by Daniel Hathaway
Last December, Cape Breton fiddling phenomenon Natalie MacMaster brought her husband and fiddling partner Donnell Leahy and their children along for a heartwarming program of Nova Scotian fiddling at the Cleveland Museum of Art. This year, MacMaster popped down from Ontario in the middle of her family’s Christmas tour for a one-night show with Brett Mitchell and the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall. [Read more…]
Cleveland Orchestra principal clarinet Franklin Cohen will leave the ensemble after 39 seasons next summer, having set a record as the longest-serving solo clarinetist in the orchestra’s history. He will be named Principal Clarinet Emeritus upon his retirement. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
It’s all about the holidays this week at Severance Hall. On Wednesday, December 17 at 7:30 pm, Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra and renowned Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster in “Christmas in Cape Breton,” a special show that mixes folk and Celtic styles with Holiday favorites and Nova-Scotian jigs.
“We’re really excited about it,” MacMaster said during a telephone conversation. “I love playing music with symphony orchestras. It’s such a nice change for us. We do about a dozen shows with orchestra each year, out of our one hundred shows a year. And this is even more special because it is Christmas time.”
If you’ve had the privilege of hearing Natalie MacMaster perform live, you know she is one of the most versatile and exciting musicians on the folk and Celtic scenes. You also know that Christmas is a special time for her. “I’m a fiddler and at Christmas time in Cape Breton there are a ton of house parties. It’s a time to get together and play our traditional music, so there will be a lot of that on the program as well.” [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
Centaurs, dancing mushrooms, ballet hippos, and figure skating fairies accompanied The Cleveland Orchestra Thursday night at Severance Hall. Selections from the 1940 film classic Fantasia and its modern counterpart, Fantasia 2000, were projected over the orchestra for Disney Fantasia Live in Concert, part of the orchestra’s 2014 Holiday Festival series. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
A party raged at Severance Hall Friday night. Everybody in the house — young and old — had their hands in the air and their bodies on the dance floor, the bartender tapping on bottle caps along to the music. No, this wasn’t during the performance by The Cleveland Orchestra — maybe someday. It was afterwards, in the majestic Grand Foyer, its golden ceiling and tall pillars overlooking a performance by the twelve-piece Latin jazz group Sammy DeLeón y su Orquesta, who invited listeners to take to the dance floor. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
One size didn’t fit all the pieces on last Thursday evening’s program at Severance Hall. Guest conductor Marek Janowski ordered up a small Cleveland Orchestra for Beethoven’s Haydnesque first symphony, brought on a very large Cleveland Orchestra for Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber, then sent most of those players home, leaving a medium-sized Cleveland Orchestra to end the evening with Beethoven’s second symphony. [Read more…]
Bassoonist Gareth Thomas, violinist Analisé Denise Kukelhan and oboist Corbin Stair will join the ranks of The Cleveland Orchestra during the winter and spring of 2015. [Read more…]
The Cleveland Orchestra will build its next neighborhood residency around a free, public concert on April 10, 2015 at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Slavic Village.
Community activities, concerts and educational presentations will take place throughout the community in Spring 2015. Planned in partnership with neighborhood businesses, organizations and schools, details of the residency will be announced in 2015.
by Daniel Hathaway
The Elgar concerto was on the agenda for Cleveland native and international cello heroine Alisa Weilerstein’s most recent homecoming. On Thursday evening at Severance Hall, Weilerstein put her individual stamp on that iconic work in a penetrating and daring performance with The Cleveland Orchestra and Giancarlo Guerrero. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“I’m so happy to be coming back to my hometown. I’m quite excited about it,” cellist Alisa Weilerstein said during a telephone call from Belfast, Northern Ireland. On Thursday, November 6 at 7:30 pm in Severance Hall, Weilerstein will join The Cleveland Orchestra and conductor Giancarlo Guerrero in a performance of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto.
The program, which also includes Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten and John Adams’s Harmonielehre, will be repeated on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. On Friday at 4:00 pm in Reinberger Chamber Hall, Alisa Weilerstein will lead a special public masterclass with students from Northeast Ohio colleges. Admission is free but a ticket is required.
Since making her debut with The Cleveland Orchestra at age 13, Weilerstein has gone on to establish a career of international renown. She has received a number of honors, including an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and in 2011 was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. [Read more…]