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No Exit: a conversation with composer Chris Neiner

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This weekend, No Exit continues their series of concerts featuring world premieres by Robert Honstein, Victoria Cheah, and Connie Converse. Performances are on Friday, April 14 at 7:00 pm at Heights Arts and Saturday, April 15 at 7:30 pm at Kent State University.

The program also includes the world premiere of Chris Neiner’s Time Machine Hyperboles. I caught up with the Cleveland-based composer by phone and began our conversation by asking him to expand on his composer note, where he says: “….it’s a long title for a short piece, but it captures the underpinning duality of the music and its non sequitur behavior.”

Chris Neiner: The piece has two distinct types of music. One is very fast — kinesthetic and rambunctious. The other is the opposite — very slow and drawn out, fragile and quiet. Going back and forth between the two is almost like a movie with jump cuts between different kinds of music.

Mike Telin: You do compare it to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Cello Society: a conversation with Santiago Cañón-Valencia

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by Mike Telin

While growing up in Bogotá, Colombia, cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia knew from an early age that he wanted to be a musician. “My dad plays bass clarinet and other clarinets in the Bogotá Philharmonic. My mom used to play the cello, and my sister plays the violin, so the house was always full of music and people practicing all the time,” he recalled during a Zoom conversation from Bogotá.

“I picked up the cello as a suggestion from mom. I wanted to play the bassoon but I was four and that’s an impossible instrument when you are that age. So they bought me my first little cello and I was completely in love with it, and I kept going from there.”

Kept going indeed. His many awards include being named a 2022 BBC Next Generation Artist, and winner of the Silver Medal and the Audience Favorite Award at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition.

On Friday, April 14 at 7:00 pm at LatinUS Theater at the Pivot Center for Art, Dance, and Expression, Cañón-Valencia will make his Cleveland debut in a concert presented by the Cleveland Cello Society. His program features works from his latest recording, Ascenso, released on the Sono Luminus label.

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JoAnn Falletta Returns to CIM

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When she was appointed Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, JoAnn Falletta became the first woman to lead a major American orchestra. On Wednesday, April 12 at 7:30 pm Falletta will lead the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra in music by Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, and Hailstork at  Severance Music Center. Admission is free but reservations are required.

Falletta also serves as Music Director Laureate of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center. The multiple GRAMMY-winner was recently named one of the “Fifty Great Conductors,” past and present, by Gramophone Magazine. I caught up with her by phone and began our conversation by asking about her frequent appearances as guest conductor at CIM. [Read more…]

No Exit to present April Series

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For their April series, No Exit will present a collection of diverse new works from some remarkable artists. Featured on the program will be world premiere pieces by Victoria Cheah, Jeremy Siskind (a “shining example of chamber music”– Downbeat), Robert Honstein ( “smart, appealing works”—The New Yorker) and Cleveland-based composer Chris Neiner.

The program will also feature two extraordinary special guests, pianist Shuai Wang (“her musicality flowed effortlessly, undaunted by any of the dense technical work”—Cleveland Classical) and vocalist Lauren Pearl (“Soulful and engrossing depth of tone”—The Philadelphia Inquirer).

The program will be presented on Friday, April 7 at 8:00 pm at SPACES, Friday, April 14 at 7:00 pm at Heights Arts, and on Saturday, April 15 at 7:30 pm at Kent State University School of Music. All performances are free. [Read more…]

Dolores White ’54, Composer, Educator, and Pianist, Dies at 90

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This article is posted with the permission of the author and Oberlin Conservatory

by Cathy Partlow Strauss

Oberlin Conservatory alumna Dolores Rae (Miller) White ’54 died after a brief illness on Friday, March 24, 2023 at the Cleveland Clinic. She was 90.

A prolific composer, Mrs. White enjoyed a lengthy and diverse career incorporating teaching and performing into her artistic practice, while raising a family and supporting her husband, Donald, a cellist and the first Black member of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Her music reaches into American traditions and draws on ethnic and international influences. In a November 2021 interview for the Oberlin News Center, Mrs. White said, “I’ve always thought the average person needs to know about different cultures. It’s important to have exposure to different music, different genres, and different histories.” Of her composition work, she said “I take risks, I dream big, and I use humor in my works in different ways which helps to keep my optimistic views.”

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Composers Guild joins Cleveland Chamber Choir for Joint Concert

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by Daniel Hathaway

On Sunday, April 4 at 4 pm in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University, Cleveland Composers Guild will join  Cleveland Chamber Choir for a program that combines new works by Northeast Ohio choral composers with masterworks from the last five centuries.

I recently met up on Zoom with Chamber Choir interim music director Gregory Ristow and Composers Guild chair Margi Griebling-Haigh to learn more about this Sunday’s concert.

