by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the executive order that created the Works Progress Administration or WPA, which along with other federal programs, gave temporary assistance in the form of jobs to out-of-work Americans during the Great Depression.

Later that year, Nikolai Sokoloff (pictured), who along with Adella Prentiss Hugues had founded The Cleveland Orchestra and conducted the ensemble from 1918-1932, was put in charge of the Federal Music Project, which supported unemployed musicians, composers, opera projects, and orchestras in Cleveland and elsewhere. Sokoloff was soon criticized for favoring Eurocentric classical music — the focus of the project widened in 1936 when Charles Seeger was appointed assistant director.

Read a WQXR story that suggests five WPA-commissioned works that listeners should be aware of. One of them is Aaron Copland’s atmospheric Quiet City, a piece written for the short-lived play of the same name by Irwin Shaw that has become an icon of the Depression Era. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Tuesday Musical writes, “Violist Kiarra Saito-Beckman and organist JoEllen West won the two top awards in Tuesday Musical’s 2025 Annual Scholarship Competition Final Round/Winners Concert on May 4 at the University of Akron. Pianist Philippe Gagne won the People’s Choice Award. (Winners pictured above.)

“Saito-Beckman, a student at the Cleveland Institute of Music, won the $2,000 Arden J. Yockey Scholarship. West, a student at the Cleveland Institute of Music, won the $1,000 Arden J. Yockey Scholarship.

“Gagne, also a student at the Cleveland Institute of Music, garnered the most audience votes to win the $500 John M. Ream Jr. DDS People’s Choice Award.

“The final-round judges were conductor Dean Buck, composer Margi Griebling-Haigh, and retired journalist and music critic Elaine Guregian.

Karel Paukert, the longtime curator of musical arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art and organist and choirmaster of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Hts. passed away on April 30 at the age of 90. Read an obituary here.

A service in celebration of Paukert’s life will be held on Saturday, June 28, at 11 am at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2747 Fairmount Blvd., Cleveland Heights, followed by a reception.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Karel Paukert Memorial Music Fund at St. Paul’s. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

There’s much to choose from during these three early May days:

On Friday: No Exit presents pianist Geoffrey Burleson (repeated Saturday) • Summit Choral Society’s Metropolitan Chorus sings Fauré and Vaughan Williams • Cleveland Pops Orchestra plays Simply Sinatra • Oberlin Chamber Orchestra features pianist Yu-Wei Lee • and The Resonance Project programs Shostakovich and Prokofiev.

On Saturday: Friends of the McGaffin Carillon sponsors a Carillon Crawl with David Osburn at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Hts. • Music at Main presents Sugar Mules, “Cleveland’s Unexpectedly Good Bluegrass Band” • Wayne Center for the Arts presents the Escher String Quartet • and the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra features pianist James Carson (repeated Sunday).

On Sunday: Tuesday Musical’s Scholarship Competition holds its Final Round/Winners Concert in Akron • The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra features pianist Saya Uejima • the Parma Symphony Orchestra welcomes pianist Alex Wasserman • Sounds of St. James, Lakewood presents a Festival of Sacred Music • The Cleveland Opera performs Pietro Mascagni’s Zanetto • Arts at Holy Trinity, Akron hosts organist David Lines • and West Shore Chorale & Orchestra perform Mozart and Beethoven.

R.I.P. KAREL PAUKERT:

The longtime curator of musical arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art and organist and choirmaster of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Hts. passed away on April 30 at the age of 90. (Pictured above with Olivier Messiaen at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1978.) Read an obituary here.

A service in celebration of Paukert’s life will be held on Saturday, June 28, at 11 am at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2747 Fairmount Blvd., Cleveland Heights, followed by a reception.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Karel Paukert Memorial Music Fund at St. Paul’s.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cleveland Classical Guitar Society informs us that tickets are now on sale for all concerts in its 2025-2026 International Series, including the Showcase Performance with Vanessa Rubin and Perry Hughes (September 20), and the programs featuring Leonela Alejandro (October 25), Duo Noire (November 15), Edel Muñoz (February 7), An Tran (March 7), and David Russell (April 11).

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

A variety of traditions, both religious and secular, are associated with the first day of May in most cultures that have slogged through months of winter and are more than ready to celebrate the return of balmy breezes and the reflowering of the earth.

One tradition that’s persisted for over 500 years in England is the May Day morning singing of hymns and madrigals by the Magdalen College Choir from its iconic tower in Oxford (pictured above in a painting by William Homan Hunt).

A brief video puts the celebration in context among appearances by May Day Morris Men and a pagan band — and here’s an archival recording of the live stream from this morning’s ceremony.

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7 pm in Gamble Auditorium, the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra and Pops visits the movies. And at 7:30 in Warner Concert Hall, Rebekah Fawn Heller guest conducts the Oberlin Sinfonietta with Ian McEdwards, clarinet, and the Oberlin Percussion Group (Ross Karre, director), in music by by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Amy Beth Kirsten, Allison Loggins-Hull, Hannah Kendall, Jacob Richter, and Courtney Bryan.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

On Wednesday, The Cleveland Orchestra announced the addition of three new members to its artistic and creative team, “continuing the Orchestra’s commitment to innovation, community engagement, and musical excellence.  [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society wraps up its 75th Anniversary season with the fifth performance in the Jerusalem Quartet’s complete Shostakovich Quartet Cycle. Alexander Pavlovsky and Sergei Bresler, violins, Ori Kam, viola, and Kyril Zlotnikov, cello. Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartets No. 13 in B-flat, No. 14 in F-sharp, and No. 15 in E-flat. in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

At the same hour in Finney Chapel, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series will present Third Coast Percussion (pictured) and violinist & composer Jessie Montgomery, in works by Montgomery, Jlin, and Tigram Hamasyan, plus Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra. 

