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Leonard Slatkin to lead
CIM Orchestra at Severance

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Over the past month, Leonard Slatkin has gone back to school.

The recent college visits, so to speak, for the renowned conductor — who is currently Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony, Directeur Musical Honoraire of the Orchestre National de Lyon, Conductor Laureate of the St. Louis Symphony, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria — have included concerts at Manhattan School of Music and Carnegie Mellon University.

Slatkin will cap off that run when he guest conducts the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra on Tuesday, February 27 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center for a night of music “From the New World.” The program includes that famous symphony by Antonín Dvořák as well as Cindy McTee’s Double Play and Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, which will feature CIM student Jazmin Pascual as soloist. Tickets are available here.

I reached Slatkin on Zoom to discuss working with students, how he became interested in conducting, his multi-generational musical family, and his writing — ranging from his early interest in science fiction all the way up to his fourth book. Eight Symphonic Masterworks of the Twentieth Century: A Study Guide for Conductors will be published by Rowman & Littlefield on March 5.

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CIM Orchestra: Messiaen and Bruckner at Severance (Nov. 22)

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by Stephanie Manning

Change has been in the air at the Cleveland Institute of Music this year. After officially celebrating its centennial (delayed by the pandemic) in September, the CIM Orchestra returned to Severance Music Center on November 22 as part of their recent partnership with The Cleveland Orchestra. Under the direction of Carlos Kalmar — another recent addition to the school — the students gave great energy to their final concert of 2022.

Though the two composers on the program, Messiaen and Bruckner, were likely familiar to the audience, the pieces chosen were potentially less so. In the absence of written program notes, commentary was given from the stage (and with good humor) from violist Pablo Ronderos. Messiaen’s L’Ascension is “meditative, pensive, and prayer-like,” though not without the characteristic dissonances of the French composer. The early-career work, rooted in Messiaen’s Catholic faith, tells the story of Jesus’ ascent into heaven over four disparate movements.

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CIM Opera Theater:
Cendrillon with Cara Consilvio

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by Mike Telin 

For centuries the tale of Cinderella has been told and retold around the world. This week the magical fairytale will be brought to life when CIM Opera Theater presents Jules Massenet’s charming Cendrillon on Friday, November 11 at 7:30 pm and Sunday afternoon at 3:00 pm in Kulas Hall. Cara Consilvio is the guest director and Harry Davidson conducts the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra. Click here to read a synopsis and to purchase tickets.

Cara Consilvio leads a multifaceted career as a director and producer of opera, theater, and film as well as dance and choreography. She has produced and directed numerous tribute videos, promotional videos, and behind the scenes mini-docs for the NEA Opera Honors, the NEA Jazz Masters videos, OPERA America, and the American Composers Orchestra.

I caught up with the director by phone and began our conversation by asking her about the opera.

Cara Consilvio: This is my first Cendrillon and it’s always exciting to direct a piece for the first time. It’s a new world that will unfold as you begin researching, but you don’t really understand how the piece works until you’re in the rehearsal room putting it up on its feet.

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CIM Orchestra: Carlos Kalmar reflects on the past year

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by Mike Telin 

Tonight at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Carlos Kalmar will lead the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra in an eclectic program featuring Ligeti’s Atmosphères, Ginastera’s Variaciones Concertantes, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 4. The free concert is the second of seven the ensemble will perform at the storied venue through a new partnership between CIM and The Cleveland Orchestra.

The occasion also marks the one-year anniversary of Kalmar’s debut as Principal Conductor and Director of Orchestral Studies at CIM. I caught up with the thoughtful, friendly maestro by telephone and began our conversation by congratulating him on his anniversary. 

Carlos Kalmar: It’s interesting that you say that, because for me, this is not my one-year anniversary. Last year was a transitional year in which we did a lot of planning and a lot of thinking in terms of the [orchestral studies] program that I constructed with an entire team. So this is now the first year, and when we talk a year from now you can say hey, let’s celebrate a year.

