DIARY: WEEKEND, Friday-Sunday, July 10-12, 2026

July 10, 2026 by Daniel Hathaway

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

Ohio Light Opera will have three of its six summer shows up and running this weekend: Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady (Friday and Saturday at 2), Rodgers & Hart’s Boys from Syracuse (Saturday at 7:30) and Adler & Ross’s Damn Yankees (Sunday at 2) in Freedlander Theater at The College of Wooster.

Akron Symphonic Winds take their Happy Birthday, America! Picnic Concerts to Lake Anna in Barberton (Friday at 7:30) and Heritage Park in Dennison (Saturday at 7).

Piano Cleveland Live presents local professional pianists performing outdoor concerts in a variety of musical styles (Friday at 6:30 in Crocker Park, Westlake)

Brett Mitchell conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in John Williams’ live score during a screening of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (pictured) Saturday and Sunday at 7 at Blossom).

American Musical Productions presents a fully-staged production of The Desert Song, conducted by Joseph Rubin, with music by Sigmund Romberg, and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach & Frank Mandel, celebrating the 100th anniversary of its Broadway premiere (Sunday at 3 pm in Akron’s Firestone Theatre.)

For details of these and other classical music events, please visit the ClevelandClassical.com concert listings.

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

On July 10, 1835, Polish violin virtuoso and composer Henryk Wieniawski was born in Lubin, Poland. Joshua Bell has recorded his Second Concerto for Decca with Vladimir Ashkenazy and The Cleveland Orchestra, but for a more recent dose of Wieniawski, click here to watch Augustin Hadelich play both the violin and piano parts of the Scherzo-Tarantella from his home in May during the “COVID-19 hiatus.”

And on this date in 1895, German composer and educator Carl Orff was born in Munich. Hands-down, his most performed work is his cantata, Carmina Burana, based on the medieval German poetry of the wandering scholars.

So popular and recognizable is its first chorus, “O Fortuna,” that The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus recorded it for use as in-game intros for the 2014 season of the Cleveland Cavaliers (watch assistant conductor Andrew Grams leading the ensembles for the recording session here.) Hear a complete recording with Franz Welser-Möst and the London Philharmonic and Chorus here.

Less well-known are the two other works in that Orff triptych, both of which Welser-Möst also recorded. Click here to hear Catulli Carmini (Songs of Catullus) and Trionfo di Afrodite, performed by the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Mozart-Choir Linz.

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.

Cooper International Competition for Violin: Concerto Finals (Aug. 10)

by Daniel Hathaway

Monday evening’s Cooper International Competition for Violin concerto finals in Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall marked the culmination of a week’s worth of public playing that took the measure of an impressive group of young musicians in solo recitals.

Now, joined onstage by conductor David Danzmayr and the Columbus ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, the three performers who had risen to the top would demonstrate their ability to put full concertos across. Grace under pressure, a spirit of collaboration, and a deep feeling for the music were among the requirements.

Elizabeth Poppy Song (center), age 16, from the United States, led off with a beautiful opening statement of the lyrical theme in Sergei Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 2 in G minor, and gradually and with great control shifted the music into a more spirited mood. She maintained good coordination with Danzmyr and the orchestra as the first movement alternated between technical and lyric passages and culminated in an exciting pizzicato ending.

[Read on…]

Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays Debussy’s Préludes to his strengths (July 30)

by Stephanie Manning

Performing Claude Debussy’s complete Préludes in recital is rare, but Jean-Yves Thibaudet has been making a habit of it. Over the past few years, the pianist has appeared in venues across the country to play the entirety of Book I and Book II as a 90-minute concert. He presented that program on July 30 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

What brought Thibaudet to Cleveland was not just his solo recital — he also gave masterclasses as part of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists. By July 30, all six finalists had already participated in sessions with Thibaudet, testing their ability to adapt to feedback. And on the eve of the Competition’s concerto round, the time was ripe for both contestants and audience to sit back and listen to the master pianist himself.

[Read on…]

Kazuki Yamada brings sunny energy to multifaceted Cleveland Orchestra program (Aug. 1)

by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — To clap or not to clap between movements — that is the question many Cleveland Orchestra audience members faced on Saturday night at Blossom Music Center. Luckily, Japanese guest conductor Kazuki Yamada had an answer.

Hearing some scattered applause after the first movement of Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2, Yamada turned his head, smiled, and gently put his own hands together. That moment gave the crowd the green light they needed to join in.

Yamada’s willingness to engage with listeners felt like an extension of his genial personality, which allowed him to lead The Cleveland Orchestra on August 1 with both excitement and poise.

[Read on…]

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