by Daniel Hathaway
It’s Valentine’s Day all week this week, and aside from the obvious gifts — flowers, chocolates, and shiny bling — there are a number of ways to take to heart the new advice of gifting your love interest experiences rather than things.
Our Concert Listings have been providing such a service since the website was launched in 2008. Consider this message from one of our readers way back in 2009:
I’m grateful for ClevelandClassical.com for so many reasons. In fact, I learned about Nathan Gunn’s performance at Oberlin through you, which has now become the central feature of my surprise Valentine’s Day date with my fiancée! I owe you big time now.
Here are some suggestions for your own Valentine.
The next Urban Troubadour exploration sticks to one Akron building, but there’s lots to enjoy under the roof of Greystone Hall. “Romantic Valentine’s Evening” on Thursday, February 14 begins with a libation in Barristers’ Lounge, proceeds to a chamber music concert in the Doric Room, and ends in the Ballroom with entertainment, dancing, small plates, and a cash bar. The chamber musicians are flutist Jane Berkner, harpist Jody Guinn, violist Michael Strauss, and cellist Cathy Partlow Strauss, and the Ballroom talent includes vocalist Helen Welch and The Wind Machine. Go here for reservations.
“Lovers, Lutes & Lyres — an Old English Valentine” is the title of Apollo’s Fire’s Baroque Bistro evenings that feature soprano Amanda Powell and master of many plucked instruments Brian Kay. There are three performances: Thursday, February 14 at 7:30 pm at the Music Box Supper Club in Cleveland, Friday, February 15 at 7:00 pm at Nighttown in Cleveland Heights, and Saturday, February 16 at 7:15 pm at Mustard Seed Market in Montrose. Dinner is available each evening at 6. At press time, both the 15th and 16th were sold out and a wait list was being kept. Check out details and make your reservations here.
The Cleveland Orchestra identifies Mozart with Valentine’s Day — perhaps a bit of a stretch, but hey, the second movement of his Eine kleine Nachtmusik is titled “Romanze.” This weekend, Harry Bicket will lead the ensemble in that perennial favorite as well as a Fantasia for mechanical clock and the “Prague” Symphony, and the brilliant soprano Kiera Duffy will star in his motet Exsultate, jubilate. Concerts are on Thursday, February 14 at 7:30 pm, Friday, February 15 at 7:00 pm, Saturday, February 16 at 8:00 pm, and Sunday, February 17 at 3:00 pm. Tickets here. (Read an interview with Kiera Duffy here.)
All those are ticketed events, but trombonist Jiggs Whigham will join the Case Jazz Ensembles for a free Valentine’s Day concert on February 14 at 7:30 pm in Harkness Chapel.
Another brilliant soprano will visit Cleveland on Friday, February 15 at 7:00 pm as BW alumna Jennifer Rowley returns to campus for a solo recital with pianist Jason Aquila. Since her graduation, Rowley has appeared all over the globe, and returned to New York’s Met Opera this season to make her title role debut in Adriana Lecouvreur. This March she sings the title role in Tosca. Her recital in Gamble Auditorium is free. Read a preview article here.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com February 11, 2019.
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