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BlueWater Chamber Orchestra turns fifteen! (Part 1)

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by Mike Telin

Conductor Carlton Woods led the Midland, Michigan Symphony from 1997 to 2007 while teaching at Central Michigan University. When he and his wife Ladonna retired, they chose to relocate to Westlake, where they spent their first year soaking up all that Northeast Ohio’s classical music scene had to offer.

“We had season tickets to everything — The Cleveland Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire — and we went to concerts at CIM, Baldwin Wallace, Oberlin, and Cleveland State University,” Ladonna said during a Zoom conversation.

Describing her late husband as the quintessential promoter in the world of classical music, Ladonna Woods said that after spending a lifetime in music, during that first year of retirement she could see that her husband was getting bored. Then one day he asked her what she would think if he started a chamber orchestra.

“I thought, ‘Oh, no, here we go.’ I knew that he wasn’t asking my permission, he was telling me that he had already worked all out. So I told him, ‘I think you’re crazy, and I was really looking forward to us just going places and being a normal everyday couple.’ The interesting thing was that he had so much fun conducting. It was his love. And he kept saying, ‘Ladonna, someday they’re going to find out how much fun I’m having.’ When he said that, I thought, ‘Well, this is a done deal.’”  [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra crosses the pond without ever leaving Cleveland (Nov. 23)

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By Peter Feher

On Saturday, Nov. 23 at University Circle’s Church of the Covenant, the outstanding BlueWater Chamber Orchestra transported listeners across the Atlantic with a pleasantly English program of Gerald Finzi, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Franz Joseph Haydn. Artistic director Daniel Meyer described his affinity for this repertoire — and explained how Haydn happens to qualify as an “honorary Englishman” — in several amiable asides throughout the evening.

Yet the focus of this concert was undoubtedly on the exceptional caliber of musician that one can find right here in Cleveland.

Violinist James Thompson — a Northeast Ohio native, graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as BlueWater’s guest concertmaster this season — was the star of the night. He soared while soloing in Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, that sentimental favorite that somehow never loses its shine.

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BlueWater Chamber Orchestra: James Thompson reflects on Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending

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by Mike Telin

Two personal interests of composer Ralph Vaughan Williams were poetry and the violin, both of which are magically entwined in his work for violin and orchestra, The Lark Ascending, inspired by George Meredith’s poem of the same name. The composer’s wife Ursula wrote that in the work Vaughan Williams had “taken a literary idea on which to build his musical thought…and had made the violin become both the bird’s song and its flight…”

On Saturday, November 23 at 7:30 pm at the Church of the Covenant, violinist James Thompson will join the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra in Vaughan Williams’ethereal, single-movement work. Under the direction of Daniel Meyer, the English-themed program — Interlaced Brilliance and Love — also includes Gerald Finzi’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 (“London”). The program will also be presented on Friday the November 22 at Rocky River Presbyterian Church. (Pay-what-you-wish format).

During a recent telephone conversation, Thompson, who is BlueWater’s guest concertmaster this season, said that he understood that the work was under consideration when he was asked to join the ensemble. “I know Daniel is excited to include it on the program, so in a lot of ways, mathematically and logistically, it fits the bill. And it’s actually going to be a first performance for both of us. I’ve not had the opportunity to play the piece either, so we’ll be discovering it together this week.”

[Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra meditates on the passage of time (Oct. 5)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

On October 5 at the Church of the Covenant, artistic director Daniel Meyer led the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra in an engaging program of new and familiar works, including David Biedenbender’s River of Time, with former BlueWater principal trumpet and co-artistic director Neil Mueller as soloist.

As a glorious opener, the Cleveland School of the Arts R. Nathaniel Dett Concert Choir (Robert McCorvey, director) and the BlueWater Orchestra combined forces during four spiritual and gospel arrangements. CSA also supplied select string players from the school to sit alongside the professionals, adding tonal depth and youthful energy. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra begins its 15th season: a conversation with Neil Mueller

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by Mike Telin

When Carlton Woods was set to retire from his post at Michigan’s Midland Symphony Orchestra in 2007, the longtime music educator and conductor, along with his wife Ladonna, set his sights on Cleveland.

