by Daniel Hathaway

HONORED AT THE GRAMMYS:

Last night, and for the second year in a row, Elaine Martone received a Grammy Award in the category Producer of the Year, Classical.

And Oberlin alum Sullivan Fortner took home a Grammy for his Southern Nights in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category.

INTERESTING READ:

In the New York Times, the former president and chief executive of Opera America writes, “When the Washington National Opera announced its decision to leave the Kennedy Center last month, many interpreted the move as a repudiation of President Trump and his efforts to seize control of the arts complex.

“In fact, the repudiation came from the Kennedy Center. By imposing an economic model on the company that makes opera impossible to produce, it was effectively disowning the art form and by extension all nonprofit performing arts and their profound contribution to our national life.” Read the guest essay by Marc A. Scorca here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1594, Italian polyphonic master Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina died in Rome and was buried in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican where he had served in various important positions, most notably as maestro di cappella of the Cappella Giulia. The quality of his counterpoint marked the culmination of Italian Renaissance church music. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND CLASSICAL HIGHLIGHTS:

On Friday evening at 7:30 at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Cleveland Hts., Apollo’s Fire continues a local, four-concert tour with its program “Winter Sparks from Bach & Vivaldi,” curated by assistant artistic director and concertmaster Alan Choo. Soloists include oboist Debra Nagy, flutist Kathie Stewart, and cellist Sarah Stone. Repeated on Saturday at 7:30 in the Federated Church in Chagrin Falls, and on Sunday at 4pm at Rocky River Presbyterian

On Saturday at 3 pm in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory Opera will stage a double bill of chamber operas. Kamala Sankaram’s A. E. Reverie (with libretto by Jerre Dye) and Rise (with libretto by A. M. Homes) highlight the pioneering American spirit of determination, independence, and freedom. Read more about the productions here. Repeated on Sunday at 3 pm

On Sunday at 3 pm Music at Bath Concert Series will present The _ _ _ _ Experiment with Michelle Cusick, clarinets, Maya Grossman, bassoon, Andrew Hosler, saxophones, and Ava Wirth, oboe in a program of specially commissioned chamber works at The Bath Church UCC in Akron.

And on Tuesday at 7:30, Cleveland Chamber Music Society revives the time-honored but currently neglected tradition of the solo vocal recital when it hosts Hawaiian-born baritone ​and Metropolitan Opera Verdi star Quinn Kelsey ​with pianist Craig Ketter in ​song cycles by Aaron Copland, Gerald Finzi, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and settings of Langston Hughes’ poetry by Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, and John Alden Carpenter. Emily Laurence gives the pre-concert talk at 6:30 at Disciples Church.

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

WEEKEND HEADLINES:

Wynton Marsalis To Retire As Chief Of Jazz At Lincoln Center (The NY Times) [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

This evening at 7:30 at First Methodist Church in Cuyahoga Falls, Apollo’s Fire sets out on a local, four-concert tour with its program “Winter Sparks from Bach & Vivaldi,” curated by assistant music director and violinist Alan Choo. Oboist Debra Nagy will be featured in a concerto by Antonio Vivaldi, flutist Kathie Stewart will step forward in J.S. Bach’s Second Orchestral Suite, and cellist Sarah Stone will solo in Marin Marais’ Sonnerie de Sainte Geneviève, and an oboe concerto by Vivaldi.

The Canton Symphony’s Divergent Sounds concert scheduled for this evening has been rescheduled to April 30.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

It’s interesting that two British composers who have achieved cult status rather than wide acceptance were both born on January 29 — Frederick Delius (pictured) in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1862, and Havergal Brian in Dresden, Staffordshire in 1876. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Philip Glass Cancels World Premiere At Kennedy Center (The Washington Post)

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by  Mike Telin

January 28 marks the birth of Polish-American pianist Arthur Rubinstein in 1887 in Łódź, Poland. With a career spanning eight decades, he is regarded as one of the greatest pianists — and the greatest interpreter of Chopin — of all time. Relocating to California during WWII, he became a naturalized U.S. Citizen in 1946. He also lent his talents to Hollywood, providing piano soundtracks for films, including Song of Love with Katharine Hepburn, and playing himself in Carnegie Hall and Of Men and Music. Click here to watch a documentary of his life with historic film footage. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 Noon, organist Rees Taylor Roberts plays works by J.S. Bach, Richard Russell Webster, Kristina Arakelyan, Rachel Laurin & Olivier Messiaen (Dieu Parmi Nous from La Nativité du Seigneur) at the Church of the Covenant.

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

Anniversaries on this particular date in classical music history go on and on — the birth of Mozart (Salzburg, 1756) and the death of Verdi (age 87 in Milan, 1901) just scratch the surface.

Given that January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day — chosen for the date in 1945 when the Soviet army liberated the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps — we’ll turn our focus to Czech pianist and composer Gideon Klein, who died on that same date in 1945 at age 25. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society will present the Africa → West Percussion Trio. Jamie Ryan, Ryan Korb, and Josh Ryan blend African and Afro-Caribbean traditions with Western classical and jazz influences at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. The Society has confirmed that the event will take place as scheduled, but will be live streamed for those who would rather not venture out in our current, sub-freezing weather.

