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N.E. Ohio-born Jupiter Quartet & ACRONYM return to CCMS & Oberlin Series November 15

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Intergalactic Scheduling Office that normally takes care of bringing planets and other heavenly bodies into conjunction without causing head-on collisions has messed up big time.

On Tuesday, November 15 at 7:30  pm, the Jupiter Quartet, formed in Northeast Ohio, will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a return to the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series at Plymouth Church where it last appeared in 2015. On the same date at the same hour, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series will bring ACRONYM, the Baroque string band formed by Oberlin Conservatory alumni, back to campus for the first time since its founding a decade ago in 2012.

What is a conflicted audience member to do? In order to encourage a bit more scientific solution than flipping a coin, ClevelandClassical.com has spoken with Jupiter Quartet cellist Daniel McDonough and ACRONYM cellist Kivie Cahn-Lipman, both founding members of their ensembles, to find out what’s in store at Plymouth Church and Warner Concert Hall on Tuesday.

I caught up with Daniel McDonough in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, who was walking his sons to a park where his 5-year-old would meet up with a friend and Daniel and his older son were going to kick a soccer ball around in celebration of the great fall weather. [Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater:
Cendrillon with Cara Consilvio

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by Mike Telin 

For centuries the tale of Cinderella has been told and retold around the world. This week the magical fairytale will be brought to life when CIM Opera Theater presents Jules Massenet’s charming Cendrillon on Friday, November 11 at 7:30 pm and Sunday afternoon at 3:00 pm in Kulas Hall. Cara Consilvio is the guest director and Harry Davidson conducts the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra. Click here to read a synopsis and to purchase tickets.

Cara Consilvio leads a multifaceted career as a director and producer of opera, theater, and film as well as dance and choreography. She has produced and directed numerous tribute videos, promotional videos, and behind the scenes mini-docs for the NEA Opera Honors, the NEA Jazz Masters videos, OPERA America, and the American Composers Orchestra.

I caught up with the director by phone and began our conversation by asking her about the opera.

Cara Consilvio: This is my first Cendrillon and it’s always exciting to direct a piece for the first time. It’s a new world that will unfold as you begin researching, but you don’t really understand how the piece works until you’re in the rehearsal room putting it up on its feet.

[Read more…]

Oberlin Opera Theater:
a double bill of Offenbach & Rossini 

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by Mike Telin 

If you’re looking for some extra laughter in your life, Oberlin Opera Theater has the perfect ticket when they present the Oberlin premieres of a pair of one-act comedies. 

Romance and deception will take center stage in Offenbach’s Le mariage aux lanternes (“The Wedding by Lantern Light”) and Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro (“Opportunity Makes the Thief”), both sung in the original languages with English supertitles. Jonathon Field directs and Joseph Mechavich conducts the Oberlin Orchestra. Performances take place on November 10, 11, and 12 at 8:00 pm and November 13 at 2:00 pm at Hall Auditorium. Click here for tickets.

Simply put, the Offenbach is a love story with songs that everyone will enjoy, and the Rossini is a comedic farce during which identities and affections are swapped between two pairs of would-be lovers. 

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Boyd & Metcalf in Boyd Meets Girl 

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by Emmy Hensley

“Songs of Love & Despair is maybe a bit of a misnomer in that it’s much more about love than despair,” said Rupert Boyd regarding his musical duo’s latest album. The release from Boyd Meets Girl answered the all-encompassing.question of “What made us feel better?” — which cellist Laura Metcalf and guitarist Rupert Boyd were frequently mindful of throughout the creation of their pandemic project.

Many of the pieces featured on the album, ranging from Bach to Beyoncé, will be performed on Saturday, November 12 at 7:30 pm at Cuyahoga Community College’s Metro Campus. The concert is part of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series. [Read more…]

Cleveland Pops kicks off season with tenor Daniel Emmet 

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by Mike Telin

If you’re a fan of talent shows, you probably remember Daniel Emmet as the opera singer who accepted the “impossible challenge” delivered by Simon Cowell during Season 13 of America’s Got Talent.

Since those appearances in 2018, Emmet has used his vocal prowess to carve out a notable career for himself. His single “True Reflection” debuted at #1 on the iTunes Classical Chart and he’s headlined his own show, “All That I Am,” at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas — his list of musical accomplishments goes on.

The one thing Emmet has never done is perform in Cleveland. That will change on  Saturday, November 5 at 8:00 pm when he joins Carl Topilow and the Cleveland Pops Orchestra for their season-opening concert at Severance Music Center. Tickets are  available online.

Answering his phone in Las Vegas, the city he has called home since he was in his mid-teens, Emmet’s enthusiasm about Saturday’s concert was palpable. [Read more…]

No Exit to host Genkin Philharmonic

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by Mike Telin

No Exit’s season-opening trifecta of concerts concludes on Friday, November 4 at 8:00 pm at the Bop Stop with the Genkin Philharmonic, a ten-piece electroacoustic chamber ensemble based in Buffalo. The concert is free.