Why Cleveland? “I wanted to come where I could hear the best orchestra in the country and one of the greatest in the world every week,” Woods told The Plain Dealer in a 2015 interview. Once here, Woods quickly recognized the wealth of professional musicians living in the area who were looking for more opportunities to perform. In a sense, Woods seized the moment, and in 2010 with the tagline “From Cleveland for Cleveland,” the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra was born.

On Saturday, October 4 at 7:30 pm at the Church of the Covenant, the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra will kick off its fifteenth anniversary with “Threads of Time, Struggle, and Hope.” [Read more…]

Fall Preview: Anniversaries & New Beginnings

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by Daniel Hathaway

While compiling our master calendar for 2024-2025, we noted some milestones to celebrate among Northeast Ohio’s musical organizations and at least one new arrival on the scene to mention.

The Cleveland Women’s Orchestra (pictured in 1938) begins its 90th season this year, with a November concert at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, a holiday concert at Judson Manor in December, and an anniversary performance at Severance Music Center in March.

For its 75th season, Cleveland Chamber Music Society will host only six ensembles at Disciples Church rather than the usual seven, but No. 6, the Jerusalem Quartet, will perform all 15 of Dmitri Shostakovich’s string quartets in five April concerts at the Cleveland Museum of Art. CCMS’s season begins with Chanticleer on September 24 and includes concerts by the Imani Winds with pianist Michelle Cann, Cuarteto Casals, flutist Emmanuel Pahud with pianist Alessio Bax, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra: Jason Vieaux plays Vivaldi & Dorman

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by Mike Telin

“I’m really looking forward to this concert because the last time I played with BlueWater was around ten years ago, when I played Rodrigo’s Concierto Aranjuez with them,” guitarist Jason Vieaux said during a telephone conversation. “The Vivaldi concerto is very popular and well-known to audiences, and I think it will pair well with Avner Dorman’s concerto.”

On Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 pm at the Church of the Covenant, Vieaux will join the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra in performances of Vivaldi’s Concerto in D, RV 93 and Avner Dorman’s How to Love. Under the direction of Daniel Meyer, the program also includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. The concert is presented in partnership with the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society. Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available online. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra: a remarkable program with Kondonassis (Mar. 16)

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by Peter Feher

The Carnival of the Animals is missing a movement. You could easily believe this listening to Koholā Sings, an enchanting new piece by Takuma Itoh, which uses a harp to conjure up the voice of a humpback whale.

In a sensitive solo turn, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis gave the world premiere of Itoh’s work at University Circle’s Church of the Covenant on March 16, joined by BlueWater Chamber Orchestra and conductor Daniel Meyer. Their collaboration was the highlight of a program that was all-around remarkable for its delicate touch.

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BlueWater Chamber Orchestra: a conversation with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis

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by Mike Telin

“I think everybody who plays an instrument has a piece that when they heard it for the first time, they said — this is what I want to do with my life because I want to play this piece as many times as I can,” harpist Yolanda Kondonassis said during a Zoom call.

On Saturday, March 16 at 7:30 pm at Church of the Covenant, Kondonassis will perform Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro with the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra. Under the direction of Daniel Meyer, the program will also include the world premiere of Takuma Itoh’s Kohola Sings for harp and chamber orchestra, Roland’s Suite by Lully, and selections of Fauré’s Incidental Music to Pelléas et Mélisande with soprano Amanda Powell. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish.

Kondonassis recalled hearing the Ravel live for the first time at the Cleveland Institute of Music while she was still in high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy. “My teacher at Interlochen brought me to Cleveland with her on spring break. She was a student of Alice Chalifoux — who would become my mentor and teacher. I stayed with Alice and would go with her to CIM when she taught. I happened to go to somebody’s degree recital and I remember hearing the Ravel in The Pavilion, where Mixon Hall is now, and thinking it was the most phenomenal ear candy I had ever experienced.”

[Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra: Jinjoo Cho soars in Barber Concerto (Nov. 17)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

In a pre-holiday offering, Bluewater Chamber Orchestra’s audience received gifts simple and somber, with intermittent thrills, on Friday evening, November 17. In an all-American program, the pleasures were many: Cindy McTee’s moving Adagio for strings, Barber’s firework of a Violin Concerto, and Copland’s wise portrait of rural America, Appalachian Spring.

[Read more…]

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