By Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:
At its Severance Music Center concerts through Saturday, Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra are debuting Austrian composer Johannes Maria Staud’s new percussion concerto featuring Christoph Sietzen. Whereas the Reality Trembles shares the program with Tchaikovsky’s “Ukrainian” Symphony.
Also on Saturday, the Canton Symphony will give the first performance of Jeff Scott’s Song of the Uirapuru, led by music director designate Matthew Jenkins Jaroszewicz, and BlueWater Chamber Orchestra will feature pianist Yaron Kolhberg and trumpeter Austin Cruz in Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto in a performance at the Church of the Covenant.
Sunday’s schedule welcomes American pianist Maxim Lando (pictured, replacing Jan Bartoš) to the Art Museum under the auspices of the Tri-C Classical Piano series, and Arts at Holy Trinity in Akron begins marking its 40th anniversary with Miguel Esperanza Flamenco Fusion.
Check our Concert Listings for details of these and forthcoming events.
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
October 7, by Mike Telin
Today we celebrate cellist, cultural ambassador, and humanitarian Yo-Yo Ma, born on this date in 1955 in Paris. Since his days as a child prodigy, Ma has carved out a remarkably diverse career — one need look no further than his expansive discography to understand why he is a household name around the world.
Ma is a person who enjoys building relationships and finding common ground with everyone he meets. Perhaps his best-known example of using music to find that common ground is The Silk Road Project, a collaborative enterprise to promote artistic exchanges between cultures, named after the 4,000-some miles of ancient trade routes that for two millennia linked parts of Asia with Europe and encouraged the trading of art, knowledge, philosophy and religion — as well as silk and other commercial goods.
Without a doubt, Ma is committed to bringing people together through music. In a 2013 interview with this publication, Ma said, “I do believe totally in what I’m trying to do, and I feel incredibly grateful — especially during these hard economic times. The world is changing so quickly and there are people left out. But we want to make sure that while things are changing, we have a sense of where we are going that we can all mutually work towards.”
He went on to say that culture and the arts are effective because as artists you are always working toward something bigger than yourself. “It’s not just about interest groups but rather that we have common interests. And sometimes the common interests get lost when we’re only saying ‘wait, you’ve got to look at me.’”
The cellist is also a firm believer in the power of education. In a 2013 interview prior to Silk Road’s appearance in Akron, Galician bagpipes player Christina Pato pointed out that the importance of education is very strong and the ensemble is constantly scheduling educational activities. “Watching Yo-Yo work has been an inspiration to all of us. He is constantly there worrying about everything,” Pato says. “Even in the middle of a long tour, he arrives at schools at 9 am to make things happen. He works with all the children and brings joy and happiness. It’s great to have a mentor like him.”
By his own admission, Yo-Yo Ma is a person who enjoys being busy. “I can’t say that I don’t lead an interesting life,” he told ClevelandClassical.com in 2013. “It’s sometimes a little crazy and when that happens I just need to look at myself and say, I am the one responsible for it and I can’t blame anybody but myself.”
In 2020 Ma, along with Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile released their collaborative album Not Our First Goat Rodeo. The group also made a fun video for NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts. His latest album, Notes for the Future, was released on September 10, 2021 on Sony Classical.
October 8
French organist and composer Louis Vierne was born on this date in Poitiers. Legally blind, he served as organist of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris from 1900-1937, ending his career dramatically by collapsing at the console during a recital.
There’s a celebrated recording of Vierne’s Mass for choir and two organs recorded in Notre-Dame and featuring the composer’s later successor Pierre Cochereau. Listen here. (NB: most of the accompanying photos are actually of Notre-Dame in Montréal!)
On this date in 1930, Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu was born in Tokyo. Two of his nature-inspired compositions are available in performances by the CIM New Music Ensemble, Keith Fitch, director. Click on the links to watch Water-ways (from a November, 2015 concert), and Rain Spell (from February, 2018).
Australian composer Carl Vine was born on October 8, 1954 in Perth. His Piano Sonata No. 1 was the required work that Cleveland International Piano Competition laureate Spencer Myer played in the 2005 contest. Watch his performances here and here.
And American jazz pianist and concert promoter Clarence Williams was born in Louisiana on this date in 1893 — or according to other sources, on October 6, 1898. In 1915, he launched what became in the 1920s the leading Black-owned music publishing firm in the U.S. Also during the ‘20s, Williams appeared as pianist on numerous blues records recorded in New York. His career ended strangely: in 1943, he sold his catalog of tunes to Decca Records for $50,000 and retired from the music business to open the Harlem Thrift Shop.
Click here to listen to the album Clarence Williams – Jazz Louisiana Rags & Swing.
