by Daniel Hathaway

CONCERTS THIS WEEKEND:

The calendar’s loaded this weekend —but there’s one cancellation: the Saturday concert at Oberlin by the Verona Quartet will be rescheduled, new date to be announced.

On Saturday, the MET Opera broadcasts Terrence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones live in HD to area theaters at 12:55 pm, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society presents Turkish artist Celil Refik Kaya at 7:30 pm in Shaker Heights, Apollo’s Fire continues its Vivaldi peregrinations with an 8:00 pm performance at Bath Church, The Cleveland Orchestra plays Josef Strauss, George Walker, and Erich Korngold at Severance at 8:00 pm, and No Exit hosts the Ogni Suono saxophone duo at 8:00 pm at Spaces.

A mere seven events to choose from on Sunday. At 3:00 pm, the Warren Philharmonic with guitarist Jason Vieaux, at 4:00 pm, Apollo’s Fire at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cavani Quartet at Bop Stop, organist Peter Richard Conte improvising a score to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown, the University of Akron Concert Choir in Fairlawn, and Westwinds in Rocky River. The day ends with a new event at Oberlin — a 7:30 performance by voice majors of Russian and Czech songs in Warner Concert Hall, the fruits of their Winter Term Project.

Details in our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink, 92, longtime music director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, who also led orchestras in London, Chicago, and Boston, died at his home in London on Thursday. Read a New York Times obituary by Vivien Schweitzer here.

Following up on earlier stories, the University of Michigan has dropped its investigation of composition professor Bright Sheng. Some students in his seminar had declared Sheng a racist after he showed a 1965 film of Shakespeare’s Othello where Sir Laurence Olivier appeared in blackface.

And St. John’s College at Cambridge University has announced its plans to admit girls and women to its formerly all-male chapel choir of men and boys. “John’s,” founded in 1511, is the famous choral rival of “King’s,” founded in 1441 and located just down the road. Read a Musical America story here.

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

There’s a long list of births and deaths to mark this weekend, but let’s choose just two composers who have come to mind recently.

English Renaissance composer Thomas Weelkes was born on October 24 in 1575. One of the most brilliant madrigalists of the era of Elizabeth I, his name appeared recently in the playlist of VOCES8, who sang his As Vesta was from Latmos Hill Descending on the Tuesday Musical Series.

That was one of 25 part-songs by 23 composers published in 1601 by Thomas Morley in The Triumphs of Oriana, apparently a tribute to “The Virgin Queen,” though its connection to Elizabeth has been disputed. In any case, the collection marshals the talents of British composers in its depiction of an idealized England where nymphs and shepherds cavort in the countryside. Each madrigal ends with the refrain, ““Thus sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana: long live fair Oriana.”

Click here to listen to the entire collection, with some interpolated dance pieces, performed by the British ensemble i Fagiolini.

Centuries and worlds away, composer Sofia Gubaidulina was born on October 24, 1931 in the Tatar region of Russia. The New York Times took notice of the celebrations planned for her 90th birthday on Sunday in an article published online this week. Click here to read At 90, a Composer Is Still Sending Out Blasts. And click here to listen to Gidon Kremer play her Offertorium — Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, with Charles Dutoit and the Boston Symphony. “…the moving piece established Gubaidulina’s international reputation as something of a spiritualist.”

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

The Fine Arts Association of Willoughby presents a violacentric guest recital by Katrin Meidell (pictured), joined by her compatriot Melissa Lund Ziegler. Max Reger and J.S. Bach are the well-known composers, but there’s also music by Sarah Dubois, Scott Slapin, and Shawn Renzoh Head.

Apollo’s Fire is taking its eminently portable all-Vivaldi program to Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and guest conductor Kenneth Bean and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble are in charge of tonight’s Fridays@Finney concert, performing recent works by Jessie Montgomery and David Ludwig, and a not-so-recent, 1916 Chamber Symphony by the difficult-to-classify Austrian composer Franz Schreker.

