By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. OLO stages Pinafore, CIPC hosts Gevorgyan recital, Kent Blossom Festival presents first faculty concert

. Youngstown Symphony season, Opera Western Reserve grant for Carmen

. Almanac remembers famous Douglass anti-slavery speech that inspired an opera

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 2 pm, Ohio Light Opera continues its run of H.M.S. Pinafore or The Lass That Loved a Sailor in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster.

At 7:30, Eva Gevorgyan returns to Cleveland to kick off the 2023 Cleveland International Piano Competition and Institute for Young Artists with a program of Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

And Kent Blossom Music Festival Faculty Concerts begin at 7:30 pm with a performance by WindSync — Garrett Hudson, flute, Emily Tsai, oboe, Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet, Kara LaMoure, bassoon and Anni Hochhalter, horn — in  Ludwig Recital Hall on the Kent State campus. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Americana on Charnofsky’s Monday playlist, Blossom Band opens summer season with two concerts

. Almanac remembers Leoš Janáček & expensive 1876 centennial march commission from Wagner

HAPPENING THESE TWO DAYS:

Monday:

2:00 pm – Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Eric Charnofsky, host. Morton Gould’s Foster Gallery (orchestra), Arthur Foote’s Three Pieces for Flute and Piano, Leoš Janáček’s The Wild Duck, The Dove & The Weeping Fountain (choir), Aaron Copland’s Vocalise (flute and piano), Kristin Kuster’s Jellyfish (saxophone and piano), John Philip Sousa’s Dwellers of the Western World (orchestra), Peter Terry’s Rise (saxophone, piano, electronics) & Morton Gould’s Santa Fe Saga (concert band). Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

Monday & Tuesday:

8:00 pm – Blossom Festival Band, “Salute to America.” Loras John Schissel, conducting (photo above by Roger Mastroianni from 2001). Patriotic marches, Broadway favorites, an Armed Forces Salute, and more — concluding with fireworks. Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls. Tickets available online. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. A wealth of performances from lyric theater to chamber music to Bach’s complete Brandenburgs & the opening of the Blossom season

. Remembering Bang on a Can All Stars bassist Robert Black

. Almanac: three dates in music history featuring Salonen, Henze, Brunelle, W.F. Bach, Satie, Gluck, Rousseau, Brewster, Weinrich & Fennell

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Ohio Light Opera has four of its six shows playing in repertoire: this weekend, No, No, Nanette! (pictured, Saturday at 2), How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Friday & Sunday at 2), and Camelot (Saturday at 7:30).

ChamberFest Cleveland’s Friday’s concert at Dunham Tavern, Words Misunderstood, will feature György Ligeti’s Poème symphonique (for 100 metronomes), and Saturday’s Mixon Hall performance picks up the festival theme, Lightness of Being, with Helmut Lachenmann’s Pression, and works by Mozart and Mendelssohn, both concerts at 7:30. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Youmans show continues with Wooster matinee, Divas on display at the V&A (pictured: Adelina Patti)

. Almanac remembers Henry VIII, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joseph Joachim, Richard Rodgers

HAPPENING TODAY:

2:00 pm – Ohio Light Opera: No, No, Nanette. Book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. Lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach. Music by Vincent Youmans. Freedlander Theatre, 329 E. University St., Wooster. Tickets available online.

INTERESTING READ:

New Exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum

“Exploring the definition of diva-dom is the exhibition DIVA, just opened at the V&A, London. ‘The exhibition will show that there are many definitions and interpretations of a diva,’ lead curator Kate Bailey tells BBC Culture. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Meet the Sonic Sphere

. Check out the rarities in Eric Charnofsky’s Monday playlist

. Birthday salute to the late Jacob Druckman

HAPPENING TODAY:

2:00 pm – Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Eric Charnofsky, host. Richard Strauss’s Violin Concerto in d,, Charles Norman Mason’s Anthem of Despair and Hope (choir), Suzanne Farrin’s Undecim (string quartet), Frederick Delius’s Marche Caprice & A Song Before Sunrise (orchestra), Jacob Druckman’s Dark Upon the Harp (mezzo-soprano, brass quintet & percussion) & Franz Liszt’s Second Book of Songs for Solo Piano. Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

INTERESTING READ:

“At the Shed in Manhattan, audience members can take in live, spatially designed music inside a suspended hall called the Sonic Sphere.” Click here to read the New York Times story, “Enter the 50-Ton Concert Hall That Hangs Like a Disco Ball.” [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. June concert series continue

. Oberlin BPI video of recently discovered flute music posted

. Announcements from the Akron & Canton Symphonies, the Music Settlement & The Cleveland Orchestra

. Almanac: milestones for John Finley Williamson, Hugo Distler, Terry Riley, George Philipp Telemann, William Grant Still’s choral ballad & Alberto Ginastera

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Ohio Light Opera has two of its six shows up and running on Saturday: No, No, Nanette at 2, and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at 7:30.

ChamberFest Cleveland continues with Carnival of the Animals on Saturday at 7:30 in Kulas Hall at CIM, and Vortex on Sunday in Harkness Chapel at Case at 3.

Tri-C JazzFest takes over Playhouse Square through Saturday (check the long list of performances). [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Musical theater continues in Wooster, chamber music in Cleveland Heights.

. Almanac: Remembering Pavel Haas, Alan Hovhaness, and Gunther Schuller (pictured)

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 2:00, Ohio Light Opera presents How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in Freedlander Theatre on the campus of The College of Wooster, and at 7:30, ChamberFest Cleveland presents “Mozart, Brahms, and Redemption” at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights. Details in our Concert Listings. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Charnofsky’s playlist celebrates Juneteenth, and some other suggestions for marking the date

.`League of American Orchestras diversity report

. Almanac: Henk Badings’ electronic TV chamber opera (pictured)

HAPPENING TODAY:

In the Juneteenth broadcast of Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Eric Charnofsky features music by African American Composers today from 2-4 pm: Adolphus Hailstork’s Symphony No. 1, Hailstork’s Spiritual Songs (choir), William Grant Still’s Africa (Symphonic Poem), George Walker’s Perimeters (clarinet and piano), Jeffrey Mumford’s the focus of blue light (violin and piano) & Samuel Barber’s Ballade (piano). Click here to listen to the internet feed, or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH

Since 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day, a contraction of June 19th, has been an official federal holiday, marking the anniversary of the 1865 emancipation order that freed enslaved people in Texas some two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

Here’s a selection of resources for marking  Juneteenth. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Weekend openings and performances

. $15k from NEA to Les Délices, Apollo’s Fire’s local programs next season

. Almanac: Births of Ysaÿe, Stravinsky, and Sir Paul McCartney

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

This weekend finds Ohio Light Opera, ChamberFest Cleveland, and Encore Chamber Music Institute in full swing. There’s lots to sample and dabble in alongside more well-known music. Visit our Concert Listings page for robust listings of these and other events — with composers, titles, and performers’ names.

Ohio Light Opera continues its run of Camelot at Freedlander Theater at The College of Wooster on Saturday. Read preview articles here, here, and here. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. New episodes from Ohio Light Opera & ChamberFest Cleveland

. Guitar Society announces International Series

. Almanac milestones for Theodore Bloomfield, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Lang Lang & Henry Mancini

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 2pm in the College of Wooster’s Freedlander Theater, Ohio Light Opera presents the second of thirteen performances of Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe’s Camelot (pictured), and at 7:30 in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance, ChamberFest Cleveland leads off its 2023 season with “Body and Soul,” bringing music by Purcell head-to-head with works by Carl Frühling and Dvořák. [Read more…]