ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad

Vieaux and Labro to open the 2018 Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival

by

by Mike Telin

Vieaux-LabroFor the past seventeen years, the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival has brought some of the world’s finest classical guitarists, lutenists, lecturers, composers, teachers, and guitar makers to the Cleveland Institute of Music for three days of concerts, masterclasses, lectures, and demonstrations.

“It’s got to be one of the very best festivals in the world for our instrument,” guitarist Jason Vieaux said during a telephone interview. Vieaux, who heads the guitar department at CIM, credits CICGF founder and artistic director Armin Kelly for the Festival’s success. “For Armin it’s all about quality. Year in and year out, the players that he brings in are incredible, and the Festival is a tremendous gift to the City of Cleveland.”

Beginning on Friday, June 8 and continuing through Sunday, June 10, the 2018 edition of CICGF will feature thirteen artists and ensembles, five concerts, nine master classes, and three lectures. Click here to view the full schedule. Tickets are available online.

On Friday, June 8 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall, the Grammy-winning Vieaux will team up with his duo partner, accordionist Julien Labro, for this year’s opening concert. [Read more…]

Art Song Festival begins on May 21 at the Cleveland Institute of Music

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Christoph Pregardien (373)The every-other-year Art Song Festival at the Cleveland Institute of Music will bring two distinguished guest singers, their collaborative pianists, and ten singer-pianist teams to town from May 21-26 to explore one of the most intimate art forms in the chamber music genre.

The Festival was founded at CIM by George Vassos in 1985, who taught at the Institute for 50 years and remains the festival’s founding artistic director. After moving to Baldwin Wallace University for a decade, the Festival returned to CIM in 2017.

Over the years, the Art Song Festival has invited some of the world’s most notable singers to be guest artists. This year’s guests are tenor Christoph Prégardien (above), pianist Roger Vignoles, soprano Ana Maria Martinez (below), and pianist Craig Terry, who will give master classes throughout the week as well as solo recitals.

“George Vassos takes great pride in seeking artists to bring to Cleveland,” festival executive director Dean Southern said in a telephone conversation. [Read more…]

Modern Snare Drum Competition: 15 minutes with judge Marc Damoulakis

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

DAMOULAKIS-MarcIt’s a familiar feeling for musicians: to have mastered a difficult piece, then discover someone a quarter their age playing it twice as well. “It’s amazing from year one to now,” Marc Damoulakis said in a recent conversation about the Modern Snare Drum Competition. “Stuff that we used to think was hard, these kids are coming in younger and younger and playing with ease. And I honestly don’t think it would’ve happened without this competition.”

Damoulakis, who joined The Cleveland Orchestra in 2006 and was appointed principal percussion in 2013, has been a fixture on the competition’s judging panel. This 11th edition, to be presented by Pearl and held at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Saturday and Sunday, May 12 and 13 — open to the public on Sunday — will mark his 10th time judging.

[Read more…]

CIM + CMA — Sight + Sound: The Planetarium Project

by

by David Kulma

CMNH-PlanetariumThe wonderful Nathan and Fannye Shafran Planetarium at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History is an unexpected venue for a music critic. But after the Planetarium upgraded to a digital projection system in 2010, its manager Jason Davis started 360° of Sight + Sound: The Planetarium Project in collaboration with the Cleveland Institutes of Art and Music (CIA and CIM) to develop student-animated short films. The fascinating fourth iteration — titled “Through the Ages” — graced the inside of the dome on Wednesday, April 18. [Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire: being a fly on the wall at early rehearsals of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Coro Wandering onto setAdmirers of Thomas Forrest Kelly’s 2000 book First Nights: Five Musical Premieres probably wish they could have been physically present to witness the very first performances of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, and Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps.

Me? I wish I had been able to attend the rehearsals — which often prove as interesting as the performances themselves. Rehearsals are where artistic philosophies get established, deals are made between directors and performers, and kinks get worked out. When the piece in question is a staged work, the rehearsal process becomes more complex: the ideas (and egos) of more than one director need to be melded into a single product, and there’s much more that can go awry.