Details in our Concert Listings.

THOM MOORE UPDATE:

Yesterday’s Plain Dealer published an appreciation by Zachary Lewis of the late oboist and recording producer Thom Moore that referred readers to a Facebook page on which friends and colleagues are posting tributes, and announced plans for an early December  concert in his honor, details to be posted here.

CIPC WINNER TAKES THIRD AT CHOPIN:

Spanish pianist Martin Garcia Garcia, who won the Cleveland International Piano Competition last summer, has now claimed third prize at the 18th Chopin International Competition in Warsaw, as well as the Warsaw Philharmonic Prize for the best performance of a concerto. Watch a video of his final round performance of Chopin’s f-minor Concerto on October 19 here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

There are several Boston Symphony-related events to mark on this date in history: the Orchestra’s first concert at the Old Boston Music Hall in 1881 conducted by Sir George Henschel, the concert in New York in 1969 when 25-year-old Michael Tilson Thomas took over on the first of many occasions for the ailing William Steinberg, and the birth of German conductor Karl Muck in 1959, who became involved in a scandal that became a political flashpoint for BSO during World War I (read a New England Historical Society story here.)

Continuing with Orchestral history, Leopold Damrosch, who founded the New York Oratorio Society in 1874 and the New York Symphony Society (now the New York Philharmonic) in 1878, was born in Poznan, Prussica in 1832.

And moving to Opera history, the original Metropolitan Opera House opened on this date in 1883 with Gounod’s Faust. A hundred years later, the MET celebrated its 100th birthday on this date with a daylong concert featuring such headliners as Joan Sutherland, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti. Visit the playlist on YouTube here.

While we can happily take note of the birth of piano virtuoso and composer Ferenc Liszt in 1811, we also have to bid adieu to Spanish cellist and conductor Pablo Casals (1973), and French conductor and pedagogue Nadia Boulanger (1979).

Backing up to the 18th century, there’s one bizarre death to report: French violinist and composer Jean-Marie Leclair who was allegedly murdered by his jealous violinist nephew, Guillaume-François Vial, as he entered his Paris apartment in the dangerous Marais neighborhood. No-one was ever tried for the crime.

In tribute, click here to enjoy all three hours and 19 minutes of Leclair’s complete violin concertos as performed on period instruments by Igor Ruhadze and the Ensemble Violini Capricciosi.

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S AGENDA:

Apollo’s Fire takes its Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Rediscovered program to St. Raphael Church in Bay Village, Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra in music by George Walker (pictured) and Erich Korngold at Severance (repeated on Saturday), and Oberlin’s Luce Initiative for Asian Studies and the Environment screens The Awakened Steppe — Traditional and Contemporary Music from Mongolia in Stull Recital Hall at the Conservatory.

Details in our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING  READ:

Remember Tom Lehrer, the Harvard and MIT math teacher whose night job as a satirical singer-pianist delighted many (and angered some) in the 50s and 60s? He lives on at the age of 93 in Denmark, as Jeremy Bernstein reports in his article in The London Review of Books. The author enjoys the distinction of having been in the audience both for Lehrer’s debut in 1949 and his final public performance in 1972. “By the 1970s he had had enough. He said that ‘political satire became obsolete’ after Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize.” Read They’re Playing Our Song here, and here for the lyrics to all of his songs, which Lehrer has released into the public domain through December 31, 2024.

NEWS FROM CIM:

The Cleveland Institute of Music has announced a new Artist Diploma program “designed to launch recent CIM alumni into professional orchestral performance careers. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of noted Cleveland philanthropist Barbara Robinson, the inaugural Fellows – CIM alumni Caleb Cox, viola, and Grace Roepke, harp – are recipients of the Robinson Orchestral Career Fellowship.” Read the press release here.

