by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

The first full week of November has arrived. Here’s a taste of what’s in store:

Starting mid-week, The Cleveland Orchestra kicks off their Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle featuring pianist Igor Levit. Oberlin Opera Theatre begins their performances of Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon, and No Exit presents the brass quintet Meridian Arts Ensemble in three different locations around the area.

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

NEW ALBUM RELEASES:

Some familiar names appear in the New York Times’ recap of recent classical albums. The first is Igor Levit, who joins The Cleveland Orchestra this week. The pianist’s latest release is the three-hour Brahms, with the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Christian Thielemann — Zachary Woolfe praises Levit’s solos as “elegantly autumnal.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

On Saturday, Sororii — cellist Carolina Borja and bassoonist Arleigh Savage — play instrumental grooves (2 pm at the Main Cleveland Library) the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra performs with violinist Ken Johnston (7 pm at Disciples Church), the Youngstown Symphony plays the score during a screening of Back to the Future (7:30 at Powers Auditorium, repeated Sunday at 7:30), and Tan Dun conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in his Water Concerto with percussionist Marc Damoulakis (8 pm at Severance Music Center).

Don’t forget to turn your clocks back at 2 am. Sunday’s calendar is overflowing with ten events: Heights Arts’ Music for Winds by Women of the Gilded Age (3 pm at Heights Theater), the Euclid Symphony with bassist Derek Zadinski (3 pm at Shore Cultural Center), Keyboard Conversations with Jeffrey Siegel (3 pm at the Maltz PAC), CIM New Music Ensemble with Marilyn Shrude (4 pm  in Mixon Hall), organist Jack Mitchener (4 pm at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights), Paragon Brass Ensemble (pictured) with organist Abby Haake  (4 pm at Holy Trinity Lutheran, Akron), Urban Troubadour with a Cleveland Orchestra horn quartet (4 pm at Cuyahoga Falls Sheraton), Kent Keyboard Series with Kenny Werner (5 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall), Appalachian Chamber Music Players (5:30, Guzzetta Recital Hall, U. of Akron) and a repeat of Saturday’s Youngstown Symphony screening (7:30, Powers Auditorium).

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS: 

The Cleveland Orchestra will present its 28th Distinguished Service Award to cultural arts activist Nancy McCann before the evening’s concert on November 7 at Severance Music Center. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Tonight at 7, Cleveland Orchestra clarinetist Daniel McKelway (pictured) will be featured in the Mozart concerto with the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra in Gamble Auditorium.

Four events all begin tonight at 7:30:

Cleveland Jazz Orchestra celebrates Sean Jones in “The Sean is You” (Maltz PAC),

The Cleveland Orchestra led by Lawrence Loh marks Hallowe’en with a screening of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (Severance Music Center),

The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Timothy Weiss, conductor, presents harpist Rosanna Moore, cellist Nick Photinos, percussionist Ross Karre, and the Oberlin Percussion Group in works by Han Lash, Pamela Z, Christopher Stark, and Carlos Carrillo (Warner Concert Hall, live stream available), and

The Resonance Project hosts mezzo-soprano Kameryn Lueng and pianist Irwin Shung in “Dreams and Disillusionment: Songs of Love” (Forest Hill Presbyterian Church).

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS: 

The Violin Channel reports that soprano Renée Fleming has been named director of Cincinnati’s 2025 May Festival. The article includes the interesting news that since its founding in 1873, “…choral works that have premiered at the Festival include J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, and Britten’s Gloriana. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Chinese-born American composer Tan Dun leads The Cleveland Orchestra tonight at 7:30 at Severance Music Center in original works — his Water Concerto & Concerto for Orchestra — plus Igor Stravinsky’s Fireworks, and Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. Marc Damoulakis (pictured), the Orchestra’s principal percussion, will be featured in the Water Concerto, and the program will be repeated on Saturday at 8. Damoulakis previews the piece in a Cleveland Orchestra video here.

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

“The Baltimore Sun has dissolved its entire features section, reassigning some of its most celebrated writers to news departments and leaving the paper without any culture coverage for the first time since 1888,” the paper’s guild announced Tuesday on Yahoo News. [Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

We’re halfway through the week, with two concerts to celebrate. At 12:00 noon, hear organist Shane Brandes perform at Trinity Lutheran Church for Music Near the Market.

Or, at 6:00, hear students from the CIM Guitar Studio perform at the Cleveland Museum of Art (pictured). This free concert takes place in Gallery 212, Baroque Painting and Sculpture.

For more information, visit our Concert Listings.

ANOTHER NEW DISCOVERY:

First Mozart, now Chopin — it’s been a big year for unearthing music by long-dead composers. That’s right — a previously unknown waltz by Frédéric Chopin has emerged from the collection at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. The brief, though complete, manuscript is said to be from when the composer is in his early 20s. Read more about it and hear a performance from the pianist Lang Lang here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Daniel Hathaway

On this date in 1864, American music patroness and composer Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge was born in Chicago. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 12 Noon, Tuesdays at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle presents harpsichordist Mikhail Grazhdanov (pictured) in suites by Jean-Philippe Rameau & George Frideric Handel.

