by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, the University of Akron’s Kulas Concert Series presents the Rochester, NY-based Gateways Brass Collective in Guzzetta Recital Hall.

At the same hour in Youngstown’s St. Columba Cathedral, Hae-Jong Lee will lead Youngstown State University singers in the Dana Spring Choral Concert (pictured: Dana Chorale).

See our Concert Listings for more information about these and other events.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

Among the gravest consequences of the widely adopted shift from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar (which occurred at various points between the late 16th and early 20th century, depending on the location) — the confusion, anger, and division that now surround the issue of birthday anniversaries.

Johann Sebastian Bach is a well-known example, born in 1685 on the 21st of March in Old Style (O.S.) — or the 31st in New Style (N.S.). So which day should be celebrated? It’s an issue that has polarized Americans, some of whom suggest a middle ground: celebrating both dates. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

THIS WEEKEND:

There are 20+ events to choose from this weekend (some with more than one performance). Good luck choosing among them!

Friday: The Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Wind Ensemble (6 pm in Gamble Auditorium), Wit’s Folly (Carl Maria von Weber on historical clarinets, 7 pm, the Bath Church), The Cleveland Orchestra (Marvel Studios’ Black Panther in Concert, 7:30 at Severance), Renovare Music (7:30 at City Church), Cleveland Jazz Orchestra (big band jazz, 7:30 at the Maltz), The Oblivion Project (pictured, Piazzolla, 7:30 at the Art Museum), and Baldwin Wallace Opera (Offenbach, 8 pm at the Kleist Center).

Saturday: Baldwin Wallace Opera (Offenbach, 3 pm at the Kleist Center), Stars in the Classics (4 pm at Church of the Western Reserve), Wit’s Folly (Carl Maria von Weber on historical clarinets, 7 pm, Praxis Fiber Workshop), Akron Symphony (Bologne, Mozart, Montgomery & Beethoven, 7:30 at E.J. Thomas), The Cleveland Orchestra (Marvel Studios’ Black Panther in Concert, 8 pm at Severance), and Baldwin Wallace Opera (Offenbach, 8 pm at the Kleist Center).

Sunday: The Oblivion Project (Piazzolla, 2 pm at Akron-Summit Public Library), She Roars (chamber music by living female composers, 2 pm at The Bop Stop), Choral Arts Cleveland & Wind Quintet (premiere of a Mickey McGroarty piece, 3 pm at Disciples Church), Baldwin Wallace Opera (Offenbach, 3 pm at the Kleist Center), Cleveland Women’s Orchestra 90th Anniversary Concert (3:30 at Severance), Heights Chamber Orchestra (3:30 at Fairmount Presbyterian), and Organist James O’Donnell (formerly of Westminster Abbey, 4 pm at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Hts.) [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

This evening, Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes plays Edvard Grieg’s Piano Sonata, Geirr Tveitt’s Piano Sonata No. 29, “Sonata Etere,” and Frédéric Chopin’s complete 24 Preludes (7:30 in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.) Tickets available online.

And Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project hosts a double-header. Weston Olencki and Jennifer Torrence play BATTERY, a long-form work for massed marching percussion, including traditional drumline, feedback-induced crash cymbals, and an array of robotic woodblocks. On the same program, Aurie Hsu and Steven Kemper present works that combine dance, robotic musical instruments, and sound (8 pm at Calicchia Gallery Studio, Cleveland.) Suggested donation $15.

See our Concert Listings for more information about these and other events.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Guitar Society executive director Eric Mann writes, “In 2021, Cleveland Classical Guitar Society commissioned composer Thomas Flippin to write a series of etudes based on spirituals. The resulting collection, 14 Études on the Music of Black Americans, is groundbreaking and utterly unique in the classical guitar repertoire. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

The Cleveland Museum of Art presents Occidental Gypsy’s tribute to Django Reinhardt (7 pm at Transformer Station).

JoAnn Falletta (photo collage by Mark Dellas) and Jake Taniguchi conduct the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra in works by Joe Hisaishi, Zoltán Kodály and Antonín Dvořák (7:30 at  Severance Music Center).

And Tri-C Performing Arts presents the Count Basie Orchestra (7:30 at Metropolitan Campus Auditorium).

See our Concert Listings for more information about these and other events.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Bascom Little Fund, a charitable trust created to promote the work of Northeast Ohio composers through live concerts, recordings, publications of contemporary music composed in Northeast Ohio, is now accepting proposals for the new grant cycle via its online application. Deadline is May 1.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

One debut and three final acts to commemorate today: French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez was born on this date in 1925 in Montbrison, while Renaissance composers Heinrich Isaac and Antonio de Cabezon, and German composer Ludwig van Beethoven took their final bows in 1517, 1566, and 1827 in Florence, Madrid, and Vienna, respectively. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, violinist Amos Fayette and pianist Halida Dinova will play music by Antonín Dvořák, Camille Saint-Saëns, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Maurice Ravel, Frédéric Chopin, and César Franck in a free recital in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Tuesday Musical has announced the 26 Ohio music majors who have won a total of $41,050 in the Akron organization’s 69th Scholarship Competition. “Nearly 130 applicants from 12 schools applied to compete this year for 29 scholarships ranging from $750 to $2,000 each.” See the list of winners here.

