by Daniel Hathaway
Hearing the Akron Symphony’s “Planet Earth” program on Friday evening, March 23 in E.J. Thomas Hall was like playing around with Google Earth — the fascinating app that lets you zoom around between completely unrelated global destinations from the comfort of your laptop. Music Director Christopher Wilkins crafted an itinerary that visited both poles — Antarctica and the Finnish Arctic — tucking in trips to Rome and the Scottish Hebrides as well. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“I like to play great music and I consider Mathis to be one of the greatest 20th-century works. And Pictures, especially in the Ravel orchestration, is a classic,” conductor Christopher Wilkins said by telephone. “Like the other two, Burchfield is a wonderful piece with a dazzling orchestration.”
On Saturday, November 18 at 8:00 pm in E.J. Thomas Hall, the Akron Symphony will present three works inspired by masterpieces of art: Eric Benjamin will conduct Morton Gould’s Burchfield Gallery, and Wilkins will lead Paul Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler and Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Tickets are available online.
The concert will also include projected visual images of the art that inspired the music. “Because showing a single image is a static thing to do, I think it’s more artistically honest to show and talk about the paintings and then perform the work,” Wilkins said. “In all three cases that is what we’re going to do.” [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“If you delve into the choral works of Brahms, you will see that everything culminates in his Requiem. It’s what most people think of when you mention his works for chorus and orchestra,” conductor Marie Bucoy-Calavan said during a telephone conversation. “What I like about Gesang der Parzen (‘Song of the Fates’) is that you get the darker side of Brahms along with a little bit of heavy metal. It is very passionate and there are places where it’s harsh and heavy. I enjoy that aspect of it, and I think the chorus does too.”
On Friday, October 6 at 8:00 pm at The University of Akron’s E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall, Marie Bucoy-Calavan, who serves as director of the Akron Symphony Chorus and artistic director of the Summit Chorale Society’s Masterworks Chorale, will make her Akron Symphony Orchestra conducting debut when she leads all three ensembles in Brahms’ Gesang der Parzen. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Music by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, and Dvořák gave the Akron Symphony audience a window into “The Slavic Soul” in both its Russian and Czech manifestations on Saturday evening, September 23 in E.J. Thomas Hall. At the center of the program was a brilliant performance of Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto led by Music Director Christopher Wilkins and featuring the young Boston cellist Tony Rymer — although the composer might well have named the work “Concerto for Cello, Horn, and Orchestra,” so prominent a role that brass instrument plays in the piece. [Read more…]
Steven Cocchiola, orchestra director at the Brecksville-Broadview high school, has claimed the first Akron Symphony Music Educator of the Year Award. A versatile leader, Cocchiola conducts the school’s Concert Orchestra, String Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, and 7th & 8th grade orchestras beside his directorial duties and music theory classes. He is also on the artistic staff of the Summit Choral Society. [Read more…]
by Levi Hammer
Special to ClevelandClassical.com
“Why, oh why, oh why, oh — why did I ever leave Ohio?” So goes Bernstein’s Broadway hit. In moments of discouragement in Berlin over the last year, my thoughts drifted to that tune. This summer brought me back to Ohio for my third season at Cincinnati Opera, where I worked on the Barrie Kosky production of The Magic Flute on loan from the Komische Oper Berlin. Spending a summer in my beloved Ohio has given me cause to reflect on my time there.
I first traveled to Ohio assisting Benjamin Zander when he was conducting Mahler’s Ninth Symphony with the Akron Symphony. I had never heard of this orchestra, let alone of the city of Akron, and I was unaware of the musical riches of Northeast Ohio, extending back to industrialization, and the two world-class orchestras in the region (The Cleveland Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony). [Read more…]
From movie soundtracks and Broadway shows, to world renowned concert halls, New York-based violinist Tallie Brunfelt has proven her artistic abilities time and time again. Her newest performance endeavor will be to serve as concertmaster of the Akron Symphony Orchestra, succeeding Alan Bodman, who retired at the end of the 2015-2016 season after 30 years of service to the orchestra. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
A critical mass of nearly 200 singers joined Christopher Wilkins, the Akron Symphony, and a first-rate quartet of soloists for a resounding performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah on Saturday evening, May 5 in E.J. Thomas Hall. Commissioned for the 1846 Birmingham Festival following the success of his earlier oratorio St. Paul, Mendelssohn’s concert-length work presents the life of the Hebrew prophet in several dramatic scenes.
by Mike Telin
If you’re looking for a different way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, the Akron Symphony has the answer. On Friday, March 17 at 8:00 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall, Christopher Wilkins will lead the Orchestra in a program titled “Dance Meets Symphony.” The first half of the program will include Irish-themed works by Leroy Anderson as well as Manuel de Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat.
The second half of the evening will mark the first mainstage collaboration between the ASO and Neos Dance Theatre. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Akron Symphony Music Director Christopher Wilkins has continued his resourceful community engagement initiatives by inviting the young members of Akron’s Alchemy, Inc., founded by G. Kwame Scruggs, to undertake a study of the Russian Firebird myth. To begin the second half of the program on Friday evening, February 10 at E.J. Thomas Hall, a dozen Alchemy drummers set up a stirring groove before tag-team narrating an introduction to Stravinsky’s complete Firebird ballet, illustrated by musical examples from the Orchestra. [Read more…]