By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 9am, 2pm, and 7pm, 19 young contestants in the Cooper International Piano Competition will play 40-minute recitals in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory, to be webcast live. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni: George Li, winner of the 2010 inaugural competition with The Cleveland Orchestra.)

And from 2-4pm, Erik Charnofsky’s Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music airs from the studios of WRUW at Case. Featured music: Mara Gibson’s Folium cubed (soprano saxophone), Virgil Thomson’s Symphony on a Hymn Tune, Avner Dorman’s Mandolin Concerto, Jacques Hétu’s Trio for Oboe, Violin, and Piano, Jenny Beck’s Stand Still Here (piano) & Sylvius Leopold Weiss’s Partita in d (lute). Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information.

ADDITIONS TO THE CONCERT CALENDAR:

Stars in the Classics will hold two Summer Garden Concerts on August 20 & 24. Details here.

Akron’s Urban Troubadour has announced two new roving adventures. Click here for information. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN TODAY’S EDITION:

. Ohio Light Opera finales, three screenings of Part Two of Tolkien’s Ring trilogy at Blossom, more al fresco events in Canton & Akron

. All-Bach recital added to Oberlin Cooper agenda, Kent Blossom Festival student performances

. Almanac: anniversaries for J.S. Bach, Riccardo Muti, Sir John Barbirolli & George Szell

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

It’s the last call this weekend for tickets to Ohio Light Opera performances in Wooster. You can still catch H.M.S. Pinafore (Fri. at 2), Camelot (Fri. at 7:30), No, No, Nanette (Sat. at 2), & How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Sat. at 7:30). The season ends with Camelot on Sunday, July 30 at 2:00.

And have a look into the “Silver Age” of Viennese operetta with Daniel Hathaway’s interview with Emmerich Kálmán’s daughter Yvonne, who was in Wooster last week to see Arizona Lady.

J.R.R. Tolkien fans and Hobbit followers can watch three screenings of “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” Friday through Sunday at 7 at Blossom with very live performances of Howard Shore’s Grammy Award–winning score by The Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus, and Children’s Chorus, Ludwig Wicki, conducting. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

As its season winds down, Ohio Light Opera presents two final performances today in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster, with more to come through Sunday: at 2pm, Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, and at 7:30, Emmerich Kálmán’s Arizona Lady. We’ve reviewed the productions here and here, and Daniel Hathaway has interviewed Kálmán’s daughter Yvonne, who was in town to see her father’s western-themed operetta.

And at 7:30 pm, Kent Blossom Music Festival presents a concert in its Young Artist Series in Ludwig Recital Hall on the Kent State campus. Check out the KBFM full schedule here.

ALMANAC FOR JULY 27

On this date in 1741, Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi died in Vienna. He made his reputation in Venice, especially as music director for 30 years of the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for young women. He continued his career in Mantua, eventually migrating to Vienna in hopes of advancing his fortunes as an opera composer. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at 2pm, Ohio Light Opera gives its next-to-last performance of Frank Loesser’s How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster.

And tonight at 7:30 at Transformer Station in Hingetown, the Cleveland Museum of Arts’ City Stages presents the Toronto-based band Battle of Santiago (pictured), which “combines classic Afro-Cuban rhythms and vocals with a Canadian art-rock spirit and sensibility.”

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Oberlin Conservatory has added a  free, all-J.S. Bach piano recital by Ewa Poblocka to its Piano Festival on Saturday, July 29 at 8 in Warner Concert Hall. Details here. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Pinafore sets sail only twice more in Wooster, :beta collective performs at Cain Park

. Oberlin Cooper Competition Pianists named, Les Délices announces 15th season, Cleveland Orchestra invites subscriptions to Severance in Recital series

. Almanac recalls oboist de Lancie’s wartime visits to Richard Strauss

HAPPENING TODAY:

It’s the final production week of the summer for Ohio Light Opera. Today at 2pm the  curtain at Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster will rise on the next-to-last performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore or The Lass That Loved a Sailor.