And Samuel Gordon will lead Singers Companye with pianist Amy Sauriol, organist Dean Wagner, and the VoxMix Collective in “Sky and Sea,” featuring music by Jonathan Dove, Hyowon Woo, Ehan Hartung, Ariel Quintana, and Ola Gjeilo at First United Methodist Church in Cuyahoga Falls.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is the recipient of an inaugural grant from The Laufey Foundation. Launched by GRAMMY®-winning artist Laufey, the foundation’s mission is to support young musicians to reach their full potential. Laufey will perform with The Cleveland Orchestra on August 7 at Blossom Music Center. Read a press release here.  [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

This afternoon at 5:30, Fairmount Presbyterian in Cleveland Hts. will host a Rush Hour Concert. “So Much Tenor!” features Heldentenor Shaun McGrath with pianist Jason Aquila in music by George Frideric Handel, Richard Wagner, Arthur Honneger, André Previn, and others.

And this evening at 7:30, Cleveland Chamber Music Society hosts the Jerusalem Quartet in the fourth of five performances of their complete Shostakovich Quartet Cycle. Alexander Pavlovsky and Sergei Bresler, violins, Ori Kam, viola, and Kyril Zlotnikov, cello, play Dmitri Shostakovich’s Quartets No. 10 in A-flat, No. 11 in f, and No. 12 in D-flat in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

When researching births and passings for the Daily Diary it’s always interesting to see who pops up. April 29 presented a list of seven interesting artists. What quickly became apparent is that the group presented the opportunity to create a playlist perfect for people whose musical tastes are all over the map — like mine. [Read more…]

 by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 on the University of Akron’s Kulas Concert Series, Galen Karriker conducts the UA Wind Symphony with featured soloists Liam Teague, steelpan (pictured) and Hunter Ashcroft, saxophone, in Guzzetta Recital Hall.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Akron’s Tuesday Musical has announced the First- and second-place winners of its 2025 Scholarship Competition who will compete again in the Final Round/Winners Concert on Sunday, May 4 at 2:30 pm in Guzzetta Recital Hall at The University of Akron. Click here to see the participants.

“The audience will vote on the winner of the John M. Ream Jr. DDS People’s Choice Award of $500. Two additional performance scholarships — one for $1,000 and one for $2,000 — will also be awarded. This year’s judges are conductor Dean Buck, composer Margi Griebling-Haigh, and retired journalist and music critic Elaine Guregian. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

With eighteen performances scheduled for Saturday and Sunday this week, our Concert Listings reflect the extraordinary vitality of classical music in Northeast Ohio. Here’s who’s performing (visit our Concert Listings page for details).

Saturday: 4:00 pm – Les Délices: The Mermaid (pictured, Seán Dagher), 7:00 pm – Warren Philharmonic, 7:30 pm – Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Duo Chinoiserie. 7:30 pm – Canton Symphony Orchestra. 7:30 pm – Lorain Civic Orchestra. 7:30 pm – UA Steel Drum Band Concert. 8:00 pm – The Cleveland Orchestra. Kazuki Yamada, conductor, and Francesco Piemontesi, piano.

Sunday: 2:00 pm – Divinity Lutheran Church Arts in Action: Duo Balalaika. 2:00 pm – The Cleveland Orchestra. Family Concert Series: Scheherazade. 3:00 pm – Keyboard Conversations with Jeffrey Siegel. ​​4:00 pm – Les Délices: The Mermaid. 4:00 pm – Master Singers Chorale. 4:00 pm – Lakeland Civic Orchestra: Songs and Dreams. 5:00 pm – Music from the Western Reserve: Greta Pasztor Chamber Ensemble. 5:00 pm – Music at Bath Concert Series: Singers Companye. 7:00 pm – CityMusic Cleveland: April Chamber Concert. 7:00 pm – Greater Cleveland Flute Society: Cleveland Composers’ Connection. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7, Canadian organist Ken Cowan, professor at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, will play works by Franz Liszt, Jean Roger-Ducasse, Iain Farrington, Gaston Litaize, and Edward Elgar on the restored 1927 E. M. Skinner organ in the Helen Rockwell Morley Memorial Music Building in Painesville.

At the same hour, CIM Opera Theater will present the final performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Mimi Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square.

Tonight at 7:30, Les Délices will present “The Mermaid,” a program of traditional sea shanties and country dance tunes, plus music by Henry Purcell and Franz Joseph Haydn at Akron Civic Theater.

Also tonight, guest conductor Kazuki Yamada and pianist Francesco Piemontesi join The Cleveland Orchestra for Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, and the Orchestra completes the 7:30 program with Edward Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On April 25, 1861, Italian composer Marco Enrico Bossi was born in Salò (he died while crossing the Atlantic in 1925, returning from an organ concert tour to New York and Philadelphia). While serving as director of conservatories in Venice, Bologna, and Rome, he found time to write some 150 compositions, including this Concerto in a for organ, string orchestra, horns and timpani. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, guest conductor Kazuki Yamada and pianist Francesco Piemontesi join The Cleveland Orchestra for Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, and the Orchestra completes the evening’s program with Edward Elgar’s Symphony No. 1. Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, 11001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Tickets available online.

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On April 24 of 1801, Joseph Haydn put the final touches on his oratorio The Seasons and performed it on the same day at the Schwartzenberg Palace in Vienna. [Read more…]