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Classical music in a sitcom: NBC’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Here’s a trivia question: what current television series references Mahler, the oboe, and the recorder, and occasionally features one actor’s real operatic singing voice?

It might surprise you that the answer is a cop comedy — NBC’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which recently finished its seventh season and has been picked up for an eighth. The show is about the fictional 99th precinct in Brooklyn, NY, and the group of oddball police officers who work there, including two with a fondness for classical music.

One of them is Detective Norm Scully (played by Joel McKinnon Miller). He’s one of the two “magnificent oafs” of the precinct — a best-friend pairing of older cops whose main interests are greasy food and comfy chairs. But going against trope, Scully also sings opera.

[Read more…]

“At Home with Hawkins” — conversations on music and clarinet

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by Jarrett Hoffman

In almost every interview with a musician, there’s some special piece of conversation that later falls flat when put on a page. For those elusive moments — some inflection of voice, some bit of body language, or a laugh that’s nice and genuine — you can’t beat long-form interviews captured on video.

And when the interviewer and guest share a warm chemistry, and both are musicians at the top of their field, the result is a conversation that gives off a special sense of human connection and more nuggets of wisdom than you can count.

That’s what Oberlin Conservatory clarinet professor Richard Hawkins has captured in his new series of interviews, “At Home with Hawkins.” Episodes stream live on Facebook — some on the page of Backun Musical Services, others on Clarineat: The Clarinet Podcast.

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Piano Cleveland announces summer Virtu(al)oso Competition

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by Daniel Hathaway

Having postponed its Cleveland International Piano Competition until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Piano Cleveland has come up with a clever placeholder for the summer of 2020 that will allow 30 pianists, ages 18-30, to compete in a worldwide virtual contest while providing participants with across-the-board financial support.

In a recent telephone conversation, Piano Cleveland CEO Yaron Kohlberg said the idea for Virtu(al)oso grew out of the success of their Quarantine Concerts, a quickly-organized series of eight Thursday evening performances that came together only a few days after Governor DeWine’s stay-at-home order went into effect. Streamed from Steinway Piano Gallery Cleveland between March 19 and May 7, the concerts featured local artists and gave viewers the opportunity to contribute to a Musicians’ Fund.

“It surpassed our goals,” Kohlberg said. “We went into the series not knowing really what to expect. We just knew that we wanted to react as quickly as possible and try to support our musicians. People were so kind and generous, and responded so well.” [Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: “Chamber Music in the Pandemic”

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by Jarrett Hoffman

When live music as we know it came to a halt at the start of the pandemic, clarinetist and Rocky River Chamber Music Society board member Daniel McKelway knew he wanted to do something for concertgoers who live in retirement communities in the area.

“I immediately had a sense that these people are not going to have the connections that are so important to their lives and their happiness in their later years,” McKelway said during a recent telephone call. “These are people who have not been able to have contact with their children and their grandchildren, and who are at greater risk than younger people if they do get the virus.”

His idea was to put on a live concert of chamber music, with generous measures of social distancing to be followed by the performers, and without a live audience in attendance, to be viewed for free over the web. That’s exactly what the Rocky River Chamber Music Society will present on Monday, May 18 at 7:15 pm.

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Cleveland Institute of Music to offer Summer Intensives

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by Jarrett Hoffman

While summer festivals around the world are being cancelled due to the threat of the novel coronavirus, the Cleveland Institute of Music is offering virtual Summer Intensives in nine areas during the months of May and June.

The series, taught by CIM faculty, is aimed at anyone preparing for conservatory or music school auditions, seeking a professional job, or simply honing their performance skills. The faculty members have curated a mix of master classes, demonstrations, discussions, and private lessons to be conducted exclusively online (and notably, CIM has two decades of experience with distance studio teaching).

Want to watch, but not play? Each session is also open to observers for a separate tuition rate, but only participants will receive lessons and the opportunity to perform in master classes.

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Explore music at home with The Cleveland Orchestra

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You’re never too young to start your music education and you’re never too old to go back to school. Whatever your age, you can discover new ways to connect with music with The Cleveland Orchestra’s Learning@Home resources. 

