by Daniel Hathaway
Provided that everything clicks in today’s complicated puzzle of international travel, British conductor Dame Jane Glover will make her Blossom debut with The Cleveland Orchestra in an all-Mozart program on Sunday evening, July 11. And if no visa or transportation difficulties intervene for him as well, she’ll be joined by British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor in the composer’s d-minor concerto. The evening will begin with the K. 136 Divertimento for strings, and conclude with Symphony No. 40 [see update below].
Since we last spoke, Jane Glover has become Dame Jane, having been named Dame of the British Empire in the Queen’s New Year Honours in January. I reached the conductor by phone at her home in London in mid-June, and wanting to observe proper protocol, started out by asking her how she should be addressed these days.
Dame Jane Glover: Jane is absolutely fine, but Dame Jane is very nice, thank you.
Daniel Hathaway: I see that you’re also referred to as ‘Professor Dame Jane’ on your website.
DJG: I know. It’s a bit cumbersome, isn’t it. It maybe takes its cues from the realm of Gilbert and Sullivan, which one cannot help thinking about. [Read more…]
Now that in-person concerts are becoming the rule rather than the exception, Apollo’s Fire is scheduling three local performances of “Bach, Vivaldi, and Friends!” from July 10-14, and taking shows on the road to four summer festivals: Tanglewood, Chautauqua, Caramoor, and Ravinia.
When programming concerts like her July 9th performance for ENCORE, guitarist Jiji Kim aims to show the evolution of music while also highlighting the throughlines that connect music across the ages. She tends to start her performances with Baroque material, then moves through the 1800s to the modern era and her own compositions, demonstrating “how music has changed, transitioned throughout the centuries — but also has the same feeling of connection, or emotional relevance.” 
As has been the case throughout this season, on July 4, the ENCORE Music & Ideas Festival will once again try something new. In a celebration of American music, classical and bluegrass will share the stage at the Dodero Center for Performing Arts in Gates Mills. The 4:30 pm concert will begin with Copland’s Appalachian Spring performed by ENCORE artists, before shifting to Michael Cleveland and his band Flamekeeper, who will deliver what is certain to be a high energy performance.
“What a year!” Kent Blossom Music Festival director Ricardo Sepúlveda said in a recent telephone conversation. “But we’ve been fortunate. The challenges of the pandemic provided us with opportunities to learn, to explore, to be creative and innovative, and how to adapt to rapid change.”
After a year’s absence, The Cleveland Orchestra will return to the stage of Blossom Music on Saturday, July 3 and Sunday, July 4 at 8:00 pm. Under the direction of Brett Mitchell, the concerts will also mark the first time the full orchestra has performed in front of an in-person audience since March of 2020.
“A lot of people have preconceived ideas about what free improv is, and that it means everything is totally random,” violinist Leah Asher said in a recent interview, speaking from her home in New York City. “But there is a total spectrum of the amount of determinacy in music, and I like to think about where I am on that spectrum.” Also a violist, composer, and visual artist, Asher recently recorded a series of improvisations for the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project’s 2021 Re:Sound Festival.
The name Florence Price had barely come up in school. So in 2016, when pianist Michelle Cann was asked to play that composer’s 
When the 
The third week of ChamberFest Cleveland begins on Thursday, June 24 at 7:00 pm at The Grove Amphitheatre in Mayfield. Admission is free, but