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Ohio Light Opera: a group chat about Brigadoon

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by Daniel Hathaway & Mike Telin

Immediately following Ohio Light Opera’s wonderful opening performance of Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s Brigadoon on June 19, we had the opportunity to sit down at The College of Wooster’s Freedlander Theatre with director Jacob Allen, conductor Wilson Southerland, choreographer and cast member Spencer Reese, and cast members Maggie Langhorne and Jack Murphy to talk about the production.

CC: Great job, everyone! Jacob, please share your thoughts about the show.  [Read more…]

Blossom Band: a Northeast Ohio tradition

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by Mike Telin

“I’ve heard about Blossom Music Festival for a long time, so it’s going to be a treat for me to be there,” conductor Michelle Rakers said during a Zoom conversation. “I know it’s a very good band and I have some friends in it — a former Marine Band member is in the trumpet section and one of the percussionists was in the army band in D.C. So it’s going to be nice to connect with them and all these great musicians.”

On Thursday, July 3 at 8:00 pm, Rakers will make her Blossom Festival Band conducting debut during “Salute to America.” The program will feature a mixture of music both new and old. As always, weather permitting, the evening will conclude with a spectacular fireworks display. The program will be repeated on Friday, July 4 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online. 

Michelle Rakers was the senior assistant director for “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra from 2004–18. Her career with the Marine Band began in 1998 after winning a national audition for a trumpet position. Rakers was the first female conductor and first female commissioned officer in the history of “The President’s Own.”

[Read more…]

Fundraising Update: July 3, 2025

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Dear reader,

Thanks to the continuing support of our readers, we met and surpassed our $23,000 annual fund goal for this fiscal year.

If you would still like to pitch in with a gift at this time, either with a check or with a credit or debit card, visit our Donate page for details.

The vibrant classical musical scene we enjoy in Northeast Ohio cries out for quality journalism to promote and document its activities. We’ve been lucky to have assembled a fine team of writers for that purpose, and this is a good moment to acknowledge the contributions of Peter Feher, Stephanie Manning, Kevin McLaughlin, and executive editor Mike Telin, as well as myself, who collectively have produced and published some 300 previews and reviews, in addition to Daily Diary entries and concert listings this season.

Sincerely,

Daniel Hathaway

Founder & President

ChamberFest: a conversation with violist Kim Kashkashian

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by Mike Telin

There are certain musicians who you can’t believe have never been to ChamberFest Cleveland. Case in point: Kim Kashkashian.

“Diana Cohen has been asking me for years,” the celebrated violist said during a Zoom conversation. “We know each other from Marlboro, and when I was in the Baltimore area I knew her father Frank very well. So we’ve all been friends for decades.”

On Thursday, June 26 in Mixon Hall, Kaskashian will be featured in Brahms’ Two Songs for alto, viola, and piano. On Friday, June 27 in Harkness Chapel she’ll be part of the ensemble who will be playing Brett Dean’s viola quintet, Epitaphs. And on Saturday, June 28 in Reinberger Chamber Hall she’ll take part in Brahms’ Piano Quintet in f. Tickets for all performances are available online.

That third program will also include György Kurtág’s Signs, Games, and Messages for solo viola. Kashkashian said that she’s had a long association with the composer and his music.

[Read more…]

ChamberFest 2025: a conversation with composer/pianist Roman Rabinovich

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by Mike Telin

Ever since childhood, Roman Rabinovich has been driven by a desire to create — whether that was sculpting from dirt and found objects or improvising character pieces on the piano.

Although you may know him as an extraordinary pianist and ChamberFest Cleveland co-artistic director, you may not know him as an accomplished composer. That’s about to change.

On Thursday, June 26 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall, Rabinovich will make his ChamberFest debut as a composer/pianist with the U.S. premiere of his Cappriccio Errante for Violin and Piano. The program also includes Brahms’s Two Songs for Voice, Viola and Piano, John Adams’ Hallelujah Junction, and Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Judith Markovich’s Oh, my son… to receive world premiere at ChamberFest

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by Mike Telin

“When Frank Cohen called and said he had received an email from David Stern, I thought, oh my goodness,” composer Judith Markovich recalled during a Zoom conversation. “Frank told me that David had sent him a poem and it’s devastating. Frank said ‘Go to your email because you have to read it right now.’ And so I went to my computer and we read it — we were nearly in tears.”

