by Jarrett Hoffman
When you think of famous, old-school musicians, a certain invincibility comes to mind, but also a distance. So it’s refreshing when today’s virtuosos not only match or exceed the abilities of their predecessors, but also reveal without any hint of pretense that they’re human.
That was my experience last week when I met over Zoom with the New York City-based Junction Trio, made up of violinist Stefan Jackiw, cellist Jay Campbell, and pianist Conrad Tao, who individually have all been awarded Avery Fisher Career Grants, to name just one of their honors.
The basis of our conversation was their upcoming program for the Cleveland Chamber Music Society: works by Beethoven, Charles Ives, and John Zorn which they’ll share in person at Saint Paschal Baylon in Highland Heights on Tuesday, May 11 at 7:30 pm, in addition to offering a free livestream (tickets and information here).
But they also provided a glimpse into the psychological and even the vulnerable side of performing. Perhaps there’s no better place to start than with the process of “auditioning” for a chamber music group.
When The Cleveland Orchestra released the initial information about its forthcoming, in-person summer season at Blossom, only the conductors and main works on the eleven concerts were listed. Now, the all-important side dishes for the Orchestra’s al fresco musical picnic have been added to the menu.
Having made its debut earlier this season with a program of jazz arrangements by Dave Morgan featuring vocalist Helen Welch, Youngstown State University’s modular Dana Ensemble will turn to a different type of arrangements for its second outing at the Ford Family Theater at the DeYor Center on Sunday, May 2 at 3:00 pm.
On April 25, 2020, my wife Chris Haff-Paluck passed away due to health complications related to breast cancer, lupus, and diabetes. For more than forty years, Chris had been a freelance double bassist, educator, mentor to young musicians, concert presenter, and arts manager at the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the founder and moving spirit of Arts Renaissance Tremont (ART).
Virtuoso double bassist and composer Edgar Meyer is a musical omnivore. His collaborators read like a who’s-who in folk, jazz, country, classical, and bluegrass music. Meyer’s diverse discography includes the celebrated Bach: Unaccompanied Cello Suites Performed on Double Bass. In 2011 he teamed up with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, and Chris Thile for The Goat Rodeo Sessions. And in addition to being a multi-Grammy winner, Meyer is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, an Avery Fisher Prize, and a MacArthur Award.
J.S. Bach’s 
Earth and Air: String Orchestra is taking its final bow next week, but they won’t be going away quietly. The chamber ensemble has enlisted not one but two soloists for the occasion, more specifically two “Dueling Divas,” as violinists Andrew Sords and Mari Sato call their duo.
Although black squirrels can be spotted around Northeast Ohio, they are prolific in the city of Kent. “At our first rehearsal we talked about choosing a name for the group, so we threw out some ideas,” bassoonist Mark DeMio recalled during a recent telephone conversation. “Our horn player said that since there were so many black squirrels in the area he always liked the idea of playing in a group called the black squirrel — something. And that’s how we became the Black Squirrel Winds.” 
On Wednesday, April 7 at 7:00 pm, CIM Piano Professor Daniel Shapiro will play Beethoven’s last three sonatas in the 8th program of a complete cycle that he launched last fall to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.