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Collegium Musicum Oberliniense November 30 and December 1

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by Abigail Hakel-Garcia

Choosing works that complement one another is not always an easy task. That is, unless a theme emerges. For this weekend’s concerts, Collegium Musicum Oberliniese director Steven Plank has chosen a program that juxtaposes the music of two composers who are usually cast as polar opposites —  Giovanni da Palestrina and Claudio Monteverdi.

On Friday, November 30 and Saturday, December 1 at 8:00 pm in Fairchild Chapel, Plank will lead the ensemble in Jean Mouton’s Nesciens mater, Claudio Monteverdi’s Adoramus te, Christe a6, Felle amaro, O stellae coruscantes and Ave maris stella, Giovanni da Palestrina’s Missa Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La, Eric Whitacre’s Lux arumque, and Giovanni Gabrieli’s Cantate domino. The concerts are free and open to the public.

In his program notes, Plank suggests that while Palestrina was the musical icon of Counter-Reformation Rome, on the other hand, Claudio Monteverdi claims an equally iconic status as the master of seventeenth-century musical modernism. [Read more…]

F. Lorée Oboe Day at Oberlin December 2

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by Mike Telin

When you think of instrument makers, certain names immediately come to mind. There are Stradivarius violins and Steinway pianos, but what about the oboe? “I’ve been playing a Lorée since I was fifteen years old,” Cleveland Orchestra solo English Horn and Oberlin Conservatory Oboe Professor Robert Walters said during a recent interview. “It’s an interesting history that goes back many generations of American oboe playing, and it started with that company.”

On Sunday, December 2 Oberlin Conservatory and the Paris-based company will come together for F. Lorée Oboe Day. Hosted by Walters, the day will include a Q&A session with Lorée president Alain de Gourdon, a recital, master class, reed class, and instrument exhibit. The day is free and open to the public. Click here to view a complete schedule.

Founded in 1881 by François Lorée, the company is the oldest firm specializing in the making of oboes. Since 1935, the company has been run by the de Gourdon family. Walters said that Lorée has been part of similar events at music schools around the country. “I’ve always wanted to invite them to do one here at Oberlin. I did, and they were thrilled.  So I invited some of my friends and students who have big jobs.” [Read more…]

New violinist, new piece: Cleveland Chamber Music Society presents the Juilliard String Quartet

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Armed with both a new first violinist, Areta Zhulla, and a new piece by Lembit Beecher, the Juilliard String Quartet will head to Plymouth Church on Tuesday, November 27 for a 7:30 pm concert presented by the Cleveland Chamber Music Society.

Zhulla joined her new colleagues — violinist Ronald Copes, cellist Astrid Schween, and violist Roger Tapping — in September. That same month, the Quartet premiered Beecher’s One Hundred Years Grows Shorter Over Time, commissioned for them to honor the centennial of the South Mountain Concerts series in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Born in Greece, Zhulla went on to study at the Juilliard School and join CMS Two of Lincoln Center, making her name as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician performing across multiple continents. She’s been named “Young Artist of the Year” by the National Critics Association in Greece, and is a recipient of the Triandi Career Grant and the Tassos Prassopoulos Foundation Award.

[Read more…]

Nicholas McGegan returns to Severance Hall for a “terrific concert for families”

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by Mike Telin

Whether it’s the sounds of birds, whales, or summer storms, for centuries humans have turned to the natural world for musical inspiration. While there is a seemingly endless list of nature-inspired works, one that stands out as a perennial favorite is Antonio Vivaldi’s set of violin concertos — Le quattro stagioni (“The Four Seasons”).

This weekend at Severance Hall, you can hear the sounds of chirping birds, rippling creeks, barking dogs, buzzing flies, and storms when violinist Peter Otto, guest conductor Nicholas McGegan, and The Cleveland Orchestra reunite for three performances of Vivaldi’s groundbreaking work. The program, which also includes music by Mozart (Chaconne from Idomeneo) and Haydn (Symphony No. 94), will be presented on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

For McGegan, these concerts are extra-special for a number of reasons. “For me, working with The Cleveland Orchestra is like being given a Rolls-Royce and an infinite supply of gas,” the affable conductor said during a telephone conversation. “I think this is my tenth visit to work with them, so I hope we’re good pals by now. And this will be a terrific concert for families who are looking for something to do during the Thanksgiving weekend.”

[Read more…]

Cellist Seth Parker Woods to present “Dehiscence: A Sonic Radicalisation” on LCCC Signature Recital Series

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by Jarrett Hoffman

There’s nothing like learning a new word you can use to charming effect in conversation with your friends, co-workers, and dates. Like dehiscence — meaning ‘a splitting open,’ often of a surgical wound.

On second thought, best to leave out the wound aspect and focus on the musical side of the word, thought up by cellist Seth Parker Woods. As he told me during a recent telephone conversation, what interests him is the splitting open of divisions between periods of music. “I’m finding an opening, essentially, and fusing two worlds into one.”

Those worlds are the 17th-century Italian Baroque, and the 20th- and 21st-century avant-garde. He’ll set those genres against each other in “Dehiscence: A Sonic Radicalisation,” a free concert of solo cello music on Tuesday, November 27 at 8:00 pm at LCCC’s Cirigliano Studio Theatre, presented as part of the Signature Recital Series.

[Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: An Evening of Serenades with James Feddeck

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by Mike Telin

“A lot of people say the Dvořák Wind Serenade is his best work,” conductor James Feddeck said during a telephone conversation. “I think the same is true for the Brahms Serenade No. 2. It’s one of his best works. And I think it’s wonderful that this concert is free for Northeast Ohio. When I heard that I said I want to be part of it.”

On Monday, November 19 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society will present a concert titled Gala Serenade Evening featuring these exquisite works by Dvořák and Brahms. James Feddeck conducts members of The Cleveland Orchestra and friends — Saeran St. Christopher and Jessica Sindel, flutes, Sally Sherwin, piccolo, Jeffrey Rathbun and Corbin Stair, oboes, Daniel McKelway and Benjamin Freimuth, clarinets, Barrick Stees and Jonathan Sherwin, bassoons, Richard King, David Brockett, and Meghan Guegold, horns, Wesley Collins, Lembi Veskimets, Eliesha Nelson and Jessica Pasternak, violas, Charles Bernard, Linda Atherton, and Julie King, cellos, and Mark Atherton and Scott Dixon, double bass. And yes, the concert is free.

[Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: a conversation with Celino Romero

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by Mike Telin

“He was such a powerful romantic guy who wrote beautiful poems,” Celino Romero said, recalling his grandfather Celedonio Romero, who with his sons Celin, Pepe, and Angel founded the legendary guitar quartet The Romeros 60 years ago.

On Sunday, November 18 at 2:30 pm in Finney Chapel, “The Royal Family of the Guitar” will return to Northeast Ohio for a concert on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series. The program will include works by Albéniz, de Falla, Villa-Lobos, Granados, and both Celedonio and Pepe Romero. Tickets are available online.

“60 years, isn’t that crazy?” Celino Romero said by telephone from his home in San Diego. “It blows my mind. But what really blew my mind was when I realized that I have been in the quartet one year longer than my uncle Angel was. When I started in 1990 it was my grandfather, my uncle Pepe, my father Celin, and myself. When my grandfather got sick in ‘95, Angel’s son Lito — who was already playing a lot with his father — joined the group.”  

[Read more…]

Kent fall opera scenes include premiere of The Story of an Hour

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by Daniel Hathaway

Kent State music education major Scott Little’s new opera, The Story of an Hour, has inspired KSU opera director Marla Berg to take her annual fall opera scenes program to a new level this year.

“Although I didn’t hear the portion of Scott’s piece that was workshopped during Cleveland Opera Theatre’s {NOW} Festival, Tim Culver thought it was really good. Then I heard a reading of some of the work at Kent. But what really spurred me on is that Scott wrote a short piece for the Kent orchestra and choral concert last spring, and I really liked it. He came in to talk with me about what it would be like to produce an opera and I thought, you know what? It’s a 40-minute piece. Wouldn’t it be an extraordinary experience for everybody involved if we did it.”

Berg’s decision to mount the premiere ramped up the usually modest fall opera scenes program considerably. “I normally do a montage of eight to ten small scenes, and I thought, I’ll just match Scott’s piece up with two bigger scenes,” Berg said. Although she’s always promising to make things easier on herself the next time around, the director ended up choosing Act III of The Marriage of Figaro and scenes from Berlioz’ Beatrice and Benedict with spoken dialogue from Shakespeare, all of which share the theme of marriage. [Read more…]

Conductor Jakub Hrůša returns to Severance Hall

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by Mike Telin

When Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša makes his annual visit to Cleveland, audiences have come to expect that the concert will include a gem that is rarely, if ever, performed at Severance Hall. His past programs have included Martinů’s Parables, Dvořák’s The Golden Spinning Wheel, Janáček’s Jealousy, and Suk’s Asrael Symphony.

On Thursday, November 15 at 7:30 pm, Hrůša will keep that tradition alive when he leads The Cleveland Orchestra in Miloslav Kabeláč’s Mystery of Time. “I think he is the most important symphonist of 20th-century Czech music after Martinů,” the conductor said during a telephone interview. The concert will also include Stravinsky’s Capriccio (for piano and orchestra) featuring Emanuel Ax, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. The program will be repeated on Saturday, November 17 at 8:00 pm, and Sunday November 18 at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Hrůša noted that the lineage of Czech symphonic composers begins with Dvořák, whom he called the “founder” of that repertoire. “Then you have Smetana, who was not interested in the symphony but wrote symphonic poems. After that is [Zdeněk] Fibich, then Janáček — who never wrote a symphony, then Martinů with his six symphonies. There is always the question of who is next.”

[Read more…]

Contemporary Youth Orchestra to premiere MESH: concerto for drumline and orchestra

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by Mike Telin

For the past 23 years, the Contemporary Youth Orchestra has treated audiences to many firsts. These include premieres of new works as well as first-time collaborations between rock musicians and an orchestra. When CYO kicks off their 24th season on Saturday, November 17 at 7:00 pm at Tri-C’s Metro Auditorium, the program will include the premiere of Michael McIntosh’s MESH: concerto for drumline and orchestra, the first work of its kind.

Under the direction of CYO founder and artistic director Liza Grossman, the concert will also include works by Christopher Rouse, Michael Daugherty, and Charles Griffes. Tickets are available online.

“I’m so excited about this premiere,” Liza Grossman said by telephone. “This is something that has never been done before. In the drumline world both Mike McIntosh and the Cavaliers are top-tier. I’ve told the orchestra that bringing in the Cavaliers is similar to bringing in Yo-Yo Ma.” [Read more…]

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