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ChamberFest Cleveland: fifteen minutes with bassist Nathan Farrington

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Nathan-Farrington pic“It’s pretty crazy, isn’t it?” bassist Nathan Farrington said of Prokofiev’s Quintet for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, and double bass. “There’s a lot of circus imagery in the piece, and in the second-movement solo, I’m totally the dancing bear.”

Franklin and Diana Cohen’s ChamberFest Cleveland, beginning its fourth season on June 17, welcomes back bassist Nathan Farrington, who debuted with the festival last summer. A 2006 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Farrington has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony, and the Minnesota Sinfonia. He appears regularly in the bass sections of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Columbus Symphony, and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Farrington has completed three summers at the Marlboro Music Festival. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: a conversation with violinist Alexi Kenney

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by Mike Telin

KENNEY-AlexiStill in his early twenties, violinist Alexi Kenney has already amassed an impressive résumé. In 2013 he won the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition at the age of nineteen. He has given recitals at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and Napa’s Festival del Sole, and he has been featured on NPR’s “From the Top.” He is the recipient of top prizes at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, the Mondavi Center Competition, and the 2013 Kronberg Academy master classes. He attends the New England Conservatory, where he will enter its Artist Diploma program this fall, studying with Donald Weilerstein and Miriam Fried.

I spoke to the Palo Alto, California native by phone and began by asking him how his position as ChamberFest’s Young Artist came about. [Read more…]

The Epic of Everest: a conversation with composer Simon Fisher Turner

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by Mike Telin

Epic-EverestIn June of 1924, English mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared while attempting to scale the world’s highest mountain. Their journey up Mount Everest was documented by mountaineer and filmmaker John Baptist Lucius Noel. Shot with a hand-cranked camera, Noel’s film is also one of the earliest filmed records of life in Tibet. Restored by the British Film Institute with the addition of a musical score by Simon Fisher Turner, The Epic of Everest will have its Cleveland revival premiere on Friday, June 19 at 7:00 pm in Morley Lecture Hall at the Cleveland Museum of Arts.

Simon Fisher Turner began his diverse career as a musician, songwriter, composer, producer, and actor portraying Ned East in the 1971 BBC TV adaptation of Tom Brown’s Schooldays. His musical work in film began with director Derek Jarman, for whom he scored many feature films — from Caravaggio (1986) through to Jarman’s final work, Blue (1993). [Read more…]

League of American Orchestras Conference: reports by ClevelandClassical staff (May 27-29)

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by Jeremy Reynolds, Mike Telin & Daniel Hathaway

LOA-Cleveland-SkylineBelying its name, this year’s League of American Orchestras Conference hosted representatives from a wide range of countries including the United States, Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Kenya, Norway, New Zealand, and the UK. Total attendance reached 1,068, an increase of 10% compared to last year. 67 companies signed up as exhibitors, peddling innovative technology and business strategies, as well as the services of famous artists, in the Cleveland Convention Center from May 27-29. Evening concerts during the conference featured The Cleveland Orchestra and CityMusic Cleveland.

Opening events

On the first day, attendees trekked across the street from the Convention Center to Public Auditorium for the welcoming session and concert. Brett Mitchell led cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in a polished performance of Saint-Saëns’s “The Swan” and a rambunctious interpretation of the “Finale” from Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony. Weilerstein, an alumna of the youth orchestra, performed as principal cellist during the Tchaikovsky. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland Season Four: Franklin & Diana Cohen on “Crossing Borders”

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by Mike Telin and Daniel Hathaway

COHEN-Frank-&-DianaHaving expanded its June season from five concerts in 2012 to eight in 2013, Franklin and Diana Cohen’s ChamberFest Cleveland grew again in 2014 to encompass ten events. Ten seems now to be the magic number for this enterprising festival, which offers everything you can imagine in the category of chamber music, played by an all-star cast of musicians who come to Cleveland from far and wide.

We caught up with Franklin and Diana Cohen to gather their thoughts about the season, first asking how they arrived at the theme, “Crossing Borders.”

