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Search Results for: Stephanie Manning

DIARY: Wednesday, July 26, 2023

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By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at 2pm, Ohio Light Opera gives its next-to-last performance of Frank Loesser’s How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster.

And tonight at 7:30 at Transformer Station in Hingetown, the Cleveland Museum of Arts’ City Stages presents the Toronto-based band Battle of Santiago (pictured), which “combines classic Afro-Cuban rhythms and vocals with a Canadian art-rock spirit and sensibility.”

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Oberlin Conservatory has added a  free, all-J.S. Bach piano recital by Ewa Poblocka to its Piano Festival on Saturday, July 29 at 8 in Warner Concert Hall. Details here. [Read more…]

Local 4 Music Fund’s She Scores: Round Three

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by Mike Telin

When the Institute for Composer Diversity analyzed the 2019-20 seasons of 120 American orchestras, it found that just eight percent of all pieces performed were composed by women. For Amber Rogers, artistic director of the Local 4 Music Fund, that statistic was a call for action. “The idea of concerts featuring female composers isn’t new, but I didn’t see anything quite like this in Cleveland,” Rogers told ClevelandClassical.com’s Stephanie Manning in June of 2021.

On June 2 and 3 at 7:00 pm and June 4 at 4:00 pm at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Hall, She Scores 2023 will feature nineteen compositions by fourteen composers. Emily Laurance will present a pre-concert lecture 45 minutes prior to each free performance. Visit our Concert Listings page for composer names, composition titles, and performers.

“We are adding one piece to the June 3rd concert to honor the late composer Dolores White,” Rogers said during a recent telephone conversation. “Eric Charnofsky met with Dolores’s daughter Dianna and she gave him a couple of scores to pick from. We talked about them and looked at our instrumentation, and Eric and Drew Hosler are doing a piece for saxophone and piano.”

[Read more…]

Alisa Weilerstein reinvents both the old and new with FRAGMENTS (May 11)

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by Stephanie Manning

It’s not uncommon for performers to experiment with a Bach Cello Suite, typically alternating movements with ones from other pieces. But to save the Prelude for last? That’s a little more unusual — yet that wasn’t the only time Alisa Weilerstein chose to do things in reverse.

The cellist’s concert at Severance Music Center on May 11, FRAGMENTS 1, defied many traditions of a solo recital. Audience members gathered knowing the project’s basic conceit — that the evening would feature movements from J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 interspersed with works by 5 of the 27 composers Weilerstein commissioned for this multi-year project. But the specifics of which music would be heard, and when, remained a secret until the programs were distributed at the concert’s conclusion.

[Read more…]

Akron Symphony: sincerity and solace in Brahms’ German Requiem (May 13)

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by Stephanie Manning

It’s not unusual to hear Johannes Brahms’ German Requiem with chorus and piano four-hands, rather than chorus and orchestra. Music-loving Clevelanders may even have heard that version recently, as it’s been popping up on local programs. But on Saturday, May 13, the Akron Symphony Orchestra and Chorus teamed up for a performance of the work that would satisfy lovers of both versions alike.

Before the Requiem, however, the Orchestra and music director Christopher Wilkins opened the evening with Valerie Coleman’s Umoja. Best known in its arrangement for woodwind quintet, the piece gained an orchestral version a few years ago — one that uses the diverse timbres of the bigger ensemble to put a new spin on the work. [Read more…]

Three perspectives on Americanness with The Cleveland Orchestra (Apr. 27)

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by Stephanie Manning

Maybe it was the enduring popularity of Dvořák’s “New World.” Or the excitement of a world premiere. Or the chance to see three contrabass clarinets, three contrabassoons, and three tubas on stage. Whatever the reason, Mandel Concert Hall was packed to the gills on April 27 for an exciting concert by The Cleveland Orchestra.

With one Cleveland Orchestra premiere and one world premiere on the program, Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 almost seemed like the odd one out — yet it drew the evening together in some compelling ways. Though “New World” is familiar to many, the orchestra’s sparkling performance often made it feel just as exciting as a first listen. Every brass chorale was suitably grand, and the ensemble capped off the jaunty third movement with a stunningly rich last chord.

