by Daniel Hathaway
UPDATES ON TWO SUMMER FESTIVALS:
Franklin and Diana Cohen announced this morning that Carte Blanche!, the 2020 edition of ChamberFest Cleveland, will be rescheduled for 2021. Noting that every performance ChamberFest has given has been captured in audio and video recordings, the founders added, “While we cannot be with you in the concert hall this June we can come to you in your homes via our Digital Performance Library on YouTube, on radio station WCLV, and with other new and fun ways to connect. With your help nothing will deter us from the mission that inspired us: “to nurture a deep family-like connection between musicians and audiences of all ages.”
And Tri-C JazzFest has cancelled its 41st annual event, scheduled for June 25-27 in Playhouse Square. On its website, the organizers wrote, “Planning is underway to present a virtual concert featuring local musicians. Artists would be paid for participation in the event, providing welcome income during a time when most have lost paying gigs. Details for the virtual concert will be announced at a later date.”
STREAMING TODAY:
It’s a busy day online. You can have lunch with The Cleveland Orchestra, watch pianist Anhgela Hewitt play all seven of J.S. Bach’s Toccatas, catch Nico Muhly’s Marnie from the MET Opera’s HD archives, revisit Leonard Bernstein’s Mahler 2 performance with the NY Philharmonic two days after JFK’s assassination, enjoy a meditative work by Kate Agócs played by the Oberlin Sinfonietta on Oberlin Stage Left, view the latest Piano Cleveland Quarantine Concert from Steinway Gallery Cleveland, and see what fp Creative has done with its first Long Distance: Live concert. See our Concert Listings for times and links.
IN MEMORIAM JAMES WEAVER:
Our correspondent Timothy Robson has forwarded an obituary for the late James Weaver written by his husband Sam Baker. While serving as curator at the Smithsonian Institution, Weaver founded the Smithsonian Chamber Players. He taught at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, and following his retirement from the Smithsonian, headed up the Organ Historical Society. Read the story of his illustrious career here.
FEATURED AUDIO TRACK:
Arbor Day was officially observed last Friday, but the leaves are just coming out in Cleveland. In celebration, folksinger-songwriter Sarah Goslee Reed, one of our subscribers, offers a free track from her CD, Plenty. She writes, “It’s about the planting of some 7,000 trees in a local arboretum. What could be better than to plant a tree?” Follow this link to her website and enter the code ncla-3xkb to download the mp3 sound file.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On April 30, 1916, American conductor Robert Shaw was born in Red Bluff, Iowa. He served as George Szell’s assistant with The Cleveland Orchestra for eleven seasons (also serving as music director at Cleveland’s First Unitarian Church), founded the Chorale that bears his name, and went on to lead the Atlanta Symphony.
To celebrate the centenary of his birth, in 2016 Carnegie Hall sponsored a series of documentaries that follow Shaw’s preparation of major choral works. Click here to watch his rehearsals for performances of Brahms’ A German Requiem with soprano Sylvia McNair, bass Samuel Ramey, the Carnegie Hall Centennial Chorus, and the Robert Shaw Festival Singers.