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The Cleveland Orchestra & Beethoven Nine: a conversation with tenor Miles Mykkanen

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by Mike Telin

“I think that Beethoven Nine is the ultimate piece about unity and human brotherhood,” tenor Miles Mykkanen said during a Zoom conversation from his home in Ironwood, Michigan. “Every time I sing it, I think about the millions of people who have either performed it or heard it over the last two centuries and how it reminds us of the goodness in all of us — that’s what life is all about.”

On Thursday, October 23 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Mykkanen will join soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven, and bass-baritone Dashon Burton, The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Conducted by music director Franz Welser-Möst, the performance also includes Jean Sibelius’ Tapiola. The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Mykkanen made his Cleveland Orchestra debut as Brighella in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in 2019 and he returned last spring to sing the role of Steva in Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa. “I’m just thrilled to be back to sing a piece that is 200 years old and still brings the audiences to their feet. And to perform it in Severance with The Cleveland Orchestra, my great quartet colleagues, and Franz Welser-Möst on the podium — that’s very special for any singer.”

[Read more…]

[VIDEO] The Cleveland Women’s Orchestra at 90 Years

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by Stephanie Manning

The oldest surviving women’s orchestra in the country — the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra — turns 90 years old this year. They’ll celebrate this milestone on Sunday, October 26th at 2:30 pm with a concert at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets available online.

Learn more in this video profile of violinist Joan Ferst and bassoonist Charlotte Hines, who have both been with the group for more than 50 years. Music director Eric Benjamin also talks about one of the featured pieces, Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1.

Also on the program is Fanny Mendelssohn’s Overture in C, Edward Elgar’s Sea Pictures (featuring mezzo-soprano Kira McGirr), and Clara-Jane Maunder’s The Coast (U.S. premiere).

Watch the video below and find it on Instagram and Facebook. [Read more…]

Les Délices opens new season with “Bohemian Rhapsody”

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by Mike Telin

The first thing you may think of when you hear the words “Bohemian Rhapsody” is that 1970’s iconic Rock song by Queen.

But when Les Délices launches their new season on Friday, October 17 at 7:30 pm at Westminster Presbyterian Church in  Akron their “Bohemian Rhapsody” will feature music by Bohemian and Moravian composers Franz Krommer (1759-1831), Georg Druschetzky (1745-1819), and Katerina Veronika Dusikova-Cianchettini (1769-1833).

Performed by oboist Debra Nagy, violinist Shelby Yamin, violist Allison Monroe, and cellist Rebecca Landell, the program also includes Mozart’s Oboe Quartet and a new work by Nathan Mondry.

“We’re opening with Franz Krommer’s Quartet no. 2 in F major for oboe & strings, and he is probably the best-known of these lesser-known composers,” Debra Nagy said during a telephone conversation. “He was a very popular composer during his time along with Beethoven. He wrote 100 string quartets, but today he’s known mostly for his wind partitas.”

[Read more…]

Country GongBang brings South Korean Bluegrass to CMA

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by Max Newman

In a world of genre blending, contemporary bluegrass and K-Pop are two musical styles that most would not imagine being intertwined.

Think again: on October 8th, the Cleveland Museum of Art will  play host to South Korea’s Country GongBang, the nation’s “first and only bluegrass band.”

The 7:30 pm concert in Gartner Auditorium will be a testament both to the group’s artistry and the surprisingly international reach of bluegrass music. I communicated with the band via email through their agent Shawn Choi.

In 2014, the band was formed by Yebin Kim (mandolin and vocals), Hyunho Jang (banjo), and Keeha Song (bass), who met as classmates at university. The group began by playing country pop and country rock, which became the foundation of their sound. Over time, their interest in bluegrass deepened, and they invited Jongsu Yoon (fiddle) and Sunjae Won (guitar) to join, completing the band’s lineup.

[Read more…]

Classically Lake View: November 3 Bach-a-thon at Wade Chapel

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by Mike Telin

Autumn is a magical time of year in Cleveland, and there couldn’t be a better place to experience the season’s natural splendor than Lake View Cemetery. And while you’re there, why not take in a concert featuring music by J.S. Bach in the magnificent Jeptha Wade Memorial Chapel, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and completed in 1901.

