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BlueWater Chamber Orchestra and Cleveland Chamber Choir to premiere Guarnaccia’s Emergent Universe Oratorio

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by Daniel Hathaway

ComposerCleveland Chamber Choir founding artistic director Scott MacPherson will lead his expanded chorus and the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of Sam Guarnaccia’s Emergent Universe Oratorio at the Maltz Performing Arts Center at Case Western Reserve University on Friday, June 30 at 7:30 pm. Designed to underline humanity’s responsibility to protect and preserve planet Earth, the work relates the scientific story of the journey of the Universe from the Big Bang to the emergence of the evolutionary force of human consciousness.

The new work will be performed in conjunction with a congress of the World Union of Jesuit Alumni at John Carroll University — held every four years but meeting in North America for the first time since its founding in 1956. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir: Spring at Rocky River Methodist (May 13)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ScottMacPhersonClevelandChamberChoirEveryone’s favorite season of the year has had tough going in Cleveland this time around, with temperatures lurching back and forth between the high 40s and the mid 80s. But Scott MacPherson and Cleveland Chamber Choir certainly nudged nature along at Rocky River Methodist Church on Saturday evening, May 13 with their attractive program, “No Time Like Spring.” The concert was to be repeated on Sunday afternoon at First Baptist in Shaker Heights. [Read more…]

ChamberFest’s Winter Mini Festival to feature Roman Rabinovich in Haydn sonatas

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by Mike Telin

rabinovich“Many pianists shy away from Haydn’s keyboard works, but I think they’re beautiful — incredibly inventive, funny, deep, and everything in between,” pianist Roman Rabinovich said during a recent telephone conversation.

On Sunday, December 11 at 3:30 pm at the Music Settlement, Rabinovich will present the first of three concerts dedicated to Haydn’s keyboard sonatas as part of ChamberFest Cleveland’s Winter Mini Festival. Each concert will feature five sonatas, as well as additional surprise performances.

The pianist and ChamberFest fan favorite said that these programs are part of his two-year long Haydn Sonata Project. “There are 45 sonatas that are considered to be genuine, but he wrote even more — some of them are lost and some cannot be authenticated — but I am playing all 45.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir at John Knox Presbyterian (Oct. 28)

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by Daniel Hathaway

cleveland-chamber-choir-marie-taylorAfter singing its “Americana” program at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights on October 22, the 30-voice Cleveland Chamber Choir moved to John Knox Presbyterian Church in North Olmsted for a second performance on Friday, October 28. Conductor Scott MacPherson curated his program of American choral music with the election season in mind. Not as a rah-rah patriotic exercise, but rather to explore the rich heritage of vocal traditions that have been practiced within these shores over the past two-and-a-half centuries. [Read more…]

John Knox Performance Series to launch third season with Cleveland Chamber Choir

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by Mike Telin

cleveland-chamber-choir-marie-taylorFor hundreds of years some of the greatest music ever written was composed for houses of worship — think of composers such as Palestrina, J.S. Bach, and Moses Hogan. “It’s no mystery why music is so important in the life of a church, but people here can’t seem to get enough of it,” said Geoffrey Peterson, Director of Music and the Arts at John Knox Presbyterian Church in North Olmsted.

On Friday, October 28 at 8:00 pm, the John Knox Performance Series will kick off its third season with a performance by the Cleveland Chamber Choir under the direction of Scott MacPherson. The program, titled “Americana,” will include music by William Billings, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, John Cage, Samuel Barber, and Stephen Foster, as well as folk songs and spirituals. Read a concert preview here. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir opens its second season with twin “Americana” concerts

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by Daniel Hathaway

clevelandchamberchoirhuddleCleveland Chamber Choir founding conductor Scott MacPherson has two things in mind for the beginning of the ensemble’s second season. “Our goal this year is to repeat concerts in a different venue,” he said in a recent phone call. “It’s a lot more fun that way. And since we’re a new group, we want to get as much exposure as we can.”

Thus CCC’s season’s opener at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights on Saturday, October 22 at 7:30 pm will be repeated at John Knox Presbyterian Church in North Olmsted on Friday, October 28 at 8:00 pm.

MacPherson’s second idea is more topical and feeds directly into the repertoire for the ensemble’s fall concerts. “As early as last spring I was thinking about a program of American composers and genres, since it was going to be election season. Though it’s not going to be a flag-waving, patriotic program, it reflects the fact that one of the most important things we do as adults is to elect a new head of our government.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir gives second concert at First Baptist, Shaker Heights (April 23)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ClevelandChamberChoir-112115With its tuning challenges, tricky scherzo, and numerous transitions, Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia is a ten-minute a cappella tour de force that tests the mettle of any choir that takes it on. In the second performance of their inaugural season, the 33 voices of Cleveland Chamber Choir more than rose to the occasion on Saturday evening, April 23 at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights. In this and other British choral works, Scott MacPherson’s new professional ensemble validated the initial impression they made last November: this is a superb addition to Cleveland’s musical scene. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir to mark Shakespeare’s 400th on April 23

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by Daniel Hathaway

ClevelandChamberChoir-112115Accidental discoveries you make when you’re drawing up plans for a program sometimes send you off on a new tack. Scott MacPherson had long been contemplating a concert of British choral music for the second concert of the Cleveland Chamber Choir’s inaugural season and wanted something “on the vigorous, peppy side” to balance the “rich, sonorous” music he already had in mind.

“In Sweet Music Is Such Art: Celebrating British Choral Music” will take place on Saturday, April 23 at 7:30 pm in the sanctuary of First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights.

“We had performed Cecilia McDowall’s Aurea luce on our first concert in November”, MacPherson said, “so I wrote to her and asked if she had anything along those lines. She told me that her When Time is Broke: three Shakespeare songs had just been premiered by the BBC Singers in January and that the first movement might be just what what I was looking for.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir makes impressive debut at First Baptist, Shaker Heights (November 21)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ClevelandChamberChoir-112115On the eve of St. Cecilia’s Day — but obviously blessed in advance by the patron saint of music — the Cleveland Chamber Choir sang a splendid inaugural concert at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights. Under the direction of its founder, Scott MacPherson, the new ensemble’s performance on Saturday, November 21 set a very high standard for themselves as a professional choral ensemble, and MacPherson’s programming whetted the appetite for more imaginative concert menus to come. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir to sing its debut concert at First Baptist November 21

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by Daniel Hathaway

ClevelandChamberChoirCleveland’s newest choral organization, the 36-voice Cleveland Chamber Choir, will sing its inaugural concert under the direction of Scott MacPherson on Saturday, November 21 at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights.

Entitled “Dawn: Light—Evening: Night,” the program will include Gustav Holst’s Nunc dimittis, Claudio Monteverdi’s Ecco mormorar l’onde, John Wilbye’s Draw on Sweet Night, Robert Schumann’s Zigeunerleben, Johannes Brahms’s O schöne Nacht and Dem dunkeln Schoss der heil’gen Erde, Josef Rheinberger’s Abendlied, Corey Rubin’s Euclid Avenue Songs, Cecilia McDowall’s Aurea luce, Andrew Rindfleisch’s Careless Carols & Linda Kachelmeier’s Rise up to Greet the Morning Dawn. [Read more…]

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