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Modern Snare Drum Competition moves from Atlanta to Cleveland

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by Mike Telin

Sherwood-TomThere are competitions for everything, so why not one for snare drummers? When the Atlanta Symphony’s principal percussionist Tom Sherwood took a job with The Cleveland Orchestra, he brought his Modern Snare Drum Competition along with him.

The 2016 edition will get underway with preliminary rounds beginning at 9:00 am on Friday, May 27 in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music. On Saturday, May 28 beginning at 10:00 am, the competition will move to Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The final round is scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm. All sessions are free and open to the public. [Read more…]

McCalmont’s List 1: Johann Strauss II — The Blue Danube (1867)

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by Neil McCalmont

STRAUSS-IIGenre: Waltz
Scoring: Orchestra
Era: High Romantic
Duration: c. 10 minutes
Will you recognize it? You’ll probably start whistling along.
Recommended Recordings: the Vienna Philharmonic, either with Carlos Kleiber or Willi Boskovsky

Composer: Johann Strauss II (1825-1899): Strauss explicitly disobeyed his father’s orders never to be a musician. In fact, dear old dad unintentionally founded a dynasty of musicians, as all three of his sons went against his wishes and became composers. [Read more…]

McCalmont’s List: A compendium of classical music aimed at first-time listeners and the classical music curious

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by Neil McCalmont

BerliozEditor’s Note: this week we’ll begin serializing Neil McCalmont’s fourteen-article series designed to introduce first-time or curious listeners to the classical music genre. The series continues through August. Enjoy and share!

Wherever you have heard classical music — on the radio, in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, or through the piano lessons you may or may not have suffered through as a child — it probably grabbed your attention. It may have been as simple as a pleasant melody or a catchy rhythm, or it may have conjured up an important memory. [Read more…]

Ryan Anthony “Cancer Blows” benefit at Severance

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AnthonysInspired by their 2015 “Cancer Blows” benefit concert in conjunction with the Dallas Symphony, which raised nearly $1 million for research into the blood cancer multiple myeloma, trumpeter Ryan Anthony and his wife, Niki, are planning a benefit concert in Cleveland on Friday, May 20 at 7:00 pm in Severance Hall.

100% of the proceeds will go to the Ryan Anthony Foundation, which Ryan and Niki established in 2014 to support research into multiple myeloma.

[Read more…]

Quire Cleveland: music historian Kerry McCarthy talks about “England’s Phoenix,” William Byrd

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by Daniel Hathaway

McCarthy-KerryThis weekend, Ross W. Duffin will lead the professional singers of Quire Cleveland in two concerts celebrating the sacred music of English Renaissance composer William Byrd (1540-1623). The programs — on Saturday, May 21 at 7:30 pm in St. Bernard’s Church in Akron, and on Sunday, May 22 at 4:00 pm in Historic St. Peter’s Church in downtown Cleveland — will include a selection of Byrd’s English and Latin motets interspersed between movements of his Mass for Five Voices.

Byrd has always puzzled historians. Considered by many to be the greatest English composer of his era, he skillfully navigated the troubled religious currents of the time, remaining staunchly Roman Catholic during the several waves of the Protestant Reformation. Others lost their heads while Byrd survived — and thrived, first as organist of Lincoln Cathedral, then as a member of the Chapel Royal, where he enjoyed close connections with the Protestant courts of both Elizabeth I and James I while clandestinely writing Latin music for private households and chapels. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: a Franz Welser-Möst video and a conversation with pianist Rudolf Buchbinder

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by Mike Telin

FWM-VideoIn a promotional video Cleveland Orchestra Music Director Franz Welser-Möst says that Slavic music has a specific language which is often on the dark side, while pointing out that there’s always an element of folk music in it as well. (Click on the screenshot to view the video.)

