by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

A string quartet from the chamber ensemble Wit’s Folly (Phaik Tzhi Chua & Guillero Salas-Suárez, violin, Jonathan Goya, viola & Jane Leggiero, cello) plays works by Joseph Eybler &  Joseph Haydn today at noon at the Church of the Covenant (live stream available).

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

INTERESTING READS:

In The Guardian, Kenan Malik weighs in on one of the several issues raised by the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Read “A century on from Rhapsody in Blue, debates about cultural ‘theft’ rage still” here.

For the recent Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, actor Bradley Cooper insisted on filming the Mahler “Resurrection Symphony” scene in Ely Cathedral live — he’d been studying conducting for six years just to prepare for that. “On-set sound mixer Steven Morrow recalls it as a terrifying proposition — miking 200 chorus and orchestra members performing live in an echoey cathedral. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Last chances to hear repeating concerts: British composer & conductor George Benjamin (pictured) and countertenor Tim Mead, with The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus (Saturday at 8 at Severance Music Center — read Mike Telin’s preview here), violinist Alan Choo (read Daniel Hathaway’s interview here), in several of Heinrich Biber’s mystical Rosary Sonatas with Apollo’s Fire (Saturday at 8 in Cleveland Heights), and Les Délices harpsichordist Mark Edwards in J.S. Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations (Saturday at 3 — a concert and conversation — and Sunday at 4 in Cleveland Heights.

One-off events include the the Euclid Symphony (Saturday at 7 at the Maltz),  the Canton Symphony with pianist Garrick Ohlsson (Sunday at 3) The Cleveland Opera with Cleveland Women’s Orchestra in William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA (Sunday at 3 at the Tudor Arms — read a preview here), Singers Companye (Sunday at 3 at the Maltz), Heights Arts Close Encounters (Sunday at 3 at Convivium 33 Gallery), and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Chorus (Sunday at 7 at Severance).

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

“The Cleveland Orchestra and flutist, composer, and producer Allison Loggins-Hull have announced a series of four free concerts in collaboration with Cleveland community partners,” the Orchestra reported in a news release on Friday. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7 in Berea, Baldwin Wallace’s FOCUS Festival features the compositions of Omar Thomas, and CityMusic Cleveland continues its chamber music series, Landscape of Memory at Praxis FIber Workshop.

At 7:30 at Severance Music Center, The Cleveland Orchestra plays the live underscore for a screening of the 1987 “fantasy comedy adventure film,” The Princess Bride, and Apollo’s Fire presents the second of four performances of  “Sacred Mysteries: Biber’s Rosary Sonatas for Violin” featuring Alan Choo at St. Paul’s in Cleveland Hts.

Then at 8, Oberlin Conservatory hosts Part II of The Danenberg Honors Recital in Warner Concert Hall.

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1938, American composer John Corigliano (pictured above) was born in New York City, the son of John Sr., who served for 23 years as concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. Although he came late to composition, Corigliano was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, the Grawemeyer Award, and an Oscar. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7, the Baldwin Wallace FOCUS Festival will shine a light on the compositions of Omar Thomas, while Local #4 Music Fund will present “Dynamic Deviations: Works Featuring Living and Underrepresented Composers at Convivium 33 Gallery.

Tonight at 7:30, two British guests — composer and conductor George Benjamin and countertenor Tim Mead — will join The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in Benjamin’s Dream of the Song, and Apollo’s Fire concertmaster Alan Choo (pictured) will solo in “Sacred Mysteries: Biber’s Rosary Sonatas for Violin” in Rocky River (the first of four concerts). Read our previews of the Benjamin here, and of the Biber here.

At the same hour, Jonathon Turner and Emorja Roberson, voice & Rylan Harris, voice/piano will perform music by Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Leslie Adams, Three Mo’ Tenors, and William T. Burleigh at CIM, and The Oberlin Trio, pianist Haewon Song, violinist David Bowlin, and cellist Dmitry Kouzov will give a faculty concert in Kulas Recital Hall.

INTERESTING READS:

Dance Magazine interviews Cleveland Ballet’s new artistic director Timour Bourtasenkov about his plans to reset the 9-year-old company after “a series of recent scandals.” Read the conversation here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 noon, Oberlin second-year student Owen Metz, who is double-majoring  in organ performance and mathematics, will play Louis Vierne’s Third Symphony on the Church of the Covenant’s Tuesday Noon Organ Plus series. Attend in  person or click here for the live stream.

And tonight at 7:30 on Akron’s Tuesday Musical series in E.J. Thomas Hall, pianist Aaron Diehl (pictured) will play solo piano works by Duke Ellington, William Grant Still, and Margaret Bonds, before joining bassist David Wong and drummer Aaron Kimmel, the other members of his trio, in jazz selections.

