by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

This evening at 7:30 Pittsburgh’s Chatham Baroque — Andrew Fouts, Baroque violin, Patricia Halverson, viola da gamba, and Scott Pauley, theorbo & baroque guitar  — will make its long overdue Cleveland debut on the Rocky River Chamber Music Society series.

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

CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA APPOINTMENTS:

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced five new musician appointments to its violin and viola sections.

Elizabeth Fayette joins the Orchestra as First Associate Concertmaster in May, and Philip Marten assumes the role of Associate Concertmaster in August. Zhan Shu, a first violinist with The Cleveland Orchestra since 2018, was appointed Assistant Concertmaster and began serving in the role in January. In May, Dustin Wilkes-Kim joins the second violin section, and Gabriel Napoli joins the viola section Read more here.

MEMORIAL CONCERTS AT OBERLIN:

Two concerts this weekend will memorialize longtime faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory.

On Saturday at 2:30 in Warner Concert Hall, students, friends, and colleagues of Daune Mahy will present a program honoring the voice professor who taught at the Conservatory for 39 years.

And on Sunday at 4:30 in Finney Chapel, James O’Donnell, formerly organist of London’s Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, will play a memorial tribute to David Boe, Ninth Dean of the Conservatory and Professor of Organ from 1962 to 2008.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Kurt Weill was born into the world of musical theater, subcategory political, in Dessau, Germany on March 2, 1900, and Marc Blitzstein wasn’t far behind, entering the scene in Philadelphia on March 2, 1905. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

Turning the calendar page over to March releases a floodgate of events. Here are our classical music recommendations for this weekend, selected from the many in our master concert listings calendar.

On Friday Evening at 7:30, Alain Altinoglu visits The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center to conduct two of Richard Strauss’s virtuosic tone poems based on the mythic lives of Til Eulenspiegel and Don Juan, and to team up with Cleveland native Alisa Weilerstein in Unsuk Chin’s equally virtuosic Cello Concerto. The merry pranks, romantic conquests and cellocentric fireworks return on Saturday at the same hour.

On Saturday at 4 pm at Heights Theater in the Coventry neighborhood, Les Délices highlights soprano Estelí Gomez in Nicaraguan-American composer Gilda Lyons’Soy la Diosa, as the second chapter of the period instrument ensemble’s Mythology Project centers attention on Latin American folklore and historical legends. The program will be repeated on Sunday at 7:30 at Inlet Dance Theater at the Pivot Center in Ohio City.

On Sunday at 3 pm at Pilgrim Congregational UCC, Arts Renaissance Tremont will present The ART of Influence. Students who are now professional musicians will share the stage with their teachers for a concert illuminating the tradition of mentorship in music. Guests include Cleveland Orchestra percussionists Tom Sherwood & Tanner Tanyeri and hornists Rich King & Megan Guegold (hornists at TCO), and more.

There’s a lot happening early next week as well.

On Monday evening at 7:30 Pittsburgh’s Chatham Baroque (pictured above) will make its Cleveland debut on the Rocky River Chamber Music Society series.

And on Tuesday at 7:30, chamber music fans will have their choice between a Cleveland Chamber Society performance by the Leonkoro Quartet at Disciples Church, and a Tuesday Musical concert by saxophonists Branford Marsalis and Timothy McAllister with pianist Liz Ames at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall.

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

WEEKEND ALMANAC: [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7 pm at CentroVilla 25, Les Délices will present a free preview of its forthcoming program La Diosa, featuring a conversation with composer Gilda Lyons, whose new work, Soy La Diosa, celebrates the divine feminine in Central American myth.

Tonight at 7:30, The Cleveland Orchestra, conducted byAlain Altinoglu, and joined by cellist Alisa Weilerstein (pictured), will perform Unsuk Chin’s Cello Concerto and Richard Strauss’ tone poems Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks & Don Juan at Severance Music Center.

