By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

There are no performances on the calendar for August 9. Click here to visit the Concert Listings page for information about coming events.

SEMI-INTERESTING READ:

A review by David Allen in today’s print edition of The New York Times reports on Bard College’s current two-week festival devoted to a re-evaluation of the legacy of Ralph Vaughan Williams (pictured). Devotees of the British composer, who died in 1958, may have issues with Leon Botstein’s choice of repertory and the author’s conclusions. Read At Bard, a Festival Argues for the Music of Vaughan Williams here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

By Jarrett Hoffman

Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi passed away on August 9, 1988 in Rome, leaving behind a fascinating catalog of works that still sound quite fresh. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

There are no performances on the calendar for August 8. Click here to visit the Concert Listings page for information about coming events.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra has openings for all strings sections and for substitute players on woodwind and brass instruments. Interested players should email personnel manager Tren Cheshier to arrange an audition time over the next 30 to 45 days.

The Canton Symphony invites visual artists to apply for its Artist in Residence  program, which gives Northeast Ohio artists a chance to have pieces commissioned by a professional orchestra while also creating a visually engaging experience for its audiences in the CSO gallery. Applications are due by August 21. More information here. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today from 2-4pm, WRUW airs Eric Charnofsky’s weekly broadcast, Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music. Today’s edition spotlights Karel Husa’s Five Poems (woodwind quintet), Albert Glinsky’s Toccata-Scherzo (violin and piano), Bohuslav Martinů’s Symphony No. 4, Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin (arr. for brass quintet), Julia Wolfe’s Oxygen, for 12 flutes & Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Three Russian Songs for Chorus and Orchestra. Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Cleveland Chamber Choir will present three pairs of concerts next season, led by its recently-named artistic director Gregory Ristow. Read a press release here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Czech-American composer Karel Husa (pictured above) was born in Prague on August 7, 1921. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

The Cooper International Piano Competition final round takes place on Friday at 7:30 at Severance Music Center, when the three remaining contestants (pictured) will perform concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra, David Robertson, conducting. Tickets are available online, where you can also link to a live stream.

On Saturday, the Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra will join David Robertson & The Cleveland Orchestra in a 7 pm side-by-side concert at Blossom Music Center, featuring pianist Conrad Tao in John Adams’ Century Rolls. That will be preceded by a 6 pm prelude concert by the Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra, Daniel Reith, conducting. The two ensembles will combine for Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Something for the Dark & Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1.

And on Saturday at 8 pm at Convivium 33 Gallery, the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project (CUSP) will present a concert by keyboardist Eli Wallace, who specializes in improvised music for the prepared piano.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

A day without events! It must be August in Northeast Ohio.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for future events (there’s an interesting weekend coming up).

INTERESTING READ:

A slow news day, too. The Harvard Gazette, a daily online journal, queried faculty scientists recently about their favorite books to recommend to non-scientists. William “Ned” Friedman, Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Director of the Arnold Arboretum replied,

“Immediately, one book comes to mind: My favorite book by Charles Darwin (and his last — published in 1881): ‘The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms.’ While some of his books changed the world (‘On the Origin of Species,’ ‘The Descent of Man’) and some were highly technical (‘Orchids,’ ‘Barnacles,’ ‘Power of Movement in Plants’ …), his book on worms, which reflected a lifelong interest (beginning in the 1830s and ending with his death in 1882) in the slow but steady effects of earthworms on the terrestrial world is one of the most charming and heartwarming books I can imagine in the world of natural history books. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

2:00 & 7:00 pm – Cooper International Piano Competition: Seven contestants perform full concertos with piano accompaniment in Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall. Free. Read a news release and click here for a live webcast. At 10 pm, the jury will name the three pianists who will move into the Final Round and award the 4th through 6th prizes, and Audience Prize.

At 7:30 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall on the Kent State campus, the final Kent Blossom Music Festival Faculty Concert will feature current and former Cleveland Orchestra musicians Jessica Sindell, flute, Joela Jones, piano and Richard Weiss, cello (pictured) in works by Bloch, Dohnányi, Janáček & Loggins-Hull.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 9am & 2pm, young contestants in the Cooper International Piano Competition will continue playing 40-minute recitals in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory, to be webcast live. At 6 pm: Announcement of the SIX pianists who will move on to the Concerto Round.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Nashville Symphony has appointed Peter Otto (pictured) as its concertmaster, beginning on January 1, 2024. Otto became First Associate Concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra in September of 2007 and served as its Acting Concertmaster from 2018 until 2022. Read a story in The Strad here. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 9am, 2pm, and 7pm, 19 young contestants in the Cooper International Piano Competition will play 40-minute recitals in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory, to be webcast live. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni: George Li, winner of the 2010 inaugural competition with The Cleveland Orchestra.)

And from 2-4pm, Erik Charnofsky’s Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music airs from the studios of WRUW at Case. Featured music: Mara Gibson’s Folium cubed (soprano saxophone), Virgil Thomson’s Symphony on a Hymn Tune, Avner Dorman’s Mandolin Concerto, Jacques Hétu’s Trio for Oboe, Violin, and Piano, Jenny Beck’s Stand Still Here (piano) & Sylvius Leopold Weiss’s Partita in d (lute). Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information.

ADDITIONS TO THE CONCERT CALENDAR:

Stars in the Classics will hold two Summer Garden Concerts on August 20 & 24. Details here.

Akron’s Urban Troubadour has announced two new roving adventures. Click here for information. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN TODAY’S EDITION:

. Ohio Light Opera finales, three screenings of Part Two of Tolkien’s Ring trilogy at Blossom, more al fresco events in Canton & Akron

. All-Bach recital added to Oberlin Cooper agenda, Kent Blossom Festival student performances

. Almanac: anniversaries for J.S. Bach, Riccardo Muti, Sir John Barbirolli & George Szell

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

It’s the last call this weekend for tickets to Ohio Light Opera performances in Wooster. You can still catch H.M.S. Pinafore (Fri. at 2), Camelot (Fri. at 7:30), No, No, Nanette (Sat. at 2), & How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Sat. at 7:30). The season ends with Camelot on Sunday, July 30 at 2:00.

And have a look into the “Silver Age” of Viennese operetta with Daniel Hathaway’s interview with Emmerich Kálmán’s daughter Yvonne, who was in Wooster last week to see Arizona Lady.

J.R.R. Tolkien fans and Hobbit followers can watch three screenings of “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” Friday through Sunday at 7 at Blossom with very live performances of Howard Shore’s Grammy Award–winning score by The Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus, and Children’s Chorus, Ludwig Wicki, conducting. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

As its season winds down, Ohio Light Opera presents two final performances today in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster, with more to come through Sunday: at 2pm, Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, and at 7:30, Emmerich Kálmán’s Arizona Lady. We’ve reviewed the productions here and here, and Daniel Hathaway has interviewed Kálmán’s daughter Yvonne, who was in town to see her father’s western-themed operetta.

And at 7:30 pm, Kent Blossom Music Festival presents a concert in its Young Artist Series in Ludwig Recital Hall on the Kent State campus. Check out the KBFM full schedule here.

ALMANAC FOR JULY 27

On this date in 1741, Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi died in Vienna. He made his reputation in Venice, especially as music director for 30 years of the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for young women. He continued his career in Mantua, eventually migrating to Vienna in hopes of advancing his fortunes as an opera composer. [Read more…]