by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Only a single event to list for today: at 12 Noon, Florence Mustric (pictured) plays Mendelssohn’s Sonatas No. 2 & No. 6 on the Beckerath Organ in Trinity Lutheran Church in Ohio City. Visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Cleveland Chamber Choir, the region’s premier professional choral ensemble, continues its mission of performances of unique and diverse repertoire in its 10th anniversary, 2024-25 season. The pay-what-you-wish concerts blend music by living composers with ten centuries of choral tradition, and emphasize the works of composers historically excluded from the concert hall. Additionally the ensemble has been named Artist-in-Residence at Trinity Cathedral. Click here for more information. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tuesdays at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle resume today at Noon with a recital of 16th & 17th century music by Jonathan W. Moyer on the Newberry organ. Click here to view the program. And visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances.

R.I.P. Michael Murray

The Violin Channel reports that organist Michael Murray has passed away at the age of 81. An Oberlin Conservatory graduate who made his performance debut in Cleveland playing the complete organ works of J.S. Bach in a series of twelve recitals, Murray was the first solo artist to be recorded on the Telarc label, which would continue to release his albums for the next three decades. The obituary includes a link to a recital Murray gave at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio in 2014. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

There are no events on the calendar for this Monday, but visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances.

SAVE THE DATE:

Cleveland Silent Film Festival director Emily Laurance announces that the festival will celebrate Silent Movie Day on September 29 with the screening of two films at the CIA’s Cinematheque: Ernst Lubitsch’s 1918 take on Carmen starring Pola Negri, and Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad from 1924. Both will be accompanied by pianist Philip Carli. Details here.

PASSINGS:

The Brazilian-born pianist, composer and arranger Sergio Mendez rose to fame with the group Brasil ’66 and continued to be  a force in popular music for more than sixty years. His death on Thursday in a Los Angeles hospital at the age of 83 was due to Long Covid. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Friday and Saturday, The Cleveland Orchestra winds up its European Tour with concerts in Vienna’s Musikverein.

On the home front, on Friday at 12 Noon, the Cleveland Institute of Music continues its series of Museum Melodies, free, one-hour programs initially featuring pianists on Thursdays and Fridays in the visitors hall of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

On Saturday at 7:30 at Severance Music Center, Helen Welch channels Karen Carpenter in “Superstar – The Songs. The Stories. The Carpenters,” and at 8 pm, Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project presents multimedia artists Paige Naylor & Haruhi Kobayashi, plus Cleveland-based musician Naomi Columna in the Calicchia Gallery Studio.

On Sunday at 3 pm, violinist Julia Kuhn and pianist Caroline Oltmanns (pictured) open the University of Akron’s Kulas Concert Series with Beethoven sonatas. And at 5 pm, Music from the Western Reserve presents saxophonist Perry Roth and pianist Hana Chu at Christ Church in Hudson.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances.

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

September 6:

Born on this date in 1938 in New Rochelle, New York, composer Joan Tower spent some of her formative years in Bolivia, Chile, and Peru before returning to the U.S. as a college student. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Due to the Labor Day holiday, this week’s Thursday newsletter will be published on Friday.

At 12 Noon, the Cleveland Institute of Music launches Museum Melodies, free, one-hour programs initially featuring pianists on Thursdays and Fridays in the visitors hall of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1 Wade Oval Dr., Cleveland.

And at 6:30 pm, even though fall seems to have begun, the Canton Symphony’s Summer Serenades continue with a Woodwind Quintet performance at Plain Township Amphitheatre.

Continuing their European Tour, The Cleveland Orchestra are in Slovakia today to play a concert in Bratislava’s Reduta Hall. On the agenda: Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto and Pytor Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. Franz Welser-Möst is on the podium and Víkingur Ólafsson is the soloist.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Founders Ronald and Eugenia Strauss (pictured) having retired after being honored with the Cleveland Arts Prize for their 20 years at the helm of CityMusic Cleveland, the peripatetic chamber orchestra and chamber ensemble is launching its 21st season under the interim leadership of longtime Cleveland Orchestra bassist Henry Perebruyne. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At noon, the Brownbag Concert series at Trinity Cathedral gets an early start with a performance by Lea Marra & the River Boys. It’s free, and lunches are welcome.

Continuing their European Tour, Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra are in Austria to mark Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday with an open air concert today at the Pfarrkirche in Bruckner’s home village of Ansfelden that includes Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4, “Romantic.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden, Austria on this date in 1824. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Continuing their European Tour, Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra are traveling to Austria to mark Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday with an open air concert on Wednesday at the Pfarrkirche, Ansfelden, that includes Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4, “Romantic.”

INTERESTING READS:

In a New York Times essay, opera director Yuval Sharon considers the idea of opera as a revolutionary force. “For every composer affirming authority in their work, opera’s history offers counterexamples: creators so committed to establishing a new world order in sound that they resisted all conventions and invented their own instruments, their own ensembles or their own theaters.” Read Opera Doesn’t Have to Be an Elite Art Form. Here’s Why here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Beginning on Saturday at 2:30, The Hingetown Jazz Festival showcases both skilled veterans who have graced the stage for years as well as young and upcoming talents who are redefining the jazz landscape in Northeast Ohio. Support local businesses while immersing yourself in Cleveland’s rich jazz scene. Sponsored by the Local 4 Music Fund, this free festival takes place at Transformer Station, Bop Stop, and Jukebox. Click here for more information.

And on Saturday and Sunday at 7 pm, Cirque de la Symphonie joins the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Lucas Waldin, conductor, and vocalists Morgan James and Hugh Panaro at the Blossom Music Center. Read a preview article here. Tickets available online.

Elsewhere, Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra continue their European Tour in Switzerland with a concert on Sunday at the Lucerne Festival that includes Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Víkingur Ólafsson. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 6:30 this evening, the Canton Symphony’s Summer Serenades presents a brass quintet concert at Beach City Park.

Elsewhere, Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra are spending a second day in Finland on their European tour, playing Prokofiev’s Second Symphony and Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique at the Musiikkitalo Helsinki.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

On Wednesday, the Cleveland Institute of Music announced that beginning in September and continuing through November, students will present Museum Melodies, a new series of free noontime recitals on Thursdays and Fridays at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

“The series, the first in a new array of CIM programming around Northeast Ohio, will highlight the piano but also feature other instruments. The series provides students real-world professional experience and represents a first-of-its-kind collaboration between CIM and the museum.” Read the press release here. [Read more…]

by  Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

There’s nothing on the local concert calendar this Wednesday, but should you find yourself in Finland, you can enjoy a concert by The Cleveland Orchestra at the Musiikkitalo Helsinki (pictured). Franz Welser-Möst conducts Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, and Víkingur Ólafsson solos in Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto.

If you’re interested in organs, the Helsinki hall recently installed the largest modern concert hall instrument in the world. Read about the Rieger organ here.

CONCERT UPDATES:

The Cleveland Orchestra has rescheduled the “Evening With John Legend”  concert that was canceled shortly after it began earlier this month. The new date is Sunday, September 22, at 7 pm, at Blossom Music Center, but without the Orchestra. Current ticket holders still have their seats reserved for the new date. Lawn tickets are still available for purchase on the event webpage.

Tuesday Musical writes that more than 700 tickets have already been sold for its October 22 Michael Feinstein tribute to Tony Bennett concert featuring the Carnegie Hall Big Band. Click here to purchase tickets for the event at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall. [Read more…]