Daniel Hathaway: It takes two to tango, but usually when two organizations end up collaborating, the original idea came from one of them. Who instigated this project?

Margi Griebling-Haigh: Neither of us was in a decision-making capacity when the idea first came up — which I believe was in a brainstorming session for the 2019 season. Probably somebody said, ‘Hey, I’ve heard that Cleveland Chamber Choir is terrific. Let’s work with them.’ So I’m pretty sure we approached them for the first concert. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society:
an important second performance

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by Jarrett Hoffman

“First is the worst, second is the best…” It may not be the most profound of old sayings, but there might just be some slight bit of wisdom — I said slight — that can be gleaned from that schoolyard refrain. After all, when it comes to new music, premières get most of the attention, but the far-less-common deuxième performances (aren’t we fancy?) can be just as significant.

Perhaps that’s especially true when it comes to Chava’s Daughters Speak by James Lee III (left). Its premiere in May 2021 at New York City’s 92nd Street Y was presented virtually, with only a limited in-person audience due to the pandemic. And what was to have been the second performance, in Boston last year, was canceled at the last minute when soprano Susanna Phillips developed laryngitis.

That brings us to tomorrow, Tuesday, March 28, when the piece will receive that long-awaited second hearing — its first in front of a full audience — as part of a Cleveland Chamber Music Society concert at Disciples Christian Church. Two of the three performers are holdovers from the premiere: clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Myra Huang, who will be joined here by soprano Elena Perroni. Tickets are available here. [Read more…]

Stars in the Classics to visit Latin & South America March 26

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by Daniel Hathaway

Well-known in the last decade and a half for its intimate Salons and Garden concerts, M.U.S.i.C. — Stars in the Classics — will perform on a wider stage this weekend with a Spring Festival of Music from Latin and South America on Sunday afternoon, March 26 at 3:30 pm at the Church of the Western Reserve in Pepper Pike. Tickets are available here, and a reception will follow the concert.

I spoke with artistic director Jodi Kanter by telephone to find out more about this weekend’s program. The former fiber artist’s life and career changed dramatically fifteen years ago when a sideline turned into something of an obsession. “Peter Takács got me started. We were friends, and he mentioned that he wanted to play chamber music in people’s homes. I knew people with large homes so I started helping him,” she said. Then the Oberlin piano professor immersed himself in recording Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas.

“I kept the program going and kept meeting musicians who wanted to perform. Then, people wanted to make donations, so I decided to start a non-profit with the help of students in the Case Law School who needed experience in that area.”

Kanter also gave up her art studio after forty years, during which she fulfilled commissions from all over the country. “I needed something different. It became repetitive and it wasn’t new anymore.” Such activities as fundraising, promotion, and program design were new. “My art school background served me well.” she said.

[Read more…]

Piano Cleveland celebrates 50 years of CIPC

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by Mike Telin

A 50th anniversary is always cause for celebration. But achieving that golden milestone requires hard work, and perhaps most importantly, the willingness to adapt to the ever-changing times.

In 2024, the Cleveland International Piano Competition (CIPC), which is set to take place from July 28 – August 10, will mark its 50th anniversary with a new approach to the design of the competition. One that encourages unique musical expression and creative artistic vision beyond the competition stage. All that comes with a new tagline — Classical Music, EVOLVED.

During a recent Zoom conversation, Piano Cleveland president Yaron Kohlberg noted that the changes were a result of him, executive director Marissa Moore, and the Piano Cleveland team thinking about the experiences they have accumulated over the past few years. Those included Kohlberg’s personal experiences in competitions, observations of other competitions and organizations, and conversations with a lot of pianists.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Cello Society: i Cellisti! 2023

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by Mike Telin

“A cello society is supposed to promote the advancement of the instrument and bring  professionals, amateurs, and lovers of the cello together for a rich exchange of ideas. And the Cleveland Cello Society embodies that,” Cleveland Orchestra principal cello Mark Kosower said during a telephone conversation.

On Friday, March 24 at 7:00 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Cleveland Cello Society will present i Cellisti! 2023, their annual extravaganza that raises funds for their Scholarship Competition. Closing out the evening will be a mass cello ensemble performance of Randall Thomson’s Alleluia. Cellists of all ages and experience are invited to participate. Click here for more information and tickets.

The evening will begin with a performance by Kosower of two works for solo cello.

He noted that as the title suggests, Hans Werner Henze’s Serenade is a light-hearted and entertaining work. “It is a twelve-tone piece, but it doesn’t really sound like it. I find the dissonances to be rather mild in general, and it proves that in the hands of a great composer, great music can be made out of the twelve-tone system.”

[Read more…]

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