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Oboist Izaiah Cheeran makes ChamberFest debut

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by Mike Telin

From a young age, Izaiah Cheeran had a fascination with music — which eventually led him to the oboe.

Next week, Cheeran — who was appointed second oboe/English horn of the Philadelphia Ballet in 2024 while still an undergraduate at Curtis — will make his ChamberFest Cleveland debut.

Already in his burgeoning career, Cheeran has made appearances with the Atlanta Symphony, Opera Philadelphia, Quad City Symphonies, and Carnegie Hall’s NYO-USA. He has attended the Music Academy of the West and the Pacific Music Festival, and later this summer will be a fellow at Tanglewood.

We caught up with the ChamberFest Rising Star by Zoom at his home in Minneapolis.

[Read more…]

Benjamin Yusupov: ChamberFest Cleveland’s Composer-in-Residence

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by Mike Telin

Benjamin Yusupov, ChamberFest Cleveland’s Composer-in Residence, is Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Israel Soloists Chamber Orchestra, founded by him in 2015. He also serves as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Hakfar Hayarok Youth Symphony Orchestra and as Composer-in-Residence of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

During a Zoom call from his home in Kfar Saba, Israel, Yusupov said that he received the invitation to ChamberFest from the co-artistic directors Diana Cohen and Roman Rabinovich.

“Roman has played many of my pieces. He performed my piano concerto with the Haifa Symphony and he’s also played my solo piano piece, Crossroads No. 2, that will be performed at the festival in Cleveland. So Roman and his wife Diana are my good friends.”

[Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire and violinist Alan Choo hear the “Echoes of Ireland”

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by Stephanie Manning

Over the past few summers, it’s become increasingly likely to find Apollo’s Fire performing at Holden Arboretum.

“It’s kind of become our summer home,” violinist Alan Choo said about the venue, which sprawls across more than 3,600 acres of green space in Kirtland. “I love taking a walk between shows or before rehearsal. It’s always so refreshing and gives me new inspiration.”

Next week, Apollo’s Fire will return to the botanical garden for four outdoor performances of this year’s Countryside Concerts. “Echoes of Ireland” focuses on the life and music of harper Turlough O’Carolan. The program runs from June 16-21, including concerts at Avon Lake UCC, The Bath Church UCC, and Lakeside Chautauqua. Tickets and more information are available online.

“Echoes of Ireland” will be the group’s first folk program directed by Choo, who has expanded his role over the years as the associate artistic director. “Apollo’s Fire really introduced me to the music of so many different cultures, so I’m really excited and very grateful for the opportunity,” he said. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera opens 47th season with My Fair Lady, directed by Jacob Allen

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by Mike Telin

When Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s My Fair Lady debuted on Broadway in 1956, it was an instant success — winning six Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

Indeed, the story about Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who is magically transformed into a lady by the phonetics professor Henry Higgins, is filled with songs that will keep you humming for days.

On Saturday, June 13 at 2:00 pm in the College of Wooster’s Freedlander Theatre, Ohio Light Opera will open their 47th season with the iconic musical. Jacob Allen directs and Michael Borowitz conducts the OLO Orchestra. My Fair Lady runs in rep through August 2. Tickets are available online. View a season calendar here.

I caught up with Jacob Allen by phone and began our conversation by asking him about his history with the musical.

[Read more…]

Next week at ChamberFest: season fourteen begins

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by Mike Telin

Music is in a constant state of flux — adapting and taking on new life as it crosses borders, cultures, and time. Just as tectonic plates shift slowly but inevitably, musical traditions push against one another, sparking something new.

Diana Cohen | Franklin Cohen | Roman Rabinovich
Artistic Directors

With the theme of “Continental Drifts,” the fourteenth edition of ChamberFest Cleveland will launch on Wednesday, June 10 at 7:30 pm in Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Tickets to all events are available online.

The evening will begin with a 6:30 pm welcome by CFC executive director  Jessica Peek Sherwood. The program, titled “Global Fanfare,” will kick off with virtuosic drumming from djembefola Weedie Braimah.

The program will also include Steve Reich’s Piano Phase, Yang Baozhi’s Ambush on All Sides, Miguel del Águila’s Clocks: I. Shelves Full of Clocks, Matthew Hindson’s Rush for Piano Trio, and Johannes Brahms’ String Sextet in G major, Op. 36. The audience is invited to stay for a Postlude Reception to celebrate Opening Night.

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Petra Polácková returns to her “second home”

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by Mike Telin

“I remember coming to the U.S. for the first time to play in the Cleveland Festival,” Petra Polácková recalled during a Zoom conversation. “That was twelve years ago. I remember Armin Kelly waiting for me at the airport — we were all super excited and of course, super nervous.”

