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Pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi shows his support for Ukraine with a performance in Kyiv

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by Stephanie Manning

Pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi is no stranger to the life of a traveling musician. When I spoke with the pianist via Zoom earlier this month, he was wrapping up performances in his home country of Italy and preparing for a few days in Germany and then Cleveland, where he is Distinguished Professor of Piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

But his next destination will bring some new challenges — and new rewards. On Saturday, November 29, Pompa-Baldi will perform Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, conducted by Theodore Kuchar. The concert takes place in Kyiv’s historic Lysenko Hall, and getting there requires the pianist to fly to Warsaw before taking a 16-hour train ride across the border.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra: a conversation with James Feddeck

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by Mike Telin

“I’ve always had a special place in my mind and in my heart for The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra,” James Feddeck said during a Zoom conversation. “These young people are so exceptional — they humble me.”

On Friday, November 21 at 8:00 pm, James Feddeck, who served as COYO’s music director for four seasons from 2009-2013, will return to Severance Music Center to lead the ensemble in a program that includes his own suite from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, and César Franck’s Symphony in D minor. Tickets are available online.

Feddeck, who is currently serving as principal conductor and musical advisor of The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, said that he chose Romeo and Juliet because it is a compelling story. “I’ve selected several movements and different sections from Prokofiev’s full ballet to create a suite that’s about a half hour long. What’s appealing about it is the color and the energy that is in the music. There is literally something colorful and virtuosic for every section of the orchestra to play.”

Feddeck said that while the Prokofiev is a great exploration of rhythm, Franck’s Symphony is a beautiful exploration of sound. “It’s a thick orchestration, so it gives the players an opportunity to work on their tone quality, articulation, and blending — creating a sense of ensemble.”

[Read more…]

Danish String Quartet Finds the Human Connection

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by Stephanie Manning

Reposted with the permission of Oberlin Conservatory

These days, the Danish String Quartet keep their touring schedule simple. Arrive in a new city in the morning, play a concert in the evening, and repeat. That’s not because the group doesn’t like exploring new places — it’s because they’ve got little ones waiting at home.

“ Back before we had kids, we did three-week tours, four-week tours in the States,” violinist Frederik Øland says. “Now we’re down to two weeks at a time, because anything more than that is just too much.”

A lot has changed since the early 2000s, when the newly-formed quartet were all teenagers at Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Academy of Music. But what’s stayed constant is the critical acclaim that follows wherever they go. On Friday, November 21, the celebrated ensemble — comprised of violinists Øland and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violist Asbjørn Nørgaard, and cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin — will make their Oberlin debut as part of the Artist Recital Series. [Read more…]

[VIDEO] Les Délices debuts The Aesop Project

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by Stephanie Manning

This isn’t the first time Les Délices has brought puppets to the party. Following up on their 2022 Baroque opera The White Cat, the ensemble will present The Aesop Project in Cleveland and Akron on November 22.

The free, family-friendly program features puppets created by Ian Petroni, who talks about the design process in the video below. Soprano Elena Mullins Bailey also shares her thoughts on the new narration, written by local Ohio poet laureate Dave Lucas.

The Aesop Project will be presented at 11:30 am on November 22 at the CMA Community Arts Center, 2937 W. 25th St, Cleveland. Arrive at 10:30 am to join the art-making activities. Les Délices will then repeat the program at 3:30 pm that same day at the Akron Public Library Main Branch, 60 S. High St., Akron.

Watch the video below and find it on Instagram and Facebook. [Read more…]

Duo Noire: Thomas Flippin & Christopher Mallett return to Cleveland

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by Mike Telin

When selecting works for a program, classical guitarists Thomas Flippin and Christopher Mallett are always asking themselves if they are being inclusive —  are they including works by composers who are not usually represented on classical guitar concerts.

On Saturday, November 15 at 7:30 pm at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, the adventurous Duo Noire will return to the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International series with a program that will include three world premieres along with other recent commissions and arrangements of music by J.S. Bach, Nathaniel Dett, Domenico Scarlatti, Astor Piazzolla, Justin Holland, and Thomas Flippin. Tickets are available online.

“What’s cool about this program is that we have new pieces by a Middle Eastern jazz fusion composer, a film composer, and a jazz pianist who does weird stuff with 8-bit video game music on his albums,” Thomas Flippin said during a Zoom conversation with his duo partner. “All of that is really interesting to us.”

