ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad

Pre•Views

Oberlin Stage Left: 
“Something for everyone”

by

by Mike Telin 

Artists, arts organizations, and schools of music have found inventive ways of providing homebound audiences with a seemingly never-ending stream of performances during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The question is, what will make yours stand apart from the others? 

Beginning on Tuesday, April 14 at 7:30 pm, the Oberlin Conservatory will debut Oberlin Stage Left, a new online series featuring faculty and students, as well as fascinating guests from throughout the musical world. The programs promise to be fun, informative, and “distinctly Oberlin.” New episodes will be broadcast on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons. The inaugural performance will feature harp professor Yolanda Kondonassis and the Oberlin Orchestra, Raphael Jiménez, conducting, in Ginastera’s Harp Concerto, preceded by a recently recorded interview with Kondonassis by Conservatory Dean William Quillen.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir responds to COVID-19 and releases a new video 

by

by Mike Telin

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and ban on mass gatherings, Cleveland Chamber Choir and BlueWater Chamber Orchestra have canceled their May 2 performance of “With Heaven and Earth.”

In response to the overwhelming loss of work that area musicians have experienced, the Cleveland Chamber Choir has created the More than Music Artist Relief Fund to support local performing musicians impacted by the crisis. Click here to donate and here to apply for funding.

In a recent telephone conversation, mezzo-soprano and CCC managing director Kira McGirr said that she became aware that some organizations had indicated whether or not they would be able to pay their musicians for cancelled performances. “I thought it would be a nice gesture if we offered our singers at least a portion of their fee as a thank-you and acknowledgment of the struggles that we are all experiencing. The Board unanimously agreed.”

After McGirr sent the email to CCC members notifying them of the May 2 cancellation and the Board’s intent to pay a partial fee, she immediately received messages from singers saying that they preferred to have the organization keep the money. [Read more…]

Responding, or not, to the pandemic: conversations with eight composers

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

During the COVID-19 pandemic, performers and presenters have grappled with cancellations by giving virtual performances and releasing videos from the past.

Composers have been flying a little more under the radar — and in a way, that’s natural. “Sheltering in place isn’t that much different than being on deadline for a piece,” Oberlin Conservatory professor Stephen Hartke wrote by email. Cleveland Institute of Music professor Keith Fitch agreed: “A quarantined composer is not so different from a non-quarantined composer.”

Hartke and Fitch are two of the eight composers — including professors, freelancers, and young professionals — who agreed to share their thoughts for this article. After establishing that all things considered, they’re healthy and well, we delved into how — or whether — the pandemic has impacted their writing.

[Read more…]

Four premieres in ten minutes: Jennifer Koh launches “Alone Together” (Apr. 4)

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

One thing that’s interesting about the live-streamed, audience-less concerts that are happening during the pandemic: they can vary wildly in length.

Some musicians are playing three-hour sets devoted to Bach. On Saturday, April 4, violinist Jennifer Koh gave four world premieres in less than ten minutes.

Streamed live over Facebook and Instagram, and still available on-demand through YouTube, this was the first concert of “Alone Together,” Koh’s new commissioning project and performance series in support of composers during the COVID-19 crisis. New concerts take place on Saturdays at 7:00 pm Eastern Time.

Each premiere will be a “micro-work” for solo violin. Half of the composers, most of whom have salaried positions or other forms of institutional support, have agreed to donate their work. Each of those artists is also recommending a freelance composer to write a short piece on paid commission from the ARCO Collaborative, a nonprofit founded and directed by Koh that advocates for inclusivity in classical music.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society to offer free Guitar@Home Academy

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Responding to the pandemic which has affected the education of students, including the nearly 700 City of Cleveland individuals who have been studying guitar under its auspices, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society is developing a Guitar@Home Academy to serve music students of all skill levels.

Guitar@Home Academy, headed by CCGS Director of Education Brian Gaudino, offers free lessons in English and Spanish to public school students in grades 5-12, teaching guitar both through online videos and other materials, and one-on-one lessons via video chats.

A registration form and further information can be found on the CCGS website. The program is supported by The Cleveland Foundation, other foundations, and individual donors.

Cleveland Orchestra announces 2021-2022 Severance Hall Season

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Although the rest of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2019-2020 season has been cancelled due to the pandemic, hope springs eternal. The Orchestra has now released details of its plans for Season 103 at Severance Hall, scheduled to begin in September. Here’s what patrons can look forward to.

