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Chinese Musicians Association of North America inspire at CMA (Apr. 11)

by Peter Feher

The Chinese Musicians Association of North America (CMA-NA) may be less than a year old, but some of the group’s repertoire — and many of these performers’ instruments — date back centuries.

This history was on dazzling display in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium on Friday, April 11. The evening covered thousands of years of culture, from ancient plucked melodies that might have been heard in the third, fourth, or fifth centuries BCE, to a world-premiere chamber work that imaginatively bridged Eastern and Western classical traditions.

Photos of sculptures and paintings from the Museum’s Chinese art collection, similarly extensive in scope, were projected above the stage.

[Read on…]

Soloists shine in Cleveland Orchestra’s Bach Easter Oratorio, Magnificat and more (Apr. 17)

by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — On Thursday, April 17, at Severance Music Center, Canadian guest conductor Bernard Labadie led The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and four splendid soloists in two of J.S. Bach’s most exultant sacred works — the dramatic Easter Oratorio, and his Magnificat. Bach’s festive Sinfonia from his Cantata 29 completed the program.

Reworked from a secular cantata for a patron’s birthday, Bach’s Easter Oratorio is a less overtly theatrical work than the composer’s Passions. Its uncomplicated story describes the moment that Mary Magdalene (mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet), Mary of Cleophas (soprano Joélle Harvey) and the apostles Peter (tenor Andrew Haji) and John (bass-baritone Gordon Bintner) come to the tomb of Jesus and find it empty.

[Read on…]

BW Bach Fest celebrates their namesake composer with “Suites and Motets” combination (Apr. 11)

by Stephanie Manning

It’s early days, but the 2025 music festival season is starting to kick into gear. A harbinger of that trend here in Northeast Ohio is the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival, which just celebrated its 94th year.

The second and final day of the event swapped J.S. Bach for George Frideric Handel, presenting the composer’s Messiah for the first time in festival history. But the previous evening’s presentation tread more familiar ground. On April 11, Dirk Garner led BWV: Cleveland’s Bach Choir in a spirited concert of Bach suites and motets. [Read on…]

Martha Redbone Roots Project: community and storytelling in Oberlin (Apr. 6)

by Stephanie Manning

Martha Redbone knows how to tell a good story. So you’d better listen up, and get ready to sing along.

“This really will be a church tonight,” the singer promised Oberlin’s Finney Chapel and its assembled audience on April 6. The mood was indeed congregational — sometimes religious, but always communal. Redbone, pianist Aaron Whitby, violinist Charlie Burnham, and bassist Fred Cash, Jr. fostered an intimate evening of American Roots music with their performance as The Martha Redbone Roots Project. [Read on…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: North Coast Winds (Apr. 7)

by Kevin McLaughlin

According to Ben Chen’s program notes for the North Coast Winds concert on April 7 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the jazz age, which began in the 1920s, coincided with the emergence of the woodwind quintet as a standard chamber ensemble. This made an appealing premise for the ensemble’s programming. But if jazz as a musical style and aesthetic was hard to detect that evening, it mattered little.

What did matter was the quality of the music performed and the playing of the ensemble, which was refined and persuasive. [Read on…]

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