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…]

by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

Coming up, groups are packing in their concerts before next week’s Thanksgiving holiday.

Tomorrow, pianist Simone Dinnerstein visits Tuesday Musical; and from Thursday through Saturday, conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali (pictured) and violinist Stefan Jackiw visit The Cleveland Orchestra.

Other ensembles presenting this week include Les Délices, BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, CUSP, Heights Chamber Orchestra, and more. For more information, visit our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING READ:

Ahead of Santtu-Matias Rouvali’s debut with The Cleveland Orchestra this week, learn more about the Finnish conductor by revisiting this 2022 New York Times profile. Joshua Barone discusses not only Rouvali’s career at the podium, but also his history as a rock percussionist and his dedication to taking care of his farm in rural Finland.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

Today we celebrate the births of Carl Maria von Weber (1786), conductor Eugene Ormandy (1899), and violist/composer Lillian Fuchs (1901). As I scrolled through the list of other musical figures who were born on this day, I was curious to know who many of them were, or are. So today we celebrate the births of three people who were randomly selected from the list. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Saturday the Oberlin Conservatory continues a weekend of festivities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Flentrop organ in Warner Concert Hall. Today at 11, current students give a recital, followed by alumni at 4:30. Both events will be live streamed.

Oberlin viola professor Kirsten Docter and pianist Tatiana Lokhina perform at 4:30 in Kulas Recital Hall, Singers Companye celebrates its 25th anniversary (5 pm in Cuyahoga Falls), CIM Opera Theater opens Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’étoile (pictured, 7 pm in Playhouse Square), Apollo’s Fire continues its run of “Hope and Solitude” (7:30 at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Hts.), and the Lorain County Civic Orchestra plays at the same hour at the Stocker Center in Elyria.

And on Saturday at 8 pm, The Cleveland Orchestra continues its Beethoven Piano Cycle with Concertos Nos. 1 & 5 featuring Minsoo Sohn (First Concerto)  and Yunchan Lim (Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center).

On Sunday, cellists will be interested in a Cleveland Cello Society lecture recital by Liam Battle (2 pm at Judson Park Auditorium), and pianists in a Tri-C Classical Piano recital by Chelsea Guo (2 pm at Tri-C Metro Auditorium) as  well as in the final Cleveland Orchestra Beethoven Piano Cycle performance (3 pm at Severance Music Center). CIM Opera Theater performs Charbrier’s L’Étoile (2 pm in Playhouse Square), Apollo’s Fire ends its run of “Hope and Solitude” (4 pm at Rocky River Presbyterian), Erie Waters flute choir plays at 4 pm (St. Noel in Willoughby Hills), Music from the Western Reserve hosts violinist Haig Hovsepian and pianist Matias Nestor Cuevas (5 pm, Christ Church, Hudson), Singers Companye celebrates its 25th anniversary at 5 pm at Bath Church, and The Now Chorale sings premieres (7:30 at Sacred Heart Church in Oberlin).

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7 pm, Brendan Caldwell leads the Baldwin Wallace Symphonic Band & Chamber Winds in Gamble Auditorium.

The final trio of concerts in The Cleveland Orchestra’s Beethoven Piano Cycle continues on Friday at 7:30, when Yunchan Lim, winner of the 2023 Van Cliburn Competition, will solo in the Fifth Concerto, preceded by his New England Conservatory mentor, Minsoo Sohn, who will do the honors in Beethoven’s Concerto No. 1.

Apollo’s Fire continues its run of  “Hope and Solitude,” with countertenor Reginald Mobley, oboist Debra Nagy, and violinist Alan Choo performing music by Henry Purcell and J.S. Bach at 7:30 at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Hts.

And the Oberin Conservatory has planned a weekend of festivities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Flentrop organ (pictured) in Warner Concert Hall. It begins with a faculty recital by Jonathan Moyer and Christa Rakich on Friday at 7:30 (J.S. Bach’s German Organ Mass, free and live streamed.)

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings. [Read more…]