by Kevin McLaughlin
Music and poetry augmented one another on Saturday, June 10 at the Akron Public Library.
This much-anticipated concert on the ENCORE Chamber Music Institute series featured the impeccable playing of the Cavani String Quartet and infectious recitations by Mwatabu Okantah, poet and Professor of Pan-African Studies at Kent State University. Alongside standard repertory, the Cavani performed several Americana-inflected string quartets to the words of Okantah, providing a moving amalgam of words and music.
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.
Though this past year took a lot from musicians, it also gave many the rare gift of time. Jinjoo Cho, artistic director of ENCORE Chamber Music Institute, decided to use that time to bring a long-held idea of hers to fruition — but first, it would require a lot of research. Starting June 6, ENCORE will present its 2021 Music & Ideas Festival, a reimagined format that makes the organization’s sixth season its most ambitious yet.
Bohemian music celebrating life and the arts is the theme for ENCORE Chamber Music’s fourth season, titled “La Bohème.” From June through mid-July, the festival will present eight ticketed faculty concerts, seven free student performances, and seventeen free master classes, all at the Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills. Both