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Cleveland Women’s Orchestra at Severance: chatting with conductor Eric Benjamin

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by Daniel Hathaway

On Sunday afternoon, March 30, at 3:30 pm, the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra will continue its long tradition of performing in Severance Hall. The ensemble’s 90th Anniversary Concert in what is now known as the Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center will be conducted by music director Eric Benjamin. Tickets are available online.

The main work on the program will feature violinist Olga Dubossarskaya Kaler, cellist Eleanor Pompa, and pianist Emanuela Friscioni, in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. 

Benjamin was named the fourth music director of the oldest women’s orchestra in the U.S. in 2023, following the lengthy tenures of its founder Hyman Schandler and his successor Robert L. Cronquist, who held the podium for 33 and 22 years respectively. During COVID, John Thomas Dodson served as interim music director for three-and-a-half years, passing the baton to Jungho Kim for a single season. [Read more…]

Fall Preview: Anniversaries & New Beginnings

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by Daniel Hathaway

While compiling our master calendar for 2024-2025, we noted some milestones to celebrate among Northeast Ohio’s musical organizations and at least one new arrival on the scene to mention.

The Cleveland Women’s Orchestra (pictured in 1938) begins its 90th season this year, with a November concert at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, a holiday concert at Judson Manor in December, and an anniversary performance at Severance Music Center in March.

For its 75th season, Cleveland Chamber Music Society will host only six ensembles at Disciples Church rather than the usual seven, but No. 6, the Jerusalem Quartet, will perform all 15 of Dmitri Shostakovich’s string quartets in five April concerts at the Cleveland Museum of Art. CCMS’s season begins with Chanticleer on September 24 and includes concerts by the Imani Winds with pianist Michelle Cann, Cuarteto Casals, flutist Emmanuel Pahud with pianist Alessio Bax, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Opera to present William Grant Still’s Highway 1, U.S.A.

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by Mike Telin

Family dynamics have always been the source of inspiration for great literature. There’s Shakepeare’s Hamlet — which depicts the Prince of Denmark’s attempts to take revenge against his uncle, or the prime time television soap opera Dallas, which revolved around an affluent and feuding Texas family.

On Sunday, February 18 at 3:00 pm in The Tudor Arms Hotel Grand Ballroom, The Cleveland Opera in collaboration with the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra and Duffy Liturgical Ensemble, will present a full-scale production of William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Women’s Orchestra shines in music by White, Sibelius & Dvořák (Apr. 30) 

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by Kevin McLaughlin

In 1993 Dolores White was commissioned by the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra to write Celebration, Salute to the Arts for the centennial celebration of the Chicago World’s Fair, and the resulting work was premiered by CWO that year at the Cleveland Museum of Art. It is fitting, then, that the Orchestra’s program on Sunday, April 30 featured that work, both as tribute to the longtime Cleveland-based composer — who died on March 23 — and as a wider celebration of the arts and women’s contribution to it. The concert at Severance Music Center also featured Dane Johansen in a silky performance of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, and the King Christian II Suite of Jean Sibelius.

Conductor Jungho Kim (pictured) began by describing the orchestra’s commission of Celebration, and his meeting with the composer not long before her passing to discuss the upcoming concert. At age 90, White was so occupied by performances and personal appearances that she only had a few minutes to meet with Kim outside her apartment. Unconcerned by passing cars and street noise, as the conductor recalled, White intently pointed out important passages in the score. Kim was moved by her unflagging energy and attention.

[Read more…]

Johansen to solo with Women’s Orchestra on Sunday in Dvořák Cello Concerto 

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Cleveland Women’s Orchestra will make its 88th annual visit to Severance Music Center on Sunday, April 30 at 3:30 pm when Cleveland Orchestra cellist Dane Johansen will be featured in Antonin Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in b minor. Filling out the program, Jungho Kim will lead the ensemble in Dolores White’s Celebration, Salute to the Arts, and Jean Sibelius’ King Christian II Suite, Op. 27.

