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Arts Renaissance Tremont: The Art of Influence (Mar. 1)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Arts Renaissance Tremont titled their program on Sunday, March 1 “The Art of Influence.” The premise was simple: students now fully launched into professional life performing beside the teachers who shaped them. It was partly debutante’s ball, partly show of pride.

Pilgrim Congregational UCC is a round room — its pews curve inward, the ceiling rises gently, and sound returns generously. On Sunday afternoon the space felt less like a sanctuary than a living room. Erica Brenner, president of ART, greeted the audience warmly, and artistic director Feza Zweifel served as a calm and appreciative emcee.

Cleveland Orchestra percussionists Thomas Sherwood and Tanner Tanyeri opened with Andy Akiho’s Karakurenai. Written for variable instrumentation and played here on orchestral bells (Sherwood) and vibraphone (Tanyeri), it’s a study in interlocking rhythm. As a duet, the piece becomes a test of alignment and nerve.

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Arts Renaissance Tremont celebrates “The Art of Influence”

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By Mike Telin

On Sunday, March 1 at 3:00 pm, Arts Renaissance Tremont continues its season with The ART of Influence. The program features four dynamic pairs of musicians — once teachers and students, now artistic peers — who will take the stage for an engaging afternoon of music and stories. The free concert will be held at Pilgrim Congregational UCC in Tremont.

“Rich King joined the Cleveland Orchestra horn section in 1988 and he’s taught at CIM all these years,” ART artistic director Feza Zweifel said during an interview. “One of his students, Megan Guegold, is now a member of the horn section.”

King and Guegold will join pianist Joanna Huang in Johannes Brahms’ So Lass uns Wandern, Es Rauschet Das Wasser, and Walpurgisnacht, as well as playing Gunther Schuller’s Duet #1 for Unaccompanied Horns and Chanson (Homage a Darius Milhaud).

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Burning River Brass opens Arts Renaissance Tremont season (Dec. 19)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Presented by Arts Renaissance Tremont, Burning River Brass’s annual Holiday Spectacular filled Pilgrim Congregational Church on Friday evening, December 19.

The handsome late 19th-century sanctuary rang with brass, and the season arrived. Many in the audience were regulars, a familiarity that showed in the musicians’ ease onstage — the kind of exchange that gives these concerts an enduring appeal.

Trumpeter Heather Zweifel helped set the tone with spoken introductions that were relaxed, conversational, and disarming. More than an emcee, she shaped the evening’s pace and sense of welcome, guiding listeners through the program with an ease that mirrored the ensemble’s assured playing.

Introductions revealed the players’ far-flung origins — New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Michigan, anchored by a strong Cleveland core — but the playing suggested long acquaintance. [Read more…]

Arts Renaissance Tremont presents Burning River Brass: a holiday tradition

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by Mike Telin

According to HISTORY.com, “the Renaissance was a fervent period of European cultural, artistic, political and economic ‘rebirth’ following the Middle Ages. Generally described as taking place from the 14th century to the 17th century, the Renaissance promoted the rediscovery of classical philosophy, literature and art.”

Founded in 1991 with a mission to enhance the quality and diversity of life in Tremont by providing the fine arts with a greater presence in its neighborhood, Arts Renaissance Tremont has played an important role in creating community and fostering a greater appreciation for the arts through accessible artistic programs.

Although the organization has experienced some setbacks over the past few years, taking a cue from that period in history and their own name, Arts Renaissance Tremont (ART) will return to its founding home, Pilgrim Church UCC, to launch its 34th season with a performance by Burning River Brass on Friday, December 19 at 7:00. The concert is free. [Read more…]

Making its Cleveland debut, Verona Quartet closes Arts Renaissance Tremont season (May 5)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The original plan for the season finale of Arts Renaissance Tremont called for the Cavani Quartet — joint artistic directors of the series at St. Wendelin Church — to join the Verona Quartet, Oberlin Conservatory’s resident string quartet, to form an octet. But when a member of the Cavani became indisposed, the Verona agreed to play the whole program on Sunday afternoon, May 5.