On Thursday, May 19 at 7:30 pm at Severance Hall, Franz Welser-Möst will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in the first of four concerts of a program featuring Antonín Dvořák’s The Wood Dove and Leoš Janáček’s Suite “From the House of the Dead.” The performances will also include Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”) with Rudolf Buchbinder as soloist. Check our Concert Listings page for additional days and times.

From the House of the Dead is Janáček’s last opera, with a libretto translated and adapted by the composer from the novel by Dostoyevsky. Welser-Möst says in the video that the opera, set in a Siberian prison camp, is “darker than almost any other opera,” although he points out that in the end, it celebrates the human spirit. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: Franklin Cohen talks about innovations for the fifth season

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by Mike Telin

COHEN-FrankInformalCRThere will be an explosion of world-class chamber music when ChamberFest Cleveland kicks off its fifth season beginning on Wednesday, June 15. In their directors’ message, Diana and Franklin Cohen say, “With Season 5, ‘Tales & Legends,’ we are offering more concerts and special events at some very cool venues that will delight and surprise you at every turn…not to mention a spectacular cast of musicians, vocalists, actors, and composers like none to date. The pieces that comprise ‘Tales & Legends’ spin tales from the profane to the divine…and in at least one instance, the controversial. Hold onto your hats as ChamberFest Cleveland takes you on one fantastical ride!”

In the first of a series of articles highlighting this year’s ChamberFest activities, Franklin Cohen talks about some new additions to the Festival.

“I can’t believe this is our fifth season,” Franklin Cohen said during a recent conversation. “I’m very excited because we have a lot of great people returning this year and a number of first-timers, including the accordionist and composer Merima Ključo, who performed her Sarajevo Haggadah at the Cleveland Museum of Art last fall.” [Read more…]

Oberlin student Neil McCalmont named 2016 Young Writer Fellow for ClevelandClassical.com

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by Staff

McCalmontClevelandClassical is pleased to announce that New Hampshire native Neil McCalmont has been named the 2016 ClevelandClassical.com Young Writer Fellow. The two-month summer fellowship is designed for aspiring writers who wish to hone their skills and prepare for careers on the new frontiers of musical journalism.

McCalmont is completing his second year at Oberlin where he is a double degree student majoring in Classics and Musical Studies with a focus on Greek and Latin literature and Wagnerian opera. “I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity,” he said. “As an aspiring music writer, I will gain great journalistic experience through this fellowship by writing reviews and previews, and conducting interviews with artists.” [Read more…]

Syndicate for The New Arts presents new works for harp and bass on May 15

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by Mike Telin

SyndicateDuoHow much do you need to know about a piece of music in order to enjoy listening to it? In a recent New York Times interview, Finnish composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen likened the experience of attending a concert without preparation to attending a sporting event without understanding the rules.

“We have been so apologetic in this, what we call classical music, that we say: ‘You don’t have to know anything, you don’t have to have any background, you don’t have to have any frame of reference, just come with an open mind, and you’ll love it,’” Salonen said during the interview. “It doesn’t quite work like that. Because if I go to an American football game not knowing anything about the rules — as, I have to admit, I don’t — it’s totally meaningless.”

On Sunday, May 15 at 5:00 pm at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ohio City, the Syndicate for the New Arts will present a concert featuring five world premieres of works that explore the sonic possibilities of the double bass and harp. [Read more…]

FiveOne Experimental Orchestra to present “The Mashup Concert” at Bop Stop May 13

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by Mike Telin

FiveOneBopStopMashup (noun): A mixture or fusion of disparate elements. Mashup (music): A musical genre encompassing songs which consist entirely of parts of other songs.

On Friday, May 13 at 9:00 pm at the Bop Stop, 51XO (FiveOne Experimental Orchestra) will present “The Mashup Concert.” The program will feature mashups, overlays, and works that live somewhere in between the pop and classical worlds.

Musicians have been mashing things up for centuries in one way or another. Sometimes the desired outcome was to create a new musical style, while other times the purpose was to create comedy. Whatever the reason, creating mashups has never become passé.

Why? It’s fun. [Read more…]

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