by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: Folk musician Ben Gage performs with Canton Symphony members, violist Eliesha Nelson (pictured) is featured on LCCC Signature Series, Chattanooga Guitar Duo visits the Dana School of Music, and BW Opera presents Pirates of Penzance
•Announcement: audition appointments are open for the Cleveland Orchestra Choruses
•Almanac: two major works from the short life of composer Julius Reubke, and a preface to World Tuberculosis Day
HAPPENING TODAY:
There are four events happening tonight at 7:30 pm — one each in Canton, Elyria, Youngstown, and Olmsted Falls.
Folk musician Ben Gage and his band have an en-gage-ment with the Canton Symphony tonight at Zimmermann Symphony Center. Playing music from their recent EP’s Same Song and Cuyahoga, the band will be joined by an ensemble of clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and cello from the orchestra, and by a trio of guest vocalists: Bethany Joy, Josee McGee, and Chrissy Strong. Get tickets here, and read an interview with Gage here.
Violist Eliesha Nelson will be featured on the LCCC Signature Series tonight at Cirigliano Studio Theatre. Nelson’s program, titled “Songs and Inspiration,” includes Barbara Strozzi’s Che Si Puó Fare (transcribed for viola and loop pedal), Melika Fitzhugh’s Love in the Time of Covid 19, Victoria Bond’s Jasmine Flower, Jessie Montgomery’s Rhapsody No. 1, Glenn Holmes’ Expressions, Jeffrey Mumford’s …becoming clear, Missy Mazzoli’s Tooth and Nail, and Jessica Meyer’s Hello. It’s free.
A Dana School of Music Guest Artist Recital at Bliss Recital Hall will showcase the Chattanooga Guitar Duo in a program that includes music by The Beatles, Gioachino Rossini, Johannes Brahms, and more. That one’s free, too.
And at Grace Church Olmsted Falls, Baldwin Wallace Opera will present the first of four performances of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance in a production directed by Ariana Wyatt and conducted by Dean Buck. Tickets are available here.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Audition appointments are open for the Cleveland Orchestra Choruses — including the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Blossom Festival Chorus, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, and Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Choruses. (Note that there is no tuition required to join the Youth Chorus or the Children’s Choruses.) Register here. To read about highlights from the upcoming season, such as a week-long residency by composer and conductor Eric Whitacre, read the press release.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
There are many famous composers who have lived tragically short lives — and one of the shortest of those lives belonged to Julius Reubke. That German composer, pianist, and organist was born on March 23, 1834 in Hausneindorfand and died of tuberculosis in 1858 at the age of 24.
A favorite student of Franz Liszt’s, Reubke boarded with him at his teacher’s residence in Weimar. And it was during this time that he composed his two most important works: the Sonata on the 94th Psalm for organ, and the lesser-known Piano Sonata in b-flat, both completed in 1857.
By this time, his health was already in decline. As the music critic and writer Richard Pohl put it, rather poetically:
Playing us his sonata, seated in his characteristically bowed form at the piano, sunk in his creation, Reubke forgot everything about him; and we then looked at his pale appearance, at the unnatural shine of his gleaming eyes, heard his heavy breath, and were aware of how wordless fatigue overwhelmed him after such hours of excitement. We suspected then that he would not be with us long.
By the end of the year, playing and composing were out of the question, and he passed away in June of 1858 at a health resort in Pillnitz.
Listen to the Piano Sonata here as played by Till Fellner, and watch Nathan Laube give a live performance of the Sonata on the 94th Psalm here from 2015.
And while you listen, send out kudos not only to Reubke, but also to German physician Robert Koch, who in 1882 discovered the bacillus (a type of bacteria) that causes TB, later earning him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Coincidentally, tomorrow is World Tuberculosis Day, marking the anniversary of the announcement of Koch’s discovery.