SAVE THE DATES:

Akron’s Urban Troubadour announces the resumption of its roving concert experiences beginning in the spring with Piazzola’s 100th Birthday Bash on March 13. Click here to check out what else Jane Berkner has planned for the first half of 2022. There are videos of past events to enjoy as well.

And Cleveland Opera Theater and Baldwin Wallace Opera director Scott Skiba writes to alert us to three upcoming events: Operas in Place, nine newly commissioned Micro Operas, available on Demand on December 1, 2, and 3, the world premiere of Griffin Candey’s La casa de Bernarda Alba on February 3, 4, 5, and 6 in the Kleist Center at Baldwin Wallace, and Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro on March 24, 25, 26, and 27 in BW’s Gamble Auditorium.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Raise a glass today for the births of conductors Alexander Schneider and Sir Georg Solti, and the first performances — also births if you will — of works by Aaron Copland, Gian Carlo Menotti, and Scott Joplin. [Read more…]

by Jarrett Hoffman

SAVE THE DATE:

Pianist Evgeny Kissin will visit Cleveland for a solo recital on April 24, 2022 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center. The program of music by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Mozart will mark his first performance at Severance since soloing in Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy in March 1997.

Tickets go on sale October 25, with a limited number of on-stage seats available, and pre-sale for Cleveland Orchestra subscribers and donors is already underway as of yesterday.

INTERESTING READS:

The New York Times shared an important pair of profiles yesterday and today: conductor Eun Sun Kim (music director of San Francisco Opera, and both the first woman and first Asian to hold that post in one of the country’s largest opera companies), and composer Sofia Gubaidulina (before her 90th birthday this Sunday).

And writing for The New Yorker, Paul McCartney himself shares the history of how The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby came to be — and how the band did as well. “All these small coincidences had to happen to make the Beatles happen, and it does feel like some kind of magic.” Read here.

IN MEMORIAM:

Producer, recording editor, and oboist Thom Moore passed away of cancer on October 16. Moore was a founding member and the president of Five/Four Productions, and was previously the producer and senior recording editor for Telarc International, during which time he won four Grammy Awards.

He studied oboe at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and over the years was principal oboe in such ensembles as Red {an orchestra}, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Trinity Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Ballet, Cleveland Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra, in addition to performances with The Cleveland Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.

Donations in his memory can be made to the Kaboom Collective, aimed at immersing musicians ages 15-25 into many different sides of the arts and entertainment industry.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

We start with the name of Charles Ives — born on October 20, 1874 in Danbury, Connecticut — but linger there only briefly. (Read our almanac from last year for a deep Ives dive.) Instead we’ll focus on another American composer born on this same date three years later in Louisville, Kentucky who was also an authority on folk music, in her case of the Southern Appalachians.

That would be Josephine McGill, whose book Folk-Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, originally published in 1917, contains ballads and other English folk songs “notated from the singing of the Kentucky Mountain People” after her visits to Knott and Letcher Counties, and arranged with piano accompaniment by McGill herself.

Thanks to the digital offerings of the library of the University of Kentucky, the entire book is accessible for free. Warm up your vocal cords and dig in for some sight-singing — but please, first lock yourself in a sound-proof room. (And that’s not a commentary about the quality of the music.)

After thumbing through the book, focusing in particular on the ballads, which McGill notes are particularly valuable from a literary perspective, I discovered at least one gem: The Greenwood Side, also known as The Cruel Mother, on page 83. It jumped off the page with its dark lyrics (a mother kills her illegitimate children before meeting their ghosts) and its tune, both mournful and slightly bouncy in 6/8 time. 

[Read more…]

by Mike Telin

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:00 pm, Tuesday Noon Organ Plus Concerts will feature James Kealey (Rochester, NY) in a program featuring both The Newberry and Chancel Organs. The playlist includes J.S. Bach’s Prelude & Fugue in G, BWV 550 & Cecilia McDowall’s Church bells beyond the stars. César Franck’s Pièce Héroïque, Calvin Hampton’s Lullaby (Suite II) and Louis Vierne’s Final (Symphony No. 6, Op. 59). Church of the Covenant, 11205 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Freewill offering.

