by Daniel Hathaway
Northeast Ohio’s newest youth ensemble will burst onto the scene on Saturday, November at 7:00 pm at Kent State University, when the Kent State Youth Winds make their debut in Cartwright Auditorium.
Led by Wendy K. Matthews, KSU’s director of bands, the new ensemble numbers 48 high school age players equally divided between males and females, and fills both an educational gap and a geographical void in the Kent area. “I grew up in a rural area and would have done anything to be in a group like this growing up,” Matthews said in a Zoom call.
The ensemble, which rehearses weekly and is scheduled to play three concerts this season, is managed by Matthews and a group of Kent State students who serve as Mentors. “They hold sectionals, play alongside the young musicians, and are involved in every aspect of the ensemble. It’s a very practical way for them to get experience before they go off and student teach,” she said.
Matthews and her Mentors have been working toward Saturday’s debut since May when auditions were scheduled — right in the middle of COVID and the restrictions the pandemic placed on wind players, which have been only slightly relaxed recently. [Read more…]
On Thursday, November 4 at 7:30 pm The Cleveland Orchestra will welcome the return of guest conductor Jakub Hrůša and welcome cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason to the Mandel Concert Hall stage for the first time.
It’s good for composers to try writing outside their comfort zone, but some members of the Cleveland Composers Guild are challenging themselves to scale new heights by learning to write for the carillon.
This year and last, Thanksgiving has taken on an additional meaning, something that the Cleveland Chamber Choir will recognize in a free program to open its seventh season on Saturday, November 6 at 7:00 pm at St. Ambrose Parish in Brunswick.
“Creativity is the expression of life, so for me the question is why on earth would you not be creative? Why on earth would you not want to grow?” flutist, composer, improviser, author, teacher, and inventor Robert Dick said during a recent telephone interview. A leader in contemporary flute music, he has redefined the instrument’s musical possibilities. 
A swirl of CIM connections pervades the next program from the school’s New Music Ensemble, starting with the featured guest: Jerod Impichch
Whether it was the passing of his mother in February 1865 or the death of Robert Schumann later that same year, no one is certain what motivated Johannes Brahms to compose his large-scale, non-liturgical Requiem in the German language.
It’s always interesting to hear how musicians come to choose their instruments. Some want to follow in the footsteps of a family member, while others prefer to chart their own path. “What drew me to the saxophone to begin with was my grandma,” Gabriel Piqué said during a recent telephone conversation. “It’s something you never want to hear your grandma say, but I brought one home and she said ‘Gabe, that instrument is sexy.’ I think I was in the 6th grade, and that’s when I decided that I didn’t want to play clarinet or flute, I wanted to play the saxophone.” 
When Turkish-American guitarist Celil Refik Kaya returns to the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society for a recital at Plymouth Church on Saturday, October 23 at 7:30 pm, there will be one important overlap with his program from four years ago: it will include a piece by Celil Refik Kaya.
If you ask a musician what new skill they learned during the past eighteen months, more often than not, the answer is video editing. And, in a relatively short amount of time, many became quite good at it.