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Singer-songwriter Becca Stevens at Cleveland Museum of Art

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by Max Newman

“As somebody who’s used to touring with a band, this was kind of a big move for me, but I was like, ‘No, it feels right,’” Becca Stevens said during a recent interview.

On Wednesday, November 12, at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium, the multi-genre singer-songwriter will meet the challenge of going solo in a concert that will feature songs from her recent release, Maple to Paper. Tickets are available online.

Stevens’ musical journey has been a long one. She grew up in a musical family, and was performing in her family’s band by the age of two. She said that her upbringing “definitely dealt me a full deck that I could choose whether or not I wanted to use, but it wasn’t until I was 16 or 17 that I really committed to going full throttle in the musical direction. But once I applied my focus there, it just felt very grounding. I was like, oh gosh, this feels like home to me. It really feels like a language that I’ve always known, and a language that has always been encouraged and accepted.”

[Read more…]

Country GongBang brings South Korean Bluegrass to CMA

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by Max Newman

In a world of genre blending, contemporary bluegrass and K-Pop are two musical styles that most would not imagine being intertwined.

Think again: on October 8th, the Cleveland Museum of Art will  play host to South Korea’s Country GongBang, the nation’s “first and only bluegrass band.”

The 7:30 pm concert in Gartner Auditorium will be a testament both to the group’s artistry and the surprisingly international reach of bluegrass music. I communicated with the band via email through their agent Shawn Choi.

In 2014, the band was formed by Yebin Kim (mandolin and vocals), Hyunho Jang (banjo), and Keeha Song (bass), who met as classmates at university. The group began by playing country pop and country rock, which became the foundation of their sound. Over time, their interest in bluegrass deepened, and they invited Jongsu Yoon (fiddle) and Sunjae Won (guitar) to join, completing the band’s lineup.

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Omar Sosa Trio at CMA (Sept. 10)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Omar Sosa has a way of turning concerts into ceremonies. Before sitting down to play on Wednesday, September 10 at the Cleveland Museum of Art, he invoked Elegguá, the Afro-Cuban deity of the crossroads, snapping the irukére — a Yoruba horsetail whisk — to clear the space, invite protection, and “open the way.” The gesture set a ritual tone, reminding listeners they were at a spiritual gathering as much as at a musical performance.

Sosa brought his new trio, Outside the Box, to Gartner Auditorium for its Cleveland debut. The group includes his longtime collaborator Yosvany Terry on saxophones and young drummer Julian Miltenberger, whom Sosa introduced as “a 25-year-old from Philly — the next generation.”

Terry’s early contributions on soprano saxophone were so compelling that he temporarily shifted the group’s center of gravity. [Read more…]

A conversation with Cuban bandleader Omar Sosa

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Cuban-born pianist, composer, and bandleader Omar Sosa has forged a three-decade career blending Afro-Cuban roots with global jazz traditions, and a decidedly philosophical perspective. He has earned multiple GRAMMY® and Latin GRAMMY® nominations, major awards, and has attracted an international following.

When he makes his debut in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on September 10 at 7:30 pm, he will  bring along his new Trio, Outside the Box. Tickets are available online.

I spoke with Sosa by Zoom in a lively, warm conversation as he prepared to take the stage at the Detroit Jazz Festival over Labor Day weekend. Though he has traveled the globe, Cleveland has been on his radar through a personal connection. His former partner is the daughter of the well-known local architect Julian Madison. “She always told me, I hope you can play in Cleveland one day,” Sosa recalled. “And now that we’ve split up, I will play in Cleveland. Life is like that.”

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Piano Days: Kotaro Fukuma in the Atrium at Cleveland Museum of Art (July 29)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The motto of Piano Cleveland’s Piano Days, “Celebrate piano in all its forms,” included ticketed events as well as many free “Community” performances and happenings.

At noon on Tuesday, July 29, what was described as a sound installation brought Japanese pianist Kotaro Fukuma back to Cleveland, where he had taken first prize in the 2003 Cleveland International Piano Competition, to play an hour-long pop-up concert of Japanese music in the atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art. (Fukuma also performed a more formal program in CIM’a Mixon Hall later in the week).

