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Emersons Revisit Oberlin on Farewell Tour: a conversation with violinist Philip Setzer

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 by Daniel Hathaway

After 47 years of touring, the Emerson String Quartet will be retiring as an ensemble this season, but not before revisiting the Oberlin Artist Recital Series during a farewell tour. (L-R: Philip Setzer, Eugene Drucker, Paul Watkins, Lawrence Dutton.)

On Friday, September 22 at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel, the Emersons will play Felix Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 2 in a, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Drink the Wild Ayre, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Quartet No. 13 in B-flat and Große Fuge. Tickets can be purchased online.

I caught up with violinist and Cleveland native Philip Setzer — both of whose parents were violinists in The Cleveland Orchestra — via Zoom to talk about the group’s four and a half decades on the road and its plans for this season’s grand finale.

Daniel Hathaway: I’m really pleased to have the opportunity to chat with you at the end of your long, distinguished run with the Emerson, having had a small part in launching your career by presenting the quartet on the Gund Concert Series at Groton School way back in 1976. We were looking for an exciting new ensemble of young musicians who would connect well with high school age students, and you were all fresh out of Juilliard and making waves by alternating first and second violins.

Philip Setzer: And here we are 47 years later and those kids are all like 60, right? Crazy, isn’t it? We’ve got quite a farewell season lined up. [Read more…]

Les Délices celebrates fifteen years

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by Mike Telin

Anniversaries are an opportunity to reflect and to forge new adventures. When Debra Nagy set out to plan Les Délices’ 15th season, she wanted it to be “familiar and extremely ambitious.”

Les Délices will launch their season next week by taking the award-winning SalonEra series to another level. On Saturday, September 23 at 3:00 pm at Heights Theater, audiences are invited to attend the debut of SalonEra Sessions with a program titled Songs for Social Justice. The 75-minute concert and conversation, hosted by Nagy, will feature countertenor Michael Walker and tenor Haitham Haidar, who will explore themes of identity and representation, struggle and resilience, and community and belonging. The event will be recorded, edited, and released as a SalonEra episode later in the season. During the program Walker and Haidar will be joined by Nagy (oboe), Rebecca Reed (cello), and Brian Kay (lute and oud).

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: 
the “return” of Stephanie Jones

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by Jarrett Hoffman

There are still so many ongoing effects from the pandemic: physical, mental, economic, and most devastating of all, linguistic, specifically when it comes to the word “debut.”

In early 2021, Stephanie Jones was featured in the local music scene for the first time through a video — and a very popular one at that — recorded at her home in Munich and presented by the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society. Now, an event that also feels deserving of that word, she’ll finally be visiting Cleveland in person.

Perhaps great minds can gather and hash all this out. In the meantime, the more Stephanie Jones, the better — and on Sunday, September 17 at 3:00 pm, she will bring works by J.S. Bach, Richard Charlton, Ross Edwards, Jakob Schmidt, Quique Sinesi, Rostislav Golubov, Astor Piazzolla, and Antônio Carlos Jobim to the Maltz Performing Arts Center in a presentation by CCGS. See the full program here, and get tickets here.

I sat down with the Australian-born guitarist on Zoom and began by catching up on some life updates: since we last spoke, she has finished her master’s degree and Konzertexamen at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar, and is now teaching at the University of Augsburg — in addition to teaching through her Patreon, where her 25-member online studio is currently maxed out.

[Read more…]

ClevelandClassical.com to Celebrate Fifteen Years

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by Daniel Hathaway

Next Thursday, September 15, marks the fifteenth anniversary of the launching of ClevelandClassical.com (pictured left, the first Front Page from 2008).

Born out of 30 years of experience — and frustration — with running a concert series with minimal support from the traditional media, the website attracted immediate attention from musicians, presenters, and the concert-going public, who thought that a one-stop destination for classical music events and news had been needed for years.

From the beginning, robust concert listings were the source for all the rest of our content, and that is still the case today. Before long, we began to publish preview articles, and after that, concert and recording reviews.

We officially became a not-for-profit organization in 2009, the same year that we began offering summer fellowships to young writers. In 2011, Mike Telin and I began teaching music journalism at Oberlin, courses that have led to jobs in the industry for several individuals.

Since our 10th anniversary, a lot has happened that has globally affected arts organizations. We survived COVID, and continued to publish concert listings for remotely-attended performances, both local and world-wide. [Read more…]

Second annual Silent Film Festival to run September 6-9

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by Mike Telin

When you create something successful, people want more. Such is the case with the Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium, which made its debut in January of 2022. “People kept asking me when I was going to do it again,” Festival founder Emily Laurance said over coffee.

The second edition of the Festival, which runs September 6-9, will include screenings of five films, each with live accompanying music, at three locations around Cleveland.

Laurance, a visiting associate professor of musicology at Oberlin Conservatory, noted that Colorado-based Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra will be returning, and the partnership with the Cinematheque at the Cleveland Institute of Art continues as well.

