by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance, Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali (pictured), and cellist Sol Gabetta will join The Cleveland Orchestra in Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2 and Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 9.

At the same hour at The Bath Church in Akron, Apollo’s Fire will field an ensemble of 26 artists from Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim, and Christian traditions to present the first performance of an updated version of its program O Jerusalem! Crossroads of Three Faiths.

And in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel tonight at 7:30, Raphael Jiménez will lead the Oberlin Orchestra with violist William Mathangani in Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10.

For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.                         

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Three memorable dates in Black American classical music history appear on today’s calendar: the birth of composer Florence Beatrice Price in 1887, the birth of bass and actor Paul Robeson in 1898, and Marian Anderson’s 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial, sponsored by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, that drew a crowd of 75,000. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at 6 pm – the Cleveland Museum of Art hosts Chamber Music in the Atrium featuring student musicians from the Cleveland Institute of Music.

And tonight at 7:30, the CIM’s Insiders Series presents violinists Olga Dubossarskaya Kaler & Ilya Kaler, violist Lynne Ramsey, cellist Daniel Kaler, cello, and pianist Ilya Itin, in music by Debussy, Brahms, and Ysaÿe in Mixon Hall.

For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.                         

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

Today we remember three composers who took their leave of this world on April 8. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 noon, organist Owen Metz will play Franz Liszt’s monumental Fantasie and Fugue on the Choral Ad nos, ad salutarum Undam on the Tuesday noon Organ Series at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle. For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

This date in history includes two birth anniversaries — French pianist and composer Robert Casadesus (1899) and Indian sitar player and composer Ravi Shankar (1920). [Read more…]

The Diary is taking Easter Monday off, returning on Tuesday.

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 Noon, the Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concert Series will present a quartet of Cleveland Chamber Choir singers in William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, English madrigals, and works by Cleveland-area composer Judith Eckelmeyer.  And at 6 pm, the Cleveland Museum of Art will host Chamber Music in the Galleries featuring young artists from Case Western Reserve University’s Historical Performance Practice Program.

For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

CLEVELAND, April 1, 2026 – The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) today announced the appointment of acclaimed actor and tastemaker Timothée Chalamet as its new Director of Opera and Vocal Ensembles, marking a bold and imaginative new chapter for the conservatory’s storied vocal and operatic programs.

Chalamet, whose recent public remarks have ignited a renewed interest in the expressive power of opera and ballet, will begin his tenure in the 2026–27 academic year. He will make his home on the West side of the East side. His inaugural season will open with a reimagined production of The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, featuring entrepreneur and cultural icon Kylie Jenner in the role of the Queen of the Night(life).

“Timothée represents a genuinely consequential shift in how we understand opera in the 21st century,” said Paùl W. Hôgle, CIM President and CEO. “He brings intuition, artistic sensibility, and an approach to the art form that is notably unencumbered by intellectual framing or curiosity. That absence of thought is precisely what makes his perspective so uniquely obtuse.”

INTERESTING READ:

Elena Manferdini, founder of the California-based architecture studio Atelier Manferdini, was initially surprised when she was invited to collaborate with the Rome Opera House.  [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

12 Noon – Jonathan Moyer & Gabriel Ackerman, organ. Click here to view or download the program. Tuesday Organ Plus Series. Church of the Covenant, University Circle. Freewill offering.

For details of these and other classical events, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

On Monday, The Canton Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director Search Committee announced the finalists for the CSO’s Music Director Search. The five finalists are Austin Chanu, Jacob Joyce, Melisse Brunet, Wesley Schulz, and Yue Bao. Each candidate will come to Canton during the 2026-2027 season to conduct a MasterWorks concert and spend time in the community as the last part of the review process. The new Music Director will be announced in the spring of 2027. Read the press release here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Some of our readers have reminded us that Johann Sebastian Bach’s real birthday is today, not March 21, where it ended up with the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

7:30 pm – Signature Recital Series. CIM New Music Ensemble. A program of 20th- and 21st-century music for various instrumental combinations. Cinema Hall, Lorain Community College, Elyria.