On Monday, November 3 beginning at 4:00 pm, musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra will perform some of the composer’s greatest masterworks in a 3-part Bach-a-thon.
[Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire begins new season: a conversation with Jeannette Sorrell

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by Mike Telin

During a Zoom conversation, Apollo’s Fire artistic director Jeannette Sorrell gave us her insights into the Orchestra’s 2025-2026 Northeast Ohio season as well as a sneak peek into its April residency at London’s historic Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Tickets and more information are available on the Orchestra’s website.

Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas — October 3 through 12.

Aryssa Leigh Burrs, mezzo-soprano (Dido), Edward Vogel, baritone (Aeneas), Andréa Walker, soprano (Belinda), and Cody Bowers, countertenor (Sorceress) with the Apollo’s Singers.

Jeannette Sorrell: I think Purcell’s music is just so exquisite. And the story of Dido and Aeneas is timeless and as poignant today as it was thousands of years ago when Virgil wrote it — the noble, brilliant queen who is jilted and abandoned by a man who says he’s leaving to follow his destiny.

[Read more…]

M.U.S.i.C. – Stars in the Classics at Praxis Fiber Workshop & Gallery

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by Mike Telin

Since presenting its first concert in 2005, providing performance opportunities for emerging musicians in Northeast Ohio is the driving principle behind M.U.S.i.C. (Musical Upcoming Stars in the Classics).

That tradition will continue on Saturday, September 27 at 4:00 pm when eleven young musicians present “A Classical Cabaret in Collinwood” at Praxis Fiber Workshop and Gallery in the Collinwood Arts District. The concert is free.

“There’s so much great music out there,” M.U.S.i.C’s founder and Artistic Director Jodi Kanter, said during a telephone conversation. “This program will feature music by American and Latin composers.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project (CUSP) begins new season

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by Max Newman

For lovers of Cleveland’s contemporary music scene, there is perhaps no group more acutely on the cutting edge than the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project. The genre-blending organization, founded in 2017 and under the stewardship of Stephan Haluska (pictured, left) since 2021, has provided ample space for Cleveland’s new music artists to strut their stuff for the better part of a decade.

Now, as part of their 2025-26 run, they are continuing these groundbreaking traditions. On September 26 at 8pm, the project will play host to synthesist and composer Matthew Ryals, as well as the local piano, harp, and electronic trio of Harper/Haluska/Oicherman (featuring CUSP’s own director), for an evening of sonic mobility and spontaneity. I spoke with Haluska about the upcoming performance, as well as the past, present, and future of CUSP.

“I’ve known him for a long time,” said Haluska of headliner Matthew Ryals, whose fully improvised recording “Exalge” was released earlier this month. When Haluska learned that his friend’s tour would be stopping in Northeast Ohio, the lightbulb went off in his head. “Matthew studied classical guitar at CIM and has since moved to New York, but we’ve always kept in touch. He reached out to me about coming through Ohio, and of course I jumped at this opportunity. He’s someone who I’ve wanted to work with before, but we haven’t really had the opportunity until now.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society opens 76th season with James Ehnes & Orion Weiss

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by Daniel Hathaway

After celebrating three quarters of a century in the concert presenting business with an extended season that drew large audiences to the Art Museum for the Jerusalem Quartet’s complete Shostakovich string quartet cycle — fifteen quartets in five concerts in April — the Cleveland Chamber Music Society will return to a more normal but equally enticing season in 2025-2026.

In addition to revisits by the Belcea and Takács Quartets, perennial favorites, the society will present some relatively new ensembles: the Leonkoro and Verona Quartets and the Isidore String Quartet, two of them with guest pianists. Yaron Kohlberg — head of Piano Cleveland, the driving force behind the Cleveland International Piano Competition — will join the Verona for the Dvořák Quintet, and Jeremy Denk will collaborate with the Isidore in the Brahms Quintet. [Read more…]

Cleveland Silent Film Festival opens with Phantom of the Opera centennial screening

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by Mike Telin

The Cleveland premiere of Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, lit up the screen at the Stillman Theatre on Sunday, January 17, 1926. In his Plain Dealer review, W. Ward Marsh wrote: “If your heart is strong, I recommend it to you. If your heart isn’t so strong, go see this film anyway, to find out how strong it is.”

On Sunday, September 14, the Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium will open its 2025 edition with that iconic film. The special screening at 3:00 pm in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art will celebrate Phantom’s 100th anniversary and feature its original score, performed live by American Musical Productions’ 17-piece orchestra conducted by Joseph Rubin.

Lon Chaney’s performance as the Phantom still captivates a century later, while the music of the original 1925 orchestral score brings the gothic grandeur of Gaston Leroux’s tale to life.

[Read more…]

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