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Al Fresco events take off
in Northeast Ohio

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by Daniel Hathaway

Apollo’s Fire sold out all seven of its outdoor “Tuscan Sun” concerts last week, and now patrons of Akron’s Tuesday Musical “Music al fresco: Passport 2020” have snapped up all the available seats — socially distanced, of course — for its three Sunday afternoon performances in September and October at historic Barder House in West Akron.

That’s a nice problem to have, and TMA has solved it by adding an extra 1:00 pm performance to the existing 3:00 pm performances on September 6 (Russian Duo), September 20 (Black Squirrel Winds), and October 11 (Found Sounds: Ghana, Trinidad, Brazil).

Executive Director Cynthia Snider wrote in a press release, “We have carefully designed Music al fresco: Passport 2020 to provide a safe entertainment option for audiences in Northeast Ohio where most live arts events have been canceled for months because of COVID-19.”

Snider added that strict safety protocols will be in force in coordination with Summit County Public Health. [Read more…]

Les Délices: the SalonEra series and a look at its first three programs

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Early on in the pandemic, Baroque oboist and Les Délices artistic director Debra Nagy decided to avoid spending time on social media. It wasn’t just the clickbait articles, or the echo chamber of opinions, or the anxiety that it can provoke in even the best of times.

It was also, as she told me in April, the “sea” of invites to live concerts streamed from living rooms. It was overwhelming. One thing she found nourishing was programming potential concerts, planning for a future where artists could once again “collaborate in meaningful ways.”

Looking back now, it’s clear that Nagy was always going to find her own unique way to approach music-making in the time of COVID. Enter SalonEra, a free series that begins August 24 and represents one half of Les Délices’ 2020-21 season.

[Read more…]

41st Tri-C JazzFest
goes virtual Aug. 21-23

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by Jarrett Hoffman

The Tri-C JazzFest kicks off its all-virtual 41st edition this weekend, August 21-23, with a focus on local acts and a schedule that’s designed like a variety show. Each night’s free 7:00 pm presentation will be made up of recent pre-recorded performances, live music, interviews, and features from the archive.

Of course, precautions around COVID-19 played a large part in how it all came together. “If we were going to try to honor our local musicians and our local scene, we needed to make something that would be as safe as possible,” director Terri Pontremoli said by Zoom.

During the month of July, one band per day recorded a short set inside the 600-seat Simon and Rose Mandel Theater on the eastern campus of Cuyahoga Community College. “Because we’re part of a big institution, the COVID safety guidelines were very serious, and the musicians felt really good,” Pontremoli said. “We got them in and out, and kept it all as clean as possible.”

Those sessions proved to be a powerful experience for everyone involved. “I have to tell you, it was so heartwarming to see the musicians play together, because it had been such a long time, and they were so grateful.” She recalled one message that bassist Kip Reed delivered backstage. “He said, ‘Playing means so much to me that I literally dream about it these days.’”

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Berta Rojas performs online after cancelled Cleveland debut

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas was set to make her Cleveland debut on March 14 in a presentation by the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society. Then the coronavirus crisis intervened.

Now, Rojas and the Guitar Society have worked out an alternative. On Saturday, August 15 at 7:30 pm, she’ll give a free, pre-recorded online concert, broadcast on YouTube and entirely devoted to the music of Agustín Barrios Mangoré, a fellow Paraguayan who lived from 1885 to 1944.

That programming choice shouldn’t surprise anyone who was looking forward to her concert in March, which would have been all-Barrios during its second half. It also shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s followed Rojas’ career, from her 2008 album Intimate Barrios to her four-year tour, “In the Footsteps of Mangoré,” with clarinetist and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera.

[Read more…]

Virtu(al)oso Piano Competition: Final Rounds (August 7 & 8)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The pianists who remained on the bench after the rather brutal cut on Wednesday evening in Cleveland Piano’s Virtu(al)oso Competition (the field was reduced from 30 to 6) played virtual 30- to 35-minute programs in the Final Round on Friday and Saturday, pre-recorded at international Steinway locations at the same time as their First Round performances. Here are some impressions.