For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Piano Cleveland writes, “The final sessions of the First Round of the Cleveland International Piano Competitions for Young Artists have ended, but you can rewatch all the sessions here.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Compiling the Almanac feature of the Daily Diary begins with a search for noteworthy events that happened on the date in question in classical music history. Sometimes there’s a mighty list of composers, conductors, and artists to sift through, and on other occasions like today, March 30, there’s next to nothing of import to write about — except the founding of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society in 1815.

Or so our usual go-to source for historical dates told us. Striving to be accurate and thorough, we always check out dates before setting electrons in motion and choosing music to celebrate milestones. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

FRIDAY

Today at 9 am and 2 pm, Piano Cleveland continues the first round of its Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists. repeated Daily through Sunday afternoon, online only.

Tonight at 7 pm, CIM Opera Theater stages Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel in Mixon Hall, repeated on Sunday at 3.

And at 8:00 pm, Baldwin Wallace Opera Theater stages Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte’s operatic masterpiece The Marriage of Figaro, directed by Scott Skiba and conducted by Dean Buck at the Kleist Center in Berea. Repeated Saturday at 8  and Sunday at 3.

SATURDAY

At 7:30, Daniel Meyer conducts BlueWater Chamber Orchestra with pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi (pictured) in works by Dmitri Kabalevsky & Leoš Janáček, and Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s “Prague” Symphony at the Church of the Covenant.

At the same hour, Mélisse Brunet will lead the Canton Symphony, soprano Jessica Leigh, soprano, bass-baritone Sunghoon Han, and the Canton Symphony Chorus in Gabriela Lena Frank’s Adean Elegy and Johannes Brahms’s A German Requiem in Umstattd Hall at Zimmermann Symphony Center.

SUNDAY

At 3:30 pm, the Suburban Symphony Orchestra, Domenico Boyagian, conductor, with pianist Shuai Wang, will play Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center.

At 4:00 pm, the CIM New Music Ensemble, Keith Fitch, director, will feature works by guest composer Libby Larsen and Fitch in Mixon Hall. 

For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Oxford University’s Magdalen College Choir has announced that it will begin phasing girls into the ensemble for the first time since its founding in 1480. The Choir is best known for its Mayday morning ritual of singing carols from the chapel tower. Read the Oxford Mail story here.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Apollo’s Fire will revive Jeannette Sorrell’s program “O Jerusalem! Crossroads of Three Faiths” for performances from April 9-25 in Cleveland, New York City, Chicago, and London, with additional performances in Akron & Beachwood, and Evanston. IL. Read a press release here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Piano Cleveland writes, “The First Round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists starts today at 9 AM. From March 26 through March 29, you’ll have a chance to stream the piano world’s most promising artists from the comfort of your home. We will broadcast two sessions each day — one at 9 AM and one at 2 PM. Each session lasts approximately three hours. To watch,  visit our main webpage or our YouTube channel. All sessions of the First Round will be saved to our YouTube channel so you can rewatch them later.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

ChamberFest Cleveland violinist Nathan Meltzer is one of the four artists to receive $25,000 Avery Fisher Career Grants this year. Read the Violin Channel story here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

One debut and three final acts to commemorate today: French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez was born on this date in 1925 in Montbrison, while Renaissance composers Heinrich Isaac and Antonio de Cabezon, and German composer Ludwig van Beethoven took their final bows in 1517, 1566, and 1827 in Florence, Madrid, and Vienna, respectively. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

This evening at 6 pm, the Cleveland Chamber Choir celebrates both the Madness and Melancholy of March in the Donna and James Reid Gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art, followed by a concert at 7 pm in Gartner Auditorium by the all-female sextet Maruja Limon (pictured) from Barcelona.

Also tonight in University Circle, the Cleveland Institute of Music will present its CIM Virtuosi at 7 pm, when Todd Phillips conducts music by Mozart, Grieg, and Copland in Mixon Hall.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

On March 25, 1881 composer, pianist, ethnomusicologist, and teacher Béla Viktor János Bartók was born in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary, now Sânnicolau Mare, Romania.

Bartók began studying piano with his mother, and at age nine started composing dance pieces. From 1899 to 1903, he studied piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. It was there that he met Zoltán Kodály and the two became lifelong friends and colleagues — they both shared an interest in folk music. [Read more…]