by Samantha Spaccasi
It was hot and humid on the evening of July 22, but that didn’t stop concertgoers from flocking to Blossom Music Center to hear the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]
BlueWater Chamber Orchestra with Charles Latshaw, Emily Cornelius & Linda Atherton (Feb. 27)
by Daniel Hathaway
BlueWater Chamber Orchestra welcomed guest conductor Charles Latshaw to the podium at the Breen Center in Ohio City on Saturday, February 27. The concert featured two of its own members, violinist Emily Cornelius and cellist Linda Atherton, in the double concerto by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. An Arriaga overture and a Beethoven symphony completed the 70-minute performance, played without intermission. [Read more…]
Review: La Cambiale di Matrimonio at Kent/Blossom Festival (July 18)
by Mike Telin
After a nearly thirty-year absence, vocal music returned to the Kent/Blossom Festival on Saturday, July 18 in Ludwig Recital Hall, and what an enjoyable afternoon it was. In fact, there are so many good things to say it’s difficult to know where to begin. Let’s start with the delightful musical selection — Rossini’s first professional opera, La Cambiale di Matrimonio or The Marriage Contract, performed in a costumed concert version sung in Italian with English supertitles (Sarah Harvey). [Read more…]
Kent/Blossom Festival to perform Rossini’s first opera (July 18)
by Mike Telin
What do you do if you’re running a summer music festival and you discover that for one week, the majority of your teachers will be unavailable to coach ensembles and give private lessons? The obvious answer is to present an opera! On Saturday, July 18 at 3:00 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall, vocal music returns to the Kent/Blossom Music Festival when festival director Charles Latshaw will lead the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra and soloists in a concert version of Giaochino Rossini’s first opera, La Cambiale di Matrimonio.
“It is an exciting undertaking, but there were a lot of things that came together in order for it to happen,” Charles Latshaw said during a telephone conversation. “This year we had a unique challenge and opportunity in that The Cleveland Orchestra is in New York this week as part of the Lincoln Center Festival, which left us with fewer coaches for that period of time. We talked about different options, and in the end we decided to bring opera back to the festival, and I think the audience is going to be receptive to the idea.” [Read more…]
Kent/Blossom Music Festival Culminates in Side-by-Side Concert with The Cleveland Orchestra
By Daniel Hautzinger
Learning and putting together Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time is a scramble against time. The piece features complicated rhythms (sometimes notated without time signatures), infinitely long phrases, and complicated layering of parts. György Ligeti’s Horn Trio and Schoenberg’s First Chamber Symphony are similarly difficult works. But students at Kent/Blossom Music Festival (KBMF) are assigned to learn them in two weeks for performance.
“Two weeks is just enough time,” said Keith Robinson, artistic coordinator of Kent/Blossom, professor of cello at Kent State and KBMF, and cellist in the Miami String Quartet, who gave a recital as part of the festival. “You want something that will challenge them for two whole weeks.” [Read more…]
Preview: Kent/Blossom Music Festival
By Mike Telin and Daniel Hautzinger
Every summer, young music students leave their conservatories to attend festivals, where they essentially continue the studies they undertake during the year, but with other teachers, and performances and master classes by exceptional visiting artists. Kent/Blossom Music Festival is no different: students descend upon Kent State University for five weeks to study with musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra, Kent Faculty, and guest artists. Throughout those five weeks, there are six faculty concerts and a performance with the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as eight student recitals (see our concert listings page for details).
“We put the students in a room and say ‘here’s your group and your music. Good luck,’” said Charles Latshaw, director of the Kent State University Orchestra and of Kent/Blossom. “In a few days we bring in a faculty coach who’ll work with them. The students learn and grow on their own and develop their own personal expression. That’s special for a chamber music festival.” [Read more…]