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Sords set to resume touring after long hiatus

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by Daniel Hathaway

Before the novel coronavirus blew into the music world in 2020, bringing with it what he calls “the Great Silence,” violinist Andrew Sords was among the busiest touring soloists and chamber musicians in the industry. He reckons that he spent nearly 200 days on the road in 2019, compared to 40 this year.

This Saturday, October 29 at 7:00 pm at the Federated Church in Chagrin Falls, Sords will join colleagues Mari Sato, violin, Eric Wong, viola, John Walz, cello, and Elizabeth DeMio, piano, in works by Brahms, Dvořák, and Rachmaninoff. Dvořák’s Piano Quintet is at the center of the program, a work Sords classifies as “a desert island piece” that should become more of a special undertaking for its performers, rather than just a standard repertory item. “It’s an epic project,” Sords said. “But rehearsing it doesn’t even seem like work.”

That’s a healthy attitude Andrew Sords brings to practicing and rehearsing in general. [Read more…]

The Sparks Fly Upward at the Maltz

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by Mike Telin

When Cathy Lesser Mansfield was asked to write a piece for the youth theater program at the Jewish Community Center in Cleveland Heights in 1977, little did she know that her creation would mark the beginning of her journey to compose an opera.

“That was around the time that Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was popular. So after we did  ‘Joseph’ there was nothing left, so they commissioned young people to write some things,” Mansfield recalled during a Zoom conversation from her office at the Case Western Reserve School of Law where she is a senior instructor. “So I wrote this 45-minute piece with a guitar, piano, and little ensemble. That was The Job Story.”

On Thursday, June 9 at 7:30 pm, The Sparks Fly Upward will receive its Cleveland premiere at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. [Read more…]

Sato & Sords send off Earth & Air with Bologne & Bach

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Earth and Air: String Orchestra is taking its final bow next week, but they won’t be going away quietly. The chamber ensemble has enlisted not one but two soloists for the occasion, more specifically two “Dueling Divas,” as violinists Andrew Sords and Mari Sato call their duo.

Another intriguing pairing is the program itself, which places J.S. Bach and his popular Concerto for two violins in d side by side with the Symphonie Concertante in G of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, an 18th-century Black composer who is only recently receiving his due recognition both in the history books and the concert hall.

The free concert airs on YouTube on the morning of Tuesday, April 20, the fruits of a recording session held earlier this month at Trinity Cathedral and engineered by Paul Eachus, with video direction by Mathias Reed and cinematography by Robert Reiland.

“It has been a wonderful run of six years,” director David Ellis (below) wrote on the ensemble’s website. “We are so grateful to our loyal audience and patrons. We couldn’t have done this without you!” He also left the door open just a crack: “We anticipate other individual and small ensemble projects in the future on a more limited basis.”

[Read more…]

Violinist Andrew Sords launches Green Point Editions

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by Mike Telin 

“I’ve always been fascinated with works that are on the fringe of the repertoire,” violinist Andrew Sords said by telephone. The problem with learning and ultimately performing works that are off the beaten track is that even with published works, the editions are often riddled with mistakes, if not illegible. “I’m a little OCD when it comes to the score that’s in front of me. I want it to be legible, correct, and have it provide some historical context.”

Following years of frustration, Sords has taken matters into his own hands. Joining forces with music engraver Daniel Singer, the violinist’s new venture, Green Point Editions, sheds light on musical gems that are often neglected on concert stages. Currently available are works by Franz Joseph Haydn, Jenö Hubay, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jean Sibelius, Claudio Brindis de Salas, and Eugène Ysaÿe/Frederic Chopin.

Misprints in published editions have existed for centuries. Sords noted that Dvořák’s Violin Concerto has a famously wrong note in the final arpeggio. “You can’t blame the performer simply because they are playing from prints that their teachers said had the correct notes. But have some curiosity. Look at the Urtext, or prints from the 19th century that might be a little more accurate.”

