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Cleveland Chamber Choir — “Choral Splendor: Old and New”

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by Mike Telin

“On some level, all music is in dialogue with the art that came before it,” Cleveland Chamber Choir artistic director Greg Ristow writes in his artistic statement for the ensemble’s upcoming program. “But, when a composer pays direct homage to an older piece, it creates a loop that draws these works together in a conversation that’s possible only in non-linear time, and that reflects our own experience as listeners hearing music of many eras in the context of our modern times.”

On Saturday, March 2 at 7:00 pm in First Lutheran Church of Lorain and on Sunday, March 3 at 4:00 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Ristow will lead the ensemble in “Choral Splendor: Old and New.”

The program creates six “time loops” of older pieces and newer responses performed side by side: Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere mei, Deus will be paired with Claudia Hinsdale’s Joy: A Variation on Allegri’s Miserere, Sebastien de Vivanco’s In Manus Tuas with Andrew Rindfleisch’s In Manus Tuas: A Parody Motet, and Dietrich Buxtehude’s “Ad manus” from 
Membra Jesu Nostri with Caroline Shaw’s To the Hands.

[Read more…]

David Hurd to play David Boe Memorial Concert at Oberlin

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by Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin Conservatory alumnus David Hurd has been tapped to play a David Boe Memorial Concert on the Fisk organ in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel on Sunday, March 3 at 4:30 pm. His program comprises some two decades of his own compositions.

Boe was a beloved professor of organ at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from 1962 to 2008 who also served as the ninth dean of the Conservatory.

David Hurd is among the most celebrated church musicians and concert organists in the United States. He received the American Guild of Organists’ Distinguished Composer award in 2010, and currently serves as organist and choirmaster of the Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin in New York City.

I reached Hurd at home in New York via Zoom to talk about his career, his experiences at Oberlin, and his program on Sunday. I began by asking him about his relationship to Boe as a student. [Read more…]

Leonard Slatkin to lead
CIM Orchestra at Severance

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Over the past month, Leonard Slatkin has gone back to school.

The recent college visits, so to speak, for the renowned conductor — who is currently Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony, Directeur Musical Honoraire of the Orchestre National de Lyon, Conductor Laureate of the St. Louis Symphony, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria — have included concerts at Manhattan School of Music and Carnegie Mellon University.

Slatkin will cap off that run when he guest conducts the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra on Tuesday, February 27 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center for a night of music “From the New World.” The program includes that famous symphony by Antonín Dvořák as well as Cindy McTee’s Double Play and Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, which will feature CIM student Jazmin Pascual as soloist. Tickets are available here.

I reached Slatkin on Zoom to discuss working with students, how he became interested in conducting, his multi-generational musical family, and his writing — ranging from his early interest in science fiction all the way up to his fourth book. Eight Symphonic Masterworks of the Twentieth Century: A Study Guide for Conductors will be published by Rowman & Littlefield on March 5.

[Read more…]

JazzNEO to premiere February 26: a conversation with host Dee Perry

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Good news for jazz lovers, or even the jazz-curious: the launch on February 26 of Ideastream Public Media’s full-time jazz channel. Featuring hosts Dee Perry, Dan Polletta, and John Simna, JazzNEO will broadcast on 90.3 HD2 and be livestreamed on JazzNEO.org.

Perry, who gladly came out of retirement to be one of the inaugural hosts, is excited about the venture. “Northeast Ohio has a vibrant culture of players, presenters, and students of jazz, and what really excites me is how JazzNEO can shine a spotlight on all that talent and connect it to listeners who are looking to nourish their ears, brains, and hearts,” she has said.

I sat down with Perry in Ideastream’s facility on Euclid Avenue to talk about JazzNEO and her love of jazz. I began by asking her about her first experiences with the genre.

Dee Perry: My dad built his own stereo set, and he had three albums: Miles Davis’s Flamenco Sketches, a Gloria Lynn album — I think it was Great American Songbook tunes done in a jazzy kind of way — and a third album of train sounds.

[Read more…]

Zidur Guitar Duo to make Cleveland debut for Classical Guitar Society

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by Mike Telin

The relationship between Hermelindo Ruiz (left) and the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society dates back to 2020, when the guitarist/composer became an Artist in Residence for CCGS through a Creative Fusion grant from the Cleveland Foundation. A year later, Ruiz became a CCGS Composer in Residence, writing works for young guitar players that were premiered by the students.

