by Mike Telin
STREAMED CONCERTS:
At 7:00 pm, The Cleveland Orchestra premieres In Focus Episode 10, “Style and Craft.” Vinay Parameswaran will lead Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge and principal oboe Frank Rosenwein and pianist Carolyn Gadiel Warner (pictured) are featured in Ravel’s Sonatine. Digital streaming premiere filmed April 8-10 at Severance Hall. Click here for details.
There’s plenty happening in other parts of the country — check our Concert Listings page for details.
NEWS:
Earlier this week Juan Perez Floristan (Spain) was announced the winner of the 2021 Rubinstein Piano Competition. Second place went to Shiori Kuwahara from Japan, with third place going to Cunmo Yin from China.
As the first place winner, Floristan received a gold medal with a portrait of Rubinstein illustrated by Picasso, and a cash prize of $40,000. The pianist was also awarded Best Performance of an Israeli Piece ($3,000), Best Performance of a Beethoven Concerto ($ 5,000, awarded to mark the occasion of Beethoven’s 250th birthday), Best Chamber Music Performance ($6,000), and Audience Favourite ($3,000).
Applications for 2022 Cuyahoga Arts and Culture grants are being accepted.
The first step in the application process, the Eligibility Check, must be completed by Thursday, June 3, 2021 by 4:30 pm ET. All organizations seeking funding in 2022 must complete the Eligibility Check to be considered for funding. Click here for more information.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Today we celebrate the births of three Americans who made their debuts on May 6: pianist/composer Alfred Humphreys Pease in Cleveland, Ohio in 1838, composer George Perle in Bayonne, New Jersey in 1915, and composer/conductor Victoria Bond in Los Angeles, California in 1945.
Although Alfred Humphreys Pease showed an aptitude for music and drawing at an early age, his parents had other career goals in mind for their son, and encouraged him to focus on classics. At the age of sixteen Pease entered Kenyon College where his paintings and drawings caught the attention of a young German artist who convinced Pease’s parents to allow him to move to Berlin where, in addition to languages, he studied piano with Theodor Kullak, composition with Richard Wüerst and orchestration with Wilhen Wieprecht and later with Hans von Bülow.
After returning to the United States, Pease toured the country as a pianist and was praised for his brilliant technique, quality of tone and musical expression. As a composer, Pease wrote nearly 100 songs as well as orchestral works and a piano concerto. Sadly, Pease died of alcoholism in 1882 in St. Louis.
After graduating from DePaul University, George Perle served in the United States Army during World War II and later earned his doctorate at New York University in 1956. As a composer, Perle employed his own technique that he called “twelve-tone tonality” — which is somewhat related to the technique used by composers of the Second Viennese School. In 1968, along with Igor Stravinsky and Hans F. Redlich, Perle co-founded the Alban Berg Society. His work on that composer’s music included documenting the third act of Lulu.
After retiring from Queens College Perle became a professor emeritus at the Aaron Copland School of Music and in 1986 was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Fourth Wind Quintet as well as a MacArthur Fellowship. Perle also served a three-year appointment as composer-in-residence for the San Francisco Symphony, and authored several books including The Listening Composer. Click here to listen to the Dorian Wind Quintet’s performance of the fourth Wind Quintet, and pianist/composer Michael Brown performs Perle’s Toccata here.
Born into a musical family, Victoria Bond has long been a leading voice in classical music as a composer, conductor, lecturer, and artistic director of Cutting Edge Concerts. The first woman awarded a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School, her teachers included Ingolf Dahl and Roger Sessions (composition); William Vennard (voice); Jean Morel, James Conlon, Sixteen Ehrling, Leonard Slatkin, and Herbert Blomstedt (conducting).
In 1978 Bond became the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductor with the Pittsburgh Symphony and in 1986 was invited to conduct the Houston Symphony for the premiere of her work Ringing. She has served as artistic director of the Bel Canto Opera Company in New York, music director and conductor of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the Southwest Virginia Opera, the Harrisburg Opera and the New Amsterdam Symphony. Her opera Mrs. President was premiered in 2012 in Anchorage, Alaska. Click here to visit her website and here to listen to Bond discuss her life in music.