by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Earth Day events, new faces at Cleveland Ballet and Cleveland Arts Prize, and musicians needed for Video Game Symphony
•In memoriam: Andrew Davis and Sarah Grube
•Almanac: Ethel Smyth
HAPPENING TODAY:
No concerts on the calendar today, but The Land recommends several activities and events in honor of Earth Day, held every April 22.
A few items on the list took place over the weekend, and some others are still to come, but today you can join a Community Tree Planting in Ohio City (pictured, 12-3 pm), take part in a Cleveland Metroparks Earth Day Hike with a naturalist (4-5 pm), or adopt a tree through a Western Reserve Land Conservancy program (apply anytime).
Head to the official Earth Day website to learn about this year’s theme, Planet vs. Plastics.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Cleveland.com reports on new faces at two local arts organizations. Cleveland Ballet has named Larry Goodman, a former board member, as President and Chief Executive Officer. And Cleveland Arts Prize has removed the interim label on Effie A. Nunes, making her the official Executive Director.
And the Video Game Symphony invites string players and choir singers to send a message on Facebook if they’re interested in joining the ensemble, which will be performing at the Maltz Performing Arts Center on May 4.
IN MEMORIAM:
“Andrew Davis, an acclaimed British conductor who was music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and orchestras on three continents, has died. He was 80.” Read an obituary from The Associated Press here.
And the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus mourns the passing of alumna Sarah Grube (right). As the organization shared on Facebook on Friday, “It has been several years since she was a member of the Youth Chorus, but our memory of her never faded. Sarah is not someone you can forget easily. She was talented, kind, intelligent, and an incredible young woman who lit up every room she entered. She will be deeply missed by our chorus family. We hope you will keep her family and friends in your thoughts during this difficult time.”
Read an obituary here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Mike Telin
Today we honor the births of four luminaries in music. On this day in 1916, violinist, conductor, and teacher Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York City. In 1922 jazz bassist Charles Mingus entered the world in Nogales, Arizona, and 22 years later in 1944, conductor and musicologist Joshua Rifkin also made his debut in New York City.
However — today we will turn our attention to a true maverick of the music world, Dame Ethel Mary Smyth. Born on this date in 1858 in Sidcup, Kent, England, Smyth was a noted composer during her lifetime. Her catalogue includes songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestra, chorus, and operas. Still her compositions were often criticised for not measuring up to those of her male counterparts. In spite of being marginalised, she was the first female composer to be granted a damehood, the equivalent for women of a knighthood.
Smyth began studying composition with Alexander Ewing at age seventeen. After a long battle with her father, she was granted permission to further her studies at the Leipzig Conservatory, where she became a student of Carl Reinecke and later privately with Heinrich von Herzogenberg. While in Leipzig she was introduced to Dvořák, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Clara Schumann, and Brahms.
Smyth’s compositions of note include a Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra, the Mass in D and two operas. The Wreckers is thought to be the “most important English opera composed during the period between Purcell and Britten,” and for more than a century, Der Wald was the only work by a woman composer to be produced at the Metropolitan Opera.
In 1910, Smyth put composing aside and joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WPSU), which advocated for women’s suffrage. Giving up music for two years to devote herself to the cause, she was often seen in the company of the movement’s leader, Emmeline Pankhurst. And Smyth’s The March of the Women became the anthem of the suffragette movement.
In 1912, Pankhurst incited WPSU members to throw stones at the windows of all politicians’ houses who opposed a woman’s right to vote, which led to the arrest and imprisonment of over 100 women.
Throughout her life Smyth was active in sports. An avid equestrian and tennis player in her youth, she was also a passionate golfer and a member of the ladies’ section of Woking Golf Club. After her death in 1944 at the age of 86, her brother spread her ashes in the woods near the club. Click here to watch The North American Co-Premiere of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison (A Mini-Documentary). It’s well worth ten minutes of your time.