At 7:30 pm the Dana Symphony Orchestra will perform works by Chris Pilsner, Kenji Bunch, Johan Halvorsen & Florence Price. Powers Auditorium, De Yor Performing Arts Center, Federal Plaza West, Youngstown. Tickets available online.

Also at 7:30 pm, Tuesday Musical launches its new season with VOCES8, U.K. a cappella ensemble (pictured). Presented in cooperation with the University of Akron’s Kulas Concert Series, “Choral Dances: from Bach to Irving Berlin,” includes Byrd’s Sing Joyfully, Britten’s Choral Dances from Gloriana, Nat King Cole’s Straighten Up and Fly Right, Irving Berlin’s Cheek to Cheek, Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson, Rachmaninoff’s Bogoroditse Devo, Jake Runestad’s Let My Love Be Heard, Palestrina’s Magnificat Primi Toni, J.S. Bach’s Bourée (arr. Swingle), Thomas Weelkes’ As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending, Orlando di Lasso’s Dessus la Marche D’Arras, Jerome Kern’s I Won’t Dance and Van Morrison’s Moondance E.J. Thomas Hall, University of Akron, 198 Hill St. Tickets available online. Click here to read our preview article.

Today we thought we’d revisit Jarrett Hoffman’s Daily Diary contribution from last year. It’s an interesting piece that’s well worth another look.  

MUSICAL SCULPTURES:

Four hundred years after his birth on this date in 1605, English polymath Thomas Browne was commemorated by his adopted home city of Norwich with a series of sculptures commissioned in his honor. One of those was a large, marble brain — perfect as a representation of that famous thinker, but also as a resting spot for pigeons, who apparently can be seen drinking rainwater from its folds.

That got me wondering about other fun sculptures — especially ones that are right out in the open, and that are related to music. Locally, among all the beautiful statues in the Cultural Gardens is Romanian composer George Enescu. Then there’s the ROCK BOX, a collection of loudspeakers along E. 9th St. that play music from Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees. [Read more…]

by Jarrett Hoffman

HAPPENING TODAY at 7:30 pm, the latest episode of Les Délices’ SalonEra brings together bassoonist Catalina Guevara Víquez Klein, violinist Karin Cuellar Rendon, and soprano Raquel Winnica Young to explore the legacy of “The Phoenix of Mexico,” Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695), as well as their own personal connections to that poet, composer, and protofeminist.

The program includes music by de la Cruz, Rafael Castellanos, Antonio Durán de la Mota, and Andrés Flores. Read a preview article by Mike Telin here, and register here to view online.

If you didn’t get a chance to celebrate HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH, which lasted from September 15 to October 15, that program from Les Délices is an excellent way to do so, with its mix of works by composers from Mexico, Guatemala, and Bolivia.

Another recommendation on that front: the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s Creative Fusion series, presented this past summer in partnership with the Mexican Committee of Cleveland.

Among the three artists-in-residence, guitarist and composer Hermelindo Ruiz used his platform to shine a spotlight on fellow Puerto Rican composer Juan Felix Acosta De Arce (Ojos de Ensueño), to highlight the Puerto Rican genre of Danza (To Soar Beyond), and to musically address the feeling of being part of, yet separate from, mainstream American culture (Music for Interaction).

The latter piece, which Ruiz wrote for CCGS Education Program students, involves not only performance and improvisation, but also spoken word as students and parents share memories and emotions around their Puerto Rican heritage (screenshots above).

And guitarist, composer, and singer Anastasia Sonaranda portrayed the diversity of cultural and musical styles from her native Mexico. Her four videos represent the styles of “son jalisciense” (Son de la Negra), “son huasteco” (Cuyahoga Weeping) “son istmeño” (La Llorona) and “son jarocho” (El Cascabel). She also brought in other art forms — choreography and poetry — to approach those styles in different ways.