This week Ruiz makes his third visit to Cleveland — this time joined by Samuel Diz in the Zidur Guitar Duo. On Saturday, February 24 at 7:30 pm, the duo will make its Cleveland debut at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. The program features music from their homelands of Puerto Rico and Spain. Tickets are available online.

Ruiz was in Chicago when I caught up with him by phone and began by asking how he and Diz came to form the duo.

Hermelindo Ruiz: Through friends of mine, Samuel discovered some scores of my work and started to play my music in Europe. I am from Puerto Rico and he’s from Spain, and he started telling people about this Puerto Rican classical music composer. And that opened a lot of doors to me, including getting to go to Spain. We started playing as a duo in 2009 when we were 20 or 21 years old at the time.

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Opera to present William Grant Still’s Highway 1, U.S.A.

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by Mike Telin

Family dynamics have always been the source of inspiration for great literature. There’s Shakepeare’s Hamlet — which depicts the Prince of Denmark’s attempts to take revenge against his uncle, or the prime time television soap opera Dallas, which revolved around an affluent and feuding Texas family.

On Sunday, February 18 at 3:00 pm in The Tudor Arms Hotel Grand Ballroom, The Cleveland Opera in collaboration with the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra and Duffy Liturgical Ensemble, will present a full-scale production of William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA.

[Read more…]

Daniel Singer: falling in love
with Fauré’s Requiem

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by Mike Telin

“The first time I heard the Fauré Requiem was during my freshman year in college,” Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus director Daniel Singer recalled in an interview, adding that he instantly fell in love with the work. “It’s just a beautiful piece of choral music. It’s so melodic, and Fauré knew how to spin a tuneful melody.”

On Sunday, February 18 at 7:00 pm at Severance Music Center, the Chorus will join forces with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra for a performance of Fauré’s beloved work. The program, under the direction of Daniel Reith, also includes Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire: Alan Choo and colleagues to take on more of Biber’s Rosary Sonatas

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by Daniel Hathaway

Apollo’s Fire has recently been fascinated by 17th-century Bohemian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber’s Rosary Sonatas — musical meditations on the five Joyful Mysteries, the five Sorrowful Mysteries, and the five Glorious Mysteries of the life of Christ.

Probably written in the 1670s, but unknown to modern ears until first published in 1905, the devotional work is preserved in a beautiful manuscript held in the Bavarian State Library in Munich.

Four Apollo’s Fire violinists presented eight of the sonatas on programs in January 2019. And Alan Choo soloed in a pair of them on a set of programs in January 2023 as part of a multi-season project to record all fifteen sonatas plus the Passacaglia that concludes the meditations. The resulting CD, Biber’s Sacred Mysteries, has just been released, and will be available for purchase at Apollo’s Fire’s four concerts this week, when Choo will be featured in seven of the sonatas. [Read more…]

George Benjamin’s Dream of the Song: a conversation with countertenor Tim Mead

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by Mike Telin

This week’s program from The Cleveland Orchestra includes George Benjamin’s mesmerizing Dream of the Song, featuring British countertenor Tim Mead as soloist.

The program, conducted by Benjamin, also includes Dieter Ammann’s glut, Oliver Knussen’s The Way to Castle Yonder, and Maurice Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye (complete ballet). Performances take place on Thursday, February 15 at 7:30 pm and Saturday the 17th at 8:00 pm at Severance Music Center. Tickets are available online.

I caught up with Mead over Zoom to discuss Benjamin’s song cycle, his passion for Purcell, and his quick transition from the choir to the opera stage. (Photo by Andy Staples) [Read more…]

CelloGayageum at Cleveland Museum of Art: uniting cultures, blending styles & experimenting with sound

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by Jarrett Hoffman

“I grew up with the story of the separation of south and north in Korea,” cellist Sol Daniel Kim said during a recent interview. “And when I went to Berlin, of course I knew the history of the city, how it was separated into east and west.”

The parallel between German reunification and the hope for peaceful reunification of Korea took physical form in late 2015 with the construction of Berlin’s Pavillon der Einheit (Pavilion of Unity).

It was around that same time when Kim met Korean-born Dayoung Yoon, who plays the gayageum, a traditional Korean zither. They started talking at a concert organized by the Korean Cultural Center in Berlin, and hit it off over a shared interest in creating music.

“That was my first real encounter with a Korean traditional instrument,” said Kim, who was born in Austria, with Korean roots. “And actually she was having quite a hard time in Berlin, because it’s not easy for a Korean person to get used to the Berlin vibe. Then she met me, and everything turned around because we were making music together.”

[Read more…]

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