“Someone had suggested the idea a few years ago,” Diana said. “I think they called it ‘Foreign Exchange.’ We toyed around with the idea and it just sort of evolved.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Trombone Seminar launches its fourth year at Cleveland State University

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by Daniel Hathaway

CTS-Final-ConcertThe Cleveland Trombone Seminar, the brainchild of Cleveland Orchestra assistant principal trombone and CSU faculty member Shachar Israel, will bring distinguished trombonists and students together on the campus of Cleveland State University for a variety of masterclasses, lectures, and performances from June 6 through June 14

The first of six public performances will feature Shachar Israel himself in a 2:00 pm solo recital on Saturday, June 6. Mark Lusk of The Pennsylvania State University will play on Monday, June 8 at 6 pm, followed by the Great Lakes Trombone Ensemble (comprising players from the orchestras of Buffalo, Rochester, Erie, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toledo and Detroit) on Tuesday, June 9 at 6 pm.

[Read more…]

Baroque flutist Kathie Stewart talks Bach and Telemann

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by Jeremy Reynolds

STEWART-KathieIn Zimmerman’s famous Coffee-Garden in Leipzig, Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann presented an outdoor concert series of their own music in 18th century. On Thursday, June 11 and Friday, June 12 at the Baroque Music Barn in Hunting Valley, Apollo’s Fire will recreate this rustic aesthetic with a concert of Bach’s fifth Brandenburg concerto, his “Trio Sonata” from A Musical Offering, and Telemann’s tragicomic Canary Cantata.

In a recent phone conversation, baroque flutist Kathie Stewart shared her thoughts on keeping Bach’s Brandenburg fresh. “We’ve done it lots of times, and there’s no one I enjoy playing it with more than Olivier Braut (violin) and Jeannette Sorrell (harpsichord). We’ve really worked it out in a way that’s comfortable for us. It’s just such great music! It’s the most beautiful piece ever — it’s so life-affirming,” she said. “He wrote it in the best key possible for the flute — not that he was thinking of that — but he put it in D Major, which is the natural key of the baroque flute. It’s idiomatic. In fact, it’s probably the only piece he ever wrote that’s idiomatic for the flute. So it’s a joy to play and it feels good. I never get tired of it.” [Read more…]

Tina Bergman discusses Apollo’s Fire’s upcoming Sugarloaf Mountain concert series

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by Jeremy Reynolds

“BERGMANN-TinaMy background is with American Old Time and Celtic, so this is right up my alley — like putting on an old pair of shoes,” said hammered dulcimer player Tina Bergman. We chatted about Apollo’s Fire’s Sugarloaf Mountain rogram in a recent telephone conversation. Performances of this crossover concert will take place from Sunday, June 14 through Sunday, June 21 in a variety of venues including the Huntington Playhouse in Bay Village and the Geauga Lyric Theatre in Chardon (see concert listings for full details).

The ensemble — which also includes Amanda Powell (soprano), Ross Hauck (tenor), Susanna Gilmore (fiddle), Kathie Stewart (flute), Brian Kay (lute, guitar, banjo), René Schiffer (cello), Jeannette Sorrell (harpsichord and direction) — is celebrating its newest album of the same title with CD release parties held after select concerts. [Read more…]

Opera Circle presents Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (June 13): a conversation with conductor Grzegorz Nowak

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by Mike Telin

Nowak“Butterfly is one of the most popular and moving operas of all time, and it’s full of wonderful music,” conductor Grzegorz Nowak said during a recent telephone conversation. “I’m so happy to be able to join Opera Circle this week conducting an opera that is always an audience favorite as well as a favorite of the artists.”

On Saturday, June 13 at 7:30 pm in the Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square, Opera Circle will present Puccini’s tragic love story, Madama Butterfly, under the direction of Maestro Nowak, who will be making his Opera Circle debut. The cast will include soprano Dorota Sobieska as Cio-Co San, mezzo-soprano Christina Carr as Suzuki, tenor Isaac Hurtado as B.F. Pinkerton, and baritone James Binion as Sharpless. The fully-staged production will be sung in Italian with English subtitles. [Read more…]

Opera Circle presents Madama Butterfly (June 13): catching up with tenor Isaac Hurtado

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by Mike Telin

HURTADO-IsaacWhen Opera Circle presents Puccini’s Madama Butterfly on Saturday, June 13 at 7:30 pm in the Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square, the outstanding American tenor Isaac Hurtado will return to the Opera Circle stage performing the role of B.F. Pinkerton.

Hurtado has received praise for his Opera Circle performances in the role of the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and for his gripping performance in the title role of Massenet’s Werther. We caught up with Issac Hurtado by telephone and began by asking him how he prepared to perform the role of the American naval officer, who, at least by modern standards, makes a questionable moral decision when he decides to abandon Butterfly. [Read more…]

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