Apollo’s Fire will produce three semi-staged performances of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in the next week: two in Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Friday and Saturday, April 13 and 14 at 7:30 pm, and one at St. Raphael Church in Bay Village on Wednesday, April 18 at 7:30 pm. [Read more…]

CIM, CIA, and Natural History Museum to team up for 360° of Sight + Sound: The Planetarium Project

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

PlanetariumIt’s an epic feeling when three superheroes, from separate stories and with their own distinct powers, team up. The real-life, artsy, and Cleveland-related parallel to that? A collaboration next week among three prominent local institutions from three different disciplines.

Next Wednesday, April 18 at 7:00 pm and 7:45 pm, the Cleveland Institutes of Music and Art will join the Museum of Natural History for the fourth edition of 360° of Sight + Sound: The Planetarium Project. Five-minute films by students of CIA, scored with electronic music by student composers of CIM, will be given their world premiere screenings inside the dome of Shafran Planetarium at the Museum.

[Read more…]

Pianist Sandra Shapiro: “In My Father’s Footsteps — a daughter’s search for answers”

by

by Mike Telin

ShapiroLike many first-generation Americans whose families had been forced to leave their homes because of Nazi atrocities during World War II, pianist Sandra Shapiro grew up not fully understanding the circumstances that led to her father’s arrival in the United States.

“I grew up in Milwaukee but moved away to study at Juilliard when I was fourteen,” Shapiro said during a telephone conversation, “so my relationship with him did not go beyond that until the very end when he was dying, and then it was too late to ask questions. When you’re fourteen you don’t think about your parents’ lives — they’re just your mother and father. Sadly, I was not interested, and he didn’t talk about his past. There was a sense of taboo to even talk about those years.”

Shapiro’s quest to discover her father’s past has led to the creation of her four-concert project, Musical Roots: an exploration of cultural heritage and influences. The first installment, “In My Father’s Footsteps — a daughter’s search for answers,” will be presented on Wednesday, March 21 at 8:00 pm at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall. Shapiro’s musical documentary will include works by Liadov, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Schubert. The concert is free, but seating passes are required. Call 216.795.3211.

[Read more…]

CIM Faculty Recital: “From the Shtetl to the Concert Stage,” Jan. 26

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Kraut-melissaOn the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, CIM faculty cellist Melissa Kraut joined her sister, clarinetist Rena Kraut, in Mixon Hall to share a family album of photos, remembrances, and music chronicling the journey of their forebears from Rzeszów in Nazi-occupied Poland to Palestine and Israel, and finally to the United States. Assisted by faculty pianist Anita Pontremoli, the Kraut sisters presented a moving timeline titled “From the Shtetl to the Concert Stage: The Thread that Sustained Music through the Holocaust” (Shtetl is Yiddish for “village.”) [Read more…]

“Miss Olga” to celebrate 80th birthday with a concert at CIM on Dec. 21

by

Olga-RadosavljevichOn Thursday, December 21 at 3:00 pm, the well-known Cleveland piano pedagogue Olga Radosavljevich will be honored with an 80th Birthday Concert in Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she has taught for nearly six decades. The free event will feature performances by some of her many students, including Cicilia Yudha, who studied with “Miss Olga” for eight years in the Young Artist Program, and now serves on the piano faculty at Youngstown State University.

Yudha told ClevelandClassical.com that Miss Olga’s daughter, Kathy Manker, asked her to write her mother’s biography. “I spent a few afternoons with Ms. Olga earlier this Fall and finally drew the courage to summarize her incredible journey from Yugoslavia to Cleveland and her 57-year tenure at CIM,” Yudha said. Here is the result of those interviews. [Read more…]

CIM Names Inaugural Minority Artist Fellows

by

The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) has announced that guitarist Damian Goggans and cellist Evan Rowland-Seymore will be the first recipients of CIM’s Minority Artist Fellowship (MAF). The program aims to provide opportunities for diverse students between grades 7-9 looking to engage seriously in music. [Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us