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Trenney’s Sounding Light Choir to sing Pietá at St. John’s Cathedral

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by Daniel Hathaway

On Friday, March 15 at 7:30 pm, Tom Trenney will bring his Detroit-based Sounding Light Chamber Choir (“the choir of many voices…one song”) to St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Cleveland for a performance on the Helen D. Schubert series of John Muehleisen’s Pietà, a 90-minute cantata inspired by the stories of three grieving mothers.

“The first story is about the Passion of Jesus Christ,” Trenny said in a telephone conversation. “The second is about the World War II soldier John Kipling and his mother Carrie, who communicated through letters and writings by father Rudyard. The third is based on the eulogy from Matthew Shepard’s funeral.

“Pietá is about the incredible sense of hope and light that emerges on the other side of tragedy. It’s a message of compassion — the opportunity we all have to sit with someone in grief, and help them experience the joy and grace that is present even in the most difficult moments of life.” [Read more…]

Kent State Opera to stage Copland’s The Tender Land

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by Daniel Hathaway

For its spring production, Kent State Opera will present Aaron Copland’s 1954 opera, The Tender Land — a title that seems not to have been staged in Northeast Ohio for at least ten years, although a suite of orchestral excerpts has appeared with some regularity on concert programs.

In a telephone conversation with music director Jay White, the Kent professor admitted that Tender Land was not on his radar before he and Marla Berg decided to produce it at Kent. “The only thing I was familiar with was the choral arrangements of ‘The Promise of Living’ and ‘Stomp Your Foot,’” he said. “Marla wanted to do something in English again and we had done an excerpt from it in our scenes program a couple of years ago. There are essentially three main male characters and two main female characters, and for the first time, we actually had enough men to fill all the principal roles.”

Inspired by Walker Evans’ Depression-era photos and James Agee’s book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and with a libretto by Horace Everett under the pseudonym of Erik Johns, the opera was originally conceived for broadcast on television, but its producers sank the project. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony: Jinjoo Cho, kitchen magnets & the Korngold Concerto

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Sometimes it feels appropriate to get right down to business. Last week, when I got in touch with Jinjoo Cho, that would have meant delving immediately into Korngold’s Concerto, which she played in the final round at the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis enroute to winning the Gold Medal. She’ll revisit the piece with Christopher Wilkins and the Akron Symphony this Saturday, March 16 at 8:00 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall.

But there was something I’d read at the bottom of her bio that I needed to clear up first. So when she picked up the phone, I quickly put on my reporter’s hat and began to investigate.

“In the beginning they were more like souvenirs,” Cho said of her collection of kitchen magnets. “I would get one that reminded me of someplace. Now I feel like it’s become a full-on obsession. Whenever I see a cute one, I just can’t not buy it.”

[Read more…]

Chan E. Park brings pansori singing to Around the World Music Series in Kent

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Just as species can become endangered, so can forms of art. During the mid-20th century, that was the case with pansori — a Korean style of musical storytelling where a solo vocalist takes on many roles, accompanied by a barrel drum. Pansori received official protections and recognition from the South Korean government in 1964 and from UNESCO in 2003.

One of the foremost advocates of that art form in North America is Chan E. Park, who will bring pansori to Standing Rock Cultural Arts’ Around the World Music Series at the North Water Street Gallery in Kent on Saturday, March 16 at 8:00 pm. (Pay what you wish, or give a suggested donation of $10. A 7:30 pm reception will include free sujeonggwa, a traditional Korean ginger-cinnamon-persimmon punch.)

Today, five madang (or song cycles) make up the pansori repertoire. In Kent, Park will give a bilingual performance of one of those five, the Sugungga (“Song of the Underwater Palace”). That English title sounds a bit imposing, but it’s actually a fairly light tale about a dragon king, his loyal turtle, and the rabbit they plan to trick — but who turns the tables on both of them in the end.

[Read more…]

Oberlin Opera Theater to present Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites

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by Mike Telin

Francis Poulenc’s The Dialogues of the Carmelites recounts a fictionalized version of the story of the Martyrs of Compiègne, Carmelite nuns who, during the closing days of the Reign of Terror, were guillotined in Paris for refusing to renounce their vocation.

Beginning on Wednesday, March 13 at 8:00 pm in Hall Auditorium, Oberlin Opera Theater will present the first of four performances of Poulenc’s haunting opera. Performances continue on Thursday and Friday at 8:00 and on Sunday at 2:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

“It’s a fascinating piece,” director Jonathon Field said during a telephone conversation. “Poulenc’s music is phenomenal and describes the dramatic situation quite well. I think that’s why it keeps getting produced over and over again by opera companies around the world.”

Poulenc’s libretto is based on the play of the same name by Georges Bernanos, based on Gertud von Le Fort’s novella Die Letzte am Schafott (The Last on the Scaffold). [Read more…]

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center returns to Tuesday Musical stage

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by Mike Telin

On Tuesday, March 12 at 7:30 pm, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will return to Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall stage as part of Tuesday Musical’s Mainstage Series. The program of Russian music will feature Rachmaninoff’s Trio élégiaque in g for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher for Violin and Piano, Prokofiev’s Sonata in C for Two Violins, and Taneyev’s Piano Quintet in g. Tickets are available online.

