by Timothy Robson
Violinist Yura Lee gave a splendid solo recital on Wednesday evening in the high-ceilinged west gallery at Transformer Station as part of this year’s Chamberfest Cleveland. It was compact — slightly more than an hour without intermission — with a well-planned arc of music, all of which was performed with style and virtuosity. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
When is the tempo of a waltz too slow? For composer Christopher Auerbach-Brown the answer may well be never, as was evident during the first full performance of his 2014 work titled The Slow Waltzes at the Bop Stop on Sunday, June 12. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Following Colin Davin’s May 2013 performance at the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, ClevelandClassical.com wrote: “Davin is in his twenties, and it is rare to have such a young guitarist achieve the level of sophistication and refinement that was on display throughout his distinguished program.” [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
There are competitions for everything, so why not one for snare drummers? Anyone who might have scoffed at the notion need only to have attended the final rounds of the Modern Snare Drum Competition on Saturday afternoon, May 28 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The eight finalists competing in two divisions all brought superb artistry to their performances of a required work as well as a solo of their choice. [Read more…]
by Neil McCalmont
On Friday, June 24 at CIM’s Mixon Hall, ChamberFest Cleveland put on a thrilling concert titled “Obsession,” exploring the more intimate side of several composers’ lives and oeuvres.
“Obsession” began with two of Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, his only vocal composition for which he did not also write the words. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Creating a sonorous volume of sound you could hardly imagine without being there, more than 40 trombonists marked the end of the 2016 Cleveland Trombone Seminar with a massed performance of music by Wagner, Mozart, Mahler, and Richard Strauss on Sunday, June 19 in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University. [Read more…]
by Neil McCalmont
The first-ever season of ENCORE Chamber Music began with an impassioned and learnèd concert by the Miró Quartet on Saturday evening, June 18 in the chapel of Gilmour Academy. ENCORE, founded by renowned violinist Jinjoo Cho, is a seven-week summer camp for elite young string players and pianists. Students hone their skills through coachings, masterclasses, and concerts by seasoned professionals. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
On Saturday evening, June 18 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, Jewish patriarchs, matriarchs, and rabbis held works by Haydn, Kljuco, Britten, and Golijov in their embrace for a ChamberFest Cleveland concert titled “Isaac’s Dreams.” No matter how closely the pieces adhered to the theme, the performances were uniformly superb. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
ChamberFest Cleveland’s concerts organize chamber works under imaginative themes. On Friday evening, June 17 in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance, the connective tissue that linked works by Bridge, Dvořák, Kurtág, Beethoven, and Brahms in a concert titled “To My Distant Beloved” was the idea of separation anxiety. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
On Thursday evening, June 16 at Baroque Music Barn in Hunting Valley, Apollo’s Fire’s Countryside Concerts presented a new show, “My Island Home: Songs and Stories of Newfoundland,” created by Meredith Hall and Sylvain Bergeron in cooperation with Montréal’s Ensemble La Nef.