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Oberlin Cooper Competition: six violinists play recitals (July 19)

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by Samantha Spaccasi with Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin-Cooper-BannerThe stakes were high on Wednesday evening in Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall as the Recital Round of the Cooper International Violin Competition began. Of the ten participants in the Concerto Round, six would move on to the next phase — the Recital Round — which would determine the three who will be heading to Severance Hall on Friday, June 21 to perform with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra. The concert, emceed by Robert Conrad, was broadcast live on WCLV 104.9 and wclv.org. [Read more…]

Oberlin Cooper Competition: ten violinists play concertos (July 18)

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by Samantha Spaccasi with Daniel Hathaway

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23 young violinists descended upon Oberlin this week for the 2017 Cooper International Violin Competition, which began on July 15. After three days of intense competition, only 10 of the musicians advanced to the July 18 Concerto Round in Warner Concert Hall, when each violinist performing full concertos with piano accompaniment in afternoon and evening sessions. [Read more…]

Black Squirrel Winds on Music from the Western Reserve series (March 12)

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by Robert Rollin

Black-Squirrell-Hudson-RehearsalOn Sunday afternoon, March 12 at Hudson’s Christ Episcopal Church, Music from the Western Reserve presented an exceptional concert of sextets by Kent State’s Black Squirrel Winds and guests. The group, named for the furry creatures inhabiting Kent’s grassy campus, consists of five talented wind players with genuine rapport. [Read more…]

Music from the Western Reserve to present KSU’s Black Squirrel Winds

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by Jeremy Reynolds

Black-Squirrel-Wind-Quintet“We all really enjoy French music,” said Black Squirrel Winds oboist Danna Sundet. “These pieces were written within a decade of each other, between 1923 and 1932, and give a snapshot into wind music in the first part of the 20th century.”

On Sunday, March 12 at 5:00 pm at Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson, Kent State University’s faculty wind quintet, the Black Squirrel Winds, will perform as part of Music From the Western Reserve’s concert series. The program will include music by Tansman, Janáček, and Poulenc.

Formed five years ago, Black Squirrel Winds regularly performs on Kent State’s main campus, the University’s satellite campuses, and at other colleges and high schools. [Read more…]

Andrew Sords & Elizabeth DeMio at St. John’s, Youngstown (Oct. 9)

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by Robert Rollin

Sords-at-TrinityOn Sunday afternoon, October 9, Youngstown’s St. John’s Episcopal Church played host to violinist Andrew Sords and pianist Elizabeth DeMio for an excellent recital of 19th- and 20th-century music. The two major works of the afternoon were Johannes Brahms’s Sonata No. 3 in d, Op. 108, and César Franck’s Sonata in A. Both received outstanding performances. [Read more…]

Kent/Blossom Festival’s last faculty concert of the season (July 29)

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by Carlyn Kessler

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On Wednesday, July 29, Kent/Blossom Music Festival welcomed audience members into Kent State University’s Ludwig Recital Hall to cool down with the final Faculty Concert Series program of the season. The evening of chamber music featured celebrated musicians performing works with refreshing, unusual instrumentations.

[Read more…]

Jeff & Nina Nelsen open Kent/Blossom series with delightful recital (July 1)

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by Daniel Hathaway

NelsensMusic for French horn, mezzo-soprano and piano isn’t an everyday flavor of chamber music, so if you happen to be Jeff Nelsen and you marry Nina Yoshida and decide to perform together, you have to undertake some exploring, some arranging, and some commissioning, to come up with enough repertoire to build a concert program. Last Wednesday evening, July 1, Jeff and Nina Nelsen, in cahoots with pianist Elizabeth DeMio, proved that a delightful evening of chamber music can result from unlikely ingredients — if the performers and the music are as excellent and committed as these were. [Read more…]

Hornist Jeff Nelsen to open Kent/Blossom faculty series on July 1

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by Daniel Hathaway

NELSEN-JeffWith an eclectic program that reflects his unbelievably varied background and range of activities, Canadian-born horn player Jeff Nelsen will be featured in the opening concert of this year’s Kent/Blossom Festival on Wednesday, July 1 at 7:30 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall on the Kent State University campus. Nelsen will share the stage with his wife, mezzo-soprano Nina Yoshida Nelsen, and pianist Elizabeth DeMio.

When I spoke with Nelsen by telephone with his biography in my hand, I confessed that I had no idea where to start in asking about his life and career. “Let’s start with the pig farming and move on!” he said. “Dad grew up on the farm in Alberta and got a grant to study voice in Toronto, where he met my mom. After singing opera and Broadway, they moved back to the farm, had my two older sisters and me, and kept singing.” [Read more…]

CD Review: Massimo La Rosa, trombone — Sempre Espressivo

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by Daniel Hathaway

LaRosaSempreThree years after releasing his CD, Cantando, Cleveland Orchestra principal trombone Massimo La Rosa has once again teamed up with pianist Elizabeth DeMio — and added four Cleveland Orchestra string colleagues — for a new solo album entitled Sempre Espressivo. Recorded in July, 2013 at Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Clonick Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory, the album was shepherded into production by the eminent team of Elaine Marton (Sonarc Music) and Thomas C. Moore (5/4 Productions) and engineered by 5/4’s Michael Bishop.

The playlist is an intriguing mix of music intentionally written for the trombone and arrangements of solo pieces originally conceived for other instruments. The original works are Frank Martin’s Ballade, Camille Saint-Saëns’s Cavatine and Ferdinand David’s Concertino. The arranged pieces are Puccini’s Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut and Antonio Carlos Gomes’s Grande Valsa de Bravura — both repurposed by Yury Leonovich — and La Rosa’s own adaptations of Wagner’s Träume (Wesendonck Lieder), Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Sinfonia in F and J.S. Bach’s first solo cello suite in G. [Read more…]

Review: Brahms’s Requiem on Good Friday at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland

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by J.D. Goddard

Trinity-Cathedral-ChoirOn Good Friday evening, March 29, led by music director Todd Wilson, the Trinity Cathedral Choir, pianists Elizabeth DeMio and Elizabeth Lenti, soprano Judith Overcash, baritone Zachary Rusk and baritone Ray Liddle joined forces to perform Johannes Brahms’s German Requiem.

In the nineteenth century it was not unusual for orchestral compositions to be arranged for piano, thus making in-home performances more readily available. Brahms completed his German Requiem in 1868, and immediately prepared a scaled down version of the work for piano four hands and chorus. It was actually premiered in a home in 1872.

This scaled-down piano version is not without interest, but those who are used to hearing the orchestral version may find it softened and somewhat bland. Though Brahms did not intend listeners to this non-liturgical requiem to shudder in fear for their souls, it is impossible not to feel a sense of guilt and veneration when lambasted by a massive chorus with full orchestra. Heard as it was this evening, this requiem became a gentler work but the intensity and emotional involvement of the singers made for a deeply religious experience. [Read more…]

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