Read more about the Creative Fusion videos here, and watch them all here.

Along the lines of both Sonaranda and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, check out these graphics from the Boulanger Initiative to learn more about other women composers of Hispanic heritage: Narcisa Freixas, María Grever, Rocío Sanz Quirós, Maria Teresa Prieto, Pauline Viardot, and Teresa Carreño (thanks to the Akron Symphony for sharing).

Finally, an article from NPR addresses the name of this month-long celebration. “What’s the harm in lumping together roughly 62 million people with complex identities under a single umbrella?” Vanessa Romo writes. “Is a blanket pan-ethnic term necessary to unite and reflect a shared culture that is still largely (infuriatingly) excluded from mainstream popular culture? Or the more basic question: ¿Por que Hispanic?”

Moving from international to LOCAL NEWS items, nominations are being accepted here until January 6 for the sixth annual Music Educator of the Year Award, sponsored by the Canton Symphony.

A new podcast from the Bop Stop and Gilazar Media, Jazz and Conversation, is now available. Click here to sit down virtually with saxophonist Bobby Selvaggio and guitarist Dan Wilson as they discuss musical influences, touring with a family, and Wilson’s new album Vessels of Wood and Earth, with live music interspersed throughout the episode.

And for anyone interested in classical musicians branching out into other genres, Cleveland Chamber Choir alto Moriah Sprit (below) recently collaborated with Ravenna-based electronic pop-rock band Circadia in their cover of Run Wild, originally by For King & Country. Watch the music video here.

In TODAY’S ALMANAC, wish a happy birthday to New Orleans-born trumpeter, composer, educator, and Jazz at Lincoln center artistic director Wynton Marsalis, who turns 60, and whose oratorio Blood on the Fields was the first jazz work to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Turning 75 is Canadian composer Howard Shore, a three-time Academy Award winner for his scores to the film trilogy of The Lord of the Rings.

We also honor the passing of French composer Charles Gounod, who passed away on October 18, 1893, and who is most famous for his twelve operas, including the popular Faust.

And of American songwriter Gussie Lord Davis, who died on this date in 1899. Born in Dayton, Davis went on to become the first Black songwriter to reach fame in New York’s Tin Pan Alley scene.

by Daniel Hathaway

EVENTS THIS WEEKEND:

Saturday is the 400th anniversary of the death of Dutch composer and organist Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck (read more in the Almanac below), an occasion to be marked by a 4:30 pm Oberlin historical keyboard faculty and guest recital in Fairchild Chapel. The recital is part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the John Brombaugh meantone organ. See the detailed program and connect to a live stream here. (The Dutch government has honored the composer on a 25 guilder banknote, above.)

Also happening on Saturday: Carousel with the Chagrin Valley Studio Orchestra (repeated on Sunday), and the first of two Cleveland Philharmonic concerts in Westlake (the second is on Sunday at Cleveland State University).

Sunday is busy. Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra with cellist Alisa Weilerstein performing a Joan Tower concerto, and Joela Jones, the Orchestra’s keyboard principal playing her last concert before retiring. Harmonia features East European folk music at the Maltz PAC. The Parma and Suburban Symphonies play fall concerts in Parma Heights and Beachwood. And Dallas Symphony organist Scott Dettra solos with the Youngstown Symphony at Stambaugh Auditorium.

Details in our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Expanding on its earlier article about travel visa problems experienced by the Danish Quartet, today’s New York Times print edition chronicled recent cancellations by conductor Thomas Dausgaard, pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, Russian singers in the Met Opera’s Boris Godunov, and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (a 10-city tour), as well as some cliff-hanger situations involving such artists as Lang Lang.

