by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND:

On Friday at 7:30 and Saturday at 8,  The Cleveland Orchestra continues its Opera Festival with Vox Humana (works by Francis Poulenc, J.S. Bach, Galina Ustvolskaya, and Richard Strauss, with Franz Welser-Möst, conducting, Sarah Aristidou, soprano, Tony Sias, narrator, and The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus.

Also on Saturday, at 7:30 Carl Topilow leads the Firelands Symphony Orchestra in Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, with Andrès Cárdenes, plus works by Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and John Williams at Sawmill Creek Convention Center, in Huron. Tickets available online.

And on Sunday at 3 pm, Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in the third and final performance of Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa (pictured, photo by Roger Mastroianni).

Same day same hour, Cleveland Chamber Collective presents Music of America VIII, featuring works by Missy Mazzoli, Eric D. Gould, and Katherine Hoover, plus premieres of works by Ty Alan Emerson and Eric Charnofsky (Disciples Church in Cleveland Hts., free and live streamed here.) [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7 pm, The Cleveland Orchestra presents the second of three performances of Leoš Janáček’s 1904 opera Jenůfa. Franz Welser-Möst, conducts a cast featuring Latonia Moore, soprano (Jenůfa), Samuel Levine, tenor (Laca), Miles Mykkanen, tenor (Števa), Nina Stemme, soprano (Kostelnička) and The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. Read our review of the opening performance here.

And at the same hour at Neighborhood Connections, Renovare Music presents A Hive’s Song: The Frequency of Sisterhood, an evening of instrumental music and original documentary songs written in collaboration with My Sistas Keeper, a collective of black, female, urban beekeepers in Greater Cleveland.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1874, Giuseppi Verdi’s Requiem was first performed at the church of San Marco in Milan, ending a long saga for the composer, who had originally proposed a collaborative work by several Italian composers to honor Gioachino Rossini after his death in 1868. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

12:00 Noon – Brownbag Concert. Trobár, (pictured), a small band of voices and instruments, is dedicated to bringing medieval music to modern audiences. Free at Trinity Cathedral.

INTERESTING READ:

The Strad writes about The Cleveland Orchestra’s appointment of Dover Quartet primo violinist Joel Link as concertmaster of the Orchestra. “However, the quartet plans to stay together in its current configuration.” Read the article here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Today we’ll raise a virtual glass to celebrate two European soloists born on the 21st of May: French trumpeter Maurice André who greeted the world in 1933 in Alès in the Cévennes, and Swiss oboist Heinz Holliger, who followed him six years later in Langenthal. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 6 pm in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Music Center, the Mandel Festival presents The Women of Chicago’s Black Renaissance featuring pianist Michelle Cann, who will perform works by Nora Holt, Betty Jackson King, Florence Price, Irene Britton Smith, and Margaret Bonds.

Tune in tonight at 8:00 pm or point your web browser to Ideastream Public Media’s Listen Online page to hear two ChamberFest Cleveland blockbusters from past festivals:

César Franck’s Piano Trio No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1 No. 1, with Juho Pohjonen (piano), Stephen Waarts (violin), and Jonathan Swensen (cello), and Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in F minor, Op. 80, with Alexi Kenney & Nathan Meltzer (violins), Hsin-Yun Huang (viola), and Nicholas Canellakis (cello).

ChamberFest Cleveland 2025 will run this year from June 11-28 in several venues around the city. Subscriptions and single tickets are now on sale here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1954, the iconoclastic American composer Charles Ives died in New York. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Friday: Re:Sound New and Experimental Music Festival begins at Transformer Station | The Mandel Festival presents The Moth Mainstage at Severance | CityMusic Chamber Orchestra moves to St. Noel in Willoughby Hills.