Visit our Concert Listings for details.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

February 13 witnessed the baptism of Spanish composer Fernando Sor in Barcelona in 1778, the final curtain call for German composer Richard Wagner in Bayreuth in 1883, and the birth of American composer George Kleinsinger in 1914. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

A number of Black History Month events are scheduled for Saturday. At 7:30, the Akron Symphony (pictured) will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Gospel Meets Symphony, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series will present Trey McLaughlin & The Sounds of Zamar (preceded at 4 by a Community Gospel Singing Workshop), and also at 7:30, Christian McBride will host The Movement Revisited, an epic concert event at the Maltz PAC honoring Civil Rights icons Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr. and former President Barack Obama.

Other orchestral performances include The Cleveland Orchestra in Beethoven’s Fifth and Schubert’s Sixth with guest conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste on Saturday at 8, and Sunday at 3 (both are now sold out), the final pair of CityMusic Cleveland “Symphony of Secrets” programs led by Brendan Slocumb on Saturday at 7:30 in Rocky River and Sunday at 4 in Akron, and your choice of the Suburban Symphony in Mahler’s Fourth under Martin Kessler or Heights Chamber Orchestra with hornist Richard King under Travis Jürgenson, both on Sunday at 3:30.

Also on Sunday, at 4  pm, Les Délices will present harpsichordist Mark Edwards in Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” at First Congregational in Hudson, and Oberlin will present a faculty recital on Sunday at 7:30 by the Verona Quartet with pianist Angela Cheng.

And off the beaten path, Oberlin’s 60-minute TIMARA event led by percussionist Ross Karre will feature “ homemade percussion instruments, subtle drones, energetic rhythms, live electronic music, and video projections” on Saturday at 1 pm at the Birenbaum, and the CIM New Music Ensemble will showcase works by composer Carlos Sanchez- Gutierrez on Sunday at 2 at the Art Museum.

Visit our Concert Listings for details. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Two events scheduled for tonight are sold out: The Linking Legacies Project at the Music Settlement and The Cleveland Orchestra with Jukka-Pekka Saraste. That leaves the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra, which plays at 7 under Doug Droste in Gamble Auditorium, No Exit new music ensemble, who make their debut at the Art Museum at 7:30 with a program of Surrealist films and piano music, Part 1 of Oberlin’s Danenberg Honors Recital at 8 in Warner Concert Hall, and CityMusic Cleveland at 8:30 at Sagrada Familia on Cleveland’s West Side. Visit our Concert Listings for details.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Long-time Boston Symphony music director Seiji Ozawa (pictured above) died at his home in Tokyo on February 6 at the age of 88. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30,  CityMusic Cleveland presents the first of several performances around town of Symphony of Secrets. Brendan Slocumb (pictured) leads works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Florence Price, Domenico Cimarosa, Astor Piazzolla, Felix Mendelssohn, and Arturo Marquez at East Mount Zion Baptist Church. (Repeated at other venues this week).

Visit our Concert Listings for details.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Piano Cleveland has announced the 56 contestants who will participate in the 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer from July 28 through August 10. Click here to view the photo gallery and personal bios. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Back home from leading a group of Oberlin organ majors who spent Winter Term organ-hopping in Germany, Jonathan W. Moyer plays works by Claude Balbastre, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Jehan Alain, and his own Fanfare: “The Trumpet Sounds Within-a-my Soul” on the Tuesday noon series at the Church of the Covenant. Listen in person or catch a live stream.

Visit our Concert Listings for details.

INTERESTING READ:

“Composer and conductor John Williams is one of the most respected and beloved figures in music. He reflects with League [of American Orchestras] President and CEO Simon Woods on the beginnings of his career, a lifetime in music, and his love for orchestras.” Read the article from Symphony here.

NEW PODCAST:

Kevin McLaughlin has released a new podcast on his “At The Jazz Band Ball” platform. Jazz Soundies 1940-1946 features early music video soundtracks from Louis Jordan, Duke Ellington, Roy Eldridge, Anita O’Day, Fats Waller, The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, et al. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

The chamber ensemble Wit’s Folly will play a program titled Passing the Baton: Joseph Haydn and his Musical Successors on Saturday at The Brownhoist in Cleveland and on Sunday at Hudson Library and Historical Society, both at 2 pm.

Baldwin Wallace Opera continues its run of Taking Up Serpents (pictured), with an eclectic score by Kamala Sankaram and libretto by Jerre Dye inspired by his roots in the Deep South, on Saturday at 3 & 8 pm and Sunday at 3, all at the Kleist Center for Arts & Drama in Berea.

On Saturday at 8 at Severance Music Center, Cleveland Pops Orchestra and Classical Mystery Tour present A Tribute to the Beatles featuring music from the early days through the solo years.

And on Sunday at 4, organist Daniel Colaner plays a recital at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Hts.

Visit our Concert Listings for details.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Canton Symphony writes that the Orchestra has reached the halfway point to its $250,000 goal in the Gerhardt Zimmermann Memorial Campaign, having raised $127,000 in gifts and multi-year pledges since last July to honor its former music director. That total includes a $100,000 gift from the estate of the late William P. Blair that will be matched by all pledges made before June 30. Read more here. [Read more…]