by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. June festivals! ENCORE and ChamberFest continue, Ohio Light Opera raises the curtain

. In the Almanac: impressions of Stravinsky at Severance and the White House, Gounod’s birthday gift to wind players, the birth of Juneteenth

THIS WEEKEND’S EVENTS:

ENCORE:

On Friday, June 17 at 6:00 pm, a Conversation features Brandon Chrostowski of  EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute. At 7:00 pm the Classics Series presents “Tales of Pleasure: Food & Desire,” including Svante Henryson’s Suite Off Pist, Derek Bermel’s Coming Together, Andrew Rindfleisch’s Night Singing, Paul Schoenfield’s Café Music and Bohuslav Jan Martinu’s La revue de cuisine. Read a preview article here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ENTRIES:

. Quire Cleveland on replay, Women’s Orchestra chooses third music director

. PianoCleveland opens applications for 2023 Young Artists competition & institute

. Royal Opera House head writes about sensitive solutions to offensive material

. And a Quiz!

TODAY’S EVENTS:

No live events show up on our radar for today, but you can tune in to WCLV’s Ovations at 8:00 pm to hear Quire Cleveland’s “Resonant Glory” concert from May 15 at Akron’s St. Sebastian Church (pictured). Jay White conducts, and is featured in an intermission interview with John Simna. Tune in to listen live on many platforms.

To check out concerts happening this week see our Concert Listings. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Two Opera premieres, cello and carillon music, a festival of experimental sounds, ENCORE returns to Gates Mills, choral settings of feminist psalms: a wide palette of performances is in the works these three days.

. Anniversaries of Delius, Richard Strauss, and an innovative Britten work in the Almanac.

THIS WEEKEND’S EVENTS:

At 12:15 pm on Friday it’s the McGaffin Carillon Concert & Live Stream: George Leggiero, carillonneur. An 18th century carillon prelude by Matthias van den Gheyn, two Songs Without Words by Mendelssohn & Beethoven’s Für Elise. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ENTRIES:

. Catalyst Quartet at the Aronson Cello Festival, Bristow’s Mass finally debuts

. Oberlin Global offers a continuing ed class, “The Racial Politics of Classical Music”

. Anniversaries of a German, a Czech, and a Pole in music history today

TODAY’S EVENTS:

Tonight at 7, the Lev Aronson Cello Festival features a recital by The Catalyst Quartet, Karla Donehew-Perez & Abi Fayette, violins, Paul Laraia, viola, Karlos Rodriguez, cello. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ENTRIES:

. Continuing: Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music. Launching: The Cleveland edition of the Lev Aronson Cello Festival with Haimovitz recital

. Birthday candles and listening suggestions for the anniversaries of Sir John Stainer, Aram Khachaturian, and Vincent Persichetti

TODAY’S EVENTS:

At 2:00 pm, tune into the radio broadcast, “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music” with host Eric Charnofsky. Today’s focus is on “Classical One-Hit Wonders and Their Neglected Gems,” including music by Pachelbel, Lehar, Dukas, Humperdinck, Satie, and Orff, as well as music by Aram Khachaturian in celebration of his 119th birthday. WRUW, Case Western Reserve University. Click here to listen to the internet feed.

At 7:00 pm the Lev Aronson Cello Festival — usually held in Dallas, this year in Cleveland — will present a recital by Matt Haimovitz (pictured), with pianist Elizabeth DeMio. The program in Mixon Hall of the Cleveland Institute of Music features works by female composers including a premiere, along with film clips by Emmy Award-winning storyteller Ty Kim. You’ll need tickets. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS WEEKEND’S EDITION:

.Three days packed with concerts sure to satisfy every classical musical taste

. Orchestra openings at Ohio Light Opera

. Training songs that make Music Theory and Aural Skills fun

. Anniversaries of entrances and exits by Daniel Pinkham, Martha Argerich, Victoria Bond, Louis Andriessen, Serge Koussevitzky, Orlando Gibbons, and Carl Maria von Weber [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

WELCOME TO JUNE and the beginning of Summer in our hemisphere, with much in the way of outdoor chores to accomplish, as illustrated, left, by the Limbourg brothers in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1416). June has also become the month of music festivals in Northeast Ohio. Today’s newsletter features articles about some that begin this week.

