by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, the Poiesis Quartet brings its Oberlin Commission Project: “Love Letters” to Warner Concert Hall. This evening of music by QTPOC (Queer/Trans People of Color) composers, features world premieres by Maya Irizarry Lambright, Calvin Ray Shawler, Zola Saadi-Klein, Daniel Lasagna, and Max Lang. Come early for a 7 pm pre-concert talk with violinist Sarah Ma and the five composers.

In Gartner Auditorium at the same hour, the Cleveland Museum of Art hosts jazz-meets-rock piano virtuoso Tigran Hamasyan, who fuses improvisation and progressive rock with the rich folkloric music of his native Armenia.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Mike Telin

March 11 is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to celebrating birthdays. There’s composer Henry Cowell (Menlo Park, California) in 1897, accordionist and orchestra leader Lawrence Welk (Strasburg, North Dakota) in 1903, composer Xavier Montsalvatge (Girona, Spain) in 1912, composer and bandleader Mercer Ellington (Washington D.C.) in 1919, and vocalist and conductor Bobby McFerrin (New York, N.Y.) in 1950.

But wait, there’s one more. Today we celebrate the birth of Astor Piazzolla in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 1921. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at 12 Noon, organist Andrew Johnson plays works by Hugo Distler, Dietrich Buxtehude, Vincent Persichetti, Louis Vierne, and Horatio Parker at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle.

And tonight at 7:30 pm, Daniel Sáñez, principal organist for the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Richmond, Virginia, plays a recital on the Helen D. Schubert Concert Series at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

NEWS BRIEFS:

R.I.P. Bernard Rands, 92

The Chicago-based, British American composer left a catalog of 100 works. His wife, Augusta Read Thomas, a prolific composer herself, survives him. Read the Violin Channel obituary here.

 

Hoopes to join CIM faculty

Violinist Chad Hoopes, an alum of the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Young Artist Program, will join the faculty of his alma mater as an associate professor of violin. Beginning in Fall 2026, he will take on a limited number of students as he maintains his studio at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Read more here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

Pablo de Sarasate, who was born on March 10, 1844, is known for his virtuosic and pure-toned violin playing, as well as the pieces he wrote to show it off. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

NEWS DIGEST:

Douglas McLennan, formerly an arts columnist and arts reporter with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Seattle Weekly, has begun summing up the latest news in his daily ArtsJournal Newsletter. A lot is happening all at once, and here’s what he has to say today:

“The Met Opera is the largest performing arts company in the country, and it is quietly desperate — box-office receipts down $20 million from a decade ago, deficits mounting, and no obvious fix in sight (The New York Times). The Boston Symphony, meanwhile, just fired its music director, and the postmortem is not gentle: Andris Nelsons is being held up as the cautionary symbol of the “overstretched, overtired, overindulged modern music director” (The New York Times). Big institutions, big problems.

“The Toronto Film Critics Association is effectively in freefall after an Indigenous filmmaker’s pro-Palestine acceptance speech was cut from a broadcast. She returned her trophy, the president resigned, and 16 members have quit — with more weighing it (The Hollywood Reporter). The Voice of America got better news: a federal judge ruled Kari Lake’s appointment invalid, potentially reinstating more than 1,000 journalists and restoring broadcasts to China, Russia, and Iran (The New York Times).

“And then there’s Timothée Chalamet, who declared that nobody cares about opera and ballet. Opera and ballet companies responded by posting sold-out notices and offering discount ticket codes in his name (NBC). Somebody cares.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

British-American composer Anna Clyne was born in London on this date in 1980. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS;

On Friday evening at 7:30, concertmaster Alan Choo takes Apollo’s Fire to Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles for works written for the court of the Sun King by Lully, Marais, and Rameau. The second and third of four performances take place on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm at St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Hts., and the fourth on Sunday at 4 at Rocky River Presbyterian Church..

On Friday at 7:30 at Severance Music Center, James Feddeck conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in Beethoven Lives Upstairs. The program, designed especially for ages 7-12, features a lively exchange of letters between young Christoph and his uncle about the “madman” who has moved into the upstairs apartment of Christoph’s Vienna home.