Friday, August 7 — Session 1

Tamila Salimdjanova (28, Uzbekistan) brought two works to the session: Debussy’s Estampes and Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7. She gave the three-movement Debussy (“Pagodes,” “La soirée dans Grenade” and “Jardins sous la pluie”) a fluent performance, but the scenes offer more color possibilities than she exploited, and an abundance of dynamic details that went overlooked. Salimdjanova played the Prokofiev masterfully, but the outer movements needed more sheer brutality to reflect the Sonata’s Stalinist context and to offset the sentimental slow movement. [Read more…]

Piano Cleveland Virtu(al)oso: Questions for the six finalists

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by Daniel Hathaway

On Friday evening, August 7 at 7:00, the first three of six finalists in Piano Cleveland’s Virtu(al)oso online competition will be heard playing 30-35 minute programs previously video recorded at Steinway locations in the U.S. and abroad. The remaining three finalists will go online on Saturday, August 8.

We caught up with all of them either by email or Skype to ask versions of these questions:

1) Waiting is always a part of competitions, but this one is unusual. How did it feel to have so long to wait between recording your program and having it streamed in the First Round.

2) Did you listen to yourself in the first round? What was that like?

3) Do you plan to listen to yourself in the final round?

4) What’s your favorite piece in your final round program, and why?

5) Based on your experience with Virtu(al)oso, if the pandemic continues well into the future, would you consider entering a virtual competition again? [Read more…]

Six Virtu(al)oso finalists named, to play on Friday & Saturday

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by Daniel Hathaway

On Wednesday evening, Piano Cleveland’s Virtu(al)oso jury named the six pianists who will play 30- to 35-minute programs in the final round of the 2020 online competition. The sessions will be streamed on Friday and Saturday at 7:00 pm. Click here for their bios and programs.

Virtu(al)oso Piano Competition: Round One, Sessions 1-6 (July 30-August 4)

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by Daniel Hathaway

International piano competitions normally take place in real time in a single location. But when SARS-CoV-2 forced Piano Cleveland to postpone its Cleveland International Piano Competition until 2021, the organization decided to hold an online contest in its place.

Thus 30 pianists, chosen to compete in Virtu(al)oso out of a field of 130 applicants, turned up at Steinway locations in Cleveland, New York, London, Hamburg and Beijing, each to video record a 20-minute and a 30- to 35-minute program of music of their choice. There were no repertoire hoops to jump through: the only stipulation was that pieces be in contrasting styles. And to guarantee fair comparisons, visual and sonic values were to be standardized among the five recording venues.

Then during six First Round sessions beginning on July 30, the recordings of five pianists would be streamed each evening, to be vetted by a jury watching remotely on their own screens. Six pianists would be chosen to move on to the Final Round on August 7 and 8. [Read more…]

M.U.S.i.C. – Stars in the Classics to host backyard garden concert Aug. 15

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by Mike Telin

Over the past few weeks, area musicians and performing arts organizations have presented concerts on front porches, parking lots, and even at a baseball field. Another obvious place would be a spacious backyard — should you be lucky enough to have one.

When everything shut down, M.U.S.i.C. – Stars in the Classics began posting archival videos and later employing their musicians to create new ones. “We’re still doing that,” M.U.S.i.C’s Artistic Director Jodi Kanter said by telephone. “Then one of our musicians asked, ‘Why can’t we create an outdoor performance where everyone can be socially distanced?’” As luck would have it, Kanter happens to have a large backyard.

On Saturday, August 15, M.U.S.i.C. invites you to spend “A Musical Summer Evening in the Garden.” The outdoor event will be held at the artistic director’s house in Orange Village, where audiences can enjoy a live program while maintaining social distancing. Seating will begin at 6:30 pm and the concert starts at 7:00 pm. The audience will be limited to 40 people. Click here for tickets and location information. The rain date is Sunday, August 16 at 7:00 pm.

[Read more…]

Virtu(al)oso Piano Competition: Round One ends on August 4

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by Daniel Hathaway

Tonight around 8:45 pm, when U.K. pianist Martin James Bartlett, playing virtually from the Steinway Gallery in London, lifts his hands from the keyboard after the last notes of Shostakovich’s Polka for W.R., 30 contestants will have completed their 20-minute First Round performances in Piano Cleveland’s 2020 all-online Virtu(al)oso Competition.

We’ve been following the performances since last Thursday, and will share some thoughts and impressions on Wednesday afternoon, August 5. On Wednesday evening at 7 pm EDT, the jury will name the six players who will go on to the Final Round, playing 30- to 35-minute mini-recitals on Friday and Saturday. [Read more…]

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