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Heights Arts Close Encounters series begins its 12th Season

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by Mike Telin

Heights-Arts-TrautweinFor the past eleven years, the Heights Arts Close Encounters series has presented chamber music the way it was meant to be heard — up close and personal in intimate spaces. “I can’t believe this is going to be season twelve,” violinist and series Artistic Director Isabel Trautwein said during a telephone conversation. “I figured out that the last concert of this season will be our 50th.” Click here for ticket information.

Trautwein, a member of The Cleveland Orchestra’s first violin section, said that the idea for the series came informally. “I asked a friend if she knew of an organization that might want some chamber music concerts. She put me in touch with Peggy Spaeth, who was the executive director of Heights Arts at that time. We talked, and here we are.”

In the beginning the concerts were held in private homes, but as the demand for tickets grew, they began branching out into venues including Dunham Tavern and Museum and the Bop Stop. [Read more…]

CIPC Concert Series: Nikita Mndoyants at Maltz with the Omni Quartet (April 30)

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by Mike Telin

MndoyantsOn his way to winning the 2016 Cleveland International Piano Competition, Nikita Mndoyants gave a thrilling performance of Prokofiev’s dissonant Sonata No. 7 in B-flat during his semi-final round. The pianist returned to Cleveland on April 30 to give an impressive recital at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. And again, he proved to have an affinity for the music of the Russian composer. [Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: Ensemble HD, “Cabaret: Between Two World Wars” (Feb. 1)

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by Christine Jay

Ensemble-HD-HiDefCan you successfully bring bar music into the concert hall? Cleveland Orchestra principal flutist Joshua Smith and Ensemble HD say, yes we can. Presented by the Rocky River Chamber Music Society on February 1 at the West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the ensemble performed their concert titled “Cabaret : Between Two World Wars.” [Read more…]

Ensemble HD: “Cabaret — Between Two World Wars” on Rocky River Chamber Music Series February 1

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by Daniel Hathaway

Ensemble-HD-HiDefEnsemble HD, a group of Cleveland Orchestra musicians and friends headed up by principal flute Joshua Smith, garnered a lot of publicity a few years ago when the musicians played at Happy Dog in Gordon Square — a tavern famous for its hot dogs with fifty toppings. The ensemble will be featured on the next Rocky River Chamber Music Society concert on Monday, February 1 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church.

For that free concert, Smith will join fellow Ensemble HD members (oboist Frank Rosenwein, violinist Amy Lee, violist Joanna Patterson, cellist Charles Bernard, and guest pianist Christina Dahl) in music that dates from between the 20th century’s World Wars. We caught up with Joshua Smith in Miami, where the Orchestra was continuing its residency in the sunny south, to ask about Ensemble HD’s forthcoming program. [Read more…]

Heights Arts to offer master classes with Cleveland Orchestra musicians

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Ell-LeeAs part of its Close Encounters chamber music series, Heights Arts will offer master classes with Cleveland Orchestra cellist Tanya Ell on January 11 and with TCO’s associate concertmaster Amy Lee on April 19. Master classes are open to students in grades 6 through 12 and will be held in Heights Arts’ gallery at 2175 Lee Road on Sundays at 11 am.

Interested students may apply online. The deadline for Tanya Ell’s session is Monday, December 1 and applications for Lee’s class will be accepted through March 1. Master classes will be open to the public.

Review: Omni Quartet at LCCC (April 7)

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by Guytano Parks

Omni-QuartetLorain County Community College’s Signature Series of 2013-14 ended on a brilliant note with a performance by the Omni Quartet on Monday evening, April 7. The quartet was established five years ago and is comprised of violinists Amy Lee and Alicia Koelz, violist Joanna Patterson Zakany and cellist Tanya Ell, all members of The Cleveland Orchestra. Their program consisted of Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 2 in a, op. 13 and Beethoven’s Quartet No. 15 in a, op. 132.

