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Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival: the 2019 edition

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by Mike Telin

If it’s the beginning of June, it’s time for classical guitarists from around the world to gather at the Cleveland Institute of Music for the annual Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival.

For the 2019 edition, which runs from Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9, Founder and Artistic Director Armin Kelly has invited an outstanding lineup of performers, clinicians, and lecturers. The Festival will feature twelve participating artists and ensembles, five concerts, two premiere performances, nine master classes, two youth ensemble performances, three lectures, and one guitar demonstration concert. Click here to view a Festival schedule.

Thursday, June 6

Colin Davin (USA) will kick things off at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall with a program that includes Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, J.S. Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 3, BWV 1005 and Violin Partita No. 2, BWV 1004, and the Cleveland premiere of David Crowell’s Point Cloud. A performance by students of Tom Poore and Andrew Poxon in the Pogue Lobby will begin at 6:50 pm.  

[Read more…]

CIM/CWRU to produce Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie

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by Daniel Hathaway

As part of the 50th Anniversary of the Case/CIM Joint Music Program, the two schools will collaborate on a production of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie from Wednesday through Saturday, February 27-March 2 in Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Harry Davidson leads the joint CIM/CWRU orchestra.

I sat down with CIM Opera Head Dean Southern, stage director Ellen Hargis, and choreographer Julie Andrijeski (both from the CWRU Historical Performance faculty) last week just before the Sitzprobe for Rameau’s 1733 opera. I began by asking how this Baroque opera project came about. [Read more…]

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 New Music Ensemble to celebrate “L’Histoire at 100”
with new film by Kasumi

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by Jarrett Hoffman

There’s nothing quite like Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale. And there will really be nothing like the performance this Friday, October 26 at 8:00 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

The conservatory’s New Music Ensemble, directed by Keith Fitch, will celebrate the 100th birthday of that classic work with the premiere of a new film: a commission from Cleveland-based video artist Kasumi, to be played simultaneously with the music. (The concert is free, and will also be live-streamed.)

And if you’re at all familiar with the work of Kasumi, you know you’re in for a fascinating, perhaps harrowing ride.

The trailer gives a taste of her style, in which she splices together images from mid-century B-movies, commercials, and training films from the public domain — images which are “completely direct,” as Kasumi told us during an interview last year. “The acting is so bad and corny that it conveys emotion in shorthand — it becomes a symbol, like a stop sign. If you weave together these tiny gestures, you get all kinds of nuances of emotion.”

[Read more…]

Voice of the Lake — a conversation with composer Margaret Brouwer

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by Mike Telin

Growing up, composer Margaret Brouwer spent many wonderful summers enjoying the beauty of Lake Erie at her family’s cottage in Huron, Ohio. But when dangerous levels of algae blooms in the Lake’s western basin caused a water crisis in Toledo in 2014, the ensuing national conversation about environmental pollution and the state of the country’s drinking water became the source of inspiration for her Voice of the Lake. We spoke with the composer before the work’s premiere in November of 2017.

The revised version will be presented on Friday, October 19 at 7:00 pm at Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music (above, rehearsal photo). The performance features soprano Angela Mortellaro, mezzo-soprano Sarah Beaty, tenor Brian Skoog, bass Bryant Bush, the Blue Streak Ensemble and Chamber Singers, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Children’s Choir, all under the direction of Domenico Boyagian. The performance will be video-recorded for future broadcast. Tickets are available online.

Written in four parts, the oratorio is a musical description of Lake Erie during the first quarter of the 21st century. While the work portrays the Lake’s magical side — waves splashing on the rocks, walks on the beach, children playing in the water, and the pleasure of a fisherman in his boat — it also highlights the Lake’s many environmental problems as well as the innovative attempts that are being made to combat those problems.

[Read more…]

Babayan signs recording contract with DG

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Sergei Babayan, artist-in-residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1992, is entering into an exclusive recording agreement with Deutsche Grammophon. The initial project will pair Mozart sonatas with solo works from different periods, and future recordings will explore works by J.S. Bach and Rachmaninoff, as well as rarely-heard repertoire and contemporary works. [Read more…]

CIPC Guest Recital by pianist Drew Petersen (June 4)

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by David Kulma

PETERSEN-Drew_previewThe prize-winning young pianist Drew Petersen gave an excellent guest recital for an appreciative crowd in Mixon Hall on Monday night, June 4, as part of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists. His chronologically organized program stretched from repertory mainstays by Beethoven and Chopin to two wonderful American works by Griffes and Barber. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival: Duo Melis,
partners onstage and off

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by Mike Telin

DuoMelisBeginning on Friday, June 8 and continuing through Sunday, June 10 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the 2018 edition of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival will feature thirteen artists and ensembles, five concerts, nine master classes, and three lectures.

“Cleveland is a special place for us,” Susana Prieto said by telephone from her home in Greece. “Apart from the great hall we have a special relationship with Armin Kelly. He presented us as a duo for the first time in the States. He believed in us and we always like to come back to the Festival.”

On Saturday, June 9 at 8:00 pm in Mixon Hall, Susana Prieto will join her Duo Melis partner, Alexis Muzurakis, in a concert that will include works by Granados, Kapustin, Lhoyer, Piazzolla, Rodrigo, and Scarlatti. The Duo will also present a master class on Sunday, June 10 at 11:30 am in CIM Studio 217. That event is free and open to the public. Click here to view the Festival’s full schedule. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

ENCORE Chamber Music announces 2018 season

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by Alice Koeninger

ENCOREThis Friday, ENCORE Chamber Music begins its 2018 summer season, titled “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” ENCORE will present concerts every Friday and Sunday from June 8 to July 15.

Performances will take place in the Tudor House at the Gilmour Academy through July 6, after which they move to Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Tickets can be purchased here.

The season starts with the Miró Quartet on Friday evening, June 8 at 7:00 pm. This Austin-based group, renowned for its thoughtful programming and musical interpretation, will play Haydn’s Quartet in E-flat, Op. 71, No. 3, Kevin Puts’ Credo, and Beethoven’s Quartet in a, Op. 132. [Read more…]

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