By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

We’ll list this weekend’s events by category:

ORCHESTRA CONCERTS will feature Barbara Hannigan conducting The Cleveland Orchestra with soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou (read an interview here) on Saturday evening, and Kelly Corcoran conducting the Canton Symphony with Julie Sarver, piccolo in a “Baroque Bash” on Saturday,

Also on Saturday, Matthew Salvaggio will conduct the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra in music by Margaret Brouwer, including the premiere of her Saxophone Concerto featuring Andrew Hosler. And on Sunday afternoon, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra will play its fall concert under the baton of Daniel Reith in a program that includes Walter Piston’s The Incredible Flutist: Suite, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (read a preview here).

GUITAR PERFORMANCES: On Saturday, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s Showcase Concert (artists pictured) will present the Gruca White Ensemble (guitarist Robert Gruca and flutist Linda White), Brazilian singer Luca Mundaca, jazz guitarist-composer Dan Wilson & bassist Brandon Rose at the Maltz (read an interview with Dan Wilson here), and on Sunday, Andrew Flory will play a Theorbo and Guitar Program at the Church of the Western Reserve on Sunday. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

A busy mid-day in University Circle. Today at 11, guest conductor Barbara Hannigan leads The Cleveland Orchestra in a matinee performance of Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 (“Trauersinfonie”) & and Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration. At 12 Noon across East Boulevard, Chamber Music in the Atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art features CIM singers in selections from Handel’s Alcina. And outdoors at 12:15 noon, carillonneur Keiran Cantilina plays requested tunes from the McGaffin Tower.

Friday evening, CityMusic’s Chamber Series presents music by Gioachino Rossini, Florence Price, Johann Sebastian Bach & Franz Schubert, as well as Irish fiddling  at Praxis Fiber Workshop, and in Avon Lake, Apollo’s Fire takes a tour to Venice for double concertos by Vivaldi, highlights from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Lamento della Ninfa, and the Sephardic traditional Seven Ways to Cook Eggplant.

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

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1483, German theologian, religious reformer and composer Martin Luther was born in Eisleben. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Barbara Hannigan is a conductor as well as a celebrated soprano. She brings her podium skills to Severance Music Center this week in a Cleveland Orchestra program featuring Richard Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration, and another soprano, Aphrodite Patoulidou, will take solo duties in Claude Vivier’s Lonely Child.

And Apollo’s Fire will spend two Nights in Venice, beginning this evening at The Temple-Tifereth Israel.

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

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

Local 4 Music Fund executive director Amber Rogers writes:

“In summer 2021, Local 4 launched an annual concert series featuring the works of female, regional, living composers. Now in its fourth season, we are proud to continue our work towards creating a more equitable regional arts community.

“She Scores is open to female-identifying and nonbinary composers who live or work in the states of OH, MI, KY, WV, PA, and IN. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Church of the Covenant organists take the Tuesday Noon audience under the hood of the Covenant’s organs. “Here’s your chance to finally see up close what is behind those amazing facade pipes. How does it all work? Bring your curiosity, questions, and walking shoes, as Jonathan Moyer and Oziah Wales perform a little “organ surgery!”

And this evening at 7:30 in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical Association presents the Akropolis Reed Quintet in works by Ravel & Gershwin, plus “selections from some of the most exciting voices of today.”

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

As part of The Unconscious, the next program in No Exit’s Surreality series, artists Leila Khoury and Kristen Newell have created a three-dimensional surrealist dreamscape at SPACES that will serve as an exhibit unto itself as well as a performing environment for the combined musicians of No Exit and Zeitgeist. The installation will be open to the public starting on November 10 and will run through December 15. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Saturday afternoon, Daniel Reith will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in a “sensory friendly” concert at Severance Music Center specially designed for attendees on the autism spectrum. Activities include an instrument petting zoo, coloring stations, and photo opportunities.

Also on Saturday afternoon, Les Délices (pictured) will celebrate the release of two CDs at Bottlehouse Brewery. The period instrument ensemble will also perform on the Music From the Western Reserve series in Hudson Sunday at 5.

