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CityMusic Cleveland to present “Two Faiths: One Spirit” series

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Dorman-AvnerNext week, a series of concerts by CityMusic Cleveland, led by music director Avner Dorman, will aim to unite the Jewish and Arab communities, promote togetherness in Greater Cleveland, and emphasize the value of preserving the arts — regardless of culture. Titled “Two Faiths: One Spirit,” the series was inspired by stories of priceless religious texts that were rescued by people of other faiths.

The musical centerpiece of the series is Bosnian-born Merima Ključo’s Sarajevo Haggadah: Music of the Book, featuring the composer on solo accordion. The work will receive its world premiere in a new orchestrated version commissioned by CityMusic Cleveland.

Also included on the program are works by Kareem Roustom, Behzad Ranjbaran, Tom Cohen, and Josef Bardanashvili — composers whose roots stretch from Syria to Iran, Georgia, and Israel. Six free performances run from March 14-18 in Beachwood, Cleveland, Parma, Lakewood, and Elyria (see our Concert Listings for times and locations).

[Read more…]

Oberlin Opera Theater to present
Britten’s Turn of the Screw

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Turn of the Screw Score CoverChilling bones since 1898, Henry James’s ghostly novella The Turn of the Screw has inspired movies, plays, ballets, literary reworkings — and a stunning 1954 opera by composer Benjamin Britten and librettist Myfanwy Piper.

Oberlin Opera Theater will bring Britten’s and Piper’s take on the tale to Northeast Ohio this week, turning the stage of Hall Auditorium into the haunted Bly House. Directed by Jonathon Field, conducted by Christopher Larkin, and featuring the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, performances run at 8:00 pm on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday — March 7, 9, and 10 — and conclude on Sunday, March 11 at 2:00 pm. The Turn of the Screw will be sung in English and include supertitles. Tickets are available here.

The story centers on an unnamed young Governess, who is hired to care for Miles and Flora, the children of Bly House. But two ghosts — the former valet Peter Quint and former governess Miss Jessel — have returned to possess the children.

[Read more…]

Les Délices to present “Dido’s Lament”: a conversation with Baroque harpist Maria Christina Cleary

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by Mike Telin

Cleary-MariaDebra Nagy’s latest Les Délices creation, “Dido’s Lament,” will view the famous queen of Carthage from three emotional and musical perspectives. The tragic story of Dido, who was famously deserted by the Trojan warrior Aeneas, is based on Book 4 of Virgil’s classical epic The Aeneid. The program will include excerpts from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Cavalli’s Didone, and Montéclair’s La Mort de Didon.

The concerts, held on Saturday, March 10 at 8:00 pm in Lakewood Congregational Church, and on Sunday, March 11 at 4:00 pm at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, will feature soprano Clara Rottsolk, harpist Maria Christina Cleary, oboist Debra Nagy, violinists Julie Andrijeski and Scott Metcalfe, violist Allison Monroe, viola da gambist Jaap ter Linden, and harpsichordist Eric Milnes. Tickets are available online.

On Saturday at 3:00 pm at the Bop Stop, the ensemble will present “Instrument of the Angels,” an LD@Play family concert. Registration is recommended.

In an email Debra Nagy said that she is thrilled to bring Maria Christina Cleary from Milan, Italy for these performances.

[Read more…]

Two days, three clarinetists: Richard Hawkins, Allan Ware, and Randy Klein in Oberlin, Rocky River, and Canton

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by Jarrett Hoffman

TriClarinetCollage2A return to a concerto that brought with it a solo debut. The celebration of a long chamber music partnership and friendship. And one final concerto in a 22-year orchestral tenure.

Those landmarks in the careers of three clarinetists — Randy Klein, Richard Hawkins, and Allan Ware — can be heard across two days, March 3 and 5, in Canton, Oberlin, and Rocky River. On the docket are concertos by John Corigliano and Aaron Copland, and clarinet quintets by Carl Maria von Weber and Johannes Brahms.

The clarinet show begins on Saturday, March 3 at 7:30 pm in Umstattd Hall. Randy Klein will join his Canton Symphony colleagues and music director Gerhardt Zimmermann for the Copland Concerto, in between performances of Stephen Montague’s Snakebite and Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.

“This is my last season in Canton,” Klein said in a recent conversation. “I’m retiring from the orchestra.”

[Read more…]

Contrapunctus returns to St. John’s Cathedral for concert of Marian music for high voices

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by Daniel Hathaway

ContrapunctusContrapunctus Early Music, an endeavor launched by British countertenor David Acres, has been absent from the Cleveland musical scene for a couple of years. The high-voice chorus of sopranos, altos, and countertenors is back again to sing a concert of music dedicated to the Virgin Mary on Friday, March 2 at 7:30 pm at St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Cleveland.

In the interim, Acres and his wife Judith have been busy on another project in South Carolina. “We have been concentrating on our choir in Charleston, The King’s Counterpoint, and we have enjoyed a wonderful 24 months,” Acres wrote in a recent email.

