by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 2 pm, Ohio Light Opera opens its fourth production of the summer, W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Seymour Sullivan’s Patience, in Freedlander Theatre at The College of Wooster.
At 7 pm, Anthony Parnther (pictured) leads The Cleveland Orchestra in a free concert at Cain Park in Cleveland Hts. (Tickets required: visit the Cain Park box office or call 216-371-3000.)
Also at 7 pm, Kent Blossom Music Festival presents the Imani Winds in Ludwig Recital Hall at Kent State University.
Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Oberlin Choristers writes, “As we open registration for our 35th season, we do so with full hearts.
“Oberlin Choristers came so close to closing its doors this year. But because of the unwavering determination and love of Charlotte Beers Plank — daughter-in-law of our founder — and the steadfast support of her family, our story continues.
“In this moment, we honor Kathrine Plank, the visionary founder of Oberlin Choristers. Her belief in the transformative power of music gave rise to a legacy that has shaped countless lives.
Register your singer today and join us in building the future of Choristers together!”
CLEVELAND POPS ANNOUNCES SEASON:
Click here to view or download details of the Cleveland POPS’ programs at Severance Music Center in 2025-2026.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On this date in 1914, conductor Frederick Fennell was born in Cleveland (he died in 2004 in Florida).
He played timpani in the John Adams High School band before going on to study at Interlochen, then at the Eastman School of Music, where he founded the Eastman Symphonic Wind Ensemble and launched a long career reinventing and directing wind bands.
Fennell also studied conducting with Serge Koussevitzky at Tanglewood (with classmates Leonard Bernstein and Lukas Foss), and served on the conducting staffs of the Minnesota Orchestra, the University of Miami and the Miami Philharmonic, the Interlochen Arts Academy, and the Dallas Wind Symphony.
One of America’s most-recorded conductors, Fennell’s credits include 29 recordings on the Mercury label. He also made history for his collaboration with Jack Renner and Robert Woods, founders of Cleveland’s Telarc Records, who made the first-ever symphonic digital recording with Fennell conducting the Cleveland Symphonic Winds — including the wind, brass, and percussion sections of The Cleveland Orchestra — in Severance Hall in April, 1978.
The recording of Gustav Holst’s Suites for Military Band similarly made history in 1983 when it became part of one of the first recordings to be released in the new compact disc format.
Read the history of making that recording in an article on Engineering and Technology Wiki, and listen to those performances of Holst’s Suite No. 1 in E-flat and Suite No. 2 in F here and here (where you can follow along with the reduced conductor’s score). And watch Frederick Fennell in action rehearsing the Indiana State University Wind Ensemble in 1997.
