Alexandra Preucil Archives - Cleveland Classical

Cavani String Quartet to present “A Viennese Legacy” December 3rd

November 28, 2017 by Mike Telin

by Mike Telin

On Sunday, December 3, at 7:00 pm in Mixon Hall, the Cavani String Quartet — Annie Fullard and Mari Sato, violins, Eric Wong, viola, and Si-Yan Darren Li, cello — will present a recital as part of the Cleveland Institute of Music’s annual Winter Chamber Music Festival. “A Viennese Legacy” will include Haydn’s Quartet in F, Op. 77, No. 2, Webern’s Langsamer Satz, and Beethoven’s Quartet No. 15 in A, Op. 132. The concert is free but seating passes are required and available online. For a complete list of Festival events click here.

Last August, just after violist Eric Wong and cellist Si-Yan Darren Li had joined the ensemble, ClevelandClassical.com spoke with all four members of the Cavani Quartet. The following was originally published on August 7 before the Quartet’s performance on the Cuyahoga Valley National Park series.

When two longtime members of a string quartet decide to leave the ensemble, the remaining musicians have to ask themselves what to do next. [Read more…]

Jahja Ling reminisces on the 30th Anniversary of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra

May 4, 2016 by Daniel Hathaway

by Mike Telin

Youth orchestras have long provided the inspiration for young musicians to decide whether to make music their career goal. Sometimes they’ve had an important impact on conductors, as well. Such is the case with Jahja Ling, who founded two notable youth orchestras during his career: those of The Cleveland Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony.

On Sunday, May 8 at 3:00 pm at Severance Hall, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra will present the concluding concert of its 30th-anniversary season under the direction of current music director Brett Mitchell. The program will include Adam Schoenberg’s Finding Rothko, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, and Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto, featuring COYO concerto competition winner Jieming Tang. [Read more…]

Singers’ Club of Cleveland: To Dwell in Harmony (Dec. 9)

by Kevin McLaughlin

The Singers’ Club of Cleveland brought the joy of the season to Trinity Cathedral on Tuesday evening with a program titled To Dwell in Harmony, a holiday offering both polished and good-humored. The venerable all-male chorus — whose lineage stretches back to 1891 and includes collaborations with conductors from Beryl Rubinstein to Robert Shaw — now finds itself under new leadership.

Christopher Clark, appointed in August as Artistic Director (while serving concurrently as Director of Choirs at Case Western Reserve University), led his first Singers’ Club concert with easy command. The chorus appeared to trust him from the first downbeat, and the audience received him just as warmly.

Trinity Cathedral, whose acoustics can flatter or expose a chorus in equal measure, proved an asset. The evening opened with one of its most effective moments: Veni, Veni Emmanuel in John Englert’s arrangement. Clark placed the choir on three sides of the audience, creating a surround-sound of chant that was silky and assured — a confident beginning. [Read on…]

Les Délices welcomes the festive season with “Noel, Noel” (Dec. 7)

by Stephanie Manning

Once December kicks in, an almost overwhelming number of holiday programs pop up around Northeast Ohio. But Les Délices’ offering should draw your attention.

While other festive concerts may create the atmosphere of a bustling party by the fireplace, “Noel, Noel” is like observing a snowy evening from the warmth of the indoors. This is music best enjoyed in quiet contentment, and especially live — so it’s no surprise that the early music ensemble brought back this signature program for three performances this month.

On December 7 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the six-member group presented a lovely ninety-minute program, which is also available on CD and via streaming until the end of the year. [Read on…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir: In Four Voices (Dec. 3)

by Kevin McLaughlin

Renaissance polyphony can bloom in resonant spaces, but the Donna and James Reid Gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art presents particular challenges: hard surfaces and a long reverb tend to blur consonants into watercolor. The Cleveland Chamber Choir’s four-voice ensemble met those conditions head-on during its “In Four Voices” program on December 3. What emerged was an evening of consistently beautiful vocal timbre shaped by a group navigating the sonic characteristics of the room.

The concert, to be followed in January and March by appearances of various-sized ensembles, is part of a new development for the Cleveland Chamber Choir, called the Camerata Series — more information here.

To improve their chances of hearing one another, the quartet — soprano Lauren Vanden Broeck, mezzo-soprano Kira McGirr, tenor Joel Kincannon, and bass Dominic Aragon — stood in a traditional “part book” formation, like a diamond, facing inward. This meant that their sound was directed toward each other, rather than outward to the listeners around them. [Read on…]

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