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Father’s Day with ChamberFest: Alexi Kenney and Ferdinand the Bull

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by Jarrett Hoffman

This Father’s Day, skip the awkward conversations with dad and instead sit down with him to enjoy an hour of music together, courtesy of ChamberFest Cleveland.

On Sunday, June 20 at 3:00 pm, six musicians and one narrator will gather at The Grove Amphitheatre to share a family-friendly program highlighted by Alain Ridout’s Ferdinand the Bull and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s La Poule (“The Hen”). The selections also include music by Richard Strauss, Antonín Dvořák, Helen Grime, and Franz Schubert. Reserve a free ticket here.

The Ridout piece, for solo violin and narrator, is a musical retelling of Munro Leaf’s classic children’s book The Story of Ferdinand. That heart-warming and humorous tale centers around a bull who stays true to himself — he enjoys smelling the flowers and having a bit of peace and quiet, even when he somehow ends up in the middle of a bullring.

Translated into more than 60 languages since its publication in 1936, the book has been read in households all over the world, including that of at least one ChamberFest musician when he was a kid. “My parents would read it to me when I was little,” violinist Alexi Kenney said in a recent interview. “It was one of my favorite children’s books.”

[Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland:
Looking Ahead at Week 2

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by Mike Telin

The second week of ChamberFest Cleveland begins on Wednesday, June 16 at 7:00 pm at The Grove Amphitheatre in Mayfield. Admission is free, but reservations are required. A full weekly calendar listing is below.

The program “Luscious Soundscapes” begins with pianist Shai Wosner’s imaginative interweaving of sonatas by Italian Baroque composer Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) with sonatas by American composer Frederick Rzewski (1938 -). Wosner’s three pairings include Scarlatti’s Sonata in d K. 141 with Rzewski’s Nanosonata No. 36 (“To a Young Man”), Scarlatti’s Sonata in d K. 9 with Rzewski’s Nanosonata No. 38 (“To a Great Guy”), and Scarlatti’s Sonata in c K. 230 with Rzewski’s Nanosonata No. 12.

If juxtaposing music by these two seemingly dissimilar composers sounds like an oddity, Wosner believes they make an interesting match. “I love Scarlatti and I love Rezewski,” the pianist said during an interview. “And I think that Scarlatti and Rzewski are mavericks in similar ways. Of course their music is very different from one another’s, and Rzewski was not trying to emulate Scarlatti in any way with his short sonatas. The Nanosonatas are almost like a stream of consciousness, but I hear that in the Scarlattis as well.” [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra returns
to Blossom Music Center

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by Mike Telin

While many of us understood the seriousness of COVID-19 back in March of 2020, it did take time to grasp the extent to which the pandemic would alter our lives. “We cancelled the later part of the Severance season, but it wasn’t until we cancelled Blossom that I thought to myself, ‘this is very serious,’ Ross Binnie, the Orchestra’s Chief Brand Officer recalled during a recent conversation. “It was a huge signal and a huge blow.”

After a year’s hiatus, the sounds of The Cleveland Orchestra will once again fill the grounds of Blossom Music Center and no one could be more excited than Binnie. “I was down there to do a television spot, and looking out on the lawn, the space is so beautiful. To be honest, it was very emotional, thinking that a small bit of people’s lives every summer is on its way back. And the more interviews I do the more excited I become.”

The season kicks off on Saturday, July 3 and Sunday, July 4 at 8:00 pm with An American Celebration. Brett Mitchell, will lead performances of Leonard Bernstein’s “Overture” to Candide, Mary D. Watkins’ Soul of Remembrance, Florence Price’s Concerto in One Movement, with Michelle Cann as soloist, Adolphus Hailstork’s An American Fanfare, Aaron Copland’s “Suite” from Appalachian Spring, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever. A full season list is below. [Read more…]

Dante + Chin Duo explore shared dreamscapes in new work for Re:Sound

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by Stephanie Manning

While living halfway across the country from each other due to the pandemic, vocalist Nina Dante and flutist Dalia Chin of the Dante + Chin Duo began sharing their dreams as a way to stay connected. “My dreams mean a lot to me — they feel like dialogues that our top-side self gets to have with our subconscious self, and I take them really seriously,” Dante said in a recent interview. That intersection of dreams and reality inspired Which of my forms, the Duo’s new work composed for the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project’s 2021 Re:Sound Festival.

A few months into lockdown, Dante dreamed about a woman who could take two different forms — specifically, two creatures who were in a predator-prey relationship. Fascinated by how the story portrayed the dualities of the spirit, the pair chose to represent that concept through a cougar and a deer. First, Chin sent Dante an improvisatory recording that set up the “sonic world.” This six-minute track was released as a standalone work late last year, but a shortened version would later become the first of Which of my forms’ four movements.

[Read more…]

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival: Colin Davin & the piece that brought back his spark

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Leo Brouwer’s Sonata del Caminante is a remarkable piece in its own right. But it also has a personal significance to guitarist Colin Davin, who will play it during a virtual recital that airs on YouTube on Friday, June 11 at 7:30 pm as part of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival.

“This piece has meant a lot to me this year because it got me out of my rut,” Davin said during an interview last week. “Like a lot of artists, I had a real valley of motivation. I was still going through the motions — I got the guitar out every day and did some technique work — but I was pretty down.”

On better days, he’d do some sight-reading, and on one of those days, he picked up the score to the Brouwer. “And something just clicked — like, man, this is cool, this is great — and I got the spark back.”