Saturday: The Mandel Festival presents United in Song at Severance | Master Singers Chorale perform at The Bath Church | Federated Church hosts Sammy DeLeon y su Orquestra in Chagrin Falls | The Cleveland Orchestra stages its first performance of Leoš Janáček’s opera Jenůfa at Severance | BlueWater Chamber Orchestra (pictured) and Cleveland Chamber Choir collaborate at Trinity Cathedral | the Re:Sound New and Experimental Music Festival continues at Transformer Station | CityMusic Chamber Orchestra calls in at St. Stanislaus.

Sunday: Cleveland Composers Guild holds its 33rd annual junior concert at the Music Settlement | Suburban Symphony features violinist Aika Birch and pianist James Carson at Beachwood H.S. | members of the Jenůfa cast light on Janáček’s opera at Severance | CityMusic Chamber Orchestra ends its season in Rocky River | Music at Bath presents Alla Boara in Italian folk music | Chucho Valdés and his Royal Quartet play Afro-Cuban jazz at Severance.

HEADLINES:

The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst appoint Joel Link as Concertmaster (Cleveland Orchestra Press Release)

American Classical Musicians Publish Letter Criticizing Trump Administration’s Threats to Free Speech (The Violin Channel)

Canceled CSO recital signals bigger brewing visa crisis for musicians in Trump era (WBEZ, Chicago)

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

Let us now praise famous musicians who arrived or departed on May 18. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, CityMusic Cleveland begins its portable May Orchestra Series at Fairmount Presbyterian Church with a free concert led by Lorenzo Lopez featuring soprano Chabrelle Williams with the CityMusic Community Choir. Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem is the centerpiece, and the program includes William Grant Still’s Danzas de Panama, and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Leyendas: An Andean Walk-Around.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Apollo’s Fire releases details of ¡HISPANIA!, its 2025 Summer Concerts

Performances include May 27 & 28 send-off concerts for the ensemble’s Puerto Rican tour and Countryside Concerts from June 5-9 with Puerto Rican vocalists Sophia Burgos and David Glazman and Mexican-American flamenco guitarist Jeremías Garcia. Download a press release here.

Carillon bells return from the Netherlands

Friends of the University Circle McGaffin Carillon write that “The McGaffin Carillon Bells have cleared customs (with minimal import tariffs) and are on their way to Cleveland. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

6:00 pm – Piano Cleveland Live presents Daniela Liebman, joined by fellow pianists and Baldwin Wallace faculty members Anthony and Christine Fuoco in repertoire that runs the gamut from originals to new spins on old favorites at BrewDog Cleveland Outpost.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Before lighting the birthday candles for historical figures born on May 14, let’s observe the passing of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel in 1847 at the too-young age of 43. That Felix Mendelssohn’s sister could hold her own is demonstrated in her piano cycle Das Jahr (played here on a doctoral recital in Montréal by Laurence Manning). [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:00 Noon Piano Cleveland presents Daniela Liebman in the Ames Family Atrium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and at the same hour, Tuesdays at the Church of the Covenant hosts organist Mikhail Grazhdanov.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Today we celebrate the births of two British musical luminaries who made their debuts on May 13.

In 1842 composer Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan came into the world in London. Sullivan exhibited his musical prowess early on — at the age of eight he composed his first anthem and soon after became a soloist in the boys’ choir of the Chapel Royal. At age 14 the Royal Academy of Music awarded Sullivan the first Mendelssohn Scholarship, allowing him to pursue his musical studies at the Academy as well as at the Leipzig Conservatory. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

The classical music concert calendar is blank today, so we’ll take this opportunity to reprint an amusing almanac entry by our long-time managing editor, who is currently on leave.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

A little bit about me: I enjoy long walks on the beach at sunset, and quiet days in classical music history — the kind when you can easily zero in on one or two musicians and give them their proper respect in the daily almanac.

Here’s one way to put May 12 in perspective: if all the important composers who were born on this date decided to celebrate their birthdays at the local Burger King — as we all were once inclined to do — the playpen would be so full of collisions and tears that at some point, each musician would need to be lifted into the air by mom or dad, receive a gentle pat on the back, and be taken home early. [Read more…]