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Preview: LCCC Signature Series: flutist Karen Johnson & pianist Carlos Rodriguez

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by Mike Telin

Johnson-Karen“How do we pick our programs? We just find pieces we really like, and we figure if we like them the audience will like them,” says flutist Karen Johnson about her program with pianist Carlos Rodriguez on the Signature Series at Lorain County Community College on Monday, March 18 beginning at 7:30 pm. “I’ve been playing with Carlos for fifteen years. And during that time we’ve played many different programs, but in the past couple of years we’ve been playing a lot of American music. And a lot of music by composers that we haven’t played in a while that we really like.”

Johnson says that she and Rodriguez have found that even contemporary pieces can be accessible to the audience if the artist likes the piece. “We like to talk to the audience and get them engaged in the music.” Monday’s concert includes Lukas Foss’s Three American Pieces, Joseph Schwantner’s Black Anemones, Robert Muczynski’s Sonata, Jeffrey Mumford’s an evolving romance, Manuel Ponce’s Intermezzo, Alberto Ginastera’s Malambo and Astor Piazzolla’s Café 1930 and Bordel 1900 from L’Histoire du Tango. [Read more…]

Preview: Music by Nature & Cleveland Classical Guitar Society join to present Gideon Whitehead at Happy Days Lodge

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by Mike Telin

WHITEHEAD-GideonOn Sunday, March 17 at 3:00 pm, classical guitarist Gideon Whitehead returns to Northeast Ohio for a performance at the Happy Days Lodge in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Mr. Whitehead’s performance is part of The Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s Local Artists and Rising Stars Series and is presented in conjunction with Music by Nature. The program features works by Weiss, Rudnev, Korchmar, Lansky, Koshkin and Barrios Mangoré.

Gideon Whitehead began playing the guitar at age 14 in his native Michigan. Mr. Whitehead has had much success at competitions including top prizes at the 2011 James Stroud Guitar Competition and at the 2010 and 2011 University of Louisville International Guitar Competition. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in guitar performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and is currently pursuing and Artist Diploma at the Curtis Institute of Music.

We reached Gideon Whitehead by telephone in Philadelphia. [Read more…]

Preview: Singer/Songwriters to be featured on next Contemporary Youth Orchestra concert

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by Mike Telin

CYO-SSThe Contemporary Youth Orchestra (CYO) under the direction of Liza Grossman, presents My Gift is My Song on Saturday, March 16, beginning at 7:00 pm in Waetjen Auditorium at Cleveland State University. The concert features the winners of CYO’s first-ever singer/songwriter contest and is presented as part of CYO’s annual “Music and its Industry” concert.

The concept for the concert was inspired by the annual CYO Hidden Talent Show Scholarship Award Night, CYO founder and music director Liza Grossman told us by phone. “Two members’ hidden talent was that they were singer/songwriters. I was so moved by the music they had written and the lyrics were so personal and happy. The songs reflected so much about who they were. So everything spawned from that.” [Read more…]

Preview: Oberlin Opera’s Fledermaus: characters and challenges

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by Mike Telin

OberlinOperaFledermausReality TV step aside! Beginning on Thursday, March 13 and continuing through Sunday, Oberlin Opera Theater presents four performances of Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus (The Bat) in Oberlin College’s Hall Auditorium. Raphael Jiménez conducts the Oberlin Orchestra in his Oberlin Opera Theater debut.

Strauss’s classical comedy with libretto by Carl Haffner and Richard Genee is filled with infidelity, mixed romantic messages, bored-to-tears tears royalty, and manipulation. And who doesn’t like a Strauss waltz? “I’ve done Fledermaus so many times and it’s kind of nice to have an opera that is rooted in music that people absolutely love,” says Oberlin Opera Theater director Jonathon Field. “The interesting thing is, the waltz used to be considered decadent, so a challenge has been to try to figure out how to put the sexy back into the waltz and still keep it kind of period.” [Read more…]

Review: Youngstown State University Wind & Percussion Invitational at Stambaugh Auditorium (February 22)

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by Robert Rollin

LastYSU-Wind-Ensemble Friday evening Stambaugh Auditorium’s austerely-attractive hall witnessed an intriguing event: The 7th Annual Youngstown State University Wind and Percussion Invitational. Serving as both an entertaining evening and an undergraduate recruitment event, this year’s invitational, guided by YSU’s band director, Dr. Stephen Gage, featured the YSU Wind Ensemble and two specially-selected high school wind ensembles: the Cleveland area Lakeview High School Concert Band and the suburban Pittsburgh North Hills High School Wind Ensemble.

Though each of the two guest ensembles performed with surprising maturity and panache, it will be no surprise that the YSU Wind Ensemble contributed the evening’s two high points: Dana Faculty soprano, Misook Yun’s expressively astute portrayal of Musetta’s Waltz from Puccini’s La Bohème’s second act, and Dana Faculty clarinetist, Alice Wang’s performance of Frank Tichelli’s Concerto for Clarinet and Wind Ensemble, movements II and III.  [Read more…]

Review: Cleveland Orchestra — a second week under Herbert Blomstedt: Mozart & Dvorak (February 21)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TheBlomstedt-Herbert-3 Cleveland Orchestra never fails to play at a high level, producing results that can make even an indifferent guest conductor look good. When the orchestra collaborates with someone as inspiring as Herbert Blomstedt, the outcome can be sheer magic. The second weekend of Blomstedt’s sojourn at Severance Hall treated audiences to luminous and revealing performances of symphonies by Mozart and Dvorak so well-known and so often played that they can seem as ordinary as the furniture in your living room.

For Mozart’s second g-minor symphony (No. 40), the 84-year old Swedish-American maestro scaled down the string section by one-half to two-thirds, discarded both baton and podium and led the ensemble from memory at stage level. [Read more…]

Preview: Rocky River Chamber Music Society to present the Capitol Quartet on March 4

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by Mike Telin

InCapitol-Sax-Qt the words of the late Marvin Hamlisch, “I have had the great pleasure of performing with the Capitol Quartet. Their fabulous sound, professionalism and innovative program all combine for a wonderfully entertaining musical experience.” If you are not familiar with the quartet, they’re not a string quartet, they are a quartet of saxophones. On Monday, March 4 beginning at 7:30 pm in West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society presents The Capitol Quartet, Christopher Creviston, soprano, Joseph Lulloff, alto, David Stambler, tenor and arranger & Andrew Dahlke, baritone.

Since its formation in 1991, the Capitol Quartet has performed regularly at major concert venues throughout the United States, earning acclaim for their musical versatility and innovative style. “The Rocky River performance is what I would call a cross-over recital; a little bit of classical, a little bit of jazz, but leaning toward to classical chamber music side of things,” David Stambler told us by telephone from Erie, PA where the group was starting their current tour. [Read more…]

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