by Daniel Hathaway
June has become the unofficial summer festivals month in Northeast Ohio, with ChamberFest Cleveland, the ENCORE Music & Ideas Festival, and the Ohio Light Opera summer season all beginning at once — and with more to come. Here’s what they’re offering just this week (in alphabetical order):
ChamberFest Cleveland continues its thirteenth season on Friday, June 13 with “Reflections.” Ten artists perform music by Arvo Pärt, Anton Arensky, and Camille Saint-Saëns (7:30 at the Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights).
ChamberFest offers two events on Saturday, June 14: “Rhythm & Clues,” a free, family-friendly concert by the Nate’s World Trio including a scavenger hunt (11:00 am in the Friends Pavilion at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes), and “A Musical Feast” featuring a new work by Errollyn Wallen in a “chamber cabaret” performance from Nate’s World — the fertile imagination of bassist Nathan Farrington (7:30 at Heights Theater in Cleveland Heights).
Wallen returns to ChamberFest on Tuesday, June 17 for an afternoon-long series of free “Meet Composer Errollyn Wallen” events, including a 2:30 performance of her Remember, Marimba by percussionist Tanner Tanyeri, a 4:30 hands-on percussion activity with Gabriel Globus-Hoenich, and a 6:00 pm concert of her works, including selections from The Errollyn Wallen Songbook (all at the East Cleveland Public Library). ChamberFest tickets are available online.
On Friday, June 13, ENCORE Music & Ideas Festival, celebrating its tenth season, presents faculty and guest pianist Shuai Wang in “1, 2, 4, 8…Tango!” for one, two, four, eight, and twelve players, featuring music by John Corigliano, Franz Schubert, York Bowen, Dmitri Shostakovich, Julius Klengel, and Astor Piazzolla. The evening begins with a talk by Oberlin music theory professor Brian Alegant. (7:30 in Harkness Chapel at Case).
On Saturday, June 14, ENCORE hosts Trio Seoul (Jinjoo Cho, violin, Brannon Cho, cello, and Kyu Yeon Kim, piano, with Mathieu Herzog, viola) in “The Ringing of Cimbalom,” featuring Joseph Haydn’s Piano Trio No. 39, “Gypsy,” Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1, and three selections from David Baker’s Roots II for Piano Trio. The evening begins with a talk by Turkish composer Erberk Eryılmaz (7:30 in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory).
Then on Sunday, June 15 at 3 pm, ENCORE presents “The Golden Waltz,” with Festival faculty and guest pianist Kyu Yeon Kim performing Atar Arod’s Toccatina à la Turk, Leoš Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1, Richard Strauss’s String Sextet from Capriccio, and Erich Korngold’s Piano Quintet. The evening begins with a presentation by Jinjoo Cho in celebration of ENCORE’s 10th anniversary. (Maltz Performing Arts Center, Cleveland.) Tickets for all events available online.
On Saturday, June 14, Ohio Light Opera raises the curtain on its 46th summer season at the College of Wooster with the first of fourteen performances of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel, directed by Steven A. Daigle and conducted by Michael Borowitz, with choreography by Spencer Reese. Five more shows will follow this summer through August 3. (7:30 in Freedlander Theater, Wooster. Tickets available online.
For details of these and other classical events, visit our Concert Listings.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com June 12, 2025.
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