On Sunday, June 7 at 4:00 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Polácková will make her tenth appearance at the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Jonathan Leathwood will give a free pre-concert talk at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

In addition to the Festival, Polácková has also returned to record videos for Guitars International. “This might be my 12th time in Cleveland, so nowadays it’s like coming home for the annual meeting of the family. I can’t imagine not being in Cleveland at least once a year.”

The guitarist said that the origins of her setlist began to take shape when she was asked to play a Spanish program for a Rodrigo anniversary festival. [Read more…]

ENCORE’s 11th Music & Ideas Festival finds a way home

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by Stephanie Manning

“HOME,” the theme of this year’s ENCORE – Gates Mills Music & Ideas Festival, has been on Jinjoo Cho’s mind for a while.

“I am a homebody that is not allowed to be at home very much,” the artistic director and violinist said, speaking by phone from a midpoint in her drive from Chicago to Cleveland. She’s lived in Chicago since 2024, when she began teaching at Northwestern University, and she spent six years before that at McGill University in Montreal.

Given that relocation back to the U.S. from Canada, the concept of home “encapsulates a lot of thoughts I’ve had throughout the past two years,” she said. “It’s kind of a peculiar science what conditions need to be met for someone to truly feel secure and safe. This festival theme is really my attempt to pinpoint what those conditions are.”

From June 5 to June 20, the eleventh season of ENCORE’s Music & Ideas Festival will present five headline concerts in different venues around Northeast Ohio. These events take place concurrently with the Summer Academy, which provides training, mentorship, and performance opportunities for young musicians ages 13 to 26. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

Italian guitarist Nicolò Spera: an afternoon of new music

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by Mike Telin

“The first thing I do before I contact a composer to ask them to write a piece is listen to their music. If it doesn’t speak to me, why would I spend the money and the time?” Italian guitarist Nicolò Spera said during a recent Zoom conversation. “And if it does speak to me, I think it can speak to anyone.”

On Sunday, June 7 at 1:00 pm in Mixon Hall at CIM as part of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, Spera will present a program of new works, four of which will be world premieres. Jonathan Leathwood will present a pre-concert lecture at 11:30 am. Tickets are available online.

Spera said that all of the composers on his program have two things in common — a dazzling imagination and a sense of refinement. “I find that I’m drawn to music that has this inner elegance, which to me carries depth. And all of these composers only write what is really important. If something is there just to show off, then it doesn’t become part of  their music. So this program isn’t meant to be a statement about new music, it’s just very beautiful, genuine music that happened to be written in the last few years, or in some cases, in the last few weeks.”

Spera will open his program with the world premiere of Roxana Panufnik’s Canto. The guitarist said that he was aware that Panufnik was extremely busy and that getting her to write a piece for one instrument might be difficult. But while looking through her catalogue he discovered Canto for solo viola. “I looked at it and I loved it so I thought I would ask her if she thought it could work on guitar and with her approval, I would like to play it. We worked together on the transcription and she liked it and I love it. So that’s how it happened.

[Read more…]

Studio Espressivo presents “Masquerading Melodies”

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by Mike Telin

What do Colombina, Harlequin, Pantalone, Pierrot, and Pulcinella have in common? They are all characters of the commedia dell’arte. This weekend they will be brought to life musically when Studio Espressivo presents “Masquerading Melodies.”

Performances are on Saturday, June 6 at 3:00 pm & 8:00 pm, and Sunday, June 7 at 3:00 pm at Studio Espressivo, 2026 Murray Hill Road #111. Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available online.

Studio Espressivo concert series founders, pianist Allison Hillier and composer/pianist Chris Neiner, will open the program with Gabriel Fauré’s Overture from Masques et bergamasques for piano four hands.

“The overture is not even four minutes long, but it is so fun,” Neiner said during a Zoom call. “It was commissioned as incidental music for a theatrical entertainment for the Prince of Monaco in 1919. It was inspired by commedia dell’arte and designed to be first on a concert.”

Neiner will then take on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Polichinelle in F-sharp minor. “The title is French for Punch, from Punch and Judy, which itself goes back to commedia dell’arte. So it’s very much a character piece.”

[Read more…]

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival celebrates 26 years this June

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by Mike Telin

With the flipping of the calendar next week, the summer festival season in Northeast Ohio is set to launch. Keeping with tradition, the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival will once again be leading the way.

Celebrating its 26th year, the Festival will run from June 4 through 7 at the Cleveland Institute of Music. This year CICGF will be highlighted by six concerts performed by internationally renowned guitarists and supporting musicians, six lectures, six master classes, private lessons, a demonstration of fine concert guitars, and the seventh annual James Stroud National Classical Guitar Youth Competition.

“Year 26, believe it or not,” Festival founder and artistic director Armin Kelly exclaimed during a recent telephone conversation. He noted that the six concerts are equally divided between solo and chamber music recitals. All performances will be held in Mixon Hall.

[Read more…]

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