by Jarrett Hoffman
A rare sensitivity emanated from the stage of CIM’s Mixon Hall on June 8. The source was Jason Vieaux, playing a carefully crafted program of music mostly from the 1700s during the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival.
by Rory O’Donoghue
Guitarist Colin Davin explored the relationship between old and new on his opening recital of the 19th Annual Cleveland International Guitar Festival on June 6, pairing Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint with David Crowell’s Point Cloud (a Cleveland premiere) and two Bach transcriptions. The two-time prizewinner of the Guitar Foundation of America International Competition, who currently teaches at the Cleveland Institute of Music, presented an evening of utmost musicianship at Mixon Hall.
by Mike Telin
During the years of covering the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, I have had the pleasure of hearing recitals performed on Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and modern instruments as well as the lute. But somehow, a theorbo recital had not crossed my path. That was until Saturday, June 8 in CIM’s Mixon Hall when Elizabeth Kenny (England) presented “Theorbo Fantasy: old and new music for the long-necked lute.” I was captivated from beginning to end. [Read more…]
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. And as we have come to expect, the 2019 edition, which ran from Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9, artistic director Armin Kelly assembled an outstanding lineup of performers, clinicians, and lecturers. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Necessity is the mother of invention, and when guitarist Lynn McGrath needed to figure out how to simultaneously play the music and recite the poetry of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, she found a way to do it.
On Friday, June 7 at 6:30 pm in Studio 113 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Lynn McGrath will present a lecture recital titled “Guitar With Spoken Word.” The program features selections from Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Platero y yo (Platero and I). The free event is presented as part of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival.
Inspired by the 1914 book by the Nobel Prize-winning author Juan Ramon Jiménez, Platero y yo tells the story of a poet and his silvery gray donkey, the poet’s traveling companion and confidant. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“With plucked instruments you have the freedom of a classical musician on the one hand, and on the other, you can also have a great relationship with folk, rock, and jazz,” English lutenist Elizabeth Kenny said via Skype from Cremona, Italy. “And sometimes you can escape those boundaries, which is very true of composers like Kapsberger and Piccinini — they had their intellectual side and a strong sense of what could be done with three or four chords.”
On Saturday, June 8 at 4:00 pm in CIM’s Mixon Hall, Kenny will present a program titled “Theorbo Fantasy: old and new music for the long-necked lute,” featuring the music of Kapsberger and Piccinini, as well as works by James MacMillan and Benjamin Oliver. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
When given her choice, guitarist Xuefei Yang likes to present programs that represent a variety of musical styles. “The guitar is such a diverse instrument, and I think of myself as a diverse player as well,” Yang said via Skype from her home in the U.K.
On Friday, June 7 at 7:30 in Mixon Hall at CIM, Xuefei Yang will present a program that ranges from traditional Chinese music to 21st-century works. The concert is presented as part of the 2019 Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival.
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.
by Mike Telin & Daniel Hathaway
For 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. The eighteenth season, which ran from June 8 through 10, featured thirteen artists and ensembles, five concerts, nine master classes, and three lectures. Here are our impressions of the artists who provided enthusiastic audiences with top-notch performances of a range of diverse and entertaining repertoire. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
It’s a privilege to be asked to perform the closing concert of any festival. It also requires the artists to create a program that both celebrates the past and looks to the future. At this year’s Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, the honor of presenting the final concert has been bestowed upon guitarist Colin Davin and soprano Estelí Gomez. The Festival runs from Friday June 8 through Sunday June 10 at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Tickets can be purchased online.
On Sunday, June 10 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall, Davin and Gomez will present Nomads by Nature. The evening will include repertoire standards — some with a new twist — as well as two World Premieres which are grounded in 21st century cultural esthetics.
In a joint telephone conversation, Davin and Gomez said the program’s title is taken from a line in the text of Henri Duparc’s L’Invitation au voyage which opens the concert. Davin first encountered Duparc’s setting of Charles Baudelaire’s poem when he was asked to play at the 90th birthday party for French painter, critic, and author, Françoise Gilot. “They requested some French music and we settled on this piece,” Davin said. [Read more…]
