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Akron Symphony Orchestra: 15 minutes with cellist Tony Rymer

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Rymer-Tony“The purpose of art is expression, but I think it’s also about empathy,” cellist Tony Rymer said in a recent conversation. “When you’re studying a piece by a composer who died a couple hundred years ago, in the end, you’re trying to understand why they wrote it that way and what they wanted it to sound like. You have to connect with someone from a different time — you kind of become friends with dead people through the music.”

On Saturday, September 23 at 8:00 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall, Rymer will join the Akron Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Christopher Wilkins for the season opener, “Slavic Soul,” featuring Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave, Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1, and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7. Wilkins will lead a pre-concert discussion at 7:00 pm.

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Akron Symphony appoints new Concertmaster

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From movie soundtracks and Broadway shows, to world renowned concert halls, New York-based violinist Tallie Brunfelt has proven her artistic abilities time and time again. Her newest performance endeavor will be to serve as concertmaster of the Akron Symphony Orchestra, succeeding Alan Bodman, who retired at the end of the 2015-2016 season after 30 years of service to the orchestra. [Read more…]

Save the dates for September’s early season openers & special events

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by Daniel Hathaway

hradetzky_usa_oh_cleveland_st_paulsAfter the gradual spinning down of the summer concert season, September can sneak up on you. Here’s a list of early season openers and one-off events that Northeast Ohio music lovers should be sure to jot down in their calendars.

Ars Organi at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights

Organist Karel Paukert has created a festival to celebrate the collection of organs (and a harpsichord) that grace the music program at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. The seven events in “Ars Organi” between September 15 and October 1 will feature the Walter Holtkamp Sr. instrument as well as the Vladimir Slajch chamber organ, the Gerhard Hradetzky Italian Baroque organ, and the Matthias Griewisch harpsichord — a fleet of keyboard instruments any church would be delighted to have at its disposal.

Performers include Prague organist Jaroslav Tuma (right) on Friday, September 15 at 7:30 jaroslav_tumapm and Saturday, September 16 at 4:00 pm (featuring his paraphrase of Smetana’s My Country); Oberlin professor James David Christie with members of Oberlin’s Collegium Musicum on Tuesday, September 19 at 7:30 pm; and University of Kansas professor James Higdon in a lecture and masterclass on Jehan Alain on Saturday, September 23 at 2:00 pm and a recital of Alain’s works on Sunday, September 24 at 4:00 pm. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony: Mendelssohn’s Elijah at E.J. Thomas Hall (May 5)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ASO ElijahA critical mass of nearly 200 singers joined Christopher Wilkins, the Akron Symphony, and a first-rate quartet of soloists for a resounding performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah on Saturday evening, May 5 in E.J. Thomas Hall. Commissioned for the 1846 Birmingham Festival following the success of his earlier oratorio St. Paul, Mendelssohn’s concert-length work presents the life of the Hebrew prophet in several dramatic scenes.

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Akron Symphony & Choruses to present Mendelssohn’s Elijah

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by Daniel Hathaway

mendelssohnconductingelijahAt least one scholar has pointed out that the British entered the 19th century as a nation of folk singers, but emerged as a nation of oratorio singers. The Birmingham Triennial Festival, founded in 1787, became one of the principal commissioners of new works for large choruses and orchestras, and one of that festival’s favorite composers was Felix Mendelssohn.

Also a favorite of Queen Victoria and her Prince Consort Albert, Mendelssohn wrote and conducted St. Paul and his Second Piano Concerto for the 1837 Festival, and composed Elijah for the 1846 event, the year before he died. Elijah became so popular that it was performed at every successive festival until the series ended in 1912.

On Saturday, May 6 at 8:00 pm, Christopher Wilkins will conduct the Akron Symphony and the combined voices of the Akron Symphony Chorus, the Summit Choral Society’s Masterworks Chorale, and the University of Akron choruses, prepared by Marie Bucoy-Calavan, in Mendelssohn’s famous oratorio. [Read more…]

Neos Dance Meets Symphony in Akron: a conversation with Robert Wesner

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by Mike Telin

Neos-Dance-TheaterIf you’re looking for a different way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, the Akron Symphony has the answer. On Friday, March 17 at 8:00 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall, Christopher Wilkins will lead the Orchestra in a program titled “Dance Meets Symphony.” The first half of the program will include Irish-themed works by Leroy Anderson as well as Manuel de Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat.

The second half of the evening will mark the first mainstage collaboration between the ASO and Neos Dance Theatre. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony introduces a vivid Firebird with drum circle

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by Daniel Hathaway

ASO-Alchemy-CWAkron Symphony Music Director Christopher Wilkins has continued his resourceful community engagement initiatives by inviting the young members of Akron’s Alchemy, Inc., founded by G. Kwame Scruggs, to undertake a study of the Russian Firebird myth. To begin the second half of the program on Friday evening, February 10 at E.J. Thomas Hall, a dozen Alchemy drummers set up a stirring groove before tag-team narrating an introduction to Stravinsky’s complete Firebird ballet, illustrated by musical examples from the Orchestra. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony: Christopher Wilkins talks about musical myths and legends

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by Mike Telin

Wilkins-Christopher“The greatest music in The Firebird exists between what we hear in the suites,” Akron Symphony Music Director Christopher Wilkins said of Igor Stravinsky’s complete ballet score. “The horn is Prince Ivan, and during the solo horn passages in the full ballet you can hear him speaking. You can hear his dialogue with the princess and the little interjections from the Firebird who is swirling overhead.”

On Friday, February 10 at 8:00 pm, music inspired by myths and legends will take center stage at E.J. Thomas Hall when Christopher Wilkins leads the Akron Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Stravinsky’s groundbreaking ballet The Firebird.

The program will also include Carl Maria von Weber’s “Overture” to Der Freischütz — based on the German folk legend of the “free shooter” who has a contract with the devil — and the Suite No. 2 from Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé, which recounts the love between a goat herder and a shepherdess. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony invites community friends into its “Home for the Holidays” concert

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by Daniel Hathaway

gmschoir“Like families everywhere, the Akron Symphony celebrates the holiday season with our neighbors and friends,” music director Christopher Wilkins said in a press release about the Orchestra’s“Home for the Holidays” concert on Friday, December 9 at 7:30 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall. And in the case of the ASO, there are a lot of friends to include in the party.

Most American orchestras have established relationships with the wider community they serve, but Wilkins and his predecessors have gone well beyond “outreach” activities to include active participation by community groups in the Orchestra’s activities.

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Akron Symphony collaborates with Tuesday Musical and Sō Percussion (October 15)

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by Daniel Hathaway

so-wine-bottlesAs Akron Symphony music director Christopher Wilkins put it in his speech to the audience in E.J. Thomas Hall on Saturday, October 15, the Orchestra’s program featured “not wasps, not birds, and not planets.” [Read more…]

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