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CityMusic Cleveland:
clarinet quintets old & new,
traditional & non-traditional

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by Jarrett Hoffman

A clarinet and a string quartet are the traditional components of a clarinet quintet, an instrumentation that has spawned widely performed works by composers such as Mozart, Brahms, and Coleridge-Taylor.

But after CityMusic Cleveland clarinetist Ellen Breakfield-Glick reached out to Margaret Brouwer about the possibility of writing a new clarinet quintet, the composer considered the possibilities, noting to herself that she had already written one in 2005.

“I’m all about sounds and colors,” Brouwer said during a recent interview. “That’s one reason I wanted to have percussion — I thought it would give me a lot of new colors.”

Commissioned by CityMusic and inspired by the theme for the ensemble’s 2021-22 season — “Justice, Equality, Hope” — Brouwer’s Justice March for the unconventional combination of clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and percussion will receive its premiere on Saturday, April 23 at 7:00 pm at Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus.

[Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland:
the poetry of Weatherspoon
& an ode to Slavic Village

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by Jarrett Hoffman

The next program from CityMusic Cleveland was dreamed up by Miho Hashizume, and stems from two of the violinist’s experiences over the past few years: teaching strings in Slavic Village, and encountering the poetry of Cleveland-born writer and activist Weatherspoon.

Through commissions from CityMusic, that author’s texts have been set to music by Jasmine Barnes and Jessica Meyer in works for string quartet and soprano that will be heard for the first time — the latest of several new pieces by women composers that have been premiered during the organization’s 2021-22 season.

The program, titled “Slavic Village Then and Now,” also includes music by a pair of Czech composers: Antonín Dvořák and, by ancestry, Cleveland-born Charles Rychlik, who lived on Fleet Avenue in Slavic Village, and who crossed paths with Dvořák during studies at the Prague Conservatory.

Performances will take place on Friday, April 8 at Lakewood Congregational Church and Sunday, April 10 at Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus, both at 7:00 pm. Admission is free — RSVP’s encouraged — and a livestream option has been added for Friday’s concert.

[Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland with Groundworks at St. Stan’s (Feb. 27)

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by Peter Feher

Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time is already a production in itself. The music alone, not to mention the circumstances of its composition, is a lot to untangle.

CityMusic Cleveland brought out the complexities of the piece in a multimedia performance on February 27 that incorporated dance, cinematography, and even the atmosphere of the venue.

A long white sheet hung from the vault to the floor and obscured the altar at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus on Sunday. The setting was sacred, and Messiaen’s inspiration was pointedly religious (his work quotes from the Book of Revelation), but there was something secular to the setup. [Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland: “Tales and Scenes” (Jan. 21)

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by Stephanie Manning

The Christmas season appeared to still be in full swing at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus on January 21. Merry wreaths, festive trees, and twinkling lights filled the cavernous space three weeks into the new year. The evening was a chilly one, and most audience members chose to keep their coats on as they settled into their seats for CityMusic Cleveland’s captivating chamber program, “Tales and Scenes.”

The Pantheon Ensemble kicked off the concert with J.S. Bach’s Concerto in f, where pianist Elizabeth DeMio was joined by violinists Masha Andreini and Mari Sato, violist Yaël Senamaud-Cohen, cellist Nataliya Pschenychna, and bassist Tracy Rowell. The group approached the Bach with a rich, dramatic style fitting for both the piece and the venue. But although the architecture of St. Stanislaus is visually impressive, its extremely resonant space was not always beneficial to the ensemble’s blend and balance.

[Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland: 
“Musical Matrix” (Oct. 2)

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by Peter Feher

CityMusic Cleveland has always been on a mission. This season, the group is staying true to its community vision — music for everyone, and concerts for free — even if performances look a little different in 2021. The programming is slimmed down from chamber orchestra to chamber music, and there’s an increased emphasis on new works (each program this season features a world premiere).

Cleverly, CityMusic’s latest concert led listeners through these changes one step at a time. “Musical Matrix” took transformation as its theme, and each piece on the October 2 program at the Maltz Performing Arts Center (the second of two performances) put its spin on the subject. [Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland: “In Search of Peace” (May 15)

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by Jarrett Hoffman

After greeting an in-person audience the night before at Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus, a mixed quartet from CityMusic Cleveland performed for an audience unseen on Saturday, May 15, thanks to the live-streaming capabilities of the Maltz Performing Arts Center.

The program was worth repeating, especially for the finale, Amanda Harberg’s Lucas’s Garden. Inspired by the section of the family garden over which her son Lucas has free rein, the piece appeals with its directness of expression and its unique, varied language, conveying a thoroughly original sense of happiness in music.

[Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland: Identity and “Syncretism”

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by Jarrett Hoffman

syn·cre·tism — the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought (Oxford English Dictionary).

CityMusic Cleveland will explore that concept with an in-person concert of chamber music on Sunday, April 11 at 3:00 pm at Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus. (The audience will be limited to 250 people, and masks and social distancing are required. Click here to RSVP.)

The program begins with a quartet: Jungyoon Wie’s 2019 Han, played by violinists Miho Hashizume and Catherine Cosbey, violist Eric Wong, and cellist Sophie Benn. Then clarinetist Dan Gilbert will join the ensemble for Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s 1895 Clarinet Quintet in f-sharp.

On a purely musical level, it’s hard to pick two pieces that deserve a wider audience — one of them a fresh and riveting contemporary piece, the other a beautiful and unjustly neglected gem of the past. But these two composers also represent an intriguing pairing through the lens of syncretism.

[Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland schedules hybrid chamber music concerts

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by Daniel Hathaway

Pivoting from its customary chamber orchestra concerts, last September CityMusic Cleveland announced a series of chamber music programs curated by members of the ensemble celebrating the centenary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which decreed that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

Initially offered as live, in-person events for a reduced audience of 100 at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus, the series went online after the first two programs due to the progress of the pandemic. Subsequent concerts have been streamed from the Maltz Performing Arts Center.

Beginning this week, CityMusic will present pairs of performances — one in-person concert at St. Stan’s, followed by a second performance of the same program streamed from the Maltz.

Executive director Eugenia Strauss noted in a press release that the chamber music format will be continued in 2021-2022, when seven groups will be invited to build programs around the themes of peace, equality, and justice, drawing largely on works by female composers and including commissioned pieces. “We hope to return to present orchestral programs in the 22-23 season,” Strauss wrote. [Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland:
“Baroque Reflections” (Dec. 6)

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by Jarrett Hoffman

On December 6, CityMusic Cleveland continued its season-long chamber series celebrating 100 years of the 19th amendment with “Baroque Reflections,” streamed live from the Maltz Performing Arts Center.

Here are the numbers: seven masked performers (including several period-instrumentalists and, notably for these times, a soprano) alternated through multiple configurations from duo to sextet as they explored music by eight composers of the 17th and 18th centuries.

[Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland:
Pantheon Ensemble (Nov. 8)

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by Jarrett Hoffman

In 2020, our minds have all been occupied by crucial issues of the now: the pandemic, the movement for racial justice, the election. Because of that, one important anniversary has flown a little bit under the radar: the centennial of the 19th amendment, ratified on August 18, 1920, which gave American women the right to vote.

CityMusic Cleveland is celebrating that milestone with this season’s Chamber Music Series, which continued on November 7 and 8 with a performance by six women of the Pantheon Ensemble, made up of CityMusic players and friends. I heard the concert on November 8, a live stream from the Maltz Performing Arts Center.

[Read more…]

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