ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad

CMA: Calder Quartet at Transformer Station (Mar. 31)

by

by Timothy Robson

05-Calder-QuartetThe Calder Quartet’s concert sponsored by the Cleveland Museum of Art on Thursday evening, March 31 was an extraordinary event both musically and in its setting. It took place in Cleveland’s Hingetown neighborhood in Transformer Station’s white-washed, post-industrial salon, a lofty cube with menacing chains and hooks dangling from the ceiling. The sold-out concert was wisely limited to about 40 people, surrounding the quartet, who were placed in the center of the room. This arrangement created an unusual intimacy between performers and audience, and made for an intense musical experience. [Read more…]

Orlando Consort to provide live medieval music for Dreyer’s Joan of Arc film at CMA April 6

by

by Mike Telin

Orlando-Voices-AppearedWhen Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc was first screened in Paris in 1928, the silent film classic was accompanied by an orchestral score specially composed by Victor Alix and Léo Pouget. A subsequent version paired the movie with music by J.S. Bach, Tomaso Albinoni and Antonio Vivaldi arranged by Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. Dreyer wasn’t happy with either solution, especially the baroque music, which he thought to be anachronistic for a story set in the middle ages. [Read more…]

Calder Quartet ends CMA residency with Transformer Station concert

by

by Mike Telin

05-Calder-QuartetOn Thursday, March 31 at 7:30 pm in Transformer Station, the Calder Quartet (Benjamin Jacobson and Andrew Bulbrook, violins, Jonathan Moerschel, viola, and Eric Byers, cello) will present the final concert of their two-year residency as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Performing Arts Series. The performance coincides with the ensemble’s final residency activities at the Oberlin Conservatory.

“We’re excited  to see everybody again,” violinist Andrew Bulbrook said during a telephone interview. “It’s been nice to have had both of these opportunities.”

Thursday’s sold-out concert will begin with Swedish composer Anders Hillborg’s Kongsgaard Variations, a work Bulbrook said appeals to people on many levels. “It’s a beautiful piece, and it references the Arietta theme from Beethoven’s final piano sonata. Years ago we went to Stockholm with Thomas Adès, and that’s when Anders was first put on our radar. I don’t think there are a lot of quartets touring his music in the U.S. at the moment.” [Read more…]

Irish Sligo band Dervish at Cleveland Museum of Art (March 11)

by

by Nicholas Jones

DervishSt. Patrick’s Day came early this year — at least for a couple of hours — as the Irish band Dervish returned to the Cleveland Museum of Art on March 11 with an energetic and delightful concert presenting traditional dance tunes — mainly reels and jigs — and traditional ballads in Gaelic and English. [Read more…]

Cleveland Museum of Art to present Qasida Project

by

by Mike Telin

09-QasidaOn Wednesday, March 16 at 7:30 pm in Gartner Auditorium, the Cleveland Museum of Arts Performing Arts Series will present Qasida, an astonishing musical collaboration between Sevillian flamenco cantaora Rosario La Tremendita and Iranian classical singer Mohammad Motamedi.

Created for the third Dutch Flamenco Biennale by festival Artistic Director Ernestina van de Noort (click here to view a promotional video), Qasida was described by writer Jan Fairley as a “contrast between the sheer beauty of flamenco’s distilled, passionate outpourings of the heart and the more inward, mystical philosophies of Persian poetry…” Following the Cleveland performances the show will travel to New York, Washington, D.C., and Boston. [Read more…]

Cleveland Museum of Art presents Dervish, the Irish Sligo Band

by

by Mike Telin

Dervish“Sligo music is known as one of the finest types of Irish traditional music,” singer Cathy Jordan of the band Dervish said during a telephone conversation. “The style is fast and furious with highly ornamented reels, jigs, and hornpipes. It has a jaunt to it and it’s very rhythmic.”

On Friday, March 11 at 7:30 pm, Dervish will make a stop at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium as part of the band’s three-week U.S. tour. The evening’s high-energy performance will feature Brian McDonagh on mandolin, Liam Kelly on flute and whistles, Shane Mitchell on accordion, Michael Holmes on bouzouki, Cathy Jordan on vocals, and special guest Kevin Burke on fiddle. The concert is part of the Museum’s Performing Arts Series.   [Read more…]

Cleveland Museum of Art: JACK Quartet (March 2)

by

by Timothy Robson

07-JACK-QuartetOn the WOW! spectrum, the JACK Quartet’s concert on Wednesday, March 2 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art was high on the rating scale. It was a program of new music, and although several of the works were arrangements of old or even very old music, they were given new garb for these performances. We were reminded that the distance between ancient and modern is often not far. The program featured two world premieres, both by the Turkish-born, New York-based composer and improviser Cenk Ergün. [Read more…]

CMA: JACK Quartet — a conversation with violinist Ari Streisfeld

by

by Mike Telin

07-JACK-QuartetIf you ask people to name the string quartets who have the ability embedded in their DNA to perform experimental music comprised of polyrhythms, extended techniques, and microtonality, the JACK Quartet is sure to be at the top of everyone’s list. Next week, violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Kevin McFarland will present a mini-residency in Cleveland as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Performing Arts Series.

On Tuesday, March 1 at 7:30 pm in Transformer Station the JACK will perform Georg Friedrich Haas’s pioneering String Quartet No. 3. Then on Wednesday, March 2 at 7:30 pm, the quartet will take the stage in the Museum’s Gartner Auditorium for a concert featuring works by Guillaume de Machaut, John Zorn, Claudio Monteverdi, and Caroline Shaw. The evening will also include two world premieres by Cenk Ergün. “We’re very excited about these concerts,” violinist Ari Streisfeld said during a telephone interview. “We hope everyone will come with open ears and open minds.” [Read more…]

CMA: a conversation with composer Cenk Ergün about his new works for the JACK Quartet

by

by Mike Telin

ERGÜN-CenkA native of Turkey, Cenk Ergün (pronounced “Jenk”) is a New York-based composer and improviser whose music has been performed by ensembles such as Sō Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, and Ensemble Laboratorium. As an improviser, he performs electronics with Alvin Curran, Jason Treuting, and Jeff Snyder. His music has been performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, The Roulette, The Stone, and internationally at Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, Zurich’s Tonhalle, and Istanbul’s Babylon. Ergün’s recordings include The Art of the Fluke with Alvin Curran and Sō Percussion’s Cage 100: The Bootleg Series. His first solo composition record, Nana, was released in May 2014 on Carrier Records.

On Wednesday, March 2 at 7:30 pm, two world premieres by Cenk Ergün will be performed by the JACK Quartet in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium. The commission was made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.

We reached Cenk Ergün by telephone. [Read more…]

CMA Performing Arts Series
brings home prestigious award

by

by Mike Telin

WELSH-TomEach year, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Performing Arts Series engages Northeast Ohio audiences with a roster of innovative performers and ensembles representing a myriad of musical genres. Last season, the Museum’s director of performing arts, Tom Welsh (left), presented a diverse lineup that included performances by the Calder Quartet, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ragamala Dance and Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mivos Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, and pipa virtuoso Wu Man.

On Sunday, January 10, at the Westin New York in Times Square during Chamber Music America’s National Conference, The Cleveland Museum of Art will be honored with the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming in the category of Large Presenter, Mixed Repertory. The award, which includes $500 plus a commemorative plaque, will be presented by Cia Toscanini, vice president of concert music, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Welsh will be receiving the award on behalf of the Museum. [Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us