by Mike Telin
When selecting works for a program, classical guitarists Thomas Flippin and Christopher Mallett are always asking themselves if they are being inclusive — are they including works by composers who are not usually represented on classical guitar concerts.
On Saturday, November 15 at 7:30 pm at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, the adventurous Duo Noire will return to the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International series with a program that will include three world premieres along with other recent commissions and arrangements of music by J.S. Bach, Nathaniel Dett, Domenico Scarlatti, Astor Piazzolla, Justin Holland, and Thomas Flippin. Tickets are available online.
“What’s cool about this program is that we have new pieces by a Middle Eastern jazz fusion composer, a film composer, and a jazz pianist who does weird stuff with 8-bit video game music on his albums,” Thomas Flippin said during a Zoom conversation with his duo partner. “All of that is really interesting to us.”
Spend a few minutes with Marko Topchii, and you’ll know he’s a performer that likes to bend convention. The guitarist took the stage at the Maltz Performing Arts Center on March 8 wearing a baby blue suit jacket over a graphic tee, before promptly announcing that he was adding another piece to the program. Instead of kicking things off with Frederic Hand’s Undercurrents, his first selection was a brief, reflective work called Ground, written by his mother.
Ever since Punxsutawney Phil popped his head out to predict six more weeks of winter, Clevelanders have seen no respite from the cold and snowy weather. So February 11 was as good a winter day as any to escape to sunny Spain, via the latest concert from the Cleveland Chamber Music Society.
The theme of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s latest concert season emphasizes the new and different — with plenty of debuts, contemporary works, and creative ways of looking at music. That was the case on October 26 for Jorge Caballero’s program. All three pieces he brought to the Maltz Performing Arts Center were rare to hear, each for different reasons.
Playing an entire symphony on classical guitar? It’s more possible than you’d think. And it’s become second nature for Jorge Caballero, known for performing transcriptions of works like Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.