ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad
Ad

Dana Jessen receives Cleveland Arts Prize

by

by Mike Telin

Tonight, October 26, the Cleveland Arts Prize will hold its 63rd annual awards ceremony at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The CAP promotes creativity in Northeast Ohio by honoring artists for artistic excellence and recognizing community leaders who help arts flourish in the region.

Among the list of distinguished recipients is Dana Jessen, who will receive a mid-career artist prize for music. Jessen is a trailblazer in the world of new and improvised music. Hailed as a “bassoon virtuoso” (Chicago Reader), she is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and a Huygens Fellowship. In addition to her active solo career, her resume includes world premiere performances with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Dal Niente, Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra, S.E.M. Ensemble, and the Amsterdam Contemporary Ensemble. As an educator she serves as Associate Professor of Contemporary Music and Improvisation at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

I caught up with Dana Jessen by phone and began our conversation by congratulating her.

Dana Jessen: Thank you. I am incredibly honored. I was telling somebody that it felt like the Cleveland Arts Prize was actually looking at all of the things that I do. It’s not just that I’m a bassoonist, but that I also write my own pieces, I play with electronics, and I improvise. I also interpret pieces that I’ve commissioned. And I teach. So it’s very humbling to be seen for the entirety of what I do as opposed to one thing or the other.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Arts Prize honors Past Masters in celebratory concert (Dec. 4)

by

by Stephanie Manning

At first glance, the inclusion of Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 6 in F Major, “American,” might seem out of place on a program dedicated to historical Cleveland composers. But the concert’s curator, Cleveland Orchestra violinist Isabel Trautwein, posed a question to the audience. Why has this work become so well-known, while other pieces — like the ones on this concert — have not? 

Trautwein’s question left lots of food for thought over the course of “Honoring Our Past Masters: The Golden Age of Cleveland Art, 1900–1945,” on Saturday afternoon, December 4. The five pieces provided just a taste of the rich variety of music written by those who have called Cleveland home.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Arts Prize Past Masters

by

by Mike Telin

Being recognized with a Cleveland Arts Prize is arguably the greatest honor that someone working in Northeast Ohio’s cultural sector can have bestowed upon them. Founded in 1960 by the Women’s City Club of Cleveland, since 1961 CAP has honored over 350 artists and arts leaders whose work has advanced the disciplines of literature, music, design, visual art, theater, film, and dance.   

Although CAP’s list of recipients reads like a who’s who of the region’s most influential artists, a closer look reveals many names that are conspicuously absent. “People come up to me and say, ‘How come Langston Hughes never won the prize, how come Ernst Bloch never won?’” Cleveland author and biographer Dennis Dooley said during a telephone conversation. “I tell them, that’s because the Arts Prize didn’t exist yet.” 

In honor of its 60th anniversary, The Cleveland Arts Prize, in partnership with The Cleveland History Center, will recognize the region’s artist luminaries of days gone by with its Past Masters Project.     

The year-long celebration kicks off on Saturday, December 4 with “Honoring Our Past Masters: The Golden Age of Cleveland Art, 1900–1945” at the Hay-McKinney Mansion. Doors open at 1:00 pm for a 1:30 concert that will feature music by five Past Master composers performed by members of The Cleveland Orchestra and guest musicians (download the program here). Tickets for the concert are available online. 

[Read more…]

Kent State New Music Ensemble to honor composer Donald Erb

by

by Mike Telin

Erb-Donald“Don’s approach was unique because it really wasn’t part of any kind of school of thought,” Kent State University professor of composition Frank Wiley said of the late Donald Erb. “It was a separate thing, but his music was always very passionate, and that came across forcefully. Sometimes people had a hard time dealing with that, but you can’t have a light-hearted, casual relationship with his music. You have to be invested in it.”

On Saturday, April 29 at 7:30 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall, Kent State University’s Hugh Glauser School of Music will honor legendary composer and KSU alum Donald Erb with a “90th Birthday Concert.” The evening will also include the unveiling of the new Donald Erb Collection in KSU’s Performing Arts Library, based on material donated by the late composer’s wife, Lucille Erb. The performance is free. [Read more…]

H. Leslie Adams to receive Cleveland Arts Prize Lifetime Achievement Award on June 25

by

by Mike Telin

Adams-LeslieEach year the Cleveland Arts Prize bestows one Lifetime Achievement Award on an artist who has worked in Northeast Ohio over several decades, and whose career and achievements have brought great distinction to himself/herself and the region. On Thursday, June 25, composer H. Leslie Adams will be presented with the award during a ceremony at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium.

“Leslie Adams’s output of music is incredibly diverse,” said Michael Dalby, Music juror for the Cleveland Arts Prize. He’s well known internationally for his art songs and his solo piano works. He also wrote an opera as well as chamber and orchestral works.” I’ve always been impressed with his humility, his quiet strength. It’s nice to be able to award the prize to someone so deserving.” [Read more…]

H. Leslie Adams wins Lifetime Achievement Award

by

ADAMS-H-LeslieAmong the recipients of the 2015 Cleveland Arts Prize, to be presented on Thursday, June 25 at 6:00 pm in Gartner Auditorium of the Cleveland Museum of Art is composer H. Leslie Adams. A graduate of Oberlin College, California State University Long Beach and the Ohio State University, Adams will receive the Lifetime Achievement Reward of $10,000 for bringing great distinction to himself and the region over the course of several decades. His compositions include an opera, Blake, and most recently, a set of Piano Etudes (read a ClevelandClassical review here). For more information about the Cleveland Arts Prize, click here.

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us