by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

December has arrived, and so have the concerts.

This week, Apollo’s Fire begins their “Wassail!” holiday concerts, while the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra presents “Have Yourself a Kate Reid Christmas.” Joyce DiDonato and Kings Return visit Tuesday Musical, while two pianists visit Severance Music Center: Kirill Gerstein, for a recital, and Emanuel Ax, for a concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra.

Plus, Oberlin Conservatory hosts a packed schedule of performances and events, all leading up to their presentation of the opera Omar this Friday and Sunday.

For more details on these events and more, visit our Concert Listings.

RECENT RECORDING:

Missed the Cuarteto Casals when they visited the Cleveland Chamber Music Society last month? Or want to hear their music-making again?

The string quartet’s latest album, Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1, has garnered praise from The New York Times. “These players let this music breathe a bit, and the results are bracing,” writes David Weininger. “The Casals should be commended for leaving a different aesthetic and emotional imprint.” Read the article here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Two orchestras are hard at work this weekend.

On Friday at 7:30, Saturday at 8, and Sunday at 3 at Severance Music Center, guest conductor David Robertson will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in a program of Americana for Thanksgiving weekend  featuring Pianist Marc-André Hamelin (pictured). Read our interview with Robertson here.

And on Sunday at 2 and 7 in Connor Palace Theatre in Playhouse Square, Carl Topilow will preside over A Jolly Holiday with Cleveland POPS Orchestra & Chorus featuring dancing Santas and adoptable puppies and kittens.

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

NEWS BRIEFS:

Ideastream Public Media reports that “The Cleveland Orchestra’s second century has so far been financially sound. The 2023-24 annual report released Monday showed a sixth consecutive year of balanced books. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 Noon, organist Emily Amos plays a recital of French music by Charles Tournemire, Louis Vierne, and Paul Dukas on the chancel organ at the Church of the Covenant. Hear it in person or click here for the live stream..

And tonight at 7 pm, the Fryderyk Chopin Institute of Ohio presents an inaugural Thanksgiving Concert, Sound of Warsaw, featuring pianists Jiana Peng and Konrad Binienda. Grzegorz Nowak leads the Chopin Institute Orchestra at the Dodero Center for Performing Arts at Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills.

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

CAC GRANTS:

On November 20, Cuyahoga Arts & Culture announced the approval of grants totaling $10,750,847 in support of 300 Cuyahoga County nonprofit organizations in 2025 through CAC’s General Operating Support, Project Support and Cultural Heritage grant programs. “Since 2006, CAC has invested more than $257 million in 500 organizations.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

The concert schedule heats up on the weekend before Thanksgiving!

On Saturday: Oberlin faculty and guests present The Last Rose of Summer, Cleveland Silent Film Festival screens a 1925 ethnographic documentary with score by santour player Mahtab Nadalian, BlueWater Chamber Orchestra features concertmaster James Thompson, Les Délices continues exploring the 14th century Avant-garde, the Canton Symphony celebrates the centenary of Rhapsody in Blue, Firelands Symphony plays a Thanksgiving program, Relic Ensemble journeys into the Underworld, and The Cleveland Orchestra features violinist Stefan Jackiw.

On Sunday, the Canton Symphony repeats Saturday’s program, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra plays its fall concert, Choral Arts Cleveland visits music by female composers of the last millennium, violinist Amy Lee (pictured) solos with Heights Chamber Orchestra, and clarinetist Stanislav Golovin is featured with Suburban Symphony, BlueWater String Quartet plays at St. James, Lakewood, Les Délices plays medieval music at Disciples Church, Firelands Symphony Chorale sings songs of Thanksgiving, Lakeland Civic Band remembers a childhood, the YSU Wind Ensemble plays at Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown, and the Baldwin Wallace Motet Choir performs in Berea.

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

OMAR OPERA AT OBERLIN AND IN CLEVELAND:

Rhiannon Giddens’ and Michael Abels’ Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Omar will be presented in a concert version on December 6 in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel and December 8 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center in Cleveland. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Four events begin tonight at 7:30. Violinist James Thompson (pictured) solos in Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with BlueWater Chamber Orchestra in Rocky River, Les Délices presents 14th century avant-garde music in Hudson, Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts The Cleveland Orchestra with violin soloist Stefan Jackiw, and Opera Western Reserve stages Verdi’s La Traviata in Youngstown.

And tonight at 8, Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project hosts Drew Wesely and Uno Lady at Calicchia Gallery Studio.

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

On her designated feast day, pour one out for St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music and musicians. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts The Cleveland Orchestra, with violin soloist Stefan Jackiw (pictured). The program includes Carl Nielsen’s Overture to Maskarade, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto & Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1.

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

R.I.P. BURTON FINE, 94

Longtime Boston Symphony principal viola Burton Fine, who trained as a violinist as well as a chemist and whose first job was with the government agency in Cleveland that became NASA, passed away on November 15 at the age of 94 at his home in Newton, Massachusetts.

The Violin Channel writes, “…when a position opened up in the second violin section of the Boston Symphony in 1963, he took the day off to practice and auditioned the very next day — and was ultimately offered the role. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:00 noon, both of the usual Wednesday series: Music Near the Market features organist Linda Kempke in music of “Thanksgiving and praise,” while Trinity Cathedral’s Brownbag Concert Series presents the Cleveland State University Chorale and Chorus.

And at 7:30 pm: Ross Karre directs the Oberlin Percussion Group featuring Oberlin College Taiko in Warner Concert Hall, and Todd Phillis leads the CIM Orchestra in works by Caroline Shaw, Benjamin Britten, and Mozart at the Mentor High School Fine Arts Center.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

If you’re already dreaming of warmer weather, you can start planning — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced three of its concerts for the 2025 Blossom season. Multi-hyphenate singer and actress Cynthia Erivo (pictured) joins the Orchestra on July 27, and the group will play live-to-film scores for two movies: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on July 5 & 6, and The Lion King on August 29, 30, & 31.

Tickets go on sale today at 10:00 am for donors and subscribers — click here — and the general public can get tickets starting tomorrow, November 21, at 10:00 am. Read the full press release here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Daniel Hathaway

On November 20, pianist Ruth Laredo made her life debut in Detroit in 1937 as Ruth Meckler, and American composer Orianna Webb was born in Akron in 1974. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 Noon, organist Kingsley Wood plays music by Marcel Dupré, Vincent Lübeck & J.S. Bach at the Church of the Covenant, and at 7:30, pianist Simone Dinnerstein, plays works by Jean-Phillipe Rameau, Philip Lasser, J.S. Bach, (his 15 Three-Part Inventions) & Keith Jarrett (Encore from Tokyo). on the Tuesday Musical series at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall.

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Two eminent composers left this life on November 19, due in both cases to microbes: German Johann Hermann Schein (of the plague) in 1630 in Leipzig, and Franz Peter Schubert (of typhus) in 1828 in Vienna.

Schein, a friend of Heinrich Schütz who was likewise influenced by early Italian Baroque music, preceded J.S. Bach at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, and wrote equal quantities of vocal and instrumental music. His instrumental suites, collected in the 1617 publication Banchetto musicale, were meant to be played during dinner, as the title suggests. [Read more…]