Founded in 2000 by trumpeter Jon Nelson, the group was originally conceived as a class at the University at Buffalo — a class that would provide an opportunity to study and perform contemporary music that draws on multiple genres as well as improvisation. Today the Genkin draws its membership from a pool of musicians including UB Faculty and alumni, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Hallwalls Arts Collective.

What makes the Genkin Philharmonic distinct from most contemporary music ensembles is what they play. Their repertoire includes arrangements that preserve the technical virtuosity of music by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa, the creation of original works by living composers, and arrangements of works from the classical canon that remain faithful to the composers’ scores.

“We’re kind of different from everything else out there,” Nelson said during a telephone conversation. [Read more…]

Vijay Iyer Trio at Youngstown State [CANCELLED DUE TO ILLNESS]

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by Mike Telin

Pianist and composer Vijay Iyer enjoys a multifaceted musical career. The list of people with whom he has collaborated reads like a who’s who in the world of jazz and classical music. His list of awards includes a MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, and a United States Artist Fellowship.

Iyer has released twenty-four albums of his music, most recently UnEasy (ECM Records, 2021), a trio session with drummer Tyshawn Sorey and bassist Linda May Han Oh, and was named the 2022 Jazz Pianist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association.

On Friday November 4 at 7:30 pm the Vijay Iyer Trio will perform in the Chestnut Room of Youngstown State University’s  Kilcawley Center as part of YSU’s Pipino Performing Art Series. Click here for tickets.

I caught up with Iyer by telephone and began by asking him about his latest Trio recording, the first since 2015. [Read more…]

Thomas Ospital to perform on both Trinity Cathedral organs Nov. 1

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by Daniel Hathaway

When the internationally famous organist and composer Jean Guillou ended his 52-year-long run as tenured organist at the Church of St.-Eustache in Paris in 2015, two successors were named, including Thomas Ospital, who was 20 at the time.

“It’s never simple to follow such a musician as Guillou,” Ospital said in a telephone conversation from Tulsa, where he was due to play a recital on Friday evening. “You have the choice between being yourself or doing something new. I only met him twice, which made it easier.”

Ospital, who spent six months in New Orleans when he was 21 and made regular concert tours until COVID arrived, will play a free recital at Trinity Cathedral on Tuesday evening, November 1 at 7:30 pm. His program, co-sponsored by Music and Art at Trinity and the Cleveland chapter of the American Guild of Organists, includes works by Buxtehude and J.S. Bach on the 1977 Flentrop Orgelbouw instrument of Dutch Baroque design, and music by Ravel, Duruflé and Franck on the Aeolian-Skinner organ in the American romantic style rebuilt by Muller in 2022. [Read more…]

Sords set to resume touring after long hiatus

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by Daniel Hathaway

Before the novel coronavirus blew into the music world in 2020, bringing with it what he calls “the Great Silence,” violinist Andrew Sords was among the busiest touring soloists and chamber musicians in the industry. He reckons that he spent nearly 200 days on the road in 2019, compared to 40 this year.

This Saturday, October 29 at 7:00 pm at the Federated Church in Chagrin Falls, Sords will join colleagues Mari Sato, violin, Eric Wong, viola, John Walz, cello, and Elizabeth DeMio, piano, in works by Brahms, Dvořák, and Rachmaninoff. Dvořák’s Piano Quintet is at the center of the program, a work Sords classifies as “a desert island piece” that should become more of a special undertaking for its performers, rather than just a standard repertory item. “It’s an epic project,” Sords said. “But rehearsing it doesn’t even seem like work.”

That’s a healthy attitude Andrew Sords brings to practicing and rehearsing in general. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland:
“Echoes from the Valley”

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by Mike Telin

Whenever three adventurous musicians share a stage, the programming possibilities are endless. On Friday, November 4 at 7:30 pm at the Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church, ChamberFest Cleveland will present soprano Amanda Powell, clarinetist Franklin Cohen, and pianist Peter Takács in “Echoes from the Valley,” a program of global folk songs. Tickets are available online.

“We’ve programmed concerts like this before during ChamberFest,” Cohen said during a recent telephone conversation. “I’ve admired Amanda’s talent for years. I’ve heard her with Apollo’s Fire and at different clubs and her talent is not confined to one little box. Everyone loves her work, and she’s been a very important part of the ChamberFest family for a number of years.” 

Powell will be featured in Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (“The Shepherd on the Rock”) and Ravel’s Cinq melodies populaires grecques. The trio will also present an exploration of international folk songs — from the Appalachian Mountains to the Greek seaside to a classical Arabic muwashshah — in arrangements by Dave Morgan, as well as Two Ladino Songs arranged by Paul Ferguson. “The arrangements are fantastic and we’re looking forward to playing them,” Cohen said. 

[Read more…]

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