Brian Wendel Archives - Cleveland Classical

Cleveland Orchestra principal trombone brings 24 carat tone to concerto debut (July 30)

August 6, 2026 by Daniel Hathaway

by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, OHIO — The July 30th Summers at Severance concert by The Cleveland Orchestra celebrated a beautiful evening, with many people decked out in their summer best enjoying pre-concert drinks and nibbles on the terraces and in the grand foyer of Severance Music Center. It was terrific to see a capacity crowd that included so many younger people enjoying the amenities of Severance — and the energy their reactions brought to the program of music by Joseph Haydn, Nino Rota, and Camille Saint-Saëns was memorable.

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Cleveland Orchestra opens 108th season with heroic U.S. premiere of Deutsch’s ‘Urworte’ (Sept. 26)

October 2, 2025 by Kevin McLaughlin

by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND — On Friday evening, Sep. 26, before The Cleveland Orchestra opened its 108th season, Music Director Franz Welser-Möst joined President and CEO André Gremillet onstage for a conversation previewing the next ten programs. With a reenergized music director, an impressive slate of repertoire, soloists, and guest conductors, the Orchestra’s 2025-26 season looks especially bright.

Austrian composer Bernd Richard Deutsch has become a familiar figure here in Cleveland under Welser-Möst. During his tenure as the Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow from 2017 to 2020, the Orchestra introduced his organ concerto “Okeanos” and later, his large orchestra work “Intensity.” On Friday came a third U.S. premiere, “Urworte” (2024). Such partnerships nourish everyone: the composer gains a champion, the orchestra fresh music, and the repertoire welcome enrichment.

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Kazuki Yamada brings sunny energy to multifaceted Cleveland Orchestra program (Aug. 1)

by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — To clap or not to clap between movements — that is the question many Cleveland Orchestra audience members faced on Saturday night at Blossom Music Center. Luckily, Japanese guest conductor Kazuki Yamada had an answer.

Hearing some scattered applause after the first movement of Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2, Yamada turned his head, smiled, and gently put his own hands together. That moment gave the crowd the green light they needed to join in.

Yamada’s willingness to engage with listeners felt like an extension of his genial personality, which allowed him to lead The Cleveland Orchestra on August 1 with both excitement and poise.

[Read on…]

Cleveland Orchestra principal trombone brings 24 carat tone to concerto debut (July 30)

by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

[Read on…]

CIPC for Young Artists: Final Concerto Round (July 31)

by Daniel Hathaway

The last lap in the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists brought the six finalists together with conductor Steven Byess and the Canton Symphony on the stage of Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Friday evening, July 31.

After putting the young musicians through Magic Flute-like trials to test their mettle in solo performances, chamber music, and master classes with Jean-Yves Thibaudet (the latter an innovation designed to assess their adaptability to interpretational suggestions), it was time to hear how they reacted to the real-world scenario of sharing the stage and making music with a conductor and an orchestra. (In consideration of the competitors’ ages, only the first movements of works were performed.) [Read on…]

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