Composed in 2007, the Sonata was dedicated to Odair Assad. “He’s a monster guitarist who can do a lot of stuff that most of us can’t,” Davin said. “So we have Brouwer, who before injuries was quite a virtuoso himself, writing for a great virtuoso. I was kind of like, let’s see if I can hang on.” And he did. “For whatever reason, a lot of Brouwer’s guitar tricks clicked for me pretty quickly.” (He’ll say more about those tricks during a brief talk as part of his program.)

[Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: a conversation with Shai Wosner

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by Mike Telin

After a long wait, the next edition of ChamberFest Cleveland will kick off on Wednesday, June 9 at 7:00 pm at The Grove Amphitheatre in Mayfield. Admission is free, but reservations are required. The program, titled “Legends,” will include Antonín Dvořák’s Legends, Enrique Granados’ Sonata for Violin and Piano, Paul Wiancko’s American Haiku, and Franz Schubert’s Trio No. 2 in E-flat.

The evening will begin with pianist Shai Wosner’s arrangement of the Dvořák performed by clarinetist Franklin Cohen, violist Dimitri Murrath, and Wosner, who will be making his ChamberFest debut.

Originally written for piano four-hands, the ten pieces that comprise the work were later arranged for orchestra by the composer. I asked the pianist why he decided to make his own arrangement, and why he chose this particular instrumentation?

[Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: a chat with Zlatomir Fung

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by Daniel Hathaway

Photo Credit: I-Jung Huang

Bearing a name that reflects his Bulgarian-Chinese heritage, 21-year-old cellist Zlatomir Fung scored a big victory in the 2019 XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition, becoming the first American in forty years to win Gold — and the youngest contestant ever to earn that distinction in the Russian contest.

Fung will make his first visit to Cleveland this week to play six works in the first four concerts of ChamberFest Cleveland. “I’ve worked with Roman Rabinovich and New York’s Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. We’d been hoping for a few years that I could come, and now it’s finally panned out,” he said in an early morning phone call on Tuesday before heading off to a rehearsal.

ChamberFest will keep Fung busy during his sojourn in Cleveland. He’s slated to play Paul Wiancko’s American Haiku with violist Dimitri Murrath, Schubert’s Trio No. 2 with violinist Itamar Zorman and pianist Shai Wosner, Ernö Dohnányi’s Piano Quartet No. 2 with Zorman, violinist 
Diana Cohen, Murrath, and Wosner, Alexander Zemlinsky’s Clarinet Trio, Op. 3
 with Franklin Cohen and pianist Roman Rabinovich, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Lamentations Suite
 for cello solo, and Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello with Zorman.

[Read more…]

ENCORE’s Music & Ideas Festival ignites creative spark in performers and audiences alike

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by Stephanie Manning

Though this past year took a lot from musicians, it also gave many the rare gift of time. Jinjoo Cho, artistic director of ENCORE Chamber Music Institute, decided to use that time to bring a long-held idea of hers to fruition — but first, it would require a lot of research. Starting June 6, ENCORE will present its 2021 Music & Ideas Festival, a reimagined format that makes the organization’s sixth season its most ambitious yet.

Combining classical music with innovative ideas, Cho curated programs “sparked by” eight individuals she considers her personal inspirations. This group includes scientists and activists as well as a writer, visual artist, jazz singer, and former president. Each concert will be paired with a preceding panel discussion, with topics ranging from “The Power of Introverted Minds” to “Gen Z’s Crumbling Earth.”

After two YouTube Live events, the concert season, titled FIRE, kicks off on June 11 with a program from the Ariel Quartet inspired by Marie Curie. The pioneering scientist won a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 — the same year Maurice Ravel composed his String Quartet in F, which will be paired with works by Robert Schumann and Amy Beach.

[Read more…]

Getting inside the Crafting Change Symposium: a conversation with Abby Aresty

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by Mike Telin

When I first read about the Crafting Change Symposium, I learned that it was a series of free, virtual presentations, concerts, panel discussions, and workshops, through which teachers — kindergarten through college — and artists/makers from a variety of disciplines would share their creative approaches to exploring science, humanities, and art with an emphasis on inclusion.

When I read further I encountered such terms as Maker Movement, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics).

My initial reaction was, I know a little bit about most of this, but not a lot about any of it. But after reading session descriptions and presenter bios, I was hooked. I needed to know more.

Last week I attended two sessions. “Crafting the Hybrid Body,” led by Cindy Kao from Cornell’s Hybrid Body Lab, was a fascinating lecture about wearable technology, and the four presenters in the “Lightning Lunchtime Panel” all had inspirational stories to share. Hearing Sara Trail talk about how she uses sewing and quilting to engage young people though the Social Justice Sewing Academy was enlightening. Crafting Change continues through June 19. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival: eight strings and YouTube with Drew Henderson

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Several things can stand in the way of a smooth musical arrangement, including the range of the instrument of destination.

“There used to be so many instances in arranging music when I said to myself, I wish I had some extra strings,” guitarist Drew Henderson said during a recent call from Toronto. So when an opportunity presented itself to purchase an eight-string guitar for a good price, he went for it. “And I haven’t looked back.”

Henderson will share the bill with Petra Polácková during a free, pre-recorded concert on Friday, June 4 as part of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. The Canadian guitarist will make use of the eight-string instrument for his own arrangement of the Prelude, Sarabande, and Boureés from J.S. Bach’s Fourth Cello Suite. His program also includes Joaquín Turina’s Sonata and Johann Kaspar Mertz’s arrangement of Schubert’s Lob der Tränen.

Henderson’s portion of the evening airs here at 7:30 pm, while Polácková will take the reins at 8:15 pm here with a program of music by John Dowland, Miguel Llobet, and Mertz. Admission is free, and donations can be placed here to support the artists.

[Read more…]

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