At 5:30 pm, a Rush Hour Concert at Fairmount Presbyterian Church presents soprano Lauren Vanden Broeck, pianist Adam Whiting, and guests in a program featuring J.S. Bach’s Cantata 51.

And tonight at 8 pm – Oberlin hosts a Warner Concert Hall guest recital by The Ize Trio (pianist Chase Morrin, cellist Naseem Alatrash, and percussionist George Lernis), who combine the American art form of Jazz with Middle Eastern traditions.

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMPOSERS:

The Violin Channel reports that “The American Composers Orchestra (ACO) has advertised five opportunities for composers, including calls for scores and composer residencies. At the heart of these is the ACO’s Earshot Call for Scores, in partnership with the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music.”

TODAY’S HEADLINES FROM ARTSJOURNAL:

[Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

Leading up to Halloween, things are relatively calmer, but there are still plenty of options. It’s a big week for new music, with The Cleveland Orchestra welcoming composer/conductor Tan Dun (pictured) on Thursday and Saturday, and the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra performing an all-modern program on Saturday.

It’s also a good week for jazz, with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra teaming up with Sean Jones on Friday and the BW Jazz Ensemble playing on Thursday.

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

NEWS BRIEFS:

Some Cleveland arts organizations were praised in a recent report from SMU DataArts, which looked at how arts agencies helped their local communities during the pandemic. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

Halloween events include The Cleveland Orchestra’s Halloween Spooktacular: Heroes & Villains! (Saturday at 2 — a “relaxed, sensory-friendly” version — and Sunday at 2 at Severance Music Center,) and a screening of The Hunchback of Notre Dame with organ score played by David Blazer (Sunday at 7 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River).

Multiple performances (take your choice) include Cleveland Chamber Choir in “Meditations and Mysticism” (Saturday at 7 in Trinity Cathedral, Sunday at 4 at First Lutheran Church in  Lorain), CityMusic Cleveland featuring violist Eleisha Nelson in a concerto by Margaret Brouwer (Saturday at 7:30 at St. Stanislaus Shrine, Sunday at 4:30 in Our Lady of Angels in Rocky River).

Single events on Saturday: BW Faculty Recital by flutist Kaleb Checnic (Noon in Gamble Auditorium), the Canton Symphony’s “Star Wars and its Influences” (3 pm at Zimmermann Symphony Center), BW Percussion Ensemble (7 pm in Gamble Auditorium), Trobár Medieval (7 pm at Inlet Dance Theatre), classical guitarist Jorge Caballero (pictured, Cleveland Classical Guitar Society series, 7:30 at the Maltz PAC), and TrueNorth Chorale and Chamber Orchestra (7:30 in Bay Methodist Church in Bay Village).

And on Sunday, Music from the Western Reserve presents Singers Companye (5 pm, Christ Church in Hudson), and the BW New Music Series unveils new works by composition majors (7 pm in Gamble Auditorium).

For details of these and other upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

SERIES ANNOUNCEMENT:

Tri-C Classical Piano Series director Emanuela Friscioni has announced a three-concert lineup for 2024-2025, all events to be held on Sundays at 2 pm in its Metropolitan Campus Auditorium. Admission is free but tickets are required. Details here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Tonight at 7, Trobár Medieval presents “A Room of Her Own: Christine de Pizan’s Defense of Women,” in the words of the 15th-c. author (pictured), performed by actor Chris Szajbert and reflected in the music of her contemporaries, played and sung by Allison Monroe. Elena Mullins Bailey, and Sian Ricketts (St. Paul’s Church, Cleveland Hts.)

Three orchestra concerts all begin at 7:30:

• CityMusic Cleveland continues its four-performance October Orchestra Series at St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills with a concert featuring Cleveland Orchestra violist Eliesha Nelson in Margaret Brouwer’s Viola Concerto, 
• the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra presents clarinetist Taein Yi in Carl Nielsen’s Concerto at the Maltz PAC,
• and Carl Topilow leads the Cleveland Pops Orchestra in Broadway’s Best at Severance Music Center.

Also at 7:30, Kent State Faculty & Graduate Students perform their works in the Roy Minoff Award Concert (Ludwig Recital Hall on the Kent State campus).

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

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Tonight at 7, Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach presents a Steel Drum Celebration with Joe Leaman and Friends at the Bop Stop.

Tonight at 7:30, CityMusic Cleveland begins its four-performance October Orchestra Series at Fairmount Presbyterian Church with a concert featuring Cleveland Orchestra violist Eliesha Nelson in Margaret Brouwer’s Viola Concerto.

At the same hour, the Lorain County Community College Signature Series will host pianist Ashlee Mack in James Romig’s Still, inspired by the American Abstract Expressionist painter Clyfford Still, and violinist Brendan Shea and pianist Yerin Kim will include Andrew Rindfleisch’s Two Pieces for Violin and Piano in a concert in Drinko Recital Hall at Cleveland State University.

Not happening today: Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project has canceled a performance by Natacha Diels/Uno Lady.

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