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

AWARDS:

On Thursday, the Cleveland Institute of Music announced that conductor Leonard Slatkin has been selected to receive its 2026 Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts degree. He will accept the award and deliver the keynote address at CIM’s commencement proceedings on Saturday, May 16 in Kulas Hall.

At the same ceremony, CIM will grant a Distinguished Alumni Award to conductor-pianist Kathryn Harsha (MM ’99) and an Alumni Achievement Award to cellist Rebecca Shasberger (MM ’17), artistic and executive director of Renovare Music. Read a press release here.

TRANSITIONS:

Cynthia Snider has announced her retirement as executive director of Akron’s Tuesday Musical. Austin Ferguson, the organization’s director of artistic operations and educational engagement since 2021, will assume the leadership role when Snider retires in June. Read the announcement here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, the fifth and most obscure son of Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach, departed this life on January 26, 1795 in the provincial town of Bückeburg, where he served as harpsichordist beginning in 1750 and as concertmaster from 1759, and composed a large number of works in all categories. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

Here are our classical music recommendations for this weekend, selected from our master concert listings calendar.

On Friday evening at 7:30 the Cleveland Museum of Art will host the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, conducted by Timothy Weiss, with Jennifer Koh, violin, Alexandra Armantrading, soprano, Rodrick Dixon, tenor, Timothy LeFebvre, baritone, and the Oberlin Percussion Group in Gartner Auditorium, 11150 East Blvd., Cleveland.

On Saturday afternoon at 3 pm, Roger Kalia will lead the Canton Symphony Orchestra with narrator Averi Ellis in works by Clarice Assad, Benjamin Britten, Wojciech Kilar, and Dmitri Shostakovich (his Symphony No. 9) in Umstattd Hall, Zimmermann Symphony Center, 2331 17th St. N.W., Canton.

On Saturday evening at 7:30, the Fryderyk Chopin Institute of Ohio will present pianist Kevin Kenner and the Callisto Quartet in works by the Polish composer in Harkness Chapel at Case Western Reserve University.

And on Sunday afternoon at the same hour, Erik Ochesner will lead the Youngstown Symphony in works by Richard Wagner, Jean Sibelius, John Williams, and Hector Berlioz (Symphonie fantastique) in Stambaugh Auditorium.

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

INTERESTING READS:

‘An Unbelievable Mess’: Artists Are Stymied by Trump Travel Bans (NY Times)

In operatic dispute, Met Opera director and designers order names stripped from Carmen (Associated Press)

Guest Essay: Stop Mutilating Classical Music to Sell It to Kids (NY Times)

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

This date in 1894 saw the first performance of Antonin Dvorák’s own arrangement of Stephen Foster’s Old Folks at Home with vocal soloists Sissierette Jones and Harry T. Burleigh at a  concert of African American choral music at Madison Square Concert Hall in NYC. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 in Warner Concert Hall, the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, conducted by Timothy Weiss, will be joined by Jennifer Koh, violin (pictured, by Roger Mastroianni), Alexandra Armantrading, soprano, Rodrick Dixon, tenor, Timothy LeFebvre, baritone, and the Oberlin Percussion Group, for a program that includes Emma O’Halloran’s meditation for metal pipes, Olly Wilson’s Of Visions and Truth, Jesse Jones’ Ennead, and Courtney Bryan’s Syzygy. (To be repeated on Friday in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art).

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Today’s birthdays include French pianist Petr Eben and composer Henri Dutilleux (1916),  Czech composer and church musician  (1929). And American pianist and composer Marc Blitzstein died on January 22, 1964. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at Noon, the Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concerts feature Cleveland Chamber Choir members. Dominic Aragon, baritone, Abigail Hakel-Garcia, soprano and violin, Adrian Murillo, theorbo, Kira McGirr, mezzo-soprano (pictured), and Gregory Ristow, harpsichord, in “Madness & Melancholy — including selections from Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, mad songs, and Italian and French laments.

And tonight at 7:30 in Gartner Auditorium, the Cleveland Museum of Art will host the Oberlin Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble, Bobby Ferrazza, director, in original works by members of the band and fresh arrangements of Rollins’ compositions, along with jazz standards.

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

TODAY’S HEADLINE:

New York’s Met Opera announces ‘necessary’ layoffs and pay cuts

The Guardian reports that “The company is laying off 22 of its 284 administrative staffers, reducing pay for 35 of its top executives (including general director Peter Gelb and music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin), and dropping one production from next season’s schedule.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1575, Queen Elizabeth I granted English composers Thomas Tallis and William Byrd letters patent that gave them a monopoly over publishing music and music paper. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

In a free concert tonight at 7:30, the Oberlin Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble, Bobby Ferrazza, director, will play original works by members of the band and fresh arrangements of Rollins’ compositions along with jazz standards at the ’Sco (Dionysus Club) in Wilder Hall.

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

INTERESTING READ:

The New York Times sent David Allen to sit in on rehearsals by The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center in advance of their concerts this week at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Read How the Cleveland Orchestra Stays at the Top of Classical Music here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

By Jarrett Hoffman

Born on this date in 1895 in Coffeyville, Kansas, Eva Jessye is known as the first Black woman to achieve international recognition as a choral conductor. [Read more…]