Some uncharacteristic cracks did show through in the second, with an ill-articulated opening, and a too-brisk tempo from music director Franz Welser-Möst. The whole symphony received this speedier interpretation, but it was this movement that was most affected, with the usually calm aura left feeling slightly on edge. Still, this was the exception and not the norm. The first movement, for example, was virtually recording-quality, with some impeccable playing all around.

[Read more…]

15th-century fun with Les Délices (Apr. 22)

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by Stephanie Manning

In the same way that 21st-century music lovers might display their CD collection, more than 500 years ago, Isabella d’Este inlaid her favorite music in her wall.

That piece — Johannes Ockeghem’s Prenez sur moi — kicked off Les Délices’s recent program “Isabella’s Renaissance,” which celebrated the achievements of the renowned 15th-century art patron. Whether by patronage, performance, or study, the music on this hour-long concert was connected in some way to the Marchioness of Mantua.

The evening’s six sections each included two to three pieces, often sandwiching instrumental works in between vocal ones for a sense of balance. Smooth and simple stage changes led the audience at Lakewood Presbyterian Church on April 22 to instinctively hold their applause until the end of each section.

[Read more…]

MTT makes magic with The Cleveland Orchestra (Apr. 13)

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by Stephanie Manning

Both long-time listeners and recent fans likely found something to enjoy at Severance on April 13. The Cleveland Orchestra’s program that weekend not only included a symphony that could win over many a first-time audience member, but also a work that hadn’t been heard from the ensemble since 1930. In either case, the result was fantastic.

At the podium was conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who brought a charming and nuanced interpretation to two lesser-known works by Debussy. Jeux; poème dansé, originally written for the Ballets Russes, is lush yet perpetually unsettled. The orchestra responded well to the music’s indecisive shifts, flitting easily from one thing to the next — all underscored by some precise tamborine work from principal percussionist Marc Damoulakis.

With Jeux’s inclusion of a number of auxiliary instruments came the opportunity for featuring moments across the wind and brass sections, a quality also present in the Fantaisie for piano and orchestra that followed. [Read more…]

Klezmer and Kreutzer 
with CityMusic (Mar. 16)

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by Stephanie Manning

Most clarinetists are no strangers to playing on all the different varieties of their instrument. But using three of them over the course of just one piece? That’s a little more unusual.

On March 16, Daniel Gilbert sat facing a packed crowd at the Temple Tifereth-Israel with a B-flat, A, and bass clarinet all laid out in front of him. The work he was about to embark on with conductor Joel Smirnoff and the CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra was also a little unusual — but in a very intriguing way.

[Read more…]

Akron Symphony delights with “Global Circus” (Feb. 25)

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by Stephanie Manning

Sometimes it can be easy to forget just how much classical music is loved worldwide. Thousands of miles away from the classical music strongholds in Europe and North America, musicians of all backgrounds compose and perform with passion — even at times in the face of difficult circumstances. But as Akron Symphony music director Christopher Wilkins reminded his audience on Saturday, this love is often unrequited, leaving works from places like the Middle East underrepresented on American stages.

With their latest program, “Global Circus,” the Symphony wanted to change that. On February 25, listeners heard works by composers from Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, France, and Argentina in a multimedia program that was both memorable and emotionally moving. [Read more…]

Arts Renaissance Tremont: Shuai Wang and friends (Feb. 19)

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by Stephanie Manning

Playing in an established chamber group is all about routine and slow, gradual progress. There’s something comforting about playing with the same people over and over again, familiarizing yourself with their style and quirks. But sometimes, temporary chamber groups — perhaps formed for one concert only — can inject some extra fun and excitement. On Sunday, February 19, two generations of musicians shared the stage at St. Wendelin Church as Arts Renaissance Tremont presented a program of Schumann and Brahms.

The featured performer was pianist Shuai Wang, a faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music, whose poised interpretations and collaborative spirit made her a reliable presence throughout the afternoon. In her solo outing, Robert Schumann’s Fantasie, Op. 17, her musicality flowed effortlessly, undaunted by any of the dense technical work. [Read more…]

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