The Cleveland Orchestra
2020-21 Season at Severance Hall

Thursday, September 17, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor, Yefim Bronfman, piano

STRAVINSKY  Concerto in D (for strings)
BEETHOVEN  Piano Concerto No. 2
SCRIABIN  Symphony No. 2 [Read more…]

Severance Hall dark, but Cleveland Orchestra plays on over WCLV

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Continuing its long-time partnership with WCLV 104.9 Ideastream, The Cleveland Orchestra is launching a new series, “Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra,” to be aired on weekdays from 12 Noon until 1:00 pm beginning on Monday, April 6. Listen at 104.9 FM or online. As Orchestra CEO André Gremillet wrote in a press release, “Music can lift spirits and inspire hope for the future…We hope these lunchtime presentations will provide you with some musical nourishment for your soul — and a respite from each day’s challenges.”

The April 6 program will include archive recordings of Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80, Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 28 in C, K. 200. Franz Welser-Möst conducts. The programs will be accompanied by a brief overview of the music as well as interviews with Welser-Möst and Orchestra musicians. See our Concert Listings on Monday for details of next week’s programs. WCLV will continue its 8:00 pm Saturday and 4:00 pm Sunday broadcasts featuring previous Cleveland Orchestra performances.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Opera Theater launches Opera for All Online 

by

by Mike Telin 

At a time when everyone is practicing social distancing, and shelter in place is for the time being a reality, many artists and arts organizations are responding by moving to streaming formats. Beginning on Monday, March 30, Cleveland Opera Theater will launch Opera for All Online, social-distance-safe programs to experience, explore, and engage in opera. The events are free.

“Throughout the company’s history we’ve always done what was necessary to remain viable and relevant in the community,” Scott Skiba, Cleveland Opera Theater’s executive artistic director, said during a recent telephone conversation. “We’ve often thought about getting into the streaming environment, and now is the opportunity to try some new things without changing the organization’s mission.”

Skiba noted that two Opera for All Online programs were already part of the company’s offerings. That includes Opera-101, which will now meet Monday through Friday at 12:15 pm on the company’s Facebook page. The staff welcomes questions for future sessions (email them here). “People can ask anything they want to know about opera, like can you really break a glass by singing high? Or what do the conductor and the director do?” Skiba said. “Megan Thompson, our director of education and outreach, will moderate and give lectures about upcoming Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.”

[Read more…]

Live streaming: a roundtable discussion and Q&A’s with recent performers

by

by Daniel Hathaway, Jarrett Hoffman, and Mike Telin

With the recent spread of COVID-19, the opportunity to attend live classical music performances has come to a complete halt and will likely remain that way for the foreseeable future. Many organizations and individual artists are seeking to fill that void through online streaming.

On Thursday, March 19, two area institutions presented the first of what will likely be many live-streamed concerts. At 4:30 pm in Oberlin Conservatory’s Stull Recital Hall, Flute Professor Alexa Still and Faculty Collaborative Pianist Evan Hines presented a program of works by Koechlin, Chopin, Coleman, and Debussy.

On the same day at 7:30 pm in Steinway Piano Gallery Cleveland, Piano Cleveland presented the first of its Quarantine Concerts. Pianist Yaron Kohlberg played selections by Schumann and Grieg, and duo pianists Irwin Shung and Natsumi Shibagaki played works by Bach, Rachmaninoff, and Gershwin.

Remotely streamed concerts raise an interesting question for journalists: is it possible to critically evaluate live performances when you’re not in the same room? Three of ClevelandClassical’s writers attempted to answer that and other questions about covering virtual performances.

[Read more…]

In memoriam:
Stephen T. Griebling, 87

by

by Margi Griebling-Haigh

Stephen T. Griebling, 87, of Akron, OH, passed away peacefully at home after a brief but rapid decline, on March 20, 2020.

He was born during a snowstorm in a small house on the Portage Lakes in Akron on December 10, 1932, to Louis George Griebling and Genevieve Eleanor (né Wilson) Griebling. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Mary Ann (né Rimmel), his daughters Karen Griebling (Robin Brown) and Margi Griebling-Haigh (Scott Haigh), and granddaughter Gabrielle Haigh (Mark Nelson). He was an affectionate, gentle, and playful patriarch who was deeply committed to the happiness, security, and dreams of his family.

[Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us