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CIM Orchestra visits Severance on first outing with Carlos Kalmar (Oct. 10)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Carlos Kalmar, newly appointed principal conductor of the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, made his debut with the ensemble on Sunday afternoon, October 10, in what is now the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.

The well-attended, free performance gave Northeast Ohio classical music fans their first local look at the Uruguayan-born conductor, who led the Oregon Symphony for two decades and continues to serve as artistic director of Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival during the summers. (Above, Kalmar led CIM musicians in a pop-up concert at the Cleveland Museum of Art last week.)

In music by Šerkšnytė, Beethoven, and Dvořák, Kalmar showed himself to be a meticulous but expressive presence on the podium.

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CIM Opera Theater shines in Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Mar. 1)

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by Mike Telin 

Is there a more fun-filled, accessible opera than Mozart’s The Magic Flute? Its classic fairy tale plot — good versus evil combined with a search for enlightenment and love — is timeless. Its characters are sympathetic, and it’s filled with beautiful arias and catchy tunes that are certain to cause the most wonderful earworms long after you leave the theater.

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CIM Opera Theater: Chatting with Dean Southern about two short operas

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by Jarrett Hoffman

The template for a good opera, according to Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges: fewer humans, more furniture.

The character list begins with a mischievous child and his mom, but soon branches out to include armchairs, a bench, a couch, a stool, a wicker chair, and a grandfather clock. Then the kitchenware, plants, and animals enter the fray.

But are singers okay with being cast as armchairs? That’s one of many questions I recently got to ask Dean Southern, head of the voice and opera division at the Cleveland Institute of Music. We spoke by phone about CIM Opera Theater’s upcoming double-bill, L’Enfant and Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol — a fascinating work in its own right, and more rarely heard than the already uncommon Ravel.

Performances will take place in CIM’s Kulas Hall from Wednesday through Friday, November 7-9 at 7:30 pm, and on Saturday, November 10 at 3:00 pm. Harry Davidson will lead the CIM Orchestra, which will appear in size XL, thanks to the extensive instrumental colors called for by Ravel and Stravinsky.

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CIM Orchestra with guest conductor Thomas Wilkins & cellist Daniel Kaler (Sep. 26)

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by Nicholas Stevens

What can a concertgoer expect from a student orchestra? At most conservatories, ensemble membership varies from month to month, and a single concert can involve multiple personnel swaps. The young players face impossible schedules, limiting their time to prepare. Given all these constraints, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, playing under guest conductor Thomas Wilkins, set an astonishingly high bar in an ambitious program on Wednesday, September 26. [Read more…]

CIM to present area premiere of
Luigi Cherubini’s Medea

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by Mike Telin

Delacroix Medea_preview (1)Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, as epitomized by Euripides’ infamous character Medea. After her husband Jason rejects her for another woman in order to further his political career, she will stop at nothing to get revenge, including murdering her own children.

This sensational drama will be brought to life when the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Opera Theater presents Luigi Cherubini’s Medea on November 8, 9, 10, and 11 at 7:30 pm in Kulas Hall.

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CIM Opera to stage Hector Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict February 24-27

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by Mike Telin & Daniel Hathaway

CIM_Beatrice_Benedict_1Directed by David Bamberger, CIM Opera Theater will present four performances of Hector Berlioz’s comic opera Béatrice et Bénédict in Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music beginning on Wednesday, February 24 at 7:30 pm and continuing through Saturday, February 27. An adaptation of William Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing, Berlioz conceived the piece as early as 1833, but completed it only in 1862 at the behest of a casino owner in Baden-Baden, Germany, where it was first performed at the Theater der Stadt in August of that year.

“It’s not performed that often, and most people only know it from the overture, which is such a great piece in itself,” conductor Harry Davidson said in a telephone conversation. “For the opera, Berlioz took out all the tragic elements that appear in the play — Héro being accused of adultery and her father disowning her — none of that is there. But it’s very stageworthy and the music is really quite delightful and charming.” [Read more…]

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