[Read more…]

Andrew Sords & friends in Rocky River (Sept. 22)

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by David Kulma

As violinist Andrew Sords criss-crosses the continent playing violin concerti, he builds into his schedule hometown concerts to play with his Cleveland-area colleagues. “An Afternoon of Romantic Chamber Music,” the program he anchored for Rocky River Presbyterian Church’s Artist Concert Series on Sunday, September 22, was an opportunity to perform music written specifically by composers to play with their friends. [Read more…]

Violinist Andrew Sords: at home, with friends 

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by Mike Telin 

While violinist Andrew Sords’ prolific career as a soloist and chamber musician takes him around the world to far away places, there’s just something about coming back to Cleveland and making music with his friends. “There’s nothing better than to rehearse with these high-level colleagues, and have dinner afterwards,” the Cleveland Institute of Music graduate said by telephone on his way to Toronto.

On Sunday, September 22 at 3:00 pm at Rocky River Presbyterian Church, Sords will join violinist Mari Sato, violist Eric Wong, cellist Nathanael Matthews, and pianist Elizabeth DeMio for a program titled “An Afternoon of Romantic Chamber Music.” The free concert is presented as part of the church’s Artist Concert Series.

“Liz and I have done nearly 400 performances together,” Sords said, “and I’ve known Nate Matthews for a number of years. Mari was a coach of mine at CIM. We get along so well and I’m always inspired by her classy playing. And Eric and I were both students at CIM but never worked together until this year, when we played the Schumann piano quintet back in January. I thought wow, what a player.”

[Read more…]

Earth and Air with Andrew Sords (Nov. 2)

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by David Kulma

Earth and Air: String Orchestra opened their fourth season this past Friday evening at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights with a charming continuation of their Mendelssohn String Symphonies project. Music Director David Ellis curated this Part Two in the pleasant spirit of a potpourri concert: the movements of the featured symphony were divided up, with other works by the composer played in between.

[Read more…]

Chagrin Concert Series to feature Andrew Sords in new Evan Fein sonata

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by Daniel Hathaway

Fein- EvanViolinist Andrew Sords will bring a new piece by Cleveland-born, New York-based composer Evan Fein (left) to his recital with Eriko Izumida on Sunday afternoon, April 15 at 3:00 pm at Valley Lutheran Church in Chagrin Falls. In addition to Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata, Schubert’s Rondo, and Sarasate’s Gypsy Airs, Sords’ program on the Chagrin Concert Series will feature the first performance of Fein’s Untranslatable (Violin Sonata No. 1).

In a telephone conversation from New York, where he teaches at the Juilliard School, Fein noted that he’s known Andrew Sords for years — the composer grew up in Richmond Heights and he and the violinist were in the same class at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Fein wrote a piece for Sords as his senior thesis, and years later, Sords commissioned Untranslatable, which Fein completed last summer.

I asked him where he got the idea for that title.

[Read more…]

Andrew Sords & Brian Wentzel on FIRST•music series (Jan. 28)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Sords Wentzel 2Since violinist Andrew Sords last played a recital at Lorain’s First Lutheran Church early in 2014, the building burned to the ground at the hands of an arsonist. Sords’ engaging recital last Sunday, January 28 took place in the nearly-complete sanctuary of a handsome new building complex, giving patrons of the FIRST•music series a preview of what they can look forward to in the future — especially when the new Paul Fritts organ arrives to fill the gap in the wall in the photo above. [Read more…]

Trinity Cathedral’s BrownBag Concert Series turns 40

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by Mike Telin

trinity-jake-sarahSince the BrownBag Concert Series at Trinity Cathedral presented its first concert in January of 1978, it has firmly established itself as an integral part of Cleveland’s vibrant music scene. Today the series hosts over 5,000 guests annually, from newborns to centenarians.

On Wednesday, October 4 at 12:00 noon, Music and Art at Trinity will kick off the 40th anniversary of the free series with a concert featuring the Trinity Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Todd Wilson and a return visit by the dynamic saxophone duo Jake & Sarah. The program includes music by Handel, Quantz, Glazunov, and Koch, as well as the world premiere of Nathan Hall’s Forces of Change, a concerto for solo saxophone and string orchestra.

“It’s a remarkable achievement for any concert series to go on for 40 uninterrupted years, and with such a high degree of success,” Todd Wilson, the Cathedral’s organist and director of music, said during a telephone conversation. [Read more…]

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