by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: organist Florence Mustric in “Inspired by Jazz,” Ohio Light Opera presents Guys and Dolls (pictured), and ChamberFest Cleveland opens its season with “Sacred and Profane”
•Interesting reads: ClevelandClassical in the news
•Announcements: Akron Symphony’s Summer Parks Concerts, a new music director at Heights Chamber Orchestra (and auditions announced), and the open position of Donor Relations Coordinator at Cleveland Chamber Choir
•Almanac: several British anniversaries, from Knussen to Ireland and Britten (not Britain)
HAPPENING TODAY:
The theme for today’s Wednesday Noon Organ Concert by Florence Mustric is “Inspired by Jazz.” The 12:15 program at Trinity Lutheran Church includes music by Joe Utterback, Guy Bovet, and Marcel Dupré. A freewill offering will be taken up.
At 2:00 at Wooster’s Freedlander Theater, Ohio Light Opera presents Guys and Dolls (music and lyrics by Frank Loesser). Tickets are available here. Read Mike Telin’s interview with OLO artistic director Steven Daigle here.
And at 7:30 at CIM’s Mixon Hall, ChamberFest Cleveland opens its season with “Sacred and Profane.” The program includes Mozart’s Sonata in D for Two Pianos, K. 448, Claude Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane, and Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quintet in B-flat, Op. 87. Click here for tickets, and here to read Mike Telin’s conversation with harpist Bridget Kibbey, who will be making her ChamberFest debut in the Debussy.
INTERESTING READ:
ClevelandClassical.com is the focus of a story by Kevin McLaughlin in The Land. McLaughlin recounts the organization’s fifteen-year history of supporting classical music in Northeast Ohio — from its origins as a two-week concert calendar, to the inclusion of reviews, previews, features, news, history, and more. As founder and editor Daniel Hathaway says in the article, “We’ve evolved to fit the needs of the community.”
Click here to read “How ClevelandClassical.com brought attention to the city’s classical music scene.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The Akron Symphony has released the schedule for this year’s free Summer Parks Concerts: July 28 at Forest Lodge Park, August 4 at Firestone Park Community Center, and August 11 at Goodyear Heights Metro Park, all at 7:30 pm. Audience members are encouraged to bring blankets, lawn chairs, and picnics (alcohol prohibited). More details here.
Heights Chamber Orchestra announces that conductor Travis Juergens (left) has been named Music Director. And another piece of news from the ensemble: auditions for strings and trombone for the 2024-25 season will be held on August 19 — sign up here.
And Cleveland Chamber Choir is looking to hire a part-time Donor Relations Coordinator to oversee fundraising initiatives and expand community ties throughout the region. The position is fully remote, while requiring occasional travel within the greater Cleveland area for concerts and events. To apply, email a resume and cover letter to executive director Kira McGirr here with the subject line of “Donor Relations Coordinator.”
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Daniel Hathaway
Several British anniversaries to note today.
Scottish composer and conductor Oliver Knussen was born on this date in 1952. We noted the anniversary of his untimely death on July 8, 2018 in an earlier Diary entry, and linked to Celebrating Olly, the video of an evening at the Royal Academy of Music the following December celebrating his life, as well as to remarks by violinist Leila Josefowicz before her performance of his violin concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra in February, 2020.
June 12 also marks the death of British composer John Ireland in 1962. Ireland is known for his miniatures, chamber music, songs, and the anthem, Greater Love Hath No Man, composed in 1912 but often sung in Britain to commemorate those who perished in “The Great War.” Click here to hear it sung in a live BBC broadcast from the chapel of St. John’s College, Cambridge, on August 13, 1997. But another piece much loved by Ireland admirers is his Concertino Pastorale, written on the brink of World War II.
And June 12, 1964 saw the premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Curlew River in Orford Church, Aldeburgh, with Peter Pears as the Madwoman, and the composer conducting. Based on the Japanese Noh Drama Sumidagawa, which Britten saw in Japan in 1956, the piece was the first of three “Parables for Church Performance” that merged elements of Japanese and medieval religious drama, and set the composer off on a new stylistic course for the rest of his career. The Burning Fiery Furnace followed in 1966, and The Prodigal Son in 1968.
Watch a production of Curlew River staged at the Church of the Transfiguration in New York with the neXus Instrumental Ensemble here.