Month-long celebrations in the U.S. make June African-American Music Appreciation Month, as well as Great Outdoors Month, LGBTQ+ Awareness and Pride Month, and National Oceans Month (time to do something about all that plastic).

And June is National Smile Month in the U.K., whose subjects also happen to be marking the 70th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II  — a nice coincidence for the first time that any British monarch has celebrated a platinum jubilee.

In recognition of the occasion, the U.K. will create a four-day Jubilee bank holiday from June 2-5 to include a “once-in-a-generation show” that will “mix the best of British ceremonial splendour and pageantry with cutting-edge artistic and technological displays.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

.Cleveland Orchestra appoints Concertmaster

. Vocal music highlights this weekend’s concerts

. Thea Musgrave and Nikoli Sokoloff celebrate birthdays, and our suggestions of music for Memorial Day

THIS WEEKEND’S EVENTS:

A lot of vocal music and related activities are on hand this weekend. Check our Concert Listings page for program details and ticket information.

May 27 – Friday

At 10:30 am and 3:00 pm, the Art Song Festival will hold Master Classes with soprano Tamara Wilson and at 8:00 pm will present a recital by tenor David Portillo and pianist Craig Terry. All three events are in Mixon Hall at Cleveland Institute of Music. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Art Song Festival hosts a panel discussion about collaboration, two Bach cantatas in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel

. Almanac: Anniversaries of the debuts of two opera houses, and the birthday of soprano Beverly Sills

TODAY’S EVENTS:

At 1:00 pm the Art Song Festival will hold a Panel Discussion, “Let’s Talk About Collaboration!” led by pianist Warren Jones, including a Q&A. Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music.  Free registration recommended.

Then at 7:30 pm on Wednesday evening, Ben Johns will direct the Oberlin Chamber Singers & Chamber Orchestra in  J.S. Bach’s cantatas BWV 4, Christ lag in Todes Banden, & BWV 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme in Finney Chapel. Click here to view the program, and if you can’t attend in person, click here to access a live stream. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND:

On Friday at 7:30 and Saturday at 8,  The Cleveland Orchestra continues its Opera Festival with Vox Humana (works by Francis Poulenc, J.S. Bach, Galina Ustvolskaya, and Richard Strauss, with Franz Welser-Möst, conducting, Sarah Aristidou, soprano Tony Sias, narrator, and The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus.

Also on Saturday, at 7:30 Carl Topilow leads the Firelands Symphony Orchestra in Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, with Andrès Cárdenes, plus works by Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and John Williams at Sawmill Creek Convention Center, in Huron. Tickets available online.

And on Sunday at 3 pm, Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in the third and final performance of Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa.

Same day at the same hour, Cleveland Chamber Collective presents Music of America VIII, featuring works by Missy Mazzoli, Eric D. Gould, and Katherine Hoover, plus premieres of works by Ty Alan Emerson and Eric Charnofsky (Disciples Church in Cleveland Hts., free and live streamed here.)

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND ALMANAC:

On May 23, 1885, Paraguayan composer Agustín Barrios Mangoré was born in San Bautista de las Misiones. The Cleveland Classical Guitar Society presented Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas in a 2020 online concert devoted to his music, including special guests Paquito D’Rivera (clarinet), Milagros Caliva (bandoneon), and Marcelo Enrique Barrios (the composer’s great-grandson).

Add Edmund Rubbra, born in 1901 in Northampton, to the list of underperformed British composers who should receive more exposure. Harry Christophers talks about a new recording he’s made of Rubbra’s music with The Sixteen here.

Mark the birthday of Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha, born on this date in 1923 with a special tribute filmed on the 91st anniversary of that event.

Finally, take note of the birthday in New York of American experimental composer Robert Moog on May 23, 1934, with a two-part Pacific Radio interview conducted in his studio that covers the invention of the synthesizer named after him, and the music written for it.