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The Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus: Hrůša, Adams & Mahler this week

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by Mike Telin

After leading The Cleveland Orchestra last week in works by Shostakovich and Beethoven, Jakub Hrůša returns to the Severance Hall podium this week to conduct the Cleveland premiere of John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Performances are on Thursday, November 14 at 7:30 pm, Saturday the 16th at 8:00 pm and Sunday the 17th at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center to commemorate the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks in 2001. The composer has written that

“Transmigration means ‘the movement from one place to another’ or ‘the transition from one state of being to another.’ But in this case I meant it to imply the movement of the soul from one state to another. And I don’t just mean the transition from living to dead, but also the change that takes place within the souls of those that stay behind, of those who suffer pain and loss and then themselves come away from that experience.”

The single movement, 25-minute work for orchestra, chorus, children’s choir, and pre-recorded tape was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music. [Read more…]

fp Creative launches new season at Snap House Studios November 14

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by Mike Telin

After an extraordinary debut concert season, Fresh Perspectives founder Devin Hinzo and program manager Justin Gunter spent the past summer thinking about how to bring to fruition the organization’s goal of creating an incubator for area musicians to develop projects. That thinking was turned into action, and this week audiences can experience what the organization now known as fp Creative is all about.

On Thursday, November 14 beginning at 7:00 pm at Snap House Studios in Cleveland, fp Creative will present “Pretty in Green #galaforthepeople.” Audiences are invited to wear their best green-hued or nature-inspired fashion, with prizes for those “with the freshest cuts.” Enjoy earthly delights, take pictures with interactive installations, and hear fp Creative’s inaugural emerging artists-in-residence, Catharsis Winds, in concert.

The program includes Piazzolla’s Libertango (arr. Jeff Scott), Gabriela Ortiz’ Puzzle-tocas, and David Maslanka’s Quintet No. 1. Installation and performance artist Susie Underwood will be on hand creating something special for the event. General Admission costs zero to fifteen dollars at the door. RSVP here. [Read more…]

Contemporary Youth Orchestra: a new piano concerto, without the pianist

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by Jarrett Hoffman

When the Contemporary Youth Orchestra opens its 25th season this weekend, those in the audience will see players playing, conductor conducting, and a piano whose pedals and keys depress and release, letting out the most artful of sounds, but without anyone laying a finger on it.

A talented ghost? Not exactly. Steinway & Sons has developed a high-resolution player piano known as the Spirio. By measuring hammer velocity and pedaling, it can reproduce a performance that, according to the company, is “utterly indistinguishable” from the original.

Using a Spirio, Antonio Pompa-Baldi has already recorded the solo part to Roberto Piana’s new Concerto Fantastique. That instrument will be onstage in front of the Contemporary Youth Orchestra and music director Liza Grossman, playing back Pompa-Baldi’s performance during the work’s premiere on Saturday, November 16 at 7:00 pm at Mandel Theatre on the Eastern Campus of Cuyahoga Community College. The program also includes Gustav Holst’s The Planets. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra: conversations with Vinay Parameswaran & Annie Zhang

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by Mike Telin

When you’re the music director of a youth orchestra, one thing that goes with the territory is turnover in membership. “We had almost 50 students graduate last year,” Vinay Parameswaran said during a telephone conversation. “But the new players are all very talented and the level of commitment is as strong as ever, so I’m excited about our opening concert.”

On Friday, November 15 (note corrected date) at 8:00 pm in Severance Hall, Parameswaran will lead the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) in a program featuring Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Something for the Dark, Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, and Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with Annie Zhang as soloist. Tickets are available online.

Parameswaran, who is now in his third season as COYO’s music director, said that he first encountered Sarah Kirkland Snider’s music on the recommendation of some of his colleagues. “Something for the Dark is a wonderfully powerful piece that I was attracted to from the beginning.”

Written for the Detroit Symphony, the 12-minute piece explores a number of different moods. [Read more…]

TIMARA turns 50, and
there’s going to be a party

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by Mike Telin

There’s going to be a party at Finney Chapel on Saturday, November 16 beginning at 7:30 pm. The grand occasion marks the fiftieth anniversary of Oberlin Conservatory’s TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts) program, the nation’s first conservatory program in electronic music.

“Olly Wilson taught the first electronic music course in 1969 and John Clough taught the first computer music class in the spring of 1970,” associate professor of computer music and digital arts Tom Lopez said during an interview. “We thought that 50 years was cause to celebrate.”

Organized by Lopez, the free Kaleidosonic Music Festival will feature nearly 500 musicians performing a variety of styles — gospel, classical, rock and roll, jazz, early music, marching band, serious, funny, and avant-garde.

