by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Two Baldwin Wallace events begin tonight at 7 pm: Handel’s Radamisto, the composer’s first opera for the Royal Academy of Music, at The Helen Theatre in Playhouse Square Center, and the Symphonic Band joins the Strongsville Community Band in Gamble Auditorium.

And at 7:30, Spanish pianist Gregorio Benítez (pictured) will play excerpts from Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux in Reinberger Chamber Music Hall at Severance Music Center.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

By Jarrett Hoffman

Canadian-American composer R. Nathaniel Dett was born on October 11, 1882 in Drummondville, Ontario (now part of Niagara Falls). He is especially famous for his choral and piano compositions based on African American spirituals and folk songs. Among his great works is his oratorio The Ordering of Moses, written in 1932 as his thesis at the Eastman School of Music, and premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony in 1937. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Two Finnish musicians — conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen and cellist Senja Rummukainen — will be featured in tonight’s Cleveland Orchestra concert at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center. The program includes Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, Salonen’s Cello Concerto, and Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5. Tickets available online. Read a preview interview with Rummukainen on this page.

SOME HEADLINES IN THE NEWS:

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra experiments with creative experiences for next-gen audiences — Cincinnati Business Courier

Decoding the Trend Busters: How Some Arts Organizations Are Increasing Participation as National Figures Decline — National Endowment for the Arts

In Salt Lake City, Sports Drive a New Vision for Downtown: A proposal to remake the area would please the owner of the city’s N.B.A. and N.H.L. teams. But others, including classical musicians, aren’t so thrilled. —New York Times

TODAY’S ALMANAC: [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 12 Noon on Tuesdays at the Covenant series, organist Bernhard Klapprott (pictured left, from Weimar, Germany) will play 17th and 18th century music on the Newberry organ in the Church of the Covenant in University Circle. Click here to view the concert program.

And at 7:30 pm, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra will travel down the street to Severance Music Center, where Jake Taniguchi will lead a program of Beethoven, J.S. Bach, and Florence Price, featuring violinists Jaime Laredo and Jessica Lee.

BOP STOP TURNS TEN:

The BOP STOP will celebrate its tenth anniversary with a week of performances from October 15-20 including innovative jazz, local and national acts, experimental works and fan favorites. Donated to The Music Settlement in 2014, BOP STOP schedules more than 300 concerts and events each season in its Hingetown venue that reach some 12,000 audience members and engage more than 7,000 local and national artists.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

German composer Heinrich Schütz was born in Bad Köstritz on this date in 1585. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING FORWARD:

This week, BW Opera returns with Handel’s Radamisto, Severance Music Center welcomes the CIM Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen leads The Cleveland Orchestra in his own Cello Concerto, Heights Chamber Orchestra opens their season, and more.

For more details, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The ensemble Silkroad and its artistic director Rhiannon Giddens have announced an upcoming album (pictured) and podcast as part of the group’s “American Railroad” Project. Learn more here.

The album, which drops November 15, includes new arrangements of songs by Haruka Fujii, Maeve Gilcrest, and Pura Fé, who audiences may remember from Silkroad’s Oberlin concert in April. Giddens, an Oberlin graduate, succeeded the artistic director position from Yo-Yo Ma, who happens to be celebrated below in today’s almanac.

INTERESTING READ:

“Yes, Listening to Music is Therapy,” Daniel J. Levitin writes for The Walrus. The article — adapted from his recent book — highlights the creative connections between scientific and musical fields, and how music’s ability to mentally transport us somewhere is actually healing. Read it here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

We list 21 events from Friday through Sunday, including multiple performances by several organizations. Visit our Concert Listings for details, and read previews on this page for

• BlueWater Chamber Orchestra (Saturday at 7:30 at the Church of the Covenant, and Sunday at 4 at St. Noel Church)
• Les Délices in “Moonlit Mozart” (Saturday at 7:30 at Disciples Church, and Sunday at 4 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church
• Conrad Tao premiering Adam Roberts’ Book of Flowers (pictured) on the Kent Keyboard Series (Sunday at 5 in Ludwig Recital Hall)
• Salar Nader and Homayoun Sakhi bring Afghan music to Oberlin (Sunday at 7:30 in Finney Chapel).

INTERESTING READ:

The October issue of Gramophone includes a feature about Swedish violinist Johan Dalene, who has released a new album paying tribute to virtuoso icons from the past. Dalene won first prize in the 2017 Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition in Oberlin, after performing the Tchaikovsky concerto with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall. Click here to explore the issue.

WEEKEND ALMANAC: [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Doug Droste conducts the Baldwin Wallace Symphony with violist Ashley Gordon, founder, Castle of our Skins (Gamble Auditorium, at 7), Les Délices presents Moonlit Mozart — wind band music including serenades and opera selections (First Methodist in Akron at 7:30), Canton Symphony musicians join rapper Marcus Smith for a hip-hop and R&B-influenced program at The Auricle, and a huge cast of performers including the Tulsa Ballet, Cleveland Ballet, Cleveland Pops, tap dancers, and vocalists will invoke the golden age of Hollywood (7:30 at Key Bank State Theater).

Visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances.

NEWS BRIEFS:

WFMT reports that “Giancarlo Guerrero has been announced as the new artistic director and principal conductor of Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

If you’re free around lunchtime today, you’re in luck, with two musical offerings at 12:00 noon.

At Trinity Cathedral’s Brownbag Concert Series, hear from the Cleveland Institute of Music Guitar Studio of Jason Vieaux. Or, venture slightly west to Ohio City and another Trinity — Trinity Lutheran Church — for Music Near the Market. Organist Florence Mustric (pictured) will perform “simply perfect” music by composers ranging from Pachelbel to Mendelssohn and Grigny to Demessieux.

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

TODAY’s ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

Composer, keyboardist, and choral director R. Nathaniel Dett, a champion of the use of African American folk songs and spirituals in composing for the concert stage, died of a heart attack in Battle Creek, Michigan on this date in 1943. He was on tour with a Women’s Army Corps chorus of the United Service Organization, having joined the USO as a choral advisor to support American troops during World War II. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Two organ programs to highlight today,

At 12 Noon, Charlotte Beers Plank plays 17th and 18th century music on the Newberry organ at the Church of the Covenant.

And tonight at 7:30, organist David von Behren, who earned his undergraduate degree at CIM while serving as organ scholar at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, and now serves as assistant organist and choirmaster at Harvard University’s Memorial Church, plays a recital on the Schantz organ in Fairmount Presbyterian Church in partnership with the Cleveland Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. His program includes solo works and his own transcriptions for violin and organ (he plays both at the same time).

Visit our Concert Listings for details of upcoming performances.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1965, French composer Paul Dukas was born in Paris. [Read more…]