by Carlyn Kessler
On Friday, October 10, The Cleveland Orchestra presented its first Fridays@7 concert of the 2014-15 season. Creating a more informal concertgoing experience, these concerts feature an earlier start time and shorter duration bookended by pre- and post-concert non-classical music, organized by world percussion luminary Jamey Haddad. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Brazilian vocal sensation Kenia wants to remind audiences of one thing about Friday’s Cleveland Orchestra Friday’s @ 7 post-concert: “Remember to bring your dancing shoes,” she exclaimed. “People should expect to take a little trip to Brazil and I’d love it if they would close their eyes and find themselves transported to Rio in the midst of Carnival.”
On Friday, April 11 in Severance Hall, The Cleveland Orchestra continues its popular Fridays @ 7 series. The evening begins at 6:00 pm with a Pre-Concert in Reinberger Hall featuring Classical Indian Music with Steven Gorn, bansuri bamboo flute, and Samir Chatterjee, tabla. At 7:00 pm, Giancarlo Guerrero leads the Orchestra in a performance of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Yuja Wang as soloist. Then, on to Festa Brasileira…Carnival!
“The show is all about revisiting Carnival from the 1940’s and 50’s,” Kenia told us during a recent telephone conversation. We’ll be playing some of the marches and some of the sambas from those days. It’s away from the bossa nova but something new, exciting and very upbeat.” [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“I have increasingly come to value our extraordinary tradition of classical music that we have spent our lives listening to and being moved by,” cellist Eugene Friesen (left) told us by telephone. “The range of musical sophistication that we have been exposed to by listening to it and the range of human emotion that is expressed in it I think are deep treasure chests for us to draw upon as creators.”
On Friday, September 20, as part of the KeyBank Friday’s @ 7 series at Severance Hall, Eugene Friesen will be joined by Trio Globo colleagues Howard Levy and Glen Velez for an after-party performance of contemporary music that is rooted in jazz, classical, sacred music and global rhythms. The evening begins at 6:00 pm in Reinberger Chamber Music Hall with a pre-concert performance by pianist Gregory Wang with special guest Peter Takács. At 7:00, Fabio Luisi will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in performances of Schumann’s Spring Symphony and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #5 (Emperor) featuring Hélène Grimaud.
“We really do come from very different musical backgrounds,” Friesen says of his Trio Globo colleagues, “but when I get together with Howard and Glenn I just feel this extraordinary loving respect that goes across our traditions and our various approaches.” [Read more…]
by Alexandra A. Vago
The Cleveland
Orchestra’s KeyBank Fridays@7 concert series began in 2009 as a way to create a new concert experience for new patrons and introduce current patrons to musics of the world. As part of this season’s series, Giancarlo Guerrero led the Cleveland Orchestra in an exhilarating exhibition of American music for a nearly sold-out Severance Hall on Friday, December 7.
Fridays@7 is really three concert experiences in one. The 6:00 pm pre-concert in the Reinberger Chamber Hall featured folk music from Eastern Europe performed by Harmonia. The main event highlighted American music with Short Ride in a Fast Machine by Adams, An American in Paris by Gershwin, and Béla Fleck’s Concerto for Banjo and Orchestra. The Bogomolny-Kozerefski Grand Foyer housed the after-party, which showcased contemporary music from New Orleans performed by Mark Mullins, trombone; Roland Guerin, bass; and Johnny Vidacovich, drums. [Read more…]