by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: organist David Kazimir at the Covenant
•News: Cleveland Cello Society’s 2023 season, honors for Takács & Case Symphonic Winds, and a spotlight on OMEA prep at Beachwood High
•Almanac: birthdays for composer John Harbison and pianist Mitsuko Uchida
HAPPENING TODAY:
Organist David Kazimir’s program for today’s Tuesday Noon Organ Plus Concert at Church of the Covenant consists of North German settings of the Magnificat — music by Dietrich Buxtehude, Samuel Scheidt, and J.S. Bach. A freewill offering will be taken up.
A NEW SEASON:
The Cleveland Cello Society has announced its 2023 season, beginning with the Scholarship Competition Winners Recital (January 29) and continuing with a cello master class led by conductor Klaus Mäkelä (February 4), the annual cello extravaganza i Cellisti! (March 24), a recital by Colombian cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia (April 14), and the 2023 Scholarship Competition (April 30). More info here.
HONORS & OMEA:
Oberlin piano professor Peter Takács is known for his affinity for Beethoven. Now his 11-disc Complete Beethoven Sonatas has been nominated for an Album of the Year award from audio download store NativeDSD Music. The award will be decided by audience voting with a deadline of December 22. Follow this link, where you can find Takács at the bottom of the page, in the Solo Instrumental category.
Another honor in the news: Case Western’s Symphonic Winds were chosen to perform at the Ohio Music Education Association’s (OMEA) Professional Development Conference. The band, led by Ryan V. Scherber, will perform on February 4 at 11:00 am in the Columbus Convention Center’s Union Station Ballroom.
Speaking of OMEA, there are some exciting preparations going on at Beachwood High School. The music department there has partnered with the Local 4 Music Fund to host residencies by Kent State’s Black Squirrel Winds, the BlueWater Brass Quintet, and conductor, cellist, and gambist David Ellis, who have been helping to prepare students for the OMEA solo and ensemble competition. (Pictured above: Black Squirrel oboist Danna Sundet working with a student at Beachwood High.)
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
A dive into December 20th in classical music history brings to the surface a pair of composers (John Harbison and André Jolivet) and a pair of pianists (Mitsuko Uchida and Arthur Rubinstein). Two of those are living musicians who are celebrating their birthdays — our focus today.
New Jersey-born composer John Harbison, who won the 1987 Pultizer Prize for Music and teaches at MIT, turns 84 today. Harbison is a prolific composer who has written four operas and a huge amount of orchestral, choral, chamber, and solo vocal music. Several of those categories come together in his Pulitzer-winning The Flight into Egypt, written for solo soprano and baritone, chorus, and chamber orchestra. Click here to listen to a recording by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Cantata Singers and Ensemble with soloists Sanford Sylvan and Roberta Anderson.
Turning 74 today is Japanese-born British pianist Mitsuko Uchida — or shall we say Dame Mitsuko Uchida? Damehood being one of her many honors, which also include two Grammy Awards. Speaking of which, one of those came for a 2009 recording that represents two of her specialties: the music of Mozart (here the Piano Concertos Nos. 23 and 24), and the skill of conducting an orchestra from the piano. In this case, that ensemble was none other than The Cleveland Orchestra, with whom she has developed a long relationship. Listen to the first movement of No. 24 here from that recording.
That long relationship is ongoing — the Orchestra will present Uchida in a recital of Beethoven piano sonatas on February 26, 2023. More info here.