[Read more…]

Robert Walters to give U.S. premiere of Geoffrey Gordon’s Mad Song

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by Mike Telin

“This is a great piece of music that just happens to be an English horn concerto,” Robert Walters said during an interview. “I’m excited about playing it because I think the audience will like it as much as I do.”

On Thursday, November 13 at ​​7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Robert Walters, Cleveland Orchestra solo English horn, will give the U.S premiere of Geoffrey Gordon’s Mad Song. Under the direction of Tugan Sokhiev, the concert also includes Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday at 7:30. Tickets are available online.

Written in 2020, Gordon’s Mad Song was commissioned for Dimitri Mestdag, the solo English horn of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. When the composer contacted Walters about giving the U.S. premiere of the concerto, Walters paused. “I’d heard Geoffrey Gordon’s name — he’s the guy who writes a lot of concertos. He told me that everyone says that I’m the guy to talk to about that. And I said, I’m flattered. I’ll give it a listen.”

[Read more…]

Singer-songwriter Becca Stevens at Cleveland Museum of Art

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by Max Newman

“As somebody who’s used to touring with a band, this was kind of a big move for me, but I was like, ‘No, it feels right,’” Becca Stevens said during a recent interview.

On Wednesday, November 12, at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium, the multi-genre singer-songwriter will meet the challenge of going solo in a concert that will feature songs from her recent release, Maple to Paper. Tickets are available online.

Stevens’ musical journey has been a long one. She grew up in a musical family, and was performing in her family’s band by the age of two. She said that her upbringing “definitely dealt me a full deck that I could choose whether or not I wanted to use, but it wasn’t until I was 16 or 17 that I really committed to going full throttle in the musical direction. But once I applied my focus there, it just felt very grounding. I was like, oh gosh, this feels like home to me. It really feels like a language that I’ve always known, and a language that has always been encouraged and accepted.”

[Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater presents Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi

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by Mike Telin

When Giacomo Puccini composed the three one-act operas that make up Il trittico (The Triptych), he intended for them to be presented as a set. But not long after the work was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on December 14, 1918, the composer’s publisher began to receive requests for them to be performed separately. Nowadays, it is common for one or two of the operas to be presented in an evening.

On Friday, November 7 at 7:30 pm and Sunday November 9 at 3:00 pm in Kulas Hall, CIM Opera Theater will present Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. Dean Southern directs and Harry Davidson leads the CIM Orchestra. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire to premiere Mozart’s Requiem: A Tapestry

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by Mike Telin

For 234 years musicians have struggled with the question of how to perform Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s Requiem, a piece that he left unfinished at the time of his death in 1791. Although his widow arranged for his student Franz Xavier Süssmayr to complete the work, many have found that version to be unsatisfactory.

In a press release Apollo’s Fire artistic director Jeannette Sorrell said, “As I pondered how to honor the legacy of Mozart’s unfinished Requiem, I found myself reflecting on voices that were silenced or overshadowed by the culture of that time. These voices speak to us profoundly today, as the world teeters on a precipice in so many ways. So, to complete the Requiem, I chose eight movements from sacred-inspired works by living Black composers. In this way, we pay homage to Mozart by honoring the humanity within us all.”

[Read more…]

Poiesis Quartet returns to Oberlin

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by Mike Telin

Since forming at Oberlin Conservatory in the fall of 2022, The Poiesis Quartet have enjoyed a meteoric rise in the ranks of professional string quartets.

In 2023, the Quartet won the Gold Medal and BIPOC Prize at the St. Paul String Quartet Competition and the Grand Prize and Lift Every Voice Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

In May 2024, they joined the roster of Concert Artists Guild and last August were named First Prize and Commission Prize winners at the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition. The Poiesis are currently the Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

On Friday, October 31, violinists Sarah Ying Ma and Max Ball, violist Jasper de Boor, and cellist Drew Dansby will return to their alma mater to be featured in John Adams’ Absolute Jest with the Oberlin Orchestra. Directed by Raphael Jiménez, the program at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel also includes Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers, Angelica Negrón’s Campos Flotantes, and Zhou Tian’s Transcend. The concert is free.

[Read more…]

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