Tanya Ell’s brief introductory commentary offered enlightening comparisons between the two works, and the musicians played excerpts to illustrate the similarities and influences, revealing Mendelssohn’s deep reverence for Beethoven and his fascination with the late a minor quartet. The title of his song Ist es wahr? (Is it true?, op. 9, no. 1) is written into the score and it forms the motif of the opening Adagio, appearing in all four movements. Similarly, Beethoven wrote the title of his song Muss es sein? (Must it be?) into the score of op, 132.

The Omni Quartet’s performance of Mendelssohn’s a minor Quartet (written during his teen years) was a model of perfection, teeming with flawless intonation, impeccable ensemble and interpretive taste and intelligence. [Read more…]

Preview: NEOSonicFest — Ensemble HD to be featured in second concert in Harkness Chapel on March 30

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by Mike Telin

Ensemble-HD-Happy-Dog“What I think is great about NEOSonicFest is that the groups that are performing are a good balance and represent what is going on in the music scene here in Cleveland,” Ensemble HD and Cleveland Orchestra principal flutist Joshua Smith said recently by telephone. “I think people will find there is a broad spectrum of musical examples of what the term New Music means.” On Sunday, March 30 beginning at 7:30 pm in Harkness Chapel at Case Western Reserve University, Ensemble HD with special guests Verb Ballets, will feature music that represents a variety of musical styles and combinations of instruments.

Ensemble HD first gained national attention by bringing classical music to new audiences with their performances at the Happy Dog Bar on Cleveland’s near West Side (above). Led by Joshua Smith, the ensemble includes pianist Christina Dahl, associate professor of music at SUNY Stony Brook, and four of Smith’s fellow Cleveland Orchestra members: violinist Amy Lee, oboist Frank Rosenwein, cellist Charles Bernard, and violist Joanna Patterson-Zakany.

[Read more…]

CD Review: Massimo La Rosa, trombone — Sempre Espressivo

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by Daniel Hathaway

LaRosaSempreThree years after releasing his CD, Cantando, Cleveland Orchestra principal trombone Massimo La Rosa has once again teamed up with pianist Elizabeth DeMio — and added four Cleveland Orchestra string colleagues — for a new solo album entitled Sempre Espressivo. Recorded in July, 2013 at Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Clonick Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory, the album was shepherded into production by the eminent team of Elaine Marton (Sonarc Music) and Thomas C. Moore (5/4 Productions) and engineered by 5/4’s Michael Bishop.

The playlist is an intriguing mix of music intentionally written for the trombone and arrangements of solo pieces originally conceived for other instruments. The original works are Frank Martin’s Ballade, Camille Saint-Saëns’s Cavatine and Ferdinand David’s Concertino. The arranged pieces are Puccini’s Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut and Antonio Carlos Gomes’s Grande Valsa de Bravura — both repurposed by Yury Leonovich — and La Rosa’s own adaptations of Wagner’s Träume (Wesendonck Lieder), Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Sinfonia in F and J.S. Bach’s first solo cello suite in G. [Read more…]

Recording review: Ensemble HD — Live at The Happy Dog

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by Mike Telin

Ensemble-HD-GroupToday, May 15, 2013 is here and so marks the official release of the highly anticipated recording Ensemble HD – Live at The Happy Dog. So much has happened since June 23, 2010 when Cleveland Orchestra principal flutist Joshua Smith and Happy Dog proprietor Sean Watterson decided to take the plunge by bringing live “classical” music to a venue more known for presenting local rock and polka bands. But what this album celebrates most is the shared vision and philosophy of creating something that would put a new face on classical music which Smith and Watterson brought to a reality.

In the album’s informative liner notes, Charles Michener insightfully writes

“Yet, perhaps what ails classical music has less to do with the audience, the nature of the music or the people who play it, then it does with the places and the manner in which it is usually played.” Michener suggests, “What if one could experience Beethoven and Bartok in a setting other then a shrine-like auditorium…? What if the players arrived not in formal evening dress but as people who look and act just like the rest of us? What if you could enjoy Beethoven and Bartok in a casual public watering hole on an ordinary urban street while chatting with your companion, ordering food and drink, and even glancing occasionally at a TV monitor where an NBA or NFL game is in progress.” [Read more…]

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