DIARY: Tuesday, March 31, 2026

March 31, 2026 by Daniel Hathaway

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

12 Noon – Jonathan Moyer & Gabriel Ackerman, organ. Click here to view or download the program. Tuesday Organ Plus Series. Church of the Covenant, University Circle. Freewill offering.

For details of these and other classical events, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

On Monday, The Canton Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director Search Committee announced the finalists for the CSO’s Music Director Search. The five finalists are Austin Chanu, Jacob Joyce, Melisse Brunet, Wesley Schulz, and Yue Bao. Each candidate will come to Canton during the 2026-2027 season to conduct a MasterWorks concert and spend time in the community as the last part of the review process. The new Music Director will be announced in the spring of 2027. Read the press release here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Some of our readers have reminded us that Johann Sebastian Bach’s real birthday is today, not March 21, where it ended up with the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Since Bach never penned a gift cantata for himself, why not celebrate with a performance of the piece he wrote in 1733 for the birthday of Maria Josepha, Queen of Poland and Electress of Saxony. (Sounds familiar? The Great Recycler repurposed four of its movements for the Christmas Oratorio a bit later.) Philippe Herreweghe leads the Collegium Vocale Gent.

About Daniel Hathaway

Daniel Hathaway founded ClevelandClassical.com in September, 2008, after a thirty-one year tenure as music director of Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral, where he founded the Wednesday Noon Brownbag Concert Series and Trinity Chamber Orchestra. A graduate of Harvard College and the Episcopal Divinity School, he also studied historical musicology at Princeton and Harvard Universities. Before coming to Cleveland in 1977, he served as head of humanities at the Sunset Hill School in Kansas City and as head of arts at Groton School in Massachusetts. In Cleveland, he has served on the music staff of Cleveland Opera, Great Lakes Theater Festival, and the faculty of Laurel School. As an organist, Hathaway has played recitals in the U.S., England, France, Germany, and Austria. He team-teaches Music Journalism at Oberlin College and Conservatory and is a member of the Music Critics Association of North America.

Heights Chamber Orchestra with Mark Kosower (Mar. 22)

by Kevin McLaughlin

Joseph Haydn’s C major Cello Concerto has had an unusual life. Written in the 1760s, likely for the Esterházy cellist Joseph Weigl, it disappeared for nearly two centuries before resurfacing in a Prague museum in 1961. Since then it has become central to the cello repertory — admired for its clarity, proportion, and wit.

Mark Kosower, principal cello of The Cleveland Orchestra, brought distinction to the Heights Chamber Orchestra’s program on Sunday, March 22 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, shaping Haydn’s Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Andante cantabile with clarity and poise. He made Haydn’s charm into a jewel, and the afternoon into something memorable.

Kosower is a smiling, modest man onstage, but his musicianship told the larger story. His playing was assured and clear, his passagework was clean and sonorous, and his phrasing logical. In the intimate space, you could watch his left hand at work — precise, disciplined, like five little soldiers carrying out orders. The cadenzas in all three movements were his own — feats of daring in classical style, full of well-turned, lucid flourishes.

[Read on…]

Cleveland Composers Guild: American Mosaic (Mar. 19)

by Kevin McLaughlin

The Cleveland Composers Guild marked the approaching 250th anniversary of the United States on Thursday evening, March 19, at Saint Francis Chapel of John Carroll University with American Mosaic. Faculty performers from JCU joined the university’s Wind Ensemble in a program that paired familiar American fare with recent works by Guild composers — an odd patchwork of band music, art song, and new vocal works that surprised but ultimately pleased.

What linked this varied program was its ballad-like storytelling, direct expression, and an unembarrassed urge to communicate.

Gayle Getts and the JCU Wind Ensemble opened with Aaron Copland’s noble Fanfare for the Common Man in Robert Longfield’s arrangement for band. Written during World War II as part of Eugene Goossens’ fanfare project, Copland’s valedictory has outlived its companions and settled comfortably into the culture. Modest in numbers (about 19 players), the ensemble had a town-band quality — a little rough around the edges — but they were well prepared, and in obvious sympathy with the music they were there to perform. [Read on…]

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About Daniel Hathaway

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