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2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition announces sixteen quarterfinalists

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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”

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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…]

Oberlin Percussion Group to play Grisey’s Le Noir de l’Étoile at OCLIPSE

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by Mike Telin

“In 1967, a young astronomer detected in the heavens a rapidly varying radio signal, in the form of periodic impulses 1.3 seconds apart,” writes Jean-Pierre Luminet, astrophysicist at the Paris-Meudon Observatory.

“The discovery caused a sensation. The impulses were so regular that for a while they were taken to be signals coming from extraterrestrial civilisations. Then astrophysicists revealed a truth that was just as surprising: the signals were being emitted by a pulsar, the fantastic compact residue created by the supernova explosions that long ago disintegrated the massive stars.”

This discovery served as the inspiration for Gérard Grisey’s Le Noir de l’Étoile. Commissioned by the French State and Les Percussions de Strasbourg, the piece was premiered in 1991 at the Ars Musica Festival in Brussels.

On Monday, April 8 at 1:00 pm, Oberlin Percussion Group, under the direction of Ross Karre (pictured), will perform Grisey’s monumental work in Hales Gymnasium. The free performance is part of Oberlin’s OCLIPSE Concert Series celebrating the solar eclipse set to take place on Monday. Click here to learn more about Le Noir de l’Étoile.

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: organist James McVinnie performs Breathing Forests

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by Mike Telin

In her program note, composer Gabriella Smith writes that her organ concerto Breathing Forests is “a reflection on the complex relationship between humans, forests, climate change, and fire. The massive sound and architecture of the organ feels something like the grandeur of a forest to me, and its breath reminiscent of the glorious exchange of carbon dioxide to oxygen that forests perform on a massive scale. 

“This is an example of how music and art can make a difference in how we talk about climate change,” organist James McVinnie said during a telephone interview. “It’s a piece that everyone, especially young people, should hear.”

On Thursday, April 4 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, McVinnie will make his debut with The Cleveland Orchestra in Smith’s Breathing Forests. Under the direction of John Adams, the concert will also include Adams’ City Noir with saxophonist Timothy McAllister as soloist and Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. The program will be repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: Timothy McAllister plays John Adams

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by Mike Telin

“It’s just a thrill to come to Cleveland,” Timothy McAllister said during a telephone conversation. “And audiences will be witnessing a piece that for the saxophone has literally made history — and I’m honored to be part of that history.”

On Thursday, April 4 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, McAllister will join The Cleveland Orchestra in John Adams’ City Noir. Under the direction of Adams, the concert will also include Gabriella Smith’s Breathing Forests with organist James McVinnie as soloist and Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. The program will be repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Based in Ann Arbor, McAllister serves on the faculty of the University of Michigan, and is no stranger to Northeast Ohio, having performed Avner Dorman’s Saxophone Concerto with CityMusic in 2014. His first Cleveland Orchestra performance came in November of 2018 when Matthias Pintscher led Bartók’s The Wood Prince Suite.

[Read more…]

Poiesis Quartet to join Mezzo-Soprano Nancy Maultsby at Baldwin Wallace

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by Mike Telin

Winning a competition can serve as a jump-start to a young musician or chamber ensemble. Case in point: the Poiesis Quartet, founded during Oberlin Conservatory’s Advanced Quartet Seminar program in Fall 2022. During their first year as an ensemble, they became the 2023 Grand Prize winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. They were also awarded the Gold Medal and BIPOC Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition.

And when Cleveland Orchestra trombonist and composer Richard Stout was looking for a string quartet to perform his Songs of Correspondence — which he wrote for his Baldwin Wallace faculty colleague Nancy Maultsby — on the opening concert of the Rocky River Chamber Music Society series in October, he sought out the Poiesis. Click here to read an interview with Richard Stout.

On Monday, March 25 at 7:30 pm in Gamble Auditorium, Nancy Maultsby and the Poiesis Quartet — Sarah Ma and Max Ball (violins), Jasper de Boor (viola), and Drew Dansby (cello) — will perform Stout’s song cycle based on letters of Willa Cather. The program will also include Clint Needham’s String Quartet No. 2, “Shades Of Green.” The concert is free.

[Read more…]

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