Saturday evening includes a Baldwin Wallace alumna recital by soprano Jennifer Rowley, a Cleveland Jazz Orchestra performance at the Maltz featuring trumpeter and vocalist Bria Skonberg, an Oberlin Jazz Ensemble concert, a Canton Symphony Pops concert with the Labra Brothers, and the third of four performances of Britten’s Albert Herring by Oberlin Opera Theater (final performance on Sunday afternoon).

The Verona Quartet will play on the Wooster Chamber Music Series Sunday afternoon, and other performances include the Contemporary Youth Orchestra (with Tri-C Film Academy),  and vocalists and cellists on the Sounds of St. James series in Lakewood. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Four events at 7 pm: Cleveland Jazz Orchestra plays at BLU Jazz+ in Akron, The Gesualdo Six (pictured) from the U.K. sing at Christ Presbyterian in  Canton, Les Délices celebrates the release of two new CDs at Waterloo Arts & the Baldwin Wallace Symphonic Wind Ensemble plays Clint Needham’s “Liturgy” in Gamble Auditorium.

The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble performs in Warner Concert Hall  at 7:30, and at 8, Oberlin Opera Theater continues a four-performance run of Benjamin Britten’s comic opera, Albert Herring, in Hall Auditorium. Read a preview here.

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

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

The Gesualdo Six, founded at Cambridge University in 2014 for a performance of Carlo Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories in Trinity College Chapel, sings a 7 pm concert at Malone University in Canton, joined by the Malone University Chorale.

At 7:30 pm, the University Of Akron presents its annual Collage concert, showcasing students and faculty from its music, art, and dance departments in E.J. Thomas Hall.

And at 8 pm, Oberlin Opera Theater opens a four-performance run of Benjamin Britten’s comic opera, Albert Herring, in Hall Auditorium (pictured: Oberlin’s 2014 production with Daniel McGrew as Albert). Read a preview here.

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

INTERESTING READS:

Louis Armstrong Gets the Last Word on Louis Armstrong

“You can name a thousand great instrumentalists or you can name a thousand great vocalists, but he’s the only person you could find who changed the way people played their instruments and the way people sang. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At noon, organists Jonathan Moyer & Oziah Wales will play a Halloween program at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle. You can watch via livestream. For details, visit our Concert Listings.

Or enjoy a private, 3 hour and 52 minute concert of Halloween selections curated by the folks at Spotify.

INTERESTING READS:

About yesterday’s N.Y. Times review:

The online review of Apollo’s Singers’ performance of Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Jeannette Sorrell that we referenced in Monday’s Diary appeared in the paper’s print edition today. One small detail was still missing: any reference to Cleveland! [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Saturday at 5pm, the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club, Mark Stover, director, will join the Brass Choir from Firestone Community Learning Center, Akron in a concert at St. Paul’s Lutheran in Massillon.

Sunday will feature four orchestra concerts. The Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra will don costumes for a “Halloween Spooktacular” at Severance Music Center at 2 pm (pictured), the same hour when more than 40 musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra and friends will begin playing A Day of Music for Israel at Temple Tifereth Israel (music continues until 8 pm).

At 3:30 pm, Domenico Boyagian will lead the Suburban Symphony in music from the British Isles at Beechwood High School Auditorium, and at 4 pm, Steven Smith and Cleveland Chamber Symphony will perform Marta Ptaszyńska’s Flute Concerto with Sean Gabriel, Charles Ives’ Set for Theatre Orchestra, and Christopher Auerbach-Brown’s Constellation No. 6 – The Cicadas in Gamble Auditorium at Baldwin Wallace.

Also on Sunday at 4, members of BlueWater Chamber Orchestra (Andrea Belding & Nancy Patterson, violins, James Rhodes, viola & Kent Collier, cello), will play Arriaga, Gershwin & Mendelssohn at St. Noel in Willoughby Hills. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

On Friday at 12:15 noon, Sheryl Modlin, who usually plays the carillon at the Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights, will present a program of spooky music on the McGaffin Tower bells in University Circle. You can enjoy it in person, or online.

Also on Friday, Baldwin Wallace Opera will stage Handel’s Giulio Cesare at 8pm in the Helen Theatre in Playhouse Square.

And at midnight between Friday and Saturday in Finney Chapel, Oberlin organ majors will present the annual Halloween Edition of their celebrated Friday Night Organ Pump.

For details, visit our Concert Listings. [Read more…]