ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad
Ad

Pre•Views

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra: Concerto Competition winner Elena Ziegler

by

by Mike Telin

For a young musician, winning a concerto competition is always an honor. And performing that concerto with an orchestra is a moment to cherish. “I’ve played many concertos before with piano, but this is my first time with an orchestra and I’m enjoying it a lot,” Elena Ziegler said.

On Friday, May 3 at 8:00 pm at Severance Music Center, Ziegler will perform Lalo’s Cello Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. Under the direction of Daniel Reith, the program also includes Valerie Coleman’s Umoja and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Tickets are available online.

I reached the Copley High School junior by telephone and began our conversation by congratulating her on winning the competition and asking how she came to choose the Lalo.

[Read more…]

Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen to make Apollo’s Fire debut in two of J.S. Bach’s Easter works

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Countertenors lead interesting and varied professional lives that are reflected in the wide range of roles they sing.

Take the example of Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, who will make his Apollo’s Fire debut this weekend in a pair of Johann Sebastian Bach’s rarely performed Easter works.

Cohen, who graduated from Princeton in 2015, will come to Cleveland immediately after returning to his alma mater to sing the role of the Angel in Edward Elgar’s mystical Roman Catholic oratorio The Dream of Gerontius. 

And with Apollo’s Fire, the countertenor, who grew up in a Jewish household, sang in synagogue, and studied cantorial music, will sing the allegorical role of Fear (Furcht) in Bach’s Cantata 66, then take on the persona of Mary Magdalene in the composer’s Easter Oratorio —  two Pietist Lutheran works.

“My two alter egos,” Cohen quipped in a recent telephone interview. [Read more…]

Conductor David Afkham to make Severance Music Center debut

by

by Mike Telin

“I am looking forward to being back in Cleveland,” conductor David Afkham said over Zoom from his home in Germany. “This will be my third time with the Orchestra — the first two were at Blossom Music Center, so I’m excited to lead one of the world’s greatest orchestras in that wonderful hall.”

On Friday, April 26 at 7:30 pm, Afkham will make his Severance Music Center debut with a concert that features Unsuk Chin’s subito con forza, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Beatrice Rana, and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. The program will be repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Regarding this week’s concerts, Afkham, who serves as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquestra y Coro Nacional de España, said, “When I was asked to fill in for my friend Lahav Shani back in March, I looked at the program and thought — I like it a lot, I don’t want to change a thing.”

[Read more…]

“Game On!” — a night of game-show fun with the Singers’ Club 

by

by Max Newman

“I am fairly certain that in the 131 years of the Singers’ Club, this will be our first event with an interactive audience element.”

What Don Verkuijlen is referring to is the “Game On!” program that the Singers’ Club of Cleveland will present on Friday, April 26 at 7:00 pm at First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland. Tickets are available here.

The brainchild of Verkuijlen, the program is “essentially going to be played like a game of Jeopardy,” he said during a telephone conversation. “When you walk in, there will be a big screen showing various categories. The audience will raise their hands and call out a category, and instead of video clues, the choir will actually be singing a piece of music for each category.”

[Read more…]

2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition announces sixteen quarterfinalists

by

by Daniel Hathaway

On April 23, Piano Cleveland, host of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, released the names of the sixteen quarterfinalists who will compete in the 2024 contest this summer.

Marking its 50th year, the competition got underway in February, when 55 contestants selected for its first round played in Cleveland and Paris.

The semifinalists will come to Cleveland this summer for three weeks of free public performances and ticketed competition events between July 28 and August 10, culminating in concerto performances with The Cleveland Orchestra and the bestowing of awards including the $75,000 Mixon First Prize.

This time around, the competition has revised its guidelines to allow contestants to play a broader range of repertoire. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Collective to premiere OATH BREAKER, a Requiem

by

by Mike Telin 

Like many, composer Ty Alan Emerson watched the events of January 6, 2021 unfold on the national news. “Even though I wasn’t there, I felt that this was an attack on me, my belief in our Constitution, and our democracy,” Emerson said during a telephone conversation, adding that he “needed to do something.”

On Saturday, April 20 at 7:30 pm at Disciples Christian Church, the Cleveland Chamber Collective will present the premiere of Emerson’s OATH BREAKER, a Requiem for chamber ensemble and digital playback. The work aims to take the audience on a 60-minute journey of anger, grief, and hope, while striving to come to grips with the events of January 6 and the subsequent fallout. The program will be repeated on Sunday, April 28 at 3:30 pm at the Pivot Center. Both performances are free.

Emerson said that he chose the frame of a requiem because the work is about emotional and spiritual processes, and writing it helped him work through the events and manage their emotional impact.

[Read more…]

Keeping Creation Collaborative with Silkroad

by

by Stephanie Manning

Ask Haruka Fujii what instrument she plays, and she won’t be able to tell you exactly.

“I play anything that makes noise,” the percussionist says. “Anything that I can make music with—including pure water, to ceramic rice bowls, to anything.”

A specialist in contemporary music, Fujii says she focuses on working with living composers to “innovate and invent the boundary of what the percussionist can do.” Since 2010, she’s been doing just that as a member of the Silkroad Ensemble, a musical collective dedicated to cross-cultural collaboration.

On April 26, she’ll be coming to Oberlin for the first time, as part of the group performing Silkroad’s program “Uplifted Voices.” Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Tuesday Musical to host Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

by

by Mike Telin

“It’s Duke Ellington’s 125th anniversary and the Akron concert is dedicated to Duke’s music,” saxophonist Ted Nash said during a telephone conversation.

On Saturday, April 20 at 7:30 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical will present the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. The evening of large-ensemble jazz led by a beloved jazz master will showcase fifteen of the finest soloists, ensemble players, and arrangers in jazz today. Tickets are available online.

Saturday’s program will include Ellington’s music from the late ‘20s through the ‘70s, including movements from his later suites. “We’ll also be playing music from his films, like Paris Blues,” Nash said.

[Read more…]

Halida Dinova to play “Great Piano Miniatures” at St. James in Lakewood April 14

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland-based pianist Halida Dinova, a prizewinner in several international competitions who has made acclaimed recordings on the Doremi, Naxos, Navona, Chandos, and Cantius Classics labels, will be presenting her solo program “Great Piano Miniatures” for piano lovers of all ages and listening experiences at Lakewood’s St. James Catholic Church on Sunday, April 14 at 4:00 pm.

The works on the program span centuries of music history, “telling a story of adventure and deep emotions” in two 35-minute segments. Dinova will perform works by Bach, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Brahms ending with Franz Liszt’s Legend No. 2, “a rare sound picture of St. Francis of Paola crossing the Straits of Messina by walking on the water” that was inspired by a painting in the Vatican.

I reached Halida Dinova by telephone and began by asking if she had ever programmed a recital of all miniature pieces before?

[Read more…]

Les Délices concludes 15th anniversary with “Seasons Transformed”

by

by Mike Telin

From the beginning of time, artists have been inspired by the seasons, and no musical work dedicated to them is more recognizable than Vivaldi’s set of violin concertos Il Quattro Stagioni or The Four Seasons. His music has inspired admirers and imitators alike.

On Friday, April 12 at 7:30 pm at the Akron Civic Theater, to conclude the ensemble’s 15th anniversary season, Les Délices will present “Seasons Transformed.” The program will be repeated on Saturday at 7:30 pm at Disciples Cultural Arts Center and Sunday at 4:00 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us