by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Today: Charnofsky spins underplayed classical music, Rocky River Chamber Music Society presents the Butler Piano Trio
. R.I.P. legendary Ohio arts advocate and patron William P. Blair III (pictured)
. A reminder, & broadcaster Karl Haas remembered in today’s Almanac
HAPPENING TODAY:
From 2-4 pm, Eric Charnofsky hosts Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, featuring works by Dorothy Hindman, Malcolm Arnold, George Crumb Adrienne Albert, Carl Vollrath & selections from the album “Come, Gentle Night” – Music of Shakespeare’s World. Click here to listen to the internet feed or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.
Tonight at 7:30 pm, Rocky River Chamber Music Society presents the Butler Piano Trio (Sandy Yamamoto, violin, Joshua Gindele, cello & Colette Valentine, piano, with Lembi Veskimets, viola) in Rachmaninov’s Trio Élégiaque No. 1 in g, Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D, Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost,” and Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E flat, Op. 47 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, 20401 Hilliard Blvd., Rocky River. Free. Attend in-person free, or click here for a live stream.
See our Concert Listings for details.
NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Reminder to cellists and followers: reservations are required for Klaus Mäkelä’s Master Class, rescheduled for Tuesday, February 7 from 7-9 pm in Reinberger Chamber Music Hall at Severance Music Center. Click here to make your reservation.
WILLIAM P. BLAIR, III, 81
Awarding William P. Blair III the Cleveland Arts Prize in 2006 along with the Martha Joseph Special Citation for Distinguished Service to the Arts (honors he shared with William Joseph), the prize committee wrote,
Bill Blair’s resume reads like a template for public service. Blair was the founding President of the Ohio Foundation of the Arts, Inc., another statewide arts service corporation. He is also past Chairman of the American Arts Alliance in Washington, D.C., and is the founding Chairman of the Alliance of Arts Advocates, the nation’s first arts political action committee.
Bill Blair passed away on February 2 in Canton. Read his Akron Beacon-Journal obituary here.
INTERESTING READS:
Britain’s new Channel 4 contest, devised by the makers of “The Great British Bake Off,” is a talent search spun off the “street piano” phenomenon in which “come-and-have-a-go instruments have sprung up in stations, shopping centers and other public spaces. Passers-by are encouraged to either sit down and play, or stop and listen. Smiling crowds, jolly commutes and viral videos have resulted.
“Now comes “Bake Off for pianos,” a show which swaps baking sheets for sheet music. Host Claudia Winkleman invites gifted amateurs to perform at four of the UK’s busiest stations – London St Pancras, Birmingham New Street, Leeds and Glasgow Central – before a fiendish plot twist. Unbeknown to hopefuls, this isn’t a documentary – it’s a competition. They are secretly being judged by two globally renowned maestros: classical virtuoso Lang Lang and pop star Mika. They select the best contestants to play to an audience of thousands in the concert finale.”
Read an article in The Guardian here.
ALMANAC FOR FEBRUARY 6:
On this date in 2005, the German-American musicologist, pianist and broadcaster Karl Haas died in Royal Oak, Michigan at the age of 91, having created and hosted Adventures in Good Music, one of the longest-running daily classical music programs in broadcast history, and one of the most popular with listeners to WCLV. Read a New York Times obituary by Anne Midgette here.
Those who would like to revisit or experience for the first time his resonant “Hello, everyone” and theme song (the slow movement from Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata, which he often played himself) can click here to listen to selections from his annual Christmas Eve program, “The Story of the Bells.”
