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Cleveland Chamber Music Society lays out plans for its 67th season

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by Daniel Hathaway

Montrose-Piano-TrioThe Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s 67th season in 2016-2017 at Plymouth UCC Church in Shaker Heights will include seven performances, all on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 pm. Pre-concert lectures will take place each evening at 6:30 pm in Herr Chapel at Plymouth. Subscriptions will be available soon on the society’s website. Here are the details:

September 27, 2016 — Montrose Piano Trio. Turina’s Trio No. 2 in b, Op. 76, Beethoven’s Trio in E-flat, Op. 1, No. 1, and Brahms’s Trio No. 1 in B, Op. 8. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir to mark Shakespeare’s 400th on April 23

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by Daniel Hathaway

ClevelandChamberChoir-112115Accidental discoveries you make when you’re drawing up plans for a program sometimes send you off on a new tack. Scott MacPherson had long been contemplating a concert of British choral music for the second concert of the Cleveland Chamber Choir’s inaugural season and wanted something “on the vigorous, peppy side” to balance the “rich, sonorous” music he already had in mind.

“In Sweet Music Is Such Art: Celebrating British Choral Music” will take place on Saturday, April 23 at 7:30 pm in the sanctuary of First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights.

“We had performed Cecilia McDowall’s Aurea luce on our first concert in November”, MacPherson said, “so I wrote to her and asked if she had anything along those lines. She told me that her When Time is Broke: three Shakespeare songs had just been premiered by the BBC Singers in January and that the first movement might be just what what I was looking for.” [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: a conversation with composer-pianist Gregg Kallor

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by Mike Telin

Gregg-Kallor-Adriana Zabala-300Why have so many composers been drawn to the poetry of Emily Dickinson and William Butler Yeats?  “There’s so much in their poetry that people respond to,” New York City-based pianist and composer Gregg Kallor said during a recent interview. “What they write about is universal, and that’s what makes it great. And their poetry has a quality that can be translated into music.”

On Thursday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical will present Gregg Kallor  and mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala in a concert celebrating National Poetry Month and featuring Kallor’s song settings of poems by Dickinson and Yeats.

“I’m looking forward to the Akron concert,” Kallor said. “I’ll be there for almost a week doing community outreach so it’ll be nice to meet people. Hopefully we’ll become fast friends and they’ll come to the concert on Thursday.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society to present Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center sextet

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by Mike Telin

Sextet“It doesn’t get much better than this,” cellist Nicholas Canellakis said during a recent telephone interview. “There’s something about the sonority that you can get from a string sextet that is so satisfying. Obviously the composers who wrote for that combination felt the same way, because they seem to luxuriate in every possible sound.”

On Tuesday, April 19 at 7:30 pm, Canellakis will join violinists Ani Kavafian and Erin Keef, violists Yura Lee and Matthew Lipman, and fellow cellist David Finckel, in a program of string sextets by Richard Strauss, Antonín Dvořák, and Johannes Brahms on the next Cleveland Chamber Music Society concert at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. [Read more…]

Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas directed by Jason Goldberg to be performed at Oberlin and CWRU

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by Mike Telin & Daniel Hautzinger

GoldbergDirecting an opera is an enormous task. “Opera equals nuclear fusion,” said Jonathon Field, Director of Opera Theatre at the Oberlin Conservatory. But Jason Goldberg, a fifth-year student majoring in vocal performance and opera directing at Oberlin Conservatory, isn’t afraid of the challenge.

On April 15 and 16 at 8:00 pm in Oberlin’s Fairchild Chapel and on April 17 at 3:00 pm in Case Western Reserve University’s Harkness Chapel, Goldberg will present his production of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, a student-led project in collaboration with CWRU. [Read more…]

American Boychoir to sing concerts in Oberlin & Cleveland Heights

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by Mike Telin

AmericanBoychoirAccording to American Boychoir music director Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, the title for the Princeton, New Jersey-based ensemble’s upcoming tour, “How Can I Keep from Singing?” reflects exactly why its members join. “The boys come to the American Boychoir School because they love singing,” Malvar-Ruiz said during a recent telephone interview. “In many cases they just can’t stop singing. Their parents tell me that they sing all of the time.”

On Friday, April 15 at 7:00 pm at Christ Church Episcopal in Oberlin, and on Sunday, April 17 at 4:00 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Malvar-Ruiz will lead The American Boychoir in a program ranging from music by Felix Mendelssohn to Samuel Barber, to folksongs from around the world and traditional American hymns and spirituals. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra this week: a chat with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis

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by Mike Telin

KONDONASSIS-SMITHMusic from the Classical era will be on tap when guest conductor Jane Glover makes a return visit to Severance Hall. On Thursday, April 14 at 7:30 pm, she will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in performances of Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 6 (“Le Matin”) and Wolfgang Amadè Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp and Symphony No. 39.

Mozart’s pieces will be featured during the Orchestra’s Fridays@7 Series on April 15, and the full program will be repeated on Saturday, April 16 at 8:00 pm. On Sunday, April 17 the Orchestra will travel to Finney Chapel for a 4:00 performance on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series.     [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Women’s Committee hosts luncheon & conversation with Robert Vernon

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by Daniel Hathaway

VERNON-Robert-TCOThis summer, Cleveland Orchestra principal viola Robert Vernon will retire after serving in that position since 1976. Before he steps down from his illustrious career in the ensemble, The Cleveland Orchestra Women’s Committee will honor him with a luncheon at Westwood Country Club in Rocky River on Friday, April 15 at 12 Noon.

On that occasion, a conversation with Vernon, the longest-tenured string principal in the history of The Cleveland Orchestra, will be moderated by one of the newest members of its staff. [Read more…]

Amir ElSaffar brings his
“Rivers of Sound” to CMA

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by Mike Telin

Amir ElSaffarA recipient of the 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and composer Amir ElSaffar easily moves between the musical worlds of classical, contemporary jazz, and music from the Middle East, particularly Iraqi maqam.

On Friday, April 15 at 7:30 pm in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium, CMA’s Performing Arts Series will present Amir ElSaffar’s Rivers of Sound, a 17-member ensemble of musicians from all over the world, representing a broad spectrum of traditions from maqam to American jazz. [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Manuel Barrueco talks about his April 16 concert

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by Mike Telin

BARRUECO-ManuelReading Manuel Barrueco’s biography, it quickly becomes apparent that the legendary guitarist and teacher has done just about as much as a classical guitarist can do. (Click here and see for yourself.) While Cleveland audiences have been treated to the artistry of many of his students over the past few years, it has been some time since the master himself has played a solo recital in town.

On Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, Manuel Barrueco will make his much-anticipated return to the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society stage with a program featuring works by Sylvius Leopold Weiss, J.S. Bach, Fernando Sor, Moreno Torroba, Joaquin Turina, and Isaac Albeniz.

We spoke to the engaging Manuel Barrueco by telephone and began by asking him to share his thoughts on his program.   [Read more…]

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