Although the audience at St. Wendelin might have been surprised by the change in plans, nobody could possibly have been disappointed. Violinists Jonathon Ong and Dorothy Ro, violist Abigail Rojansky, and cellist Jonathan Dormand gave revelatory accounts of Mendelssohn’s first and Beethoven’s fifteenth quartets. And they very likely introduced all but a few cognoscenti in the audience to the fascinating music of Grażyna Bacewicz with the Fourth Quartet by the Lithuanian-Polish violinist and composer, who lived from 1909 to 1969.

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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…]

Celebrating the life
of Christine Haff-Paluck

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by Mike Telin

In a message posted on Sunday, April 26, 2020, Arts Renaissance Tremont board president Fred Calatrello wrote:

It is with great regret and a heavy heart that I must inform you that Chris, our friend, colleague and the moving spirit behind ART, passed away last night with her husband at her bedside.

I don’t have to tell any of you what a great loss this is not only for us but also for her many former students, her numberless friends in the musical community and, indeed, anyone who had the good fortune to know and work with her over the many years she lived in and served this community. 

We all know that in addition to husband, family and friends, Chris’ great passion over the past three decades has been ARTS RENAISSANCE TREMONT; not only did she create the organization but she worked year in and year out to secure funding and artists so that each year we could bring great music to audiences in N.E.Ohio. For Chis, this was truly a labor of love.

On Saturday, April 23 at 3:00 pm at Trinity Cathedral, Arts Renaissance Tremont invites  the community to celebrate the life of Christine Haff-Paluck during a Memorial Concert and Gala Benefit.  [Read more…]

Pianist Michelle Cann joins Cavani Quartet to open new season of Arts Renaissance Tremont

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by Daniel Hathaway

Thanks (or no thanks) to the pandemic, Arts Renaissance Tremont will open its new season in mid-winter rather than the fall, and due to other circumstances will move its performances from Pilgrim to St. Wendelin Church. The series will also be under new management: the Cavani Quartet will take over its artistic leadership following the passing of its founder, Christine Haff-Paluck.

On Sunday, February 20 at 4:00 pm, pianist Michelle Cann will join the Cavani in a program of piano quintets by Johannes Brahms and Florence Price. Admission is free, but offerings will be gratefully accepted.

Cann, a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music who is on the faculty of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, is treating her visit as something of a homecoming.

I chatted with her earlier this week on her mobile phone while she was driving from Santa Rosa to San José in California for a recording session with a flutist friend. (Not to worry: Bluetooth was operational.) [Read more…]

Arts Renaissance Tremont: Cavani assume directorship with Beethoven & Montgomery (Nov. 21) 

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Cavani Quartet’s well-attended concert on Sunday, November 21 at St. Wendelin Church marked the sixth of eight performances in the ensemble’s roaming “Beethoven and Beyond” series, as well as the beginning of the 30th season of the Arts Renaissance Tremont series.

Now under the Cavani’s artistic direction following the passing of its founder, Christine Haff-Paluck, ART also introduced a new venue for its concerts, previously presented at Pilgrim UCC.

Each concert in “Beethoven and Beyond” includes two of LvB’s string quartets with a contemporary work in between, usually by way of contrast, although in her introductory remarks, primo violinist Annie Fullard drew thematic connections between the pizzicati in Beethoven’s “Harp” Quartet and Jessie Montgomery’s Strum. [Read more…]

Cavani Quartet to embark on eight-concert “Beyond Beethoven” cycle September 19

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by Daniel Hathaway

COVID-19 may have interrupted the celebration of Beethoven’s 250th Birthday in December 2020, but the Cavani String Quartet has made that event a moveable feast.

On Sunday, September 19, the ensemble will play the first of eight concerts featuring all sixteen of LvB’s quartets. The “Beyond Beethoven” performances, to take place in eight different venues, will match pairs of his quartets with contemporary works, culminating in a grand finale in Severance Hall on December 7.

[Read more…]

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