by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
2:00 pm – Ohio Light Opera. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel in Freedlander Theatre, College of Wooster.
5:30 pm – Tri-C JazzFest. Centennial Tribute to Oscar Peterson with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, featuring Benny Green and Dan Wilson. Mimi Ohio Theatre.
7:00 pm – Fryderyk Chopin Institute of Ohio. Summer Piano Series: “Fantasy” with Konrad Binienda at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Chagrin Falls.
7:15 pm – Tri-C JazzFest. Stanley Clarke N•4EVER. Connor Palace.
7:30 pm – ChamberFest Cleveland. “Inventions of Memory” in Harkness Chapel at Case.
8:00 pm – Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. Faculty Recital. Warner Concert Hall.
9:00 pm – Tri-C JazzFest. Sun Ra Arkestra. Mimi Ohio Theatre.
For details, addresses, and ticket information, please visit our Concert Listings.:
NEWS BRIEFS FROM THE VIOLIN CHANNEL:
The Violin Channel reports that the Verona Quartet has won the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association’s Ann Divine Educator Award for 2025, “in recognition of outstanding outreach programming for children and youth in the United States.
“As part of their prize, they will receive an endorsement from Fischoff, a cash award, and a residency in St. Joseph and Elkhart Counties in Indiana. From November 11 to 17, the Verona will conduct workshops and give concerts in schools, community centers, and libraries.
“Comprising violinists Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro, violist Abigail Rojansky, and cellist Jonathan Dormand, the group is currently in residence at the Oberlin Conservatory.”
VC also reports that “In what they called a “political act,” the democratic senators John Hickenlooper (Colorado), Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin), Jacky Rosen (Nevada), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), recently rented the 144-seat Justice Forum lecture hall at the Kennedy Center to celebrate gay pride, music, and culture.
“Titled “Love Is Love” — a slogan used by the gay rights movement — the 90-minute concert was produced by Jeffrey Seller, the lead producer of the hit musical Hamilton, which withdrew a planned 2026 run at the Kennedy Center following President Trump’s takeover in February.”
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
June 27 dates to remember include the death of French composer and claveciniste Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre (1729, in Paris), and the birthdays of 20th century composers: George T. Walker (1922, in Washington D.C.), Jack Gallagher (1947, in New York), and Daniel Asia (1953, in Seattle).
Cleveland-based Burning River Baroque programmed de La Guerre’s cantata Judith in 2019. This performance in Foxburg, PA, includes a discussion of women composers and painters during the composer’s time. And harpsichordist Elizabeth Farr decodes one of de La Guerre’s unmeasured preludes — a popular genre of the era. You can listen here and follow along with the score to see what’s involved.
Admitted to Oberlin Conservatory at the age of 14 where he graduated at 18 and went on to study at Curtis, George T. Walker was the first African American composer to win a Pulitzer Prize (in 1996, for Lilacs). Click here to watch a documentary, and here for a performance of the Theme and Variations from his Piano Sonata No. 1 performed by Dianna White-Gould on a Cleveland Musicians Against Racism concert. And go here to listen to Lorne Monroe performing Walker’s Cello Concerto with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. Walker died in 2018.
Jack Gallagher is Professor of Music at the College of Wooster. There are 17 performances of his compositions available on YouTube, including his Ancient Evenings and Distant Music, performed by the University of Akron’s Solaris Woodwind Quintet. CD’s of Gallagher’s Symphony No. 2 and Piano Music have been reviewed on ClevelandClassical.com.
Daniel Asia was a student of the recently-featured composer, Jacob Druckman. Now at the University of Arizona at Tucson, Asia taught at Oberlin from 1981-1986. Check out the range of his works here, and listen here to his electronic composition, Miles Mix (based on the music of Miles Davis).