On Friday evening at 8, Oberlin Opera Theater raises the curtain on two one-act operas by John Musto, directed by Scott Skiba and conducted by Timothy Weiss. Later the Same Evening is set in a single evening in 1932 Manhattan and brings to life the characters and scenes from five Edward Hopper paintings. Bastianello wraps itself around an amusing series of encounters derived from several versions of an old Italian folk tale. Repeated on Saturday at 8 & Sunday at 2.

On Saturday at 2:30 in Warner Concert hall, the Oberlin Conservatory will present a memorial tribute for the late voice professor Daune Mahy, who taught there for 39 years. Details here.

On Saturday evening at 7:30, Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša, a frequent guest, returns to the Mandel Concert Hall podium at Severance Music Center to lead The Cleveland Orchestra in Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, Bohuslav Martinů’s Symphony No. 3, and Vítĕzslava Kaprálová’s Military Sinfonietta. Repeated Sunday at 3.

On Saturday at 7:30 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, Vietnamese-born classical guitarist An Tran, now based in Chicago, makes his Cleveland debut on the Cleveland Classical Society’s International Series. His program includes world premieres from his new recording, Illumina.

And on Sunday at 4:30 in Finney Chapel, organist James O’Donnell will play the annual David Boe Memorial Recital honoring the ninth Dean of the Conservatory, who taught at Oberlin from 1962 to 2008.

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

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

On March 6, 1967, Hungarian ethnomusicologist, educator and composer Zoltán Kodály passed away in Budapest. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša, a frequent guest, returns to the Mandel Concert Hall podium at Severance Music Center to lead The Cleveland Orchestra in Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, Bohuslav Martinů’s Symphony No. 3, and Vítĕzslava Kaprálová’s Military Sinfonietta. Repeated Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 3.

Tonight at 7:30, concertmaster Alan Choo takes Apollo’s Fire to Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles for works written for the court of the Sun King by Lully, Marais, and Rameau. The first of four performances is at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron, repeated on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Hts., and Sunday at 4 at Rocky River Presbyterian Church..

And tonight at 8 in Hall Auditorium, Oberlin Opera Theater raises the curtain on two one-act operas by John Musto, directed by Scott Skiba and conducted by Timothy Weiss. Later the Same Evening is set in a single evening in 1932 Manhattan and brings to life the characters and scenes from five Edward Hopper paintings. Bastianello wraps itself around an amusing series of encounters derived from several versions of an old Italian folk tale. Repeated Friday & Saturday at 8 & Sunday at 2.

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst will release a new spatial audio recording on April 17 celebrating their creative partnership with composer and flutist Allison Loggins-Hull. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 noon in Trinity Cathedral, Rosa Lee plays the Chinese zither, and at 6pm, the Cleveland Museum of Arts presents Will Dudley in an exploration of music for the kora in Toby’s Gallery for Contemporary Art.

ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

By Mike Telin

As we begin the gradual shift from winter into spring, we celebrate the birth of the composer whose name is synonymous with all four seasons. On this day in 1678 Antonio Vivaldi made his world debut in Venice, Italy.

Vivaldi’s page on London’s Classic FM highlights many fun facts about the red-haired composer, who was nicknamed il Prete Rosso (“The Red Priest”). Here are a few to ponder. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 Noon, organist Shiloh Roby (pictured), director of music at Trinity Cathedral, will play works by John Cook, Herbert Howells, David Briggs, Gerre Hancock, and Eugène Gigout on the Church of the Covenant’s Tuesday noon series.

And two chamber music events go head to head tonight at 7:30. At Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society presents the Leonkoro Quartet, while Tuesday Musical hosts the Marsalis-McAllister-Ames Trio (Branford Marsalis and Timothy McAllister, saxophones, and pianist Liz Ames) in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall. For details of this and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

Composer and pianist Margaret Bonds was born in Chicago on this date in 1913. On the performing side of her career, she made history as the first Black musician to solo with the Chicago Symphony when she performed John Alden Carpenter’s Concertino for Piano and Orchestra on June 15, 1933. [Read more…]

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…]