And at 7pm, Local 4 Music Fund will present :beta collective (pictured: Chris Anderson,  trombone, Chris Coles, alto sax, tenor sax, vocoder, Brad Wagner, soprano sax, tenor sax, bass clarinet, Theron Brown, keys, melodica, Will Wedmedyk, vibraphone, Aidan Plank, bass, Anthony Taddeo, drums & DB, guitar, compositions & programming) in the Alma Theater at Cain Park. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Charnofsky’s playlist

. BlueWater season

. Almanac remembers Ernst Bloch (pictured)

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 2:00 pm – Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Eric Charnofsky, host. Featured music: Carlos Chavez’s Third Symphony, Johanna Selleck’s Spindrift (harp), Frank Bridge’s There is a willow grows aslant a Brook (viola/piano, arr. Benjamin Britten), Chen Yi’s Woodwind Quintet No. 3: Suite from China West, Hannah Lash’s Leander and Hero (woodwind quintet) & Ernest Bloch’s Visions and Prophecies (piano). Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

NEWS BRIEFS:

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra has announced their 2023-24 season. Click here for details. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Light operas, carillons, Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom

. Almanac notes invention of the metronome & quarter-tone pianos, the founding of Cleaveland & initiatives to perform all of J.S. Bach’s cantatas

HAPPENING THIS  WEEKEND:

Time is running out to catch one of the excellent Ohio Light Opera shows this summer. All six are running in repertory through July 30. Check out the calendar here and plan a road trip to Wooster for a matinee or evening performance.

It’s great weather for outdoor music, and what could be more al fresco than tower bells? On Friday, July 21 at 12:15, Keiran Cantilina, Church of the Covenant assistant carillonneur, will play “Music Old and New” on the Alexander McGaffin Carillon in University Circle, followed on Saturday at 6 by Katarzyna Takao-Piastowska, City Carillonneur of Emmerich am Rhein, Germany, who will play Polish music from the 16th & 19th centuries, and Polish Film and Cabaret music from the 20th century as well as American folk songs.

The Cleveland Orchestra performs twice this weekend at Blossom. On Saturday at 7, Kahchun Wong (read an interview here) conducts Yasushi Akutagawa’s Music for Symphony Orchestra, Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with Zlatomir Fung (pictured, read an interview here) & Debussy’s La mer. On Sunday at 7, Keith Lockhart conducts an innovative two-piano program featuring Jean-Yves Thibaudet & Michael Feinstein (who also does vocals) in music from the world of George Gershwin, including Rhapsody in Blue. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Orpheus in Hades in Wooster, Meridian Bros in Hingetown, Miami Quartet (pictured) in Kent

. Almanac remembers Peggy Stuart Coolidge & Will Marion Cook

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at 2, Ohio Light Opera descends into Hades with a matinee performance of Jacques Offenbach’s zany Orpheus in the Underworld in Wooster’s Freedlander Theatre.  At 7:30, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s City Stages series visits a variety of Latin music in a Transformer Station performance by Meridian Brothers, a five-piece band “with a strong psychedelic and experimental sensibility.”

Also at 7:30, the Miami Quartet makes its annual appearance on the Kent Blossom faculty series in Ludwig Recital Hall at Kent State with works by Schubert, Mendelssohn & Dvořák.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Charnofsky highlights Peter Schickele, IU memorializes André Watts

. Debut of Handel’s Water Music

HAPPENING TODAY:

Host Eric Charnofsky writes: “Music by Peter Schickele will highlight Monday’s edition (#505) of Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, in celebration of the composer’s 88th birthday! (and no, there will not be any PDQ Bach on the program this time). Other featured composers will include Beethoven, Verne Reynolds, Julius Benedict, and Gregg Wramage. Tune in Monday afternoon, 2-4 pm Eastern time, to 91.1 FM in Cleveland or the live stream link here:

R.I.P. ANDRÉ WATTS, 77

Pianist André Watts died of prostate cancer on Wednesday, July 12 at the age of 77. Read an obituary from The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where Watts taught beginning in 2004.

NEWS BRIEFS

Organizations that have recently released news of their 2023-2024 seasons include Apollo’s Fire and the Cleveland Museum of Art Fall Performing Arts Series. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. On the schedule: light opera, Piano Cleveland Young Artist finals, carillon concerts & Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom with Nikolai Lugansky (pictured)

. Women’s Orchestra appoints music director, New Ohio Arts Economic Relief Program grants, administrative staff cuts at CIM

Almanac: milestones for composers Unsuk Chin, Harrison Birtwistle & James MacMillan

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld — the show with the famous Can-Can and the sixth and final Ohio Light Opera production to open this summer hit the stage in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster on Thursday and repeats on Sunday at 2. OLO’s other shows running in repertoire this weekend: How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Saturday at 2), Arizona Lady (Friday at 2), No, No, Nanette (Friday at 7:30) and Camelot (Saturday at 7:30).

Six finalists in the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists will play concerto movements with conductor Steven Byess and the Canton Symphony in the Final Round on Friday at 7:30 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Witness these performances either live or online (tickets required). [Read more…]