by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 pm in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, pianist Alexandre Kantorow will play works by J.S. Bach, Medtner, Chopin, Scriabin, & Beethoven, and Apollo’s Fire will reprise its Fencing Match program as a pre-tour send-off at Avon Lake UCC. At the same hour in Mixon Hall, CIM Perspectives will present cellist Timmy Mesa and pianist Michelle Michelle Cann in works by Debussy and Rachmaninoff.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

On Wednesday, The Cleveland Orchestra announced its 2026-2027 Season, which marks music director Franz Welser-Möst’s 25th and final year with the ensemble. Read the press release here.

R.I.P. jazz pianist Dan Wall, 72

Oberlin Conservatory Dean William Quillen writes that “The Oberlin community mourns the loss of Dan Wall, beloved professor of jazz piano, who passed away at 72. A gifted musician and teacher, Wall served on the Oberlin faculty from 2001 until his retirement in 2025. He inspired generations of students through his mentorship, generosity, and unwavering dedication to the art of jazz. “Information regarding a memorial service will be shared when available.’ [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 Noon, the Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concert series will present Lea Marra and The River Boys.

Tonight at 7:30 in Gartner Auditorium, the Cleveland Museum of Art will host trio El Khat performing original Arabic tunes from Yemen on self-made instruments.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion was first performed on Good Friday, April 15, 1729 in Leipzig. One of the composer’s most astonishing feats is its opening chorus (manuscript pictured below), which employs two orchestras, two choirs, and a boy’s choir and weaves the chorale melody O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig into its complex tapestry of sound. Finally, both choirs come together, intensifying the inexorable progress of the movement. Click here to watch a performance by the Netherlands Bach Society at the Grote Kerk in Naarden led by Jos van Veldhoven. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at 12 noon, organist Chase Olson will divide his Tuesday noon program at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle between the Covenant’s 17th-century-style gallery instrument (music by Heinrich Scheidemann, Melchior Schildt, and Dietrich Buxtehude), and its American classic-style chancel instrument (music by Olson, Charles-Marie Widor, and Franz Liszt).

And at 7:30 pm – CIM Perspectives will present pianist Inna Faliks in Mixon Hall,

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Yesterday’s Diary mentioned the first performance of Handel’s Messiah in Dublin in April of 1742. Seven years later, in 1759, the composer died on this date at the age of 74. A crowd of 3,000 attended his funeral and burial in London’s Westminster Abbey on April 20, a service led by the Bishop of Rochester with music provided by the combined choirs of the Abbey, the Chapel Royal, and St. Paul’s Cathedral. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

This evening at 7:30 the LCCC Signature Recital Series will present the Poiesis Quartet in 20th and 21st-century music in Cinema Hall at Lorain County Community College in Elyria.

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced a change of conductor for its forthcoming performances of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. Due to family reasons, Daniel Harding has withdrawn and Klaus Mäkelä will step in to lead the April 23, 25, and 26 performances by The Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus, and Children’s Chorus, and vocalists Tamara Wilson, Andrew Staples, and Ludwig Mittelhammer.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Medieval French poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut died in April of 1377, presumably on this day. He ably straddled the worlds of sacred and secular music, as shown by two selections. Click here to listen to the Gloria from his Messe de Nostre Dame sung by the Gesualdo Six in Ely Cathedral. And Les Délice’s artistic director Debra Nagy channeled Machaut to create her Estampie Dame, vostre dous viaire for a live performance in January, 2018. Watch here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

APRIL 10 – FRIDAY

7:00 pm – No Exit Presents the Either/Orchestra at Trinity Cathedral. Repeated on Saturday at the Bop Stop.

7:30 pm – The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance with Santtu-Matias Rouvali, conductor, and Sol Gabetta, cello. Repeated on Saturday.

7:30 pm – Apollo’s Fire revives O Jerusalem! Crossroads of Three Faiths (pictured) in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Repeated on Saturday at Congregation Mishkan Or in Beachwood.

7:30 pm – The Resonance Project presents pianist Irwin Shung, piano in J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Plymouth Church UCC, in Shaker Heights.

APRIL 11 – SATURDAY

7:00 pm – Cleveland Repertory Orchestra presents a concert of American music in tribute to Michael Tilson Thomas. Matthew Salvaggio conducts, with Kira McGirr, mezzo-soprano, at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights.

7:30 pm – Cleveland Classical Guitar Society presents David Russell in works by Mauro Giuliani, Isaac Albéniz, J.S. Bach, Stephen Goss, and Gabriel Estarellas at the Maltz Performing Arts Center.

APRIL 12 – SUNDAY

2:00 pm – Tri-C Classical Piano Series presents Stewart Goodyear in a program of Beethoven’s sonatas and his Andante Favoriti, plus two of Goodyear’s original compositions in Tri-C Metro Auditorium.

3:00 pm – Cleveland Chamber Collective presents Travelogue, featuring works by Daniel Kessner, David Lang, Margi Griebling-Haigh, Béla Bartók, Robert Manno, and Dylan Moffitt at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights.

7:00 pm – CityMusic Cleveland’s April Chamber Concert presents hornist Margaret Tung, violinist Miho Hashizume, and pianist Donna Lee in works by Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms at Praxis Fiber Workshop.

7:30 pm – Cleveland Chamber Symphony presents its annual Young and Emerging Composers Concert featuring world premieres in Gamble Auditorium at Baldwin Wallace.

For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.                          [Read more…]

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…]