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A Healing Return to the Stage for the Canton Symphony Orchestra

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by Tom Wachunas

Reasons to be cheerful: they’re back! The May 23 concert by the Canton Symphony Orchestra marked the first time in more than a year that the ensemble has performed live at Umstattd Performing Arts Hall. This occasion was certainly an important step on the road back to cultural “normalcy” as we recover from the dreadful pandemic shutdown.

For a May 21 article by Ed Balint in The Repository (Canton’s daily newspaper), CSO president and CEO Michelle Charles said of the concert, “That’s what we do, that’s what we love and that’s why we exist, to perform music live. You do take for granted how readily available (classical music) is until it’s not. So I think it’s going to be very emotional.” [Read more…]

Local 4 “Tuning In” with Cornelius and Charnofsky (Nov. 19)

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by Jarrett Hoffman

On November 19, violinist Emily Cornelius and pianist Eric Charnofsky were minutes into a live-streamed recital as part of the Local 4 Music Fund’s “Tuning In” series when technical issues arose. The duo stopped playing after someone off-screen said that Facebook had shut down the broadcast, and following a moment of confusion, the video stream on my computer indeed cut out.

That delay was odd, but apparently the problem was a mistaken concern from that ever-benevolent giant of social media companies about a copyright violation. Twenty minutes later, Cornelius and Charnofsky began once again, and the city of Cleveland crossed its fingers.

[Read more…]

Violinist Emily Cornelius on escaping the inescapable — performing in a pandemic

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by Stephanie Manning

In such an unpredictable year for musicians, Emily Cornelius feels overwhelmingly grateful to continue performing for others. From a small, socially distanced concert with the Canton Symphony to a recent guest concertmaster appearance with the Eric Philharmonic, the violinist considers herself lucky to have been staying