“I’m so excited to be able to play this program,” pianist and CMS artistic director Wu Han said during a telephone conversation. “People know the names Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Prokofiev, but they may not know these pieces, and Sergei Taneyev is a name that music lovers in the United States should be more familiar with.”

Han, who will be joined by her CMS colleagues Arnaud Sussmann and Alexander Sitkovetsky, violins, Matthew Lipman, viola, and Nicholas Cannellakis, cello, said the program is built around the relationship that Taneyev had with Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Prokofiev.

“He was Rachmaninoff’s and Scriabin’s teacher, and he claimed that he was Prokofiev’s teacher as well. And at one point, Tchaikovsky was Taneyev’s teacher.” [Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire: Jeffrey Strauss returns for the funeral of Telemann’s canary

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by Daniel Hathaway

When Jeffrey Strauss sings Georg Philipp Telemann’s Funeral Cantata for an Artistically Trained Canary with Apollo’s Fire in four performances this weekend (March 7-10), the baritone will be returning to the stage for the first time following major heart surgery in the fall.

The affliction that sidelined him for six months came as a complete surprise. After singing the ensemble’s Baroque Music Barn concerts last June, Strauss took to bed for a week with a fever that persisted, eventually sending him to his doctor in Chicago for tests. “A blood culture finally identified it as a serious but not that uncommon bacterial infection,” he said in a telephone conversation. After five days in hospital, Strauss was sent home with five weeks’ worth of intravenous antibiotics and an appointment with a cardiologist — the bacteria had damaged a valve in his heart that needed to be replaced.

“I had a wonderful surgeon,” Strauss said. “When he found out I was a singer, he immediately said, ‘I’ll tell the anesthesiologist to put a smaller tube down your windpipe.’ [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland launches House Concert Series: a conversation with Franklin Cohen

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by Mike Telin

It’s wonderful to hear great chamber music performances in a concert hall, but it’s an entirely different experience to hear it in someone’s home with light appetizers and your favorite beverage.

“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 and ChamberFest Cleveland co-artistic director Franklin Cohen said. “There’s something very special about that environment that I can’t even describe — it’s a wonderful thing.”

On Friday, March 8 at 7:30 pm, ChamberFest Cleveland will present the Cohen Candlelight House Concert, featuring Franklin Cohen and the Callisto Quartet. The program will include Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1, “Métamorphoses nocturnes” and Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. Light appetizers and beverages will be served after the concert. Tickets are available online, and the address will be provided upon purchase.

Cohen said that the House Concert Series provides the perfect opportunity to present “a local ensemble that has received national recognition.” [Read more…]

Choice and chance: Ensemble Mélange comes to Sandusky Concert Association

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by Jarrett Hoffman

If you’ve ever been sitting in a concert and just wanted to shout out what piece you want to hear, well here’s your chance — but just a chance.

That’s the concept behind the partly planned, partly unplanned program assembled by mixed sextet Ensemble Mélange for their performance at the State Room at Sandusky State Theatre on Thursday, March 7 at 7:30 pm.

It’s like a party game, and here are the rules: first, each member of the audience receives a printed program that looks kind of like a restaurant menu, with around twenty works or single movements divided into different categories. Those include types of classical music, like Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th-century, and opera, and other genres like latin, jazz, klezmer, and Broadway.

If you get lucky, the group’s random-number generator will match up with the number listed in the corner of your program — and you’ll have your pick of piece, so long as it’s on tap. (In other words, no shouting for Freebird.)

[Read more…]

Contemporary Youth Orchestra says happy 80th birthday to Joan Tower

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by Mike Telin

On September 6 of 2018, Joan Tower celebrated her 80th birthday. On Saturday, March 9 at 7:00 pm, in Cuyahoga Community College’s Metro Auditorium, the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, under the direction of Liza Grossman, will honor that occasion with a concert dedicated to the eminent composer’s music. The program will include the Ohio premieres of Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 6, Stroke, and In Memory (For String Orchestra), as well as Tambor. Tickets are available online.

Among her numerous accolades — Tower has just been named the recipient of the League of American Orchestra’s 2019 Gold Baton Award — she was the first woman to win the Grawemeyer Award for Music in 1990. The New Yorker called her “one of the most successful woman composers of all time,” and she has served as a source of inspiration to Grossman dating back to CYO’s fourth season in 1998. “I was researching women composers and Joan was one of the first to come up,” Grossman said during a telephone conversation.

The conductor said that she quickly became “fascinated” with Tower’s music and history. “The way she was carving a path for women composers and inspiring them to write really was inspirational to me.” Still, it was not until August of 2000 that Grossman decided that the orchestra was ready to play one of Tower’s works. [Read more…]

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