And at 7:30 in Warner Concert Hall, Timothy Weiss will conduct the Oberlin Sinfonietta in Tyshawn Sorey’s For George Lewis and George Lewis’ Arcades.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Cleveland Institute of Music has announced that two new cello professors, Tom Landschoot and Jeffrey Noel Lastrapes, have been appointed to its faculty. Both teachers are currently accepting students who apply through the Fall 2026 Expedited Application route, which offers guaranteed scholarships of $30,000. Read the announcement here.

The Cleveland Orchestra writes that cellist “Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s ongoing recovery from his finger injury is taking longer than he had anticipated and, with huge regret, he must withdraw from all his concerts through the end of May.”

His sister Isata Kanneh-Mason will instead present a solo recital in Mandel Concert Hall on Tuesday, March 17 at 7:30. “Framed by Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Waldstein’ sonatas, the program journeys from Ravel’s challenging Gaspard de la nuit to two moving contemporary works by Dobrinka Tabakova.”

Original manuscript of Gyórgy Kurtág’s 1959 Wind Quintet, Op. 2, turns up at the Liszt Academy. Read the Violin Channel story here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Howard Hanson, American conductor, composer, and longtime director of the Eastman School of Music, died on this date in 1981 in Rochester, NY. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7 pm the CSU Keyboard Extravaganza Concert features more than 30 works played by keyboard students in Drinko Hall, Cleveland State University, 2001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Free.

And at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall (pictured), CIM Insiders presents pianist Carolyn Gadiel Warner, violinists Olga Dubossarskaya Kaler & Philip Setzer, cellist Si-Yan Darren Li, and saxophonist Steven Banks in music by Poulenc, Setzer, Glinka, and Ravel.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On February 25 in 1890, English pianist Dame Myra Hess was born in South Hampstead, London. She made her professional debut in 1907 playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 under the direction of Sir Thomas Beecham. Hess toured extensively throughout Britain, the Netherlands, and France and made her U.S. debut in New York City in 1922. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at 12 Noon at the Church of the Covenant, Donna Jelen will conduct the Shaker Heights High School Chamber Orchestra in music by Tchaikovsky, Dvorak & Mendelssohn and Alec Rowley’s Meditation for Organ and Orchestra with Jonathan Moyer, organ. At the same hour, Piano Cleveland Live presents a recital by Cleveland International Piano Competition semi-finalist Jonathan Mamora in the Atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

And tonight at 7:30. Anthony Parnther will conduct the CIM Orchestra, with Steven Banks, saxophone, in Jerod Tate’s Nani (Fish), Billy Child’s Diaspora: Concerto for Saxophone, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 in Kulas Hall.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances.

AMUSING READ from The Guardian:

“Like an electrical gong bath!’ The Sheffield supermarket going viral for the symphonic sound of its freezers

Redditors are thrilled by the Co-op on Ecclesall Road, where a magnificent drone is reminiscent of Brian Eno’s ambient music. We take a visit to the back aisles.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Italian soprano-turned-opera-director Renata Scotto was born on this date in 1934. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7 pm Matthew Jaroszewicz leads the Canton Youth Symphony Advanced Orchestra in Charles Ives Variations on “America,” Faye-Ellen Silverman’s Yellow Lilies (world premiere), John Williams’ “Adventures on Earth” from E.T., and George Gershwin’s Concerto in F with pianist Baron Fenwick.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances.

INTERESTING READ:

In a frenetic digital era, he’s helping Angelenos rediscover the classic cassette player – LA Times via Yahoo

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

There are two major British composers to celebrate today, one adopted, the other very much a native of “England’s green and pleasant land.”

George Frideric Handel (pictured above) was born in Halle, Saxony on February 23, 1685. Details of his life are so well known — except perhaps his recently documented financial involvement with the slave trade — that a few random references may be welcome.