“This year we’re bringing in noted theater organist Clark Wilson, and the Western Reserve Theater Organ Society and Radio on the Lake Theater are new partnerships.” New venues include Masonic Auditorium and Cleveland Museum of Art. Click here for tickets and more information.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Silent Film Festival opener to feature organist Clark Wilson

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by Daniel Hathaway

Three of the classics to be screened at the Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium from September 6-9 will enjoy the live collaboration of Colorado’s Mont Alto Silent Film Orchestra. But Harold Lloyd’s iconic comedy Safety Last!, the opening event on Wednesday, September 6 at 7 pm at Masonic Auditorium, will be accompanied by a single musician.

Organist Clark Wilson is one of the most prominent scorers of silent photoplays in America today. His accompaniments reflect the techniques and materials of the musical performances given in major picture palaces during the heyday of silent film.

One of those resources is the theater organ, which represents a special tributary in the grand stream of pipe organ history, and was only made possible by developments in electricity around the turn of the 20th century.

Before that time, the liaison between player and pipes was mechanical. Once inventors like Robert Hope-Jones in Britain discovered how to open valves to let air into pipework electrically, entirely new possibilities arose. That led to inventions like the Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra, which comprised a small number of ranks whose individual pipes could be wired in at different pitches on different keyboards.

According to the Western Reserve Theater Organ Society website, “The tonal sounds of the theater organ were designed specifically to provide more robust and engaging music to match the action and storyline of the silent film. [Read more…]

Music from the Western Reserve opens season with the Dave Banks Big Band

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 by Mike Telin

“There’s nothing like the sound of a big band,” trumpeter and band leader Dave Banks said during a recent conversation. “And to have a band that’s got that powerhouse kind of sound makes a real impact on the audience.”

On Sunday, September 10 at 5:00 pm at  Christ Episcopal Church in Hudson, Music from the Western Reserve will open their season with the Dave Banks Big Band featuring vocalist Sandra Montevideo. A pre-concert chat begins at 4:30. Tickets available online.

I caught up with the Cuyahoga Falls native by Zoom, and began by asking what the audience will hear during “Big Band on Broadway!”

Dave Banks: It’s big band music, but everything has a Broadway connection — songs that have either been in a show on Broadway or are about Broadway. Some of them got their start in the movies but ended up on Broadway, so it’s an interesting concept. [Read more…]

Simone Lamsma brings Saint-Saëns violin concerto to Blossom Music Center

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by Mike Telin

Time is running out to catch The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center this summer. On Saturday, August 26 at 7:00 pm, guest conductor Fabien Gabel will lead The Orchestra in a program titled “Impressions of France and Spain.” The program will include Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso and Suite No. 2 from Daphnis and Chloé, and De Falla’s Suite No. 2 from The Three-Cornered Hat.

This is the final Classical concert at Blossom in 2023. Bring young people along and take advantage of the Under 18s for free on the lawn program. Click here for more information. Tickets are available online.

The concert will feature Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3, with Simone Lamsma as soloist. Lamsma made her Cleveland Orchestra debut at Severance Music Center in May of 2014 and her Blossom debut in August of 2015. “I’m so happy to be coming back. The Cleveland Orchestra is so refined — there’s an exquisite nobility in the way that they play,” the Dutch violinist said during a telephone conversation from the Netherlands.

[Read more…]

After the Cooper Competition: thoughts from Pyotr Akulov (age 16)

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by Mike Telin

History was made on August 4, when for the first time in the history of the Cooper Competition for Piano, the top prize was awarded to two participants. Pyotr Akulov and Sophia Shuya Liu were named co-champions following their concerto performances with David Robertson and The Cleveland Orchestra that Friday evening.

I reached Pyotr Akulov by Zoom outside of Düsseldorf, Germany.

Mike Telin: Good afternoon and thank you for taking the time to talk.

Pyotr Akulov: Thank you for your invitation.

MT: You’re in Germany right now — are you performing?

PA: No, I am just recovering from the competition, resting, and preparing to fly home to Moscow.MT: I’m glad you’re resting. You deserve it, which brings me to say congratulations, you played wonderfully.

PA: Thank you very much for your kind words.

[Read more…]

After the Cooper Competition: catching up with Sophia Shuya Liu (age 14)

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 by Mike Telin

History was made on August 4, when for the first time in the history of the Cooper Competition for Piano, the top prize was awarded to two participants. Pyotr Akulov and Sophia Shuya Liu were named co-champions following their concerto performances with David Robertson and The Cleveland Orchestra that Friday evening.

Not one to rest, Sophia Shuya Liu presented a recital in Philadelphia the day after the competition as part of the Philadelphia Young Pianists Academy. I reached her by phone at her home in Montréal.

Mike Telin: The recital in Philadelphia went well?

Sophia Shuya Liu: It went very well. My teacher was also there, so it was really an amazing event. It was just so fantastic to perform in front of an audience the night after my concert with The Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]

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