On Friday, June 20 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall, ChamberFest Cleveland will present the world premiere of Judith Markovich’s Oh, my son… The program also includes Witold Lutosławski’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Bright Sheng’s Four Movements for Piano Trio, and Franz Schubert’s Cello Quintet in C major. Markovich will join pianist Eric Charnofsky for a pre-concert conversation beginning at 6:30 pm. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

June festivals get up to speed this week in Northeast Ohio

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by Daniel Hathaway

June has become the unofficial summer festivals month in Northeast Ohio, with ChamberFest Cleveland, the ENCORE Music & Ideas Festival, and the Ohio Light Opera summer season all beginning at once — and with more to come. Here’s what they’re offering just this week (in alphabetical order):

ChamberFest Cleveland continues its thirteenth season on Friday, June 13 with “Reflections.” Ten artists perform music by Arvo Pärt, Anton Arensky, and Camille Saint-Saëns (7:30 at the Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights).

ChamberFest offers two events on Saturday, June 14: “Rhythm & Clues,” a free, family-friendly concert by the Nate’s World Trio including a scavenger hunt (11:00 am in the Friends Pavilion at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes), and “A Musical Feast” featuring a new work by Errollyn Wallen in a “chamber cabaret” performance from Nate’s World — the fertile imagination of bassist Nathan Farrington (7:30 at Heights Theater in Cleveland Heights). [Read more…]

Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute gears up to celebrate the music of England

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by Stephanie Manning

When Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute (BPI) began more than half a century ago, dedicated programs for studying and performing early music were almost nonexistent.

“ In the early seventies, it was really the only place where you could study that repertoire in the States,” artistic director Kenneth Slowik said in a recent interview. Thankfully, “nowadays, there are several different options.”

Throughout the decades, the renowned summer workshop has continued its annual meetings, with only a brief pause for the pandemic. From June 15–29, BPI will mark its 53rd year when it welcomes a group of both professional and avocational musicians to Oberlin Conservatory. Performers ages 15 and up will participate in workshops, master classes, and large ensembles under the theme “Music in England from Purcell to Handel.”

Where does BPI fit into today’s early music landscape? “ It still has its place, I think,” Slowik said. “Certainly, the people who come take away a two-week experience that’s unlike anything else they’ve done.”

[Read more…]

ChamberFest: a conversation with Raman Ramakrishnan

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by Mike Telin

With a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a Masters in music from The Juilliard School, Raman Ramakrishnan’s career path could have gone in numerous directions. “For me, it’s always been about the cello,” Ramakrishnan said during a recent interview. “And from the beginning, chamber music is what I loved.”

Next week the Athens, Ohio-born cellist will make his ChamberFest Cleveland debut in three programs. I began our Zoom conversation by asking him if he has spent any time in Cleveland.

Raman Ramakrishnan: Actually, my mother was born in Cleveland and grew up in Cleveland along with her three sisters. And my grandparents are buried in Cleveland on the West Side.

Mike Telin: You were born in Athens, Ohio.

RR: I was. But to be honest, I only spent two months of my life there before my parents moved. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland welcomes composer/performer Errollyn Wallen

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by Mike Telin

In her memoir Becoming a Composer, Errollyn Wallen recalls being nine years old and walking to Ridley Road Market with her uncle to buy fruit and vegetables. “I told Uncle Arthur that I could hear ‘all these sounds in my head’ but I didn’t know what to do with them. Uncle Arthur suggested that perhaps I was a composer.”

Little did that young girl — who was born in Belize and brought up in Tottenham, England — know that she would go on to become one of the world’s top twenty most performed living classical composers.

In 2024, Wallen was appointed Master of the King’s Music by His Majesty The King, and in 2025 she was named BBC Classical Music Magazine’s Personality of the Year. This month Wallen is also ChamberFest Cleveland’s composer-in-residence.

Opening the Zoom link from her home in Orkney, I began our conversation by asking how the ChamberFest invitation came about.

[Read more…]

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