“Kaleidosonic will be an epic celebration of music at Oberlin. It includes musicians and ensembles from the Conservatory, the College, and the community,” Lopez said. “We’re calling it a festival because it is more than a concert. It will be many hours long and the music will be non-stop — one big, long, sonic collage of ensembles, groups, and individual musicians. People can come and go as they wish and there will be food trucks available from 7:00 until 10:00.” [Read more…]

LCCC Signature Series to present pianist Awadagin Pratt on Nov. 18

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cincinnati-based pianist Awadagin Pratt will perform on the Lorain County Community College Signature Series on Monday, November 18 at 7:30 pm in the Cinema Hall at the Stocker Arts Center in Elyria. The free event is the annual Eva Hornyak Memorial Concert, for which Pratt will play Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31, Op. 110, Franck’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue, and Liszt’s Sonata in b.

We last caught up with the pianist two years ago this month, before his performance on the Tri-C Classical Piano Series. In an interview with Jarrett Hoffman, Pratt talked about his training at the Peabody Conservatory (where he was the first to graduate with three diplomas — in piano, violin, and conducting), his prizes (he won the 1992 Naumburg Piano Competition and an Avery Fisher Career Grant two years later), his three visits to the White House (under presidents Clinton and Obama), and his appearance on Sesame Street (when he shared a piano with Big Bird).

I spoke with Awadagin Pratt by telephone at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory, where he teaches, and began by asking what’s been happening in his life during the last two years. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony to feature Brunfelt & Guegold in Vivaldi & Strauss

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by Jarrett Hoffman

This weekend, the Akron Symphony will spotlight two of its own. Concertmaster Tallie Brunfelt will take on the quadruple challenge of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and principal horn Meghan Guegold will play Richard Strauss’s early Concerto No. 1 on Saturday, November 16 at 8:00 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall.

When Guegold was an 18-year-old student at the University of Akron, she was determined not only to learn the Strauss, but to play it memorized on that uncommon and ambitious event: the freshman recital.

“I thought, you know, I want to perform for a living, so I might as well jump right on in,” the hornist said during an interview.

That work, a pillar of the horn repertoire, wasn’t a surprising choice. “It’s definitely one of the best concertos we have,” Guegold said, adding that it might be the best from the Romantic era. The lyricism and the heroic quality of the writing attracted her. “I think it was the start of my real love of Strauss’s music.”

[Read more…]

Brunfelt, Guegold, and Wilkins on Akron Symphony’s “Stand Beside Her”

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by Jarrett Hoffman

The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in August of 1920, and leading up to the 100th anniversary of that event, the Akron Symphony is highlighting six women composers through a project called “Stand Beside Her.”

I spoke to concertmaster Tallie Brunfelt and principal horn Meghan Guegold — who will both be featured as soloists in the Orchestra’s November 16 concert — and asked what this programming initiative means to them.

“I’m just so thrilled that the ASO is doing this, especially in light of the centennial,” Brunfelt said by telephone. Being a woman at her position in the Orchestra makes this project all the more exciting for her. “There aren’t many female concertmasters, and I think representation and visibility are extraordinarily important,” she said.

[Read more…]

Ámà: The Gathering Place at The Cleveland Museum of Art

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by Mike Telin

When Nigerian sound and installation artist Emeka Ogboh first received the invitation from the Cleveland Museum of Art to create a work for the Ames Family Atrium, he didn’t have a notion of what the work would be. But when he made his first site visit to the Museum in February of 2018, the city’s winter weather became a source of inspiration. “It was grey and not so happy looking,” Ogboh said with a chuckle during a Skype conversation from his home in Berlin.

After spending time in the Atrium and observing how it functions as a gathering place for social activities, he began to think, “why don’t I bring something to Cleveland from Nigeria?” adding that if he had made his first visit in the summer “it would have been a different piece.”

If you have not had the opportunity to experience Ámà: The Gathering Place, you have a few more weeks to do so — the exhibit will remain on display through the first of December. Commissioned for the Atrium, the installation uses sound, sculpture, and textiles that capture the sense of a village square reminiscent of Ogboh’s birthplace in Enugu. [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: a conversation with Pablo Garibay 

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by Mike Telin

The Cleveland Classical Guitar Society will continue its International Series this weekend with a performance by Pablo Garibay on Saturday, November 9 at 7:30 pm in Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. His program will include works by Leo Brouwer, Simone Iannarelli, Manuel Ponce, Eguardo Angulo, and Antonio José. Tickets are available online.

Garibay has been awarded first prize at numerous competitions including the International Manuel Ponce Guitar Competition (Mexico City), the René Bartoli Competition (Aix en Provence, France) the JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition (Buffalo, USA) and the International Guitar Competition Aachen (Germany).

I reached Pablo Garibay at his home in Morelia, Mexico, and began by asking him if he has ever been to Cleveland.

Pablo Garibay: No, this will be my first time and I am thrilled about it.

Mike Telin: Your program includes names of composers that I’m familiar with, and others that I’m learning about for the first time. Could you please say a few words about each of the works. [Read more…]

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