The Ames Family Atrium is a wonderful venue for a community concert. Rafael Vinoly’s great enclosed space that connects the old and new parts of the museum invites informal gatherings as well as structured events, and whatever happens there inevitably attracts an audience of passersby as well as planned attendees. [Read more…]

Kotaro Fukuma makes long-awaited return to Cleveland for Piano Days

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by Stephanie Manning

Right after Kotaro Fukuma became the First Prize winner of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the then 20-year-old pianist went through a rollercoaster of emotions.

“ Of course, I was overjoyed,” he said in a recent interview, remembering how he called his parents to celebrate. But when he woke up the next morning, the review in The Plain Dealer told a different story. The first line: “Did the wrong pianist win the 2003 Cleveland International Piano Competition?”

“I was so shocked,” Fukuma said. “The night before I was congratulated by many, many people, and the next day I read this newspaper and think, ‘Oh my gosh, how can I leave my hotel?’”

More than 20 years later, the pianist views that experience as an important turning point. After that bittersweet victory, “I accepted all kinds of engagements and I forced myself to study harder. And I think that was the right attitude.”

Today, Fukuma has curated a healthy international career, splitting his time between Berlin, Leiden, and Tokyo. And on Thursday, July 31, he will return to Cleveland after a long absence to perform on Piano Cleveland’s 2025 Piano Days series. Tickets for the 7:30 pm performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music are available online. [Read more…]

Chinese Musicians Association of North America inspire at CMA (Apr. 11)

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by Peter Feher

The Chinese Musicians Association of North America (CMA-NA) may be less than a year old, but some of the group’s repertoire — and many of these performers’ instruments — date back centuries.

This history was on dazzling display in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium on Friday, April 11. The evening covered thousands of years of culture, from ancient plucked melodies that might have been heard in the third, fourth, or fifth centuries BCE, to a world-premiere chamber work that imaginatively bridged Eastern and Western classical traditions.

Photos of sculptures and paintings from the Museum’s Chinese art collection, similarly extensive in scope, were projected above the stage.

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Oblivion Project brings tango to CMA

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by Max Newman

Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla may have passed away over thirty years ago, but his contributions to the tango music genre are truly eternal.

“Even in his sweetest melodies, there are things that are powerful,” said Derek Snyder, the self-described “de-facto leader” of the Oblivion Project, a musical group that has been performing and exploring the works of Piazzolla for over twenty years.

The project will take the stage at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium on Friday, March 28 at 7:30 pm. Tickets available online. I was lucky to get to speak to both Snyder and Malena Dayen, the project’s vocalist, over the phone prior to the performance.

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Jazz vocalist Magos Herrera with her trio at CMA (Dec. 11)

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by Peter Feher

Magos Herrera sang for a full five minutes before uttering a single lyric at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Wednesday, Dec. 11.

It was an apt introduction to the artistry of the Mexico City-born jazz vocalist, whose boundary-free style can sometimes beguile and sometimes confuse.

Performing the wordless “Choro de Lua,” a track off her 2023 album Aire, Herrera sounded transcendent in certain moments but less than stellar in others. That pattern would continue throughout the evening in Gartner Auditorium — her set just beginning to coalesce near the end. [Read more…]

Genre-Bending Pahua at CMA’s City Stages

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by Max Newman

“It’s everything. To have a project like this is something that makes you evolve as a human.”

That’s how Mexican DJ, producer, percussionist, and vocalist Paulina Sotomayor describes her Pahua project which bridges the gap between alternative electronic music and Latin rhythms.

On July 10 at 7:30 pm she will bring her talents to the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Transformer Station as part of CMA’s City Stages series of free outdoor concerts that feature the best in global music.

And Pahua certainly is that. With over fifteen million streams on music platforms, the artist is thrilled about the upcoming concert. “It’s my first time in Cleveland. I am really excited and we are going to try to do something super special.”

[Read more…]

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