by David Kulma
A rare operatic treat graced the Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square on Saturday, June 16: a single performance of Stanisław Moniuszko’s 19th-century, Polish-language gem Straszny dwór. Designed to celebrate the centenary of Polish independence, this traditionally-staged production with Cleveland Ballet added up to an uneven evening. [Read more…]
by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com
If you enjoy music from the Great American Songbook or the Golden Age of Broadway, then you’re already familiar with a good number of songs from Richard Rodgers’ and Lorenz Hart’s Babes in Arms. After opening on April 14, 1937 and running for 289 performances, the musical never again appeared on Broadway, quite possibly because of the show’s politically incorrect views and language. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Stevens
What requires thirty-five music stands, involves movement and memorization, and sheds new light on the works of the classical canon? Last Saturday afternoon, June 23 at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Hall, it was the student participants and associates of the Cleveland Trombone Seminar, playing together as a choir. The low brass players worked wonders in a program of Austro-German Baroque and Romantic repertoire. [Read more…]
by David Kulma
The Syndicate for the New Arts has evolved from its origin as a contemporary classical ensemble and has slowly become a local presenting organization in the genreless underground music scene. With the most recent offering on Tuesday, June 19 at Historic St. Johns in Ohio City, wholly pre-composed music fit the new curating Syndicate’s zeitgeist, but even with some raucous weirdness, this evening was one of its tamest. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Stevens
In the fifth concert of this year’s ChamberFest Cleveland season, programming took “A Turn in the Road” amid the festival’s theme of searching for freedom. Three trios played works by Alban Berg, George Crumb, and Antonín Dvořák, each of whom sought liberation from aesthetic constraints in some way. The resulting musical experience on June 21 in the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall had remarkable stylistic and sonic range. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
ChamberFest Cleveland offered a light-hearted program of mostly unusual repertoire on Tuesday, June 19, in the resonant Crawford Rotunda at the Cleveland History Center of the Western Reserve Historical Society in University Circle. Performers included several familiar members of the “ChamberFest family” as well as some talented newcomers. [Read more…]
by Robert Rollin
Last Saturday night at the Bop Stop saxophonist Javier Oviedo and pianist Ron Palka presented a lively concert of modern works as part of the Classical Saxophone Project. The highlight of the first half was Steven Cohen’s eclectic Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano. The cyclical 3-movement piece used modal elements with lowered second steps including a Hebrew scale. Oviedo displayed excellent dynamic control throughout. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Modeling consummate artistry for the 35 participants and associates in the opening performance of the 2018 Cleveland Trombone Seminar in CSU’s Drinko Hall on Saturday afternoon, June 16, founder and director Shachar Israel showed how varied and engaging a program of transcriptions for the instrument can be. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Stevens
Last week, as part of the seventh annual Cleveland Trombone Seminar, a concert by Mark Lancaster Lusk took listeners into the heart of the brass player’s world: a region dominated by vocal music, modernist explorations, and jazz.
by Delaney Meyers
The Syndicate for the New Arts has brought a host of interesting artists and groups to the Cleveland area this summer, including the Buffalo, NY-based Sotto Voce Vocal Collective. On Saturday afternoon, June 9, the ensemble presented a dazzling program of not-often heard contemporary vocal music in the dreamy acoustic of Ohio City’s St. John’s Episcopal Church, the oldest-standing religious building in Northeast Ohio. [Read more…]