by Mike Telin
On Friday, March 4 at 8:00 pm at Severance Hall, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra will perform what director Brett Mitchell says is the most challenging piece the orchestra has played during his tenure. “Stravinsky’s Pétrouchka is certainly a challenging undertaking even for the best of professional orchestras,” Mitchell pointed out during a telephone interview. “But I’ve been with COYO long enough to know that whatever challenge is put in front of the musicians they will, without fail, rise to the challenge. In fact, they always end up exceeding my expectations.” [Read more…]
“It’s more that the piece came my way rather than me actively looking for it,” cellist Henry Shapard said during a telephone conversation. “Back in the fall I sat down with my great teacher Richard Weiss and asked him what he would like me to play. I had just played Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations in the summer, so I expected that he would recommend something like the Dvořák. But he told me that before I did anything else, I really should work on the Kabalevsky.”