ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad

Pre•Views

Re:Sound Festival — inside the mind of Joo Won Park

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

It’s one thing to push yourself out of your comfort zone. It’s quite another to deliberately put yourself in risky situations over and over again — part of the artistic strategy of electroacoustic composer and improviser Joo Won Park. “I like to solve a puzzle in front of the audience,” he said during a telephone conversation from Detroit.

That might include choosing an electronic instrument or gadget that he doesn’t totally understand, and bringing that onstage without knowing what will happen. “That’s the exciting moment,” he said. Likewise performing with another improviser. “I go onto the stage expecting that my partner will do something unexpected. That’s the approach that I love.”

Park and fellow composer/improviser Molly Jones will bring their Detroit-based duo ParkJones to the Bop Stop on Sunday, June 9 during a 4:00 pm concert as part of the Re:Sound Festival. The program opens with the new music ensemble No Exit presenting works by Yoon-Ji Lee and premieres by area high school students Emma Eddy and Mya Vandegrift as part of the CoLab project. Following ParkJones, pianist Ju-Ping Song will perform works by Amy Beth Kirsten and Nicole Lizée based on trauma and fallibility. Tickets are available here.

[Read more…]

Re:Sound Festival — drummer & improviser Leo Suarez

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

Two main ideas make up the improvisational language of drummer Leo Suarez on his solo album Marbles On Tile. Slowly-decaying or “soft” sounds form his base, and quickly-decaying or “hard” sounds are layered overtop.

But describing what that actually sounds like is more difficult. During a telephone conversation last week, Suarez brought up a helpful comparison: the Bauhaus paintings of Kandinsky. Clouds of color make up the background, “but on top there’s this highly complex construction of very defined shapes and lines,” Suarez said. “Even though that wasn’t exactly my inspiration, I was reading about his work at about the same time, and it all kind of made sense to me.”

Suarez will bring that musical language to CODA on Saturday, June 8 during a 9:00 pm concert as part of the Re:Sound Festival. Joining Suarez on the double-bill will be a fellow Philadelphian: madam data (Ada Adhiyatma), whose main tools of music-making are alto clarinet, handmade computer programs, field recordings, and old samplers. madam data’s set includes their Biological Time 1, described as “a structured improvisation that engages with the body’s sense of ‘waiting’ by framing durations of silence.”

[Read more…]

ENCORE Chamber Music: 2019 festival overview

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

Bohemian music celebrating life and the arts is the theme for ENCORE Chamber Music’s fourth season, titled “La Bohème.” From June through mid-July, the festival will present eight ticketed faculty concerts, seven free student performances, and seventeen free master classes, all at the Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills. Both single tickets and season passes are available.

The Jupiter String Quartet (above) kicks off the season on Friday, June 7 at 7:00 pm at the Tudor House with a program that includes Puccini’s Crisantemi (“Chrysanthemums”), Janáček’s Quartet No. 1, “Kreutzer Sonata,” and Dvořák’s Quartet No. 13 in G.

Another side of the Jupiter will be on display the next day, June 8 during master classes at 10:00 am and 4:00 pm at the campus’s middle school band room.

[Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland 2019: Under the Influence

by

by Mike Telin

Since bursting onto the scene in 2012 with its Big Bang!, ChamberFest Cleveland has established itself as an organization of the highest musical integrity with a seemingly endless number of themed programs. Looking through the archives of this publication, it’s fascinating to see the imaginative and clever way the Festival has reinvented itself each year.

But a closer look reveals that ChamberFest’s mission, “to nurture a deep family-like connection between musicians and audiences of all ages,” has never waned. In summing up the 2016 season, ClevelandClassical.com critic Neil McCalmont noted, “Technical prowess, fierce dedication, and the cultivation of friendships all contribute to ChamberFest’s captivating concerts, which keep audiences coming back season after season.”

Season 8, titled Under the Influence, considers the factors that inspire and influence composers. Cutting-edge pieces by John Adams, John Cage, and Steve Reich will anchor works by other classical composers. Pre-concert talks will be held prior to most concerts and are open to the public. Tickets and subscriptions are on sale now and range in price from $15 to $40. For concert details and additional information, call (216) 471-8887 or visit www.chamberfestcleveland.com.

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Opera’s Porgy and Bess: a conversation with conductor Darwin Aquino

by

by Daniel Hathaway

The Cleveland Opera (formerly Opera Circle) will conclude its season with a single performance of George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at the Ohio Theater in Playhouse Square on Saturday, June 1 at 7:30 pm.

Adapted from Dorothy and DuBose Heyward’s 1925 novel and later play, Porgy, the piece debuted in Boston in September of 1935, then moved on to Broadway. The character of subsequent productions veered back and forth between opera and musical theater until a 1976 Houston Grand Opera version solidly re-established the work as what the composer himself called a “folk opera.”