“A series of Baroque Messiahs and the inaugural concert in our exploration of Handel’s Oratorios, commencing with Judas Maccabaeus — both with members of the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra; a critically acclaimed performance in last year’s Piccolo Spoleto Series and an invite to return this year; together with over 16 performances in South Carolina, have stopped us from returning to Cleveland to explore more high-voice repertoire with Contrapunctus.”

[Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater to present Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel

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by Mike Telin

BrothersGrimm1812The first volume of children’s tales published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 includes some of today’s most beloved stories, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Rumpelstiltskin. Also in that volume is the tale of Hansel and Gretel, two children who cleverly outwit a witch. This week, Engelbert Humperdinck’s adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale returns to the Kulas Hall stage at the Cleveland Institute of Music in four performances by CIM Opera Theatre. David Bamberger directs and Harry Davidson conducts the CIM Orchestra.

The opera will be sung in German with English supertitles, and has a runtime of 2 hours and 30 minutes including intermission. Evening performances will be held February 28 through March 2 at 7:30 pm with a special family performance on Saturday, March 3 at 3:00 pm. Click here for an illustrated synopsis of the opera, compliments of the Metropolitan Opera. Tickets are available online. Before each production, non-perishable food items will be collected at the Kulas Hall entrance from patrons interested in donating to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.

I spoke with mezzo-soprano Meg Linebaugh and soprano Anne Carruthers, who will sing the roles of Hansel and Gretel respectively during the Thursday and Saturday performances. I began the conversation by asking each of them about their character and their relationship with their sibling. [Read more…]

This week at Severance:
a conversation with
Jean-Yves Thibaudet

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by Mike Telin

ThibaudetOver the years Jean-Yves Thibaudet has developed what he calls a “beautiful relationship” with The Cleveland Orchestra. “There are the recordings we did in the ‘90s of all the Rachmaninoff works for piano and orchestra, and we’ve done so many concertos over the years — but never this one.”

On Thursday, February 22 at 7:30 pm at Severance Hall, the French pianist will perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. The all-Ravel concert, under the direction of Matthias Pintscher, will also include the Suite from Mother Goose and the complete ballet Daphnis and Chloë. The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Although Thibaudet had learned all of Ravel’s works for solo piano as well as the G-major concerto by the time he was 15, he avoided tackling the left-hand concerto. [Read more…]

Roomful of Teeth residency at Oberlin: Q&A and composition sessions
(Feb. 15)

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by Hannah Schoepe

Shaw Q&AHow are your compositions formed? How do you balance judgement with unhinged creativity? What is the most profound advice you can offer students today? Those were a few of the questions posed to the Pulitzer prize-winning composer and Roomful of Teeth member Caroline Shaw during an insightful Q & A session Thursday afternoon, February 16 in Oberlin’s Kulas Recital Hall.

During the session Shaw addressed her compositional process, as well as her creative sources of inspiration. She began by playing an excerpt from her recently composed string quartet Valencia. With its simple lines and ethereal harmonics, the piece grabbed the audience’s attention immediately. When asked about the work, Shaw affirmed her love for simple layers in her music.  She said, “I like to create a ‘room,’ a musical space where people can walk around but don’t get lost.” Continuing on a humorous note, she said most listeners assume there is a connection between the quartet and Valencia Spain, when in fact the genesis of the work was derived from the beauty of a valencia orange. [Read more…]

Violinist Tessa Lark awarded
Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship

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by Mike Telin

LARK-TessaOn Tuesday, February 20, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust announced that violinist Tessa Lark is a 2018 recipient of the coveted Borletti-Buitoni Fellowship. Lark is the only American among the young musicians from around the world who join BBT’s roster of Award and Fellowship winners.

Awards of £30,000 and Fellowships of £20,000 are provided for the advancement of their musical careers across a broad range of projects and requirements. The BBT team offers generous support, networking opportunities, and counsel to help the artists realize their long-held ambitions. Since 2003, BBT has provided support to 103 individuals and ensembles from over 30 countries.

“I’m just really excited and that’s about all I can say,” the affable Tessa Lark said by telephone. “They sent me an email right around Thanksgiving telling me I had won — it was quite a surprise.” The Fellowship adds to the violinist’s expanding stack of impressive awards, which include an Avery Fisher Career Grant and medals at the Naumburg International Violin Competition and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis.

[Read more…]

Mantra Percussion to bring
Timber to Transformer Station

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by Jarrett Hoffman

mantra percussionHow do you describe the experience of hearing Michael Gordon’s Timber, the hour-long percussion sextet played on amplified slabs of wood? One word might be ‘transcendental.’

“Most times that we play this piece,” said Michael McCurdy, co-founder and artistic director of Mantra Percussion, “more than one person from the audience comes up afterwards and says, ‘It seemed like 20 or 30 minutes — I can’t believe that was an hour.’ People transcend their sense of time and place as they’re experiencing it.”

Mantra Percussion — who co-commissioned Timber and delivered its U.S. premiere in 2011 — will bring the piece to Transformer Station this Friday, February 23 at 7:30 pm, as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Performing Arts Series. Click here to watch the ensemble perform the piece.

[Read more…]

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