“Even in normal times, it can be difficult for visiting artists to obtain the visas they need to perform in the United States. Now they face even longer lines and staff shortages at American embassies and consulates around the world. The earliest available appointments for visa interviews in some cities are for next spring, months after some artists have scheduled performances.” Read the article here.

Another Times article that appears in print today follows up on the recent controversy involving University of Michigan distinguished composition professor Bright Sheng. Read Jennifer Schleussler’s A Blackface ‘Othello’ Shocks, and a Professor Steps Back From Class here, and a Times opinion piece, What I See in the Latest Blackface ‘Scandal,’ by John McWhorter here.

The Oberlin Conservatory is beginning a multi-year partnership with the Detroit Chamber Winds and Detroit’s Carr Center to commission composers to “explore the African diaspora through the lens of contemporary American chamber music.” Resonate will result in performances of works by Courtney Bryan, Michael Frazier, Adolphus Hailstork, Nathalie Joachim, George Lewis, Patrice Rushen, and Pamela Z. at the participating institutions, including Bowling Green State University College of Musical Arts, the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, the Michigan State University College of Music, and Western Michigan University School of Music. Read a story by Cathy Parlow Strauss here.

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

On October 16 1621, Dutch organist and composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck died in Amsterdam, where he spent his entire career, although his fame spread elsewhere. He was known in Germany for his mentoring of young organists and in England for his keyboard compositions, which found their way into the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. (A modern edition of this vast collection of keyboard music was co-edited by British musicologist William Barclay Squire, who was born on October 16, 1855.) [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

EVENTS TODAY:

The Astralis Chamber Ensemble plays a program of music by Arthur Foote, Philip Glass, Jacques Castérède, Paul Patterson and Jacques Ibert at Messiah Lutheran Church in Fairview Park tonight at 7, and at 7:30, the Chagrin Valley Studio Orchestra moves to Chagrin Valley Little Theatre to continue its run of Carousel performances.

Also at 7:30, Oberlin Conservatory begins a Fridays @ Finney series featuring its large ensembles in a new rotation plan. The first program brings the Oberlin Orchestra (pictured) and Contemporary Music Ensemble to the Finney Chapel stage for a program of recent music conducted by Rafael Jiménez and Timothy Weiss.

As Erich Burnett writes on the Conservatory website, at the heart of the change is “an emphasis on more — and more diverse — repertoire, greater flexibility in terms of ensemble sizes, and increased performance opportunities for students,” as well as “an intentional shift in repertoire selection to be less reliant on works from the traditionally recognized Western canon and more focused on newer works by composers of wide-ranging cultural backgrounds and experiences.” Attend in person (it’s free) or watch the live stream.

Details in our Concert Listings.

APOLLO’S FIRE IN NYC:

Jeannette Sorrell will lead Apollo’s Fire and Singers in four performances of Handel’s Messiah with members of the New York Philharmonic on December 14, 15, 17, and 18 at Riverside Church in New York City. Popular soprano Amanda Forsythe is among the soloists. Planning a visit? Click here for ticket details.

INTERESTING READ:

The pandemic has upset travel plans for countless musicians, among them the Danish String Quartet. Read a story in the Los Angeles Times about the ensemble’s recent harrowing experiences in obtaining the necessary P1 visa to tour the West Coast this month. The quartet, who visit the U.S. three or four times each year, is scheduled to perform on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series in January, by which time (fingers crossed!) things should be operating more smoothly.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Exactly one year ago, the strings of The Cleveland Orchestra donned face masks and took their places behind widely-spaced individual music stands on the Severance Hall stage in a pre-recorded concert distributed on the Orchestra’s Adella streaming platform. Last night, the Orchestra gave their first in-person performance in the newly-named Mandel Hall since the pandemic shut public concerts down. Another step toward normality.