The First- and Second-place winners in the performance categories will be invited to compete again in the Final Round and Winners Concert on Sunday, May 4, at 2:30 in The University of Akron’s Guzzetta Recital Hall.

The Violin Channel reports that “the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes has issued a statement discussing his mixed feelings about performing in the United States in the current political climate. Andsnes has just embarked on an American tour that includes concert appearances in Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, and Cleveland, among other stops. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

On Sunday, The Cleveland Orchestra announced details of its 2025-2026 season, the 24th to be led by music director Franz Welser-Möst. Subscriptions are now on sale, and single tickets will be available on August 14. Click here for an extensive press release and week-by week details.

The Cleveland Institute of Music will offer “The Chamber Music Experience @ CIM” from June 23-27, a new, five-day enrichment program for adult musicians. “One need not be a professional musician to take this wonderful art form seriously,” said Scott Harrison, CIM’s Executive Vice President & Provost. Click here for details.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

On this date in 1721, J.S. Bach dedicated his Six Concerts à plusieurs instruments to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. That set of concerti grossi has since become known as the Brandenburg Concertos, hailed as some of the greatest works of the Baroque era. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Friday, Trobár presents “Mothers and Sisters of the Veil,” CityMusic plays at East Mount Zion Baptist Church, CIM features faculty performers in “Ravel at 150,” and CUSP hosts the Tendrils Bassoon Trio.

On Saturday, No Exit Presents Patchwork with Anika Kildegaard, Cleveland Repertory Orchestra plays Chamber Music masterpieces, Trobár repeats Friday’s program at St. James, Lakewood, Canton Symphony features pianist Reed Tetzloff, Firelands Symphony & Chorale perform Beethoven’s 9th in Huron, CityMusic stops in at St. Stanislaus, & The Cleveland Orchestra plays Tchaikovsky with Yuja Wang.

On Sunday, Music from the Western Reserve hosts Les Délices in “The Poet & the Prodigy,” CityMusic performs in Rocky River, and Yuja Wang and The Cleveland Orchestra end the weekend on their home turf.

INTERESTING READ:

In a preview interview about part two of her Martha Redbone Roots Project at Oberlin, the vocalist (pictured above), who was raised in rural Kentucky and New York City, told Stephanie Manning, “ We play gospel music, we play blues, ballads, mountain hollers, we sing poetry from William Blake — we do all kinds of things.” Redbone and pianist Aaron Whitby, joined by violinist Charlie Burnham and bassist Fred Cash, Jr., will bring their cross-disciplinary performance to Oberlin on April 6 as part of the Artist Recital Series. Read the article here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, pianist Roman Rabinovich plays Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto No. 1 with CityMusic Cleveland in the first stop on its March Orchestra Series. It’s free at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Pianist, conductor, pedagogue and lecturer Sir András Schiff announced in a statement through his agent on Wednesday that he has cancelled his concerts in the U.S. for the 2025-2026 season “in response to political changes in the United States.” The cancelled concerts include a recital tour scheduled for October 2025 and orchestral engagements with the Philadelphia Orchestra and New York Philharmonic, scheduled for May 2026.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Overshadowing the birth of Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter on this date in 1915, and the 1948 duel on that date between CBS and NBC to broadcast the first symphony orchestra concert (CBS won by 90 minutes with a Philadelphia Orchestra program, and NBC was the runner up with a Toscanini-led NBC Symphony performance), German composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

On the Wednesday noon Brownbag series at Trinity Cathedral, mezzo-soprano Kira McGirr will sing a tribute to British contralto Clara Butt (1872-1936) featuring Edward Elgar’s Sea Pictures with pianist Shiloh Roby. Oberlin College & Conservatory Professor Charles McGuire — an expert on Butt’s life and music — will discuss her career and the profound impact she had on music-making in Great Britain and early vocal recording. It’s free.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Departures: Danish-German organist and composer Nicolaus Bruhns died on this date in 1697. Arrivals: Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev was born on March 19, 1873 in Novgorod, followed exactly one year later by German composer Max Reger in Brand, Bavaria. [Read more…]

 by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Sponsored by St. John’s Cathedral’s Helen D. Schubert Concerts, Vincent Dubois, one of the four current titular organists of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, will play a recital featuring French cathedral favorites tonight at 7:30 at Trinity Cathedral (note the venue change due to organ renovation). Click here to watch Dubois rehearsing J.S. Baeh’s Prelude & Fugue in a minor on the Skinner/Muller organ at Trinity (pictured).

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

On this day in 1927, legendary composer of musical theater John Kander was born in Kansas City, Missouri.

A classically trained musician, Kander studied at the Oberlin Conservatory and later at Columbia University, where his teachers included Douglas Moore, Jack Beeson, and Otto Luening.

Early in his career he served as rehearsal pianist and then dance arranger for the original productions of Gypsy and Irma la Douce. He composed his first Broadway score, A Family Affair, with lyricists and book writers (and brothers) James and William Goldman. [Read more…]