by Mike Telin
On Tuesday, November 25, Lorain County Community College’s Signature Series will continue with a performance by duo parnas, Madalyn Parnas, violin, and Cicely Parnas, cello. The free concert, which begins at 7:30 pm in the Studio Theatre at the Stocker Center for the Arts, includes music by Haydn, Tcherepnin, Moravec, and Handel-Halvorsen.
“This is our Northeast Ohio debut and I’m looking forward to the concert; it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Madalyn said during a telephone conversation from Washington D.C. where she and her sister were performing the Brahms Double Concerto with the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. “I love the program. It’s repertoire that audiences don’t often get to hear.”
I asked Madalyn Parnas to say a bit about each of the works on their program. [Read more…]
Leah Ferguson is delighted to be performing Béla Bartók’s skillfully-crafted Viola Concerto in the Cleveland Orchestra’s beautiful home of Severance Hall. On Wednesday, November 19th, beginning at 8:00 pm, guest conductor Kimbo Ishii will lead the CIM Orchestra in a dynamic concert that also includes Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture and Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra.
Classical guitarist Colin Davin, a native of Bay Village, will appear with Jessye Norman on The Late Show with David Letterman on Thursday, November 20 at 11:35 pm EST on CBS.
“I love this concerto so much, I almost don’t know what to say,” pianist and Akron Symphony Associate Conductor Levi Hammer told us during a recent conversation. “It’s one of those pieces that’s been with me for most of my life, and I’m so happy to be able to play it again.”
“When we held auditions this past May, it became clear that we would have a great group of players coming on board,” Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) music director Brett Mitchell said during a recent conversation. “I just had the feeling that we were going to have a very special year.” On Sunday, November 23 at 8:00 pm in Severance Hall, Mitchell and his young players will present their first concert of the 2014-15 season. The program will feature music by John Adams, Roy Harris and Tchaikovsky.
British/Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt is no stranger to Cleveland, having won third prize in the 1979 Casadesus Competition, now the Cleveland International Piano Competition. “I was just a kid,” she said with a laugh during a recent telephone conversation. “But I remember it very well. I remember some of the repertoire I played. I remember many of the competitors. And I remember that we all stayed in the Wade Park Manor — see, I even remember the name!”
San Francisco, November 10. Zoé Madonna, a fourth-year Oberlin student majoring in East Asian studies, has won the $10,000 
On Friday, November 14 at 8:00 pm in Severance Hall, Carl Topilow will conduct the Cleveland POPS Orchestra and Chorus in the world premiere of “Comedy Tonight,” a revue of musical theatre’s more light-hearted moments. The show features Broadway award-winning stars Christine Pedi, Christiane Noll and Jason Graee.
When Bosnian guitarist Denis Azabagić and Spanish flutist Eugenia Moliner performed their first concert together in 1993, neither of them imagined that performing as a duo would become such an important part of their careers. But, as Azabagić and Moliner began appearing together more frequently, they realized that pursuing a career as a duo was something they should seriously consider.