by Mike Telin
Since its debut season in 2012, ChamberFest Cleveland has been guided by a single idea — to create a family of musicians and audiences who come together to share their love of chamber music. And like so many families who were separated due to the pandemic, so was the ChamberFest family.
Earlier this week, Festival co-artistic directors Diana and Franklin Cohen announced that the “chamberhood” will come together again June 9-26 with free, safe, family-friendly outdoor concerts, allowing as many as possible to experience the healing power of live music.
Around the theme of Together Again, the majority of the Festival’s concerts will be held at The Grove Amphitheatre, 425 N. Commons Blvd. in Mayfield. Click here for details and here for reservations (required). Audiences should bring a lawn chair or blanket as the venue has no permanent seating. Enhance your evening by bringing a picnic or ordering take-out from a local restaurant. The responsible consumption of alcohol is permitted. In case of rain, concerts will be moved to St. Paschal Baylon Church in Highland Heights (also the venue for the Festival’s final concert.)
“We can’t wait to share music with the community,” longtime ChamberFest pianist Roman Rabinovich said by telephone. “These times have made it clear about what is important in music — and that is the sharing part.”
Lately, wind players have only been sighted here and there on the calendar, and have mostly performed all on their lonesome. That makes the finale to the Rocky River Chamber Music Society’s 62nd season an extra special occasion for anyone with a fondness for music of the lungs.
Blissfully unaware of what was to come, on September 10, 2019, I wrote:
When you hear the word madrigal, for many what first comes to mind are those dinners where the performers and guests dress in Renaissance costumes. While those events continue to flourish, especially during the Yuletide season, on Saturday, May 15 at 7:30 pm the Cleveland Chamber Choir will remind us that the writing of these part-songs has never stopped.
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.
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