-Ton Concert Hall That Hangs Like a Disco Ball.” [Read more…]