by Kevin McLaughlin
ChamberFest Cleveland’s Saturday, June 20 program at Federated Church, “Summer Music,” brought together works by Karen Ouzounian, Samuel Barber, Benjamin Yusupov, and Franz Schubert. The title suggested ease and warmth, but the music had other plans, ranging from restless rhythms and shifting colors to high virtuosity and broad lyricism.
Ouzounian’s Songs of the Sap opened the program, with the composer herself as solo cellist. A Toronto-born musician of Lebanese-Armenian heritage, Ouzounian draws on folk material not as a tourist, but through personal inheritance. The music uses Anatolian dance rhythms, though the performance never treated them as mere display.
“Tamzara” moved with restraint and concentration. Left-hand pizzicato made one cello sound like two. Fossnes’s entrance from the balcony gave the viola a smaller, fainter sound, answering the cello from a distance as if from long ago. “Curcuna” was quicker and more physical. Ouzounian gave its symmetrically divided 10/8 rhythm a clear, driving pulse while leaving room for freer, more rhapsodic passages. The result was tightly controlled but never dry.
Samuel Barber’s Summer Music, Op. 31, was the program’s most literal seasonal reference, though hardly its simplest music. Flutist Sophia Jean, oboist Izaiah Cheeran, clarinetist Jay Shankar, hornist Nelson Ricardo Yovera Perez, and bassoonist John Clouser gave the opening a languid ease, then kept the quicker sections alert and fluent. Cheeran shaped the long opening theme with an easy, unforced line and Jean answered with light, quick flourishes. Shankar and Yovera Perez brought character to their solo turns, and Clouser provided the ensemble with a firm foundation and several deft moments of his own.
ChamberFest’s 2026 composer-in-residence, Benjamin Yusupov, was represented by his 1996 Quintet for Marimba and Strings. The piece demands precision, stamina, and careful balance — and got them.
Jeff Stern gave the marimba part both command and character. Playing from memory, he brought clarity, bite, and a wide range of attack to the line. At a pause between movements, he moved to the drum kit for a brief improvisation, beginning with his hands and fingers before picking up one stick, then two. Almost before one could notice, he was back at the marimba for the next movement’s fast opening. Violinists Julia Schilz and Andrew Wan, violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, and cellist Julie Albers matched his speed and precision. Their close alignment through so many quick arpeggios and metric shifts made the performance a nail-biter.
After intermission, Schubert’s Piano Trio provided the program’s broadest span. Pianist Adam Golka, violinist Andrew Wan, and cellist Julie Albers balanced breadth with buoyancy. They let the opening movement sing without allowing it to sprawl. The second movement had a steady, lyrical calm, with Albers and Wan shaping their lines warmly over Golka’s even support. The Scherzo had lift and wit, and the Trio brought sweetness as contrast. In the Finale, the players kept the Rondo light and conversational, giving the long movement shape without pressure.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com June 30, 2026
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