Johansen, a native of Fairbanks, Alaska,  joined the cello section of The Cleveland Orchestra in March of 2016, after studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, and at the Juilliard School, and touring for five seasons with the Escher String Quartet.

In addition to performing Elliott Carter’s concerto during the composer’s centennial celebrations at Lincoln Center, Johansen made his Carnegie Hall debut as first winner of the Juilliard Leo Ruiz Memorial Award and appeared in William Walton’s Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. [Read more…]

Cleveland Women’s Orchestra celebrates 87 years in style (Apr. 24)

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by Stephanie Manning

After observing so many concerts from The Cleveland Orchestra — an ensemble that has long been lagging in its representation of women — it was refreshing to see their usual stage occupied by a group that reverses that gender discrepancy.

On April 24 at Severance Music Center, The Cleveland Women’s Orchestra and conductor John Thomas Dodson presented a program that gave a healthy challenge for its players without getting too far out of their comfort zone.

[Read more…]

Women’s Orchestra remembers Robert Cronquist at Severance (Apr. 7)

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by Daniel Hathaway

On Sunday afternoon, April 7, the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra made its 84th annual visit to Severance Hall, dedicating its program to the memory of Robert L. Cronquist, who led the ensemble from 1990 until his passing early last fall. The program, led by John Thomas Dodson, featured violinist Jinjoo Cho for the fifth time since her debut with the ensemble in 2003, and included works that Cronquist had conducted during his long tenure with the Orchestra. [Read more…]

Cleveland Women’s Orchestra 84th Anniversary at Severance Hall

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by Daniel Hathaway

Following the unexpected passing at the beginning of the season of its longtime conductor Robert Cronquist (left) — only the second person in its history to lead the ensemble — the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra found itself scrambling for podium leadership. Guest conductor John Thomas Dodson has stepped into that role for the ensemble’s 84th annual concert at Severance Hall on Sunday, April 7 at 3:30 pm, and violinist Jinjoo Cho will be the featured soloist.

Founded in 1935 by Cleveland Orchestra violinist Hyman Schandler at a time when symphony orchestras were the exclusive province of male musicians, the Cleveland ensemble is the oldest women’s orchestra in the United States. After Schandler’s death in 1990, Cronquist took over the podium in addition to his posts as music director of the Mansfield Symphony and the summertime Lakeside Festival Orchestra. During his tenure, he established an endowment to sustain the ensemble as it moved into the 21st century. [Read more…]

Robert Cronquist, 89

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Conductor Robert Cronquist, who led the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra for 28 years until his recent retirement, died on September 11. He also served as conductor of the Mansfield Symphony for 22 seasons, and the Lakeside Symphony for 47. A service will be held on Wednesday, September 19 at 11:00 am at Rocky River Methodist Church. Read a Cleveland Plain Dealer obituary here.

Cleveland Women’s Orchestra to feature pianist Angelin Chang

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by Daniel Hathaway

CHANG-AngelinIn 2011, pianist Angelin Chang was featured in Mozart’s D-minor Piano Concerto with the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra at Severance Hall. This Sunday, April 22 at 3:30 pm, the Cleveland State University professor will return to solo with that ensemble in a very different work, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto.

“It’s one of the most popular concertos of all time,” the pianist said in a telephone conversation, “but sometimes after hearing those beautiful, lush, transporting themes we forget that the piece came from a grim place in his life. Rachmaninoff had deep depression and writer’s block until his hypnotist got him out of it. It’s important to know so that the beauty and passion can come through in this technically difficult piece.”

(Speaking of going from one mood to the other, Chang told me about her niece who wanted to visit Cleveland in February to get away from the sun and heat of California. “Though the weather didn’t cooperate and they didn’t get to experience ice and snow, they were so excited to have gloomy weather so they could appreciate the other kind later.”) [Read more…]

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