by Daniel Hathaway
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
R.I.P. Karen Holtkamp, 83
Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc. writes on their website, “It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Karen Elizabeth (McFarlane) Holtkamp in Cleveland on June 3, 2025, at the age of 83 following a two-year battle with cancer.” Read more here.
HAPPENING TODAY:
9:45 am -12:15 pm & 1:30 pm – 4:00 pm – Sixth Annual James Stroud Classical Guitar Youth Competition: Semi-final Round. Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music. Free and open to the public.
7:30 pm – Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Hao Yang, guitar, with Helen Zhibing Huang, soprano (China). Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music.
7:30 pm – Apollo’s Fire. ¡HISPANIA! Countryside Concerts. VENUE CHANGE: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights. Tickets available online.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On June 5 in classical music history, Boston composer Daniel Pinkham (pictured) was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1923, and Argentine pianist Martha Argerich made her natal debut in Buenos Aires in 1941. Death notices on June 5 included Elizabethan composer Orlando Gibbons in Canterbury in 1625, and composer Carl Maria von Weber in London in 1826 (unexpectedly, at the age of 39, in the home of Sir George Smart).
Pinkham was a prolific composer with a specialty in religious music and a lively interest in early music — he served as the longtime music director of King’s Chapel in Boston, a parish famous for making the transition from Anglican to Unitarian at the time of the American Revolution merely by crossing out all Trinitarian references and continuing to use the Book of Common Prayer.
He founded a well-respected Sunday evening concert series there while serving on the faculties of most of Boston’s institutions of higher education. His cantatas have been favorites of college choruses — like the Wedding Cantata, sung here by the Texas A&M U-Commerce Chorale. His music deserves to be performed and enjoyed more often beyond the borders of New England, where he was very much a local hero.
“In this Musical Moment on YouTube, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Daniel Pinkham.”
