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ChamberFest Cleveland:
Yevgeniy Sharlat &
a search for identity

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by Jarrett Hoffman

“The piece that you’re going to hear is not the piece that I wanted to write,” composer Yevgeniy Sharlat said during an interview.

Sharlat’s Dumka-22, a commission from ChamberFest Cleveland that will receive its premiere on Saturday, June 25 at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Institute of Music, was originally conceived around the idea of family — in particular the family at the core of ChamberFest.

That would be Franklin Cohen (clarinet), his daughter Diana Cohen (violin), and her husband Roman Rabinovich (piano) — the three co-artistic directors — as well as Diana’s brother Alexander Cohen (percussion), a frequent performer at the Festival.

So, how about a “family piece” written for that quartet? That was the pitch to Sharlat, the Russian-born composer who was a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow and who teaches composition at the University of Texas at Austin.

[Read more…]

She Scores: A Local 4 Series Celebrating Women Composers

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by Noah Auby

Amber Rogers is no stranger to overcoming logistical hurdles. As Executive Director of the Cleveland Federation of Musicians’ Local 4 Music Fund, she is in her second year of coordinating She Scores — a concert series solely dedicated to living female composers. Rogers is grateful that her series has been renewed and revitalized in a big way.

She Scores 2022 will kick off on June 23rd at 7:00 pm in Case Western Reserve’s Harkness Chapel and continue at the same time and location on June 24th and 25th. A pre-concert talk will be given by Destinee Siebe on the 23rd at 6:30 pm. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

I caught up with Amber Rogers via Zoom and asked the Duluth, Minnesota native about She Scores 2022 as well as about her music career. [Read more…]

Geneva Lewis & Gabriel Martins make ChamberFest debuts 

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by Mike Telin

Violinist Geneva Lewis has been hailed as “clearly one to watch” by Musical America. She is the recipient of a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and Grand Prize winner of the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition. Other honors include Kronberg Academy’s Prince of Hesse Prize and being named a Finalist at the 2018 Naumburg Competition, a Performance Today Young Artist in Residence, and Musical America’s New Artist of the Month.

Cellist Gabriel Martins’ accolades include the Concert Artists Guild – Young Classical Artists Trust Grand Prize, the Sphinx Competition Gold Medal, the David Popper International Cello Competition Gold Medal, and the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians Silver Medal, to name only a few. He has performed at the Wigmore, Carnegie, and Merkin Halls, 92nd Street Y, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and with the Houston, Indianapolis, Memphis, Pacific, and Phoenix Symphony Orchestras. The Strad Magazine declared his New York City recital debut to be “flawlessly played” and “a deeply moving experience.”

Later this week the two “rising stars” will make their ChamberFest Cleveland debuts. We caught up with Lewis and Martins by Zoom and began by asking how the ChamberFest invitations came about. [Read more…]

JazzFest comes home to Playhouse Square

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by Mike Telin

It feels like forever since Tri-C JazzFest was last held in its customary location. During the past two years, Festival director Terri Pontremoli and her team produced one of the best online jazz festivals around, and in September of 2021 Cain Park proved to be a terrific substitute location.

Finally the wait is over. From June 23-25, the 43rd annual Tri-C JazzFest comes home to Playhouse Square. The 2022 lineup features eight ticketed concerts in Playhouse Square theatres, with a special opening night concert — dedicated to retiring Tri-C President Alex Johnson — at Cleveland Public Auditorium’s Music Hall on June 23 at 8:00 pm. That show stars legendary soul storyteller Anthony Hamilton backed up by an all-star ensemble.

“I don’t want to be too positive, but it does feel like things are getting back to normal,” Terri Pontremoli said during a telephone conversation. [Read more…]

ENCORE Festival:
“Food & Desire” in music

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by Jarrett Hoffman

In one way, the next event in ENCORE Chamber Music Institute’s Music & Ideas Festival has a wide appeal. As I said to artistic director Jinjoo Cho during an interview, the music on Friday’s program is both brilliant and, without a doubt, fun.

Still, Cho pointed out that it might not be for all audiences. One piece, Derek Bermel’s Coming Together for clarinet and cello, is composed entirely of glissandos, often wild ones. And depending on the listener, you might hear those as depicting — well, one half of the title of this program.

“Food & Desire” will be presented on Friday, June 17 at 7:00 pm at the Dodero Center for Performing Arts in Gates Mills, preceded by a 6:00 conversation featuring Brandon Chrostowski, founder of EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute. In addition to the Bermel, the program includes music by Svante Henryson, Andrew Rindfleisch, Paul Schoenfield, and Bohuslav Martinů — much of it influenced by jazz. In-person and livestream tickets are available here.