The Cleveland performance, featuring Jonathan Stuckey as Porgy, and Karen Clark Green as Bess, will be led by Dominican-born conductor Darwin Aquino. He’s now based in St. Louis, where he works with several opera companies, a symphony orchestra, and two university orchestras. I reached him by telephone in Cleveland to chat about the Gershwins’ famous opera, which he’ll be conducting for the first time. [Read more…]

A look at the 2019 edition of the Re:Sound Festival of New and Experimental Music

by

by Mike Telin

In summing up last year’s inaugural Re:Sound Festival of New and Experimental Music, ClevelandClassical.com critic David Kulma wrote that “[the] Festival was an ear-opening experience for the musically adventurous …this intense weekend of staggering, high-quality performances showed the virtues of a performer- oriented festival where each act is fully invested in its own chosen music.”

Judging from the stellar lineup of musicians the organizers have assembled, the sophomore edition of Re:Sound — which runs from June 6 through June 9 — promises to once again deliver a musically adventurous experience.   

The 2019 edition will include six concerts featuring fourteen soloists and ensembles from across the United States. And once again the concerts will take place in venues that will allow players and audiences to relax and spend time together. In addition to purchasing single tickets, Festival passes are also available.

Here’s a run-down of this year’s offerings.

[Read more…]

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival: the 2019 edition

by

by Mike Telin

If it’s the beginning of June, it’s time for classical guitarists from around the world to gather at the Cleveland Institute of Music for the annual Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival.

For the 2019 edition, which runs from Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9, Founder and Artistic Director Armin Kelly has invited an outstanding lineup of performers, clinicians, and lecturers. The Festival will feature twelve participating artists and ensembles, five concerts, two premiere performances, nine master classes, two youth ensemble performances, three lectures, and one guitar demonstration concert. Click here to view a Festival schedule.

Thursday, June 6

Colin Davin (USA) will kick things off at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall with a program that includes Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, J.S. Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 3, BWV 1005 and Violin Partita No. 2, BWV 1004, and the Cleveland premiere of David Crowell’s Point Cloud. A performance by students of Tom Poore and Andrew Poxon in the Pogue Lobby will begin at 6:50 pm.  

[Read more…]

ChamberFest: catching up with pianist Andrius Žlabys

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

“As I get older I’m really enjoying situations where the audience is five feet away from you and you can feel everyone’s energy,” clarinetist Franklin Cohen told us in March. That month ChamberFest Cleveland, which he co-directs with his daughter Diana Cohen, launched its House Concert Series.

To Lithuanian-born pianist Andrius Žlabys, what’s interesting about house concerts is that they are always unique. “There’s much more variety than with regular concerts, from room size to pianos,” he said from New Haven, Connecticut during a telephone conversation last week. “As a pianist, of course I get to meet new instruments all the time, so it’s always an adventure.”

The third and final event in ChamberFest’s House Concert Series takes place on Thursday, May 16 at 7:30 pm in the home of Mark and Sue Hollingsworth in Shaker Heights — the address will be printed on your receipt after you purchase a ticket.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir & Cleveland Composers Guild: a conversation with Natsumi Osborn

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

Composer Natsumi Osborn remembers the first time she read October Danger, a poem by her friend Anabelle Clark.

“It’s very descriptive and kind of mystical,” Osborn said during a telephone conversation. “It evoked in my head the kinds of images and feelings that I always want to evoke in my music.”

Osborn went on to set that text to music with her choral work Autumn Reflections, for which she won the Cleveland Composers Guild’s 2019 Collegiate Composition Contest. She’s currently finishing up her second year at Oberlin College and Conservatory, where she studies composition with Stephen Hartke, Jesse Jones, and Elizabeth Ogonek.

In two concerts this weekend, the Cleveland Chamber Choir, under the direction of Scott MacPherson, will perform works by members of the Cleveland Composers Guild, including Osborn’s Autumn Reflections, and pieces by American and British women composers — details below.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra: a conversation with concerto competition winner Julia Schilz

by

by Mike Telin

As a young musician, many times the decision to learn a new piece is not a decision at all. Such was the case for violinist Julia Schilz and Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy. “My teacher assigned it,” Schilz said during a telephone conversation. “But from the moment I heard it I was so drawn to it.”

On Friday, May 10 at 8:00 pm at Severance Hall, Schilz, a COYO concerto competition winner, will have the honor of performing the work with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra under the direction of Vinay Parameswaran. The program also includes Bartók’s Dance Suite and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. Tickets are available online.

Throughout the concerto Bruch borrows Scottish folk melodies such as Through the Wood Laddie, The Dusty Miller, I’m A’ Doun for Lack O’Johnnie, and Hey Tuttie Tatie. That said, Schilz views the concerto as “100% classical music” that is inspired by these Celtic tunes.

Describing the piece, Schilz, who is in her third year as a member of COYO, said that the first and third movements are extremely lyrical.

[Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us