Like the British monarch at the time, Handel’s native tongue was German, which didn’t prevent him from becoming an English musical icon — but still gave him a bit of trouble when composing. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

On Friday at 11 am, conductor-composer John Adams and pianist Aaron Diehl join The Cleveland Orchestra for Adams’ Frenzy: a short symphony and his arrangements of Astor Piazzolla tangos, Charles Ives’ From Greenland’s Icy Mountains, and Timo Andres’ Made of Tunes. (Repeated on Saturday at 7:30.) • On Friday evening at 7:30, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series hosts the American Brass Quintet in Finney Chapel, and Cleveland Pops Orchestra features magician Michael Grandinetti in a night of music and illusions at Severance Music Center.

On Sunday at 5 pm, the Kent Keyboard Series welcomes pianist Stephanie Shih-yu Cheng to Ludwig Recital Hall, while Music from the Western Reserve presents cellist Brendon Phelps and pianist Alexandre Marr in a program designed around Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata at Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson.

On Sunday at 7 pm, James Feddeck leads The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Chorus in Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3, Antonín Dvořák’s Te Deum, and Howard Hanson’s Song of Democracy at Severance Music Center, and organist David Blazer and percussionist Andrew Pongracz provide a live score for the Cleveland Silent Film Festival’s screening of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances.

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

There’s a long history of visual art influencing the creation of music, and vice versa. One important artist steeped in that cross-pollination is Andy Warhol, that leading figure of the pop art movement who was born in Pittsburgh, and who died on February 22, 1987 in New York City at age 58. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, conductor-composer John Adams and pianist Aaron Diehl join The Cleveland Orchestra for Adams’ Frenzy: a short symphony and his arrangements of Astor Piazzolla tangos, Charles Ives’ From Greenland’s Icy Mountains, and Timo Andres’ Made of Tunes. (Repeated on Friday at 11 & Saturday at 7:30.)

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

One of the few items to pop up on a search for events that took place on this day in classical music history was the death of Italian madrigalist Orazio Vecchi in 1605 at the age of 54 in Modena. That got me thinking about alternative ways of observing some historic milestones.

Normally, we recommend recordings as tributes to those who have begun and ended careers on the date in question, but Vecchi suggests a more interactive approach. How about a madrigal sing-along? [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the forty days of Lent for Western Christian communities. Click here to watch a service of Choral Evensong from Atlantic Canada (including the famous setting of Psalm 51 by Gregorio Allegri) sung by the University of King’s College Chapel Choir, directed by Paul Halley, in the Cathedral Church of All Saints, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Today at 12 Noon, Trinity Cathedral’s Brownbag Concert Series hosts the Cleveland Celtic Ensemble in Trinity Cathedral Hall.

This evening at 6 pm, The Cleveland Museum of Art’s Chamber Music in the Atrium Series presents Oberlin’s annual Danenberg Honors Recital honorees, and at 7:30 in Gartner Auditorium, its Performing Arts Series presents Makaya McCraven, drums, Junius Paul, bass, and Marquis Hill, trumpet, in Jazz-rooted 21st-century folk music from Chicago.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

Greek conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos was born on this date in 1896 in Athens.

The young Dimitri exhibited musical talents at an early age and by his early teens hosted Saturday afternoon concerts at his home. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

12 Noon – Tuesdays at the Covenant: organist Steven Plank (pictured) plays Gaspard Corrette’s movements from Messe du 8e Ton, Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck’s Fantasia cromatica & Four variations on “Onder een Linde groen,” & Jan Bender’s Six Variations on a Theme by Hugo Distler, “Dedicated to Dr. Kurt von Schuschnigg, who spoiled Hitler’s victorious entrance at Vienna.” Church of the Covenant, University Circle.

7:30 pm – Mao Fujita in Recital. The Japanese pianist plays works by Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Berg, and Wagner. Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.

7:30 pm – CIM Insiders. Andrew Hosler, saxophone, Daniel Pereira, cello, Eric Charnofsky, piano, and Dylan Findley, electronics. Music by Pierre Boulez, Sami Seif, Jennifer Conner, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, and John Mackey. Mixon Hall, 11021 East Blvd., Cleveland.

ANNOUNCEMENTS;

Cleveland Chamber Music Society will sponsor an Art of Ensemble Chamber Music workshop led by Mary K. Robinson on February 22 at 3 pm at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights. [Read more…]