[Read more…]

Violinists Joseph Lin and Sarah Kapustin to make ChamberFest debuts 

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by Mike Telin

Coordinating the schedules of musicians and festivals is often a long, and at times, a complicated process. Take violinists Joseph Lin and Sarah Kapustin for example. Both have been on ChamberFest Cleveland’s list of invitees from the Festival’s beginning, but the stars have simply never aligned. Until now.

Later this week both Lin and Kapustin will finally make their ChamberFest debuts when the Festival kicks off its tenth season. Click here for details.

“Ever since Diana and Frank started the festival we’ve talked about me coming, but it never seemed to work out until this year,” Lin said. “I’m so glad that everything has finally come together.”

“I’ve known Diana since we were teenagers, so for over 20 years,” Kapustin said. “I’ve been invited from the beginning but it just never worked out. My debut should have been two years ago but because of COVID  it was put on hold. So I’m happy that it’s finally on the calendar.” [Read more…]

Michael Borowitz returns to conduct Ohio Light Opera

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by Mike Telin

Like nearly every performing arts organization in the world — especially those reliant on vocalists — Ohio Light Opera had to “improvise” during the pandemic. Returning to live performances on Saturday, June 18 at 7:30 pm in Freedlander Theatre in Wooster, the company will launch its 2022 season with Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Tickets are available online. Click here to view a season calendar.

On opening night, the person guiding the performance from the orchestra pit will be conductor Michael Borowitz. A Pennsylvania native and graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Borowitz serves on the faculty at Louisiana State University and is the artistic director of Opéra Louisiane.

He has served as artistic Director of Nevada Opera, and has been on the podium for La Musica Lirica, Des Moines Metro Opera, AVA Ballet, and Opera Columbus, to name a few. His repertoire ranges from the traditional titles of Puccini and Rossini to contemporary scores. And for five seasons he was Music Director for Ohio Light Opera.

We caught up with Borowitz by telephone and began our conversation by asking him how it feels to be back at OLO after more than a decade’s absence. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir’s weekend concerts to benefit Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence

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by Daniel Hathaway

Scott MacPherson frequently programs concerts for his Cleveland Chamber Choir that deal with current social issues, and its programs at Akron’s St. Sebastian Church on Saturday, June 11 at 6:30 pm (freewill offering, live stream available), and at Chagrin Falls Federated Church on Sunday, June 12 at 5:00 pm (tickets here) have been heavily influenced by recent events.

In a recent telephone conversation, Oberlin Conservatory musicology professor Charles Edward McGuire, who will give pre-concert lectures 45 minutes before each performance, revealed the thought process that led to the choice of repertory for these concerts by MacPherson’s professional singers.

“The concept was really planned around Kent State composition professor Adam Robert’s work, Book of Doubt/Book of Faith.” Written for 16-part choir, viola and percussion, the piece sets secular, feminist ‘psalms’ by poet Claire Schwartz relevant to our time and connected to Jewish history, as well as music by composers who have historically been excluded from the world of classical music. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: catching up with pianist & rising star Evren Ozel

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by Daniel Hathaway

Born in Minneapolis in 1999, pianist Evren Ozel has established a stellar reputation in Northeast Ohio.

He has competed twice in the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition at Oberlin, making it into the finals in 2013, when he also won the Audience Prize. He finished second in 2016, when photographer Roger Mastroianni captured him here in the heat of collaboration with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra. We were impressed:

17-year-old Evren Ozel, from Minneapolis, learned Beethoven’s fourth concerto expressly for this competition, and the results of his preparation were impressive. His interpretation shone both with technical poise and poetry — basking in the moment of performing on the Severance Hall stage with his excellent colleagues. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: genre-hopping with Kings Return

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by Jarrett Hoffman

There’s a beloved type of small ensemble that is rarely heard in programs of chamber music: the a cappella group. For that reason, the appearance of Dallas-based Kings Return on this year’s roster for ChamberFest Cleveland is one of the most unique elements of the Festival’s 10th season.

Formed almost by accident in 2016 when Gabe Kunda gathered singers for his college graduation recital, the group has found fame through viral videos of their music-making, which spans a variety of genres. Their versatility is quite clear in their ChamberFest setlist — part of a program that pairs a cappella and instrumental music on Friday, June 17 at 7:30 pm in the Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church. Tickets are available here. [Read more…]

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