Mindful Music Moments @Home Family Edition (all ages) 

The @Home edition of Mindful Music Moments is a great way for parents and kids to start the day with structure, calm, and focus in just four minutes. This version of Mindful Music Moments features a single piece of music each week and different mindfulness prompts each day, to deepen our connection to music, and to ourselves, plus additional guided meditations, coloring pages, and resources for at-home play and learning. Mindfulness and music from The Cleveland Orchestra is free. Click here for more information. 

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Singers’ Club appoints new artistic director

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The Singers’ Club of Cleveland has named local conductor and musician Don VerKuilen as its new artistic director, effective June 1.

VerKuilen is the Director of Music and Liturgy at Saint Rocco Parish on Cleveland’s West Side, where he serves as organist and directs all choirs, including a schola cantorum he has created for the return of the Latin Mass.

VerKuilen has directed choirs across the United States as guest conductor and has held choral directing positions in prominent churches, including Pulaski Heights Methodist in Little Rock, Arkansas, and The Old Stone Church, Cleveland. He has performed as concert organist across the United States and Europe. VerKuilen began his organ and conducting studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and is continuing those studies at The Cleveland Institute of Music.

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fp Creative’s Long Distance: live performance and collaboration

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by Jarrett Hoffman

The response to the pandemic from fp Creative has been both sensitive and — well, creative. The organization has devoted a page of its website to relief fund resources, and has divided its programming into two categories of “Long Distance” offerings: live performances, and new artistic collaborations taking place over the web.

“Collabs” is the name they’ve coined for the latter endeavor. In early April, they sent out a request for submissions of short recordings from instrumentalists, poets, and sound designers “to capture the sounds of their new daily,” as the organization writes on its website. A handful of producers and composers then sampled those submissions, weaving them into pieces of music.

The first — and very striking — release came on Friday, May 1, and is available to stream here. It takes the form of an album in collage style, with eight short tracks representing a spectrum of compositional styles from Will Cayanan, Erica MacLeod, Richard Graham (a.k.a. Signals Under Tests), Seyu, Devin Hinzo, and Graham Rosen.

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Oberlin’s Gratitude Showers Challenge begins with Monday broadcast

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by Jarrett Hoffman

A group of students at Oberlin College and Conservatory are spreading gratitude and raising funds for healthcare professionals at University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center, all in a distinctly creative way.

On Monday evening, the Gratitude Showers Challenge kicked off with a broadcast on YouTube from 7:15 to 10:00 pm. I watched the first 40 minutes, which began with Abby Aresty and her students in the course Sonic Arts in Society explaining their project and how people can participate.

Stated most simply, they’re gathering notes of gratitude — a few words, or even a picture — from the public that will then be shared with hospital workers. They’re also asking for donations of $1 for each message received, up to their goal of 100 messages.

The messages will be written out on raindrop-shaped cuts of vinyl, and once it is deemed safe, installed on clear umbrellas that will make up an art installation in a courtyard at the Hospital.

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BW Vocal Performance Capstone Project takes Hansel and Gretel online

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by Mike Telin

When the 2020 Vocal Performance Program class at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory got together this past August to discuss what their Capstone Project would look like, they decided to create something that would combine their voice studies with their entrepreneurship classes, and involve a community partner.

The seven seniors began laying the groundwork by meeting with Cleveland Opera Theater’s director of education and outreach Megan Thompson, who helped them figure out what they wanted the project to entail and how to structure it. They also discussed what it means to be a teaching artist.

The group ultimately decided that they would design an opera outreach project for elementary school children and produce a thirty-minute adaptation of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel.

During a class interview via Zoom, Kailyn Martino, who created that adaptation, said the goal was to make sure that their version would be engaging for elementary school students. “We’ve included the most memorable music from the opera like the Prayer and the Sandman and Dew Fairy arias, and the scene where Gretel teaches Hansel to dance. The plot is driven forward through the narration, so we get to share the entire opera with the kids without keeping them there for hours.” [Read more…]

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