by Mike Telin
Since 2014, the Grammy Award-winning Cleveland Chamber Symphony has sponsored NEOSonicFest, a festival of new music performed by musicians from Northeast Ohio and beyond. The 2018 festival will run from April 5 through 11 (see below for concert dates and times).
Clarinetist Carol Robinson and trumpeter Nate Wooley will kick things off by performing selections from Éliane Radigue’s Occam Ocean on April 5 at MOCA. The composer describes her work as “an ongoing acoustic work with influences ranging from electromagnetic waves, to William of Ockham’s philosophies, to science fiction mythologies.”
The always creative No Exit will return to the Festival on April 6 at Heights Arts. The ensemble was founded by composer Timothy Beyer as an outlet for the commissioning and performance of contemporary avant-garde concert music. No Exit is committed to promoting the works of living composers, particularly the music of young and emerging artists who haven’t yet received either the opportunities or exposure of their better-known counterparts. (Works by Leo Ornstein, Ty Emerson, Per Nørgård, James Praznik, Andrew Rindfleisch & Tristan Murail).
On April 7 at 7:00 pm at the Bop Stop, Keith Fitch and his outstanding CIM New Music Ensemble will make their first appearance on the Festival. The program will feature David Rakowski’s Breakdown and Préludes for Piano, Stephen Hartke’s Oh Them Rats Is Mean In My Kitchen, and Fitch’s The Range of Light.
Also returning to the Festival is the Cleveland Composers Guild. On April 8 at Judson Manor, the venerable organization will team up with the Syndicate for the New Arts for a program titled “Small Pieces | Big Impressions,” featuring seven-minute compositions by Guild members to be performed by violinist Dana Johnson, cellist Wesley Hornpetrie, and pianist Annie Jeng. The program will include Jennifer Connor’s Sevenwaters, Colin Holter’s red river of the north, Jeffrey Quick’s Piano Trio II, “Experience,” Ryan Charles Ramer’s I Have Wasted This Life And Would Waste Any Other, Robert Rollin’s Rhapsody on Themes by Rachmaninoff, Fuga, Dolores White’s Trio Tango, James Wilding’s Preludes, and Jiří Trtík’s Improvisation No. 30 (After Kandinsky).
The Festival will wrap up on April 11 when conductor Steven Smith leads the Cleveland Chamber Symphony in the annual Young and Emerging Composers Concert at BW’s Gamble Auditorium. As always, the concert will highlight music by the area’s top student composers. This year’s roster includes Nabil Abad (Baldwin Wallace University), Emilio José González (Bowling Green University), Jiří Trtík (Cleveland Institute of Music), Davison Yon (Cleveland State University), Benjamin Grove (Kent State University), Soomin Kim (Oberlin Conservatory), Samuel Ryan Silverman (Cuyahoga Community College), and Cody Ray (University of Akron).
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
NEOSonic Festival performances are free unless otherwise noted.
Thursday, April 5 at 7:30 pm
Carol Robinson, clarinet and Nate Wooley, trumpet
Music by Éliane Radigue
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA)
11400 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland
Purchase tickets here
Friday, April 6 at 8:00 pm
No Exit
Program to be announced
Heights Arts, 2175 Lee Avenue, Cleveland Heights
Saturday, April 7 at 7:00 pm
Cleveland Institute of Music New Music Ensemble, Keith Fitch director
Music by David Rakowski, Stephen Hartke, and Keith Fitch
Bop Stop, 2920 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland
Sunday, April 8 at 7:00 pm
Cleveland Composers Guild and the Syndicate for the New Arts
Music by Jennifer Connor, Colin Holter, Jeffrey Quick, Ryan Charles Ramer, Robert Rollin, Dolores White, James Wilding, and Jiří Trtík
Judson Manor, 1890 East 107th Street, Cleveland
Wednesday April 11 at 7:00 pm
Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Steven Smith director
Young and Emerging Composers Concert
Music by Nabil Abad, Emilio José González, Jiří Trtík, Davison Yon, Benjamin Grove, Soomin Kim, Samuel Ryan Silverman, and Cody Ray
Gamble Auditorium, 96 Front Street, Berea
Published on ClevelandClassical.com March 27, 2018.
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