Speaking of concert halls, two celebrated performance venues opened their doors on October 15: Boston Symphony Hall in 1900, and the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco in 1932, the first municipally-owned opera house in the country. When San Francisco audiences return, they’ll be more comfortable, the management having replaced the original seats with more spacious ones to accommodate the bodies of 21st-century patrons.

Organists should take note of the birth on this date in 1868 of Hamilton C. MacDougall, who founded the American Guild of Organists in 1896 while teaching at Wellesley College from 1900-1925. With some 275 chapters and 12,000 members throughout the United States and abroad, the AGO has recently invested its energies into the recruitment and training of young musicians. Click here to watch Oberlin graduate Katelyn Emerson’s video A Reason to Practice, which she wrote, recorded, and produced for the American Guild of Organists’ Virtual Pipe Organ Encounter 2021.

Fans of new music in Latin America should celebrate the debut of Puerto Rican composer Rafael Apont-Ledée, born on this date in 1938. He studied in Madrid, and moved on to Buenos Aires to work with Alberto Ginastera before returning to his native Caribbean Island in 1965 to become one of the leaders in the new music movement of the 1960s. Listen to a compilation of four of his works here.

And on this date in 1964, Broadway mourned the final curtain call of composer and lyricist Cole Porter, who created both book and music for more than 20 musicals — mostly in the 1930s, but his late career hit, Kiss Me, Kate revived the popularity of a composer renowned for his witty, urbane lyrics. During his undergraduate days at Yale, Porter wrote some 300 songs, one of which is sung here by the Whiffenpoofs, of which he was a member.

by Mike Telin

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:30 pm with a program titled “New Beginnings,” Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra will return in full force to Severance Music Center for the first time since March 2020. The evening will include Richard Strauss’ Macbeth, Joan Tower’s A New Day (for cello and orchestra) with Alisa Weilerstein, and Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. Tickets are available online. Click here for COVID-19 protocols.

This week’s concerts will mark the final performances by Joela Jones (hands pictured above) as the Orchestra’s principal keyboard. Jones, whose tenure has spanned 54 seasons, will be presented tonight with the Orchestra’s 25th Distinguished Service Award. Click here to read an interview with Jones and here for an interview with Alisa Weilerstein.

At 8:00 pm – BW Opera presents the fourth and final performance of Handel’s Alcina directed by Scott Skiba. The outdoor performance will be held on the steps of the Boesel Musical Arts Center at Baldwin Wallace University, 49 Seminary St. in Berea. Food trucks will be available. Free general admission for the lawn and street (bring your own chairs or blankets, first come, first served), and 50 reserved seats are available at $25 (click here).

IN THE NEWS:

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra announced on Wednesday that it had chosen Nathalie Stutzmann, a conductor and singer from France, as its next music director. Stutzmann, 56, will be only the second woman in history to lead a top-tier American orchestra when she takes the podium in Atlanta next year. Read the New York Times article here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC: 

Today marks the passing of American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, who died on this date in 1990 of a heart attack in his New York apartment at The Dakota. He was 72 years old.

Unfortunately for Northeast Ohio audiences, his sole appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra was a 1970 performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony at Blossom.

In our August 25, 2020 Diary, Daniel Hathaway honored Bernstein’s birth by going behind the scenes for a look at “Lenny” in rehearsal — a process even more revealing than a resulting performance.

Hathaway wrote: “I had the honor of studying with Bernstein in the conducting class at Tanglewood in the early ‘70s, and of singing in Mahler 2 with the Harvard-Radcliffe Choruses and the Boston Symphony on a radiant summer afternoon during that time.” Click here to watch Bernstein rehearse Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring during the 1987 International Conductor’s Competition and Master Course at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany. And in a separate clip, he takes the triangle players in Berlioz’ Roméo et Juliette aside for a brief tutorial.”

September 8 marked the 50th anniversary of the world premiere of Bernstein’s MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers commissioned for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the nation’s capital in 1971. Click here to read more about the work.

Click here to watch Bernstein lead the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in his Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story.”