by Stephanie Manning
Poet, composer, and protofeminist — these are all accurate labels, but they only begin to describe the incredible Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Known as “The Phoenix of Mexico” and “The Tenth Muse,” de la Cruz led a fascinating life and left behind a legacy that artists of all kinds continue to explore today.
In Episode 2.3 of Les Délices’ SalonEra, bassoonist Catalina Guevara Víquez Klein, violinist Karin Cuellar Rendon, and mezzo-soprano Raquel Winnica Young utilized one of de la Cruz’s most famous poems, Primero sueño, as a narrative arc to examine the Mexican nun’s views of the world. The result is a captivating portrait of de la Cruz told through both music and discussion.
To open the academic calendar in recent years, Oberlin Conservatory violin professor Sibbi Bernhardsson has organized interdisciplinary festivals centered around intriguing themes. That continued earlier this month with “Music, Sports, and the Enduring Influence of Ancient Greece,” a topic that was examined through a variety of events, musical and otherwise, over the course of two days. I caught the tail-end of the festival via live stream: the fourth and final faculty recital in Warner Concert Hall on the evening of October 10.
Most live performances this fall have quickly turned into lovefests, so eager have audiences been to re-engage with musicians face to face.
CityMusic Cleveland has always been on a mission. This season, the group is staying true to its community vision — music for everyone, and concerts for free — even if performances look a little different in 2021. The programming is slimmed down from chamber orchestra to chamber music, and there’s an increased emphasis on new works (each program this season features a world premiere).
Carlos Kalmar, newly appointed principal conductor of the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, made his debut with the ensemble on Sunday afternoon, October 10, in what is now the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.
Midway through a recent concert by the Imani Winds, the group’s newest member, hornist Kevin Newton, stepped up to the microphone. Introducing a piece by Henri Tomasi, Newton highlighted a particular quote attributed to the French composer: “Music that doesn’t come from the heart isn’t music.”
Les Délices has allowed us an advance look at the first full video program of its new season, Song of Orpheus, which will debut 
Nothing seems to exemplify classical music during the COVID era quite so much as performances by solo cellists — often J.S. Bach solo suites, and usually broadcast online from the safe havens of musicians’ homes.
The third iteration of No Exit’s fall program took the ensemble to an intimate venue — the gallery of Heights Arts on Lee Road in Cleveland Heights, where space is at such a premium that percussionist Luke Rinderknecht’s big marimba was nearly marooned offstage, and a few dozen audience members added up to a packed crowd.
After highlighting music by three members of the Oberlin composition faculty, Timothy Weiss and the Conservatory’s Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME) have continued their Oberlin Music label offerings with another triptych of works by composers from the present day.