by Stephanie Manning
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 12:00 noon, both of the usual Wednesday series: Music Near the Market features organist Linda Kempke in music of “Thanksgiving and praise,” while Trinity Cathedral’s Brownbag Concert Series presents the Cleveland State University Chorale and Chorus.
And at 7:30 pm: Ross Karre directs the Oberlin Percussion Group featuring Oberlin College Taiko in Warner Concert Hall, and Todd Phillis leads the CIM Orchestra in works by Caroline Shaw, Benjamin Britten, and Mozart at the Mentor High School Fine Arts Center.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
If you’re already dreaming of warmer weather, you can start planning — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced three of its concerts for the 2025 Blossom season. Multi-hyphenate singer and actress Cynthia Erivo (pictured) joins the Orchestra on July 27, and the group will play live-to-film scores for two movies: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on July 5 & 6, and The Lion King on August 29, 30, & 31.
Tickets go on sale today at 10:00 am for donors and subscribers — click here — and the general public can get tickets starting tomorrow, November 21, at 10:00 am. Read the full press release here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Daniel Hathaway
On November 20, pianist Ruth Laredo made her life debut in Detroit in 1937 as Ruth Meckler, and American composer Orianna Webb was born in Akron in 1974.
Laredo’s musical future was established at the age of eight when her mother took her to hear Horowitz play Scriabin in Detroit. That began a lifelong interest in Scriabin and his contemporary, Rachmaninoff, and eventually to her recordings of the complete Scriabin cycle. Click here for her performance of the Sonata No. 9, “Black Mass.” She toured with violinist Jaime Laredo during their marriage (1960-1974), but made an auspicious solo debut with Pierre Boulez and the N.Y. Philharmonic in Ravel’s G-Major Concerto in 1974. She taught at Kent State University from 1968-1971.
Listen to an episode in David Dubal’s radio series “For the Love of Music” broadcast in April, 1980 featuring a conversation with Ruth Laredo (due to copyright issues, the musical selections have been removed!)
Orianna Webb’s collaboration with guitarist Daniel Lippel was broadcast on the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Virtual Festival on May 28, 2021. Her bio on the festival website makes for an interesting read, as does her works list.
Henry Purcell neatly timed his all-too-early demise — he was 36 — for the eve of the Patron Saint of Music’s feast day on November 21, 1695. That makes this an appropriate time to listen to one of the composer’s Odes written in her honor. Here’s a performance of Hail, Bright Cecelia by the Dunedin Consort led by John Butt.
