by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. A special day for guitars: CIM studio at Trinity, Vieaux in Peninsula, Fire & Grace at Oberlin
. Semplice Duo at Oberlin
. Anniversaries of various musicians and composers with a special nod to John Adams
HAPPENING TODAY:
A day of guitars: Students from the Cleveland Institute of Music guitar studio host the Brownbag Concert at Trinity Cathedral today at Noon, their mentor, Jason Vieaux, plays a solo recital at Happy Days Lodge in Peninsula tonight at 7, and Oberlin presents its new faculty member, violinist Edwin Huizinga in concert with his Fire & Grace (pictured) colleague, guitarist William Coulter at 7:30 in Fairchild Chapel. Another Oberlin event features the Semplice Duo, Cristina Ballatori, flute & Kevin T. Chance, piano, to Kulas Recital Hall, also at 7:30.
ALMANAC FOR FEBRUARY 15:
In an unusual coincidence, early German composer Michael Praetorius departed this life in Wolfenbuttel on February 15, 1621, the same date on which he was born in Creuzberg an der Werra in 1571.
Other observances today: the birth in 1797 of German piano craftsman Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (which translates as “Steinway”), the departure in 1885 of German conductor, composer and violinist Leopold Damrosch in New York (the friend of Liszt and Wagner, who founded the New York Symphony (now the Philharmonic) and led early Wagner performances at the MET Opera, and the births in 1905 and 1907, respectively, of American song composer Harold Arlen (in Buffalo, né Hyman Arluck, author of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”) and French composer and organist Jean Langlais in La Fontenelle.
(by Jarrett Hoffman:)
And on February 15, 1947, American composer John Adams was born in Worcester, MA.
There are of course many ways to celebrate this distinguished musician. You could choose the piece for which he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in music: On the Transmigration of Souls, written in remembrance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. You could also follow local roots and revisit his Short Ride in a Fast Machine and his violin concerto Scheherazade.2, as well as his Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? which he conducted during a set of appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra in 2018 and 2022. (Watch a rehearsal clip of the latter here.)
But with Presidents Day approaching on February 20, what could be more fitting than Nixon in China? That work received mixed reviews after its premiere in 1987 but has since been recognized as a landmark American opera.
Opera is of course an audiovisual medium, and fortunately, there are several clips on YouTube from the work’s Metropolitan Opera debut in 2011. Here’s one famous excerpt, “I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung,” which receives a standout performance — both emotionally intense and technically virtuosic — by soprano Kathleen Kim.
Other musical anniversaries to commemorate today include the birth of another important American composer, Christopher Rouse in 1949, and several deaths (composer and arts administrator William Schuman, 1992; and Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, 1887).
