ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad

Pre•Views

ClevelandClassical.com to cover Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute from the inside

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin BPI Viol ClassOn Sunday, your editor is going off to summer camp for two weeks.

In a recent conversation with Oberlin Conservatory baroque flute professor Michael Lynn, Mike Telin and I mused about covering the annual Baroque Performance Institute from a new perspective in this, its 46th season. Thus the idea was hatched of imbedding someone in the Institute to report on the experience from the perspective of a student. Lynn noted that this summer’s activities would especially favor the harpsichord, so guess who was put forward as the logical choice.

By the end of the day, members of the BPI faculty had enthusiastically signed off on the idea, so on June 18, I will join 123 other participants whose birth dates span a remarkable range from 1927 to 2003 for “Traveling Through the Baroque 1650-1750.”   [Read more…]

New director Ricardo Sepulveda talks about 2017 Kent/Blossom Festival

by

by Mike Telin

SepulvedaBeginning next week, 43 young classical musicians from around the globe will gather on the campus of Kent State University to begin five weeks of intensive chamber music study with members of The Cleveland Orchestra as well as other renowned artists in the field. Alumni of the Kent/Blossom Music Festival, founded in 1968 by George Szell and Louis Lane, have gone on to hold positions in many of the world’s major orchestras and ensembles.

“This summer we have twelve international students, as well as participants from Juilliard, Rice, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin, the University of Akron, Northwestern, and Kent State as well as others,” KBMF Director Ricardo Sepulveda, who was appointed to his position in late March, said during a recent telephone conversation. “It’s exciting, and I look forward to this season. This Festival is close to my heart, and I’m excited and honored to be leading it.” [Read more…]

Guitarist Colin Davin and harpist Emily Levin to close out CICGF 2017

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

Davin_Levin“Guitar and harp is such a rare, unique combination,” said guitarist Colin Davin in a recent conversation. “To the extent that there’s an epicenter for that kind of duo, it might be Cleveland. Jason Vieaux and Yolanda Kondonassis have performed and recorded an album together, and in the past few years, some of the students here have formed guitar and harp duos. We like to think we’re starting something that will catch on.”

On Sunday, June 11 at 7:30 pm in the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall, Colin Davin and harpist Emily Levin will close out the 2017 Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival with a duo recital featuring a world premiere by Dylan Mattingly and a recent work by Will Stackpole, with the Duo’s own arrangements of works by Maurice Ravel and Manuel de Falla as bookends. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival welcomes David Russell for his festival debut

by

by Mike Telin

Russell-DavidWhen David Russell last performed in Cleveland in March of 2014, James Flood wrote in ClevelandClassical.com that the celebrated guitarist produced “just the right tone color for a given phrase or, in some cases, a single note, all done with such naturalness it’s as if his fingers instinctively know just where to go.”

On Saturday, June 10 at 8:00 pm in Mixon Hall, Russell will return to Cleveland for his debut performance on the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. He will also present free public masterclasses on Friday, June 9 at 3:00 and Sunday, June 11 at 4:30 in CIM’s Studio 113. [Read more…]

ENCORE Chamber Music begins second season June 11

by

by Mike Telin

Jinjoo-Cho-(Woo-Ryong-Chae)With the overarching theme of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” ENCORE Chamber Music is ready to begin its second season. “Last year was a pilot year for us, so there was a lot of experimentation,” ENCORE founder and artistic director Jinjoo Cho said during an interview. “I think this year is going to be even better. We’ve made some changes to the format, and the level of the students who are attending is even higher.” [Read more…]

The Cleveland Opera: conversations with La Bohème cast members

by

by Mike Telin

Boheme-posterArguably one of the most popular operas ever written, Puccini’s La bohéme is third only to Verdi’s La traviata and Bizet’s Carmen in the most-performed-opera-of-all-time category. On Saturday, June 10 at 7:30 pm, The Cleveland Opera will bring the story of those beloved Parisian bohemians to the Ohio Theater in Playhouse Square. Grzegorz Nowak will conduct The Cleveland Opera Orchestra and Chorus. The production will be sung in Italian with English supertitles. [Read more…]

ContempOpera/Cleveland launches Incubator Series June 9

by

by Mike Telin

ANELLI-AndreaWith a mission to “give a voice to the composers of our time,” the latest addition to Northeast Ohio’s opera scene, ContempOpera/Cleveland, will bring that goal to life on Friday, June 9 at 7:30 pm at Cleveland Public Theatre with the first installment of the company’s Incubator Series. The performance will feature music by Cleveland composers Dawn Lenore Sonntag, Steven Mark Kohn, and Lorenzo Salvagni, as well as New York City-based Darryl Curry and Argentine Saúl Cosentino. The concert is part of CPT’s Free Beer Friday. [Read more…]

Cavani Quartet announces appointment of new cellist

by

by Samantha Spaccasi

Screen Shot 2017-06-05 at 7.56.02 PMThe second change in two years has transformed one of Cleveland’s most prominent chamber music ensembles. Si-Yan Darren Li will be the new cellist for the Cavani Quartet, joining Annie Fullard and Mari Soto, violins, and Eric Wong, viola. Li will replace Merry Peckham, one of the group’s founding members.

The addition of Li marks a new era for the Cavani. Formed in 1984, the ensemble was one of the first all-female string quartets. Until last year, when Eric Wong replaced longtime violist Kirsten Docter, the group had undergone only two personnel changes in its history. [Read more…]

Melissa Etheridge to perform with
Contemporary Youth Orchestra
June 7

by

by Mike Telin

Etheridge“This concert is going to be one of the most unique things that I’ve ever done,” celebrated singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge said during a telephone interview. “I’m just so thrilled, excited, and nervous — I’ve got to be on top of my game for this.” On Wednesday, June 7 at 7:30 pm in Severance Hall, Etheridge will join conductor Liza Grossman and her 115-piece Contemporary Youth Orchestra plus a 50-person choir for a concert that will feature some of the legendary singer’s greatest hits, as well as rarely-heard tracks from her multi-decade career. [Read more…]

Jason Vieaux to open CICGF with solo recital June 9

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

Vieaux-(Tyler-Boye)Needing an encore for a concert the next day, guitarist Jason Vieaux woke up in Boston to a mild earthquake, turned on the TV to an Obama-Romney presidential debate, and thought to himself: Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

Ten minutes later, his guitar-accordina arrangement of Tears for Fears’ popular song was born. He and Julien Labro would rehearse it the next morning for fifteen minutes before performing it on WGBH and again that night in Roxbury. “We thought, it’ll really get it ready for the concert if we play it live on the radio,” Vieaux said with a laugh during a recent conversation. “It was kind of crazy, but things happen that way. It came out of professional necessity.”

The arrangement would go on to close out the duo’s 2014 Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival performance and cap off their 2016 album Infusion — which also includes works by Piazzolla, Metheny, and Brouwer.

For the 2017 edition of CICGF, the Grammy Award-winning Jason Vieaux is taking things in a different direction. On Friday, June 9 at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall, he will open the Festival with a solo program of Sor, Bach, Ponce, Ginastera, and Morel.

[Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us