by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: SalonEra continues with “Songs for Social Justice,” featuring tenor Haitham Haidar and countertenor Michael Walker (left to right).
•Announcements: a program to introduce U.S.-based performing artists to international presenters, Ohio Arts Council grants, and two new ASO hornists
•Interesting reads: a bill focusing on consumer protections for tickets to live entertainment, the effects of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s recent visit to China, and the creation of KSU marching band half-time performances
•Almanac: Hector Berlioz and his Sacred Trilogy, and the debut concert of The Cleveland Orchestra
HAPPENING TODAY:
Les Délices’ SalonEra series continues its fourth season with “Songs for Social Justice,” premiering tonight on YouTube and Facebook at 7:30 pm, and already available in podcast form. “Renaissance lute songs, African American Spirituals, and traditional Lebanese melodies become vehicles for storytelling as Michael Walker (countertenor) and Haitham Haidar (tenor) explore themes of identity and representation, struggle and resilience, and community and belonging.” The episode was filmed in front of a live studio audience at Heights Theater earlier this fall — a first for SalonEra.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The Performing Arts Discovery Showcase program, which introduces U.S.-based performing artists to international presenters, is now accepting applications for its 2024 cohort. Ten to fifteen performing artists and ensembles will receive support to create a high-quality performance video, which will be used to promote them to presenters across the globe. Applications are due January 5. Find out more here.
Ohio Arts Council grant applications for Fiscal Year 2025 are now open. Grant programs now accepting applications include TeachArtsOhio, ArtsNEXT, ArtSTART, Traditional Arts Apprenticeships, Artists with Disabilities Access Program, Artist Opportunities, Capacity Building, and Ohio Artists on Tour. Learn more here.
And the Akron Symphony welcomes two new members: pictured left to right, principal horn Matthew Mauro and fourth horn Samuel Hartman — who is also a graduate of CIM.
INTERESTING READS:
“The United States Senate introduced a long-awaited bill on Friday promising consumer protections for tickets to live entertainment events, after more than a year of complaints about high fees, out-of-control prices and deceptive selling practices in the entertainment world,” Ben Sisario writes for The New York Times. Read more about the Fans First Act here.
An interview with R. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China, covers last month’s tour of China by members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, coming “at a pivotal and fraught time in the relationship between the two countries” — and 50 years after the ensemble became the first American orchestra to visit the country. Read the Philadelphia Inquirer article by Peter Dobrin here via MSN.
And an article from Kent State Today delves into the creation of half-time performances from the KSU marching band. Read the interview with director of athletic bands Darin Olson here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Daniel Hathaway
French composer Hector Berlioz entered the world on December 11, 1803. A seasonally appropriate way to celebrate would be to listen to his Sacred Trilogy, L’Enfance du Christ, for which he wrote the libretto, and intended it to be staged. The quirky and ultimately charming work treats the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt, where they suffer antisemitic taunts but find their way into a Jewish household that welcomes them with a wonderful trio for two flutes and harp. Other luminous moments include the “Shepherds’ Farewell” and the concluding chorus where the orchestra drops out, leaving the narrator and a choir of angels to finish the piece a cappella.
Spotify will provide you with a number of complete performances of the work, but having sung in it, I have a personal preference for the December 13, 1966 performance led by Charles Munch with the Boston Symphony, Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society, and soloists John McCollum, Florence Kopleff, Theodor Uppman, and Donald Gramm. You can still purchase the DVD. Here’s just a taste: the aforementioned “Shepherds’ Farewell.”
And here’s a trio of “firsts” in classical music history to memorialize today.
On December 11, 1918, Russian conductor Nikolai Sokoloff led the debut concert of The Cleveland Orchestra in Grays Armory. The program, a benefit for St. Ann’s Church, included Liszt’s Les Préludes, Victor Herbert’s American Fantasy, Bizet’s Carmen Suite, excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, and Liadov’s Enchanted Lake.
The Grays, whose third building on Bolivar was completed in 1893, deserve a bit of historical background. Founded in 1837 as The Cleveland City Guards, the organization dated from the era when the constitutional militias referenced in the Second Amendment were foundering due to neglect from state politicians.
The private military company’s purpose was both to assist local law enforcement and to defend the city should Canada’s Rebellions of 1837 cross the border and instigate a new war with the United Kingdom. After serving in the Civil and Spanish American wars, and with the reorganization of the U.S. Military, the Grays were subsumed into the Ohio National Guard, and their participation in military operations ended with World War I.
The Armory subsequently became a center for Cleveland social and cultural events — like early concerts by The Cleveland Orchestra. In the summer of 1970, a Wurlitzer cinema organ from the Warner Theater in Erie, PA was reinstalled in the armory, and concerts have been scheduled from time to time by the Western Reserve Theatre Organ Society. (Watch a brief clip here.)
Jumping ahead, December 11, 1950 saw the debut of Paul Hindemith’s Clarinet Concerto by Benny Goodman with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Two years later, some 70,000 viewers in more than 30 theaters witnessed the first Pay-TV presentation of an opera (Richard Tucker in Carmen).
To dig a little deeper, take a 2-½ minute video tour of Grays Armory here, watch a performance of the Hindemith Clarinet Concerto by Adrián Hernández Altelarrea and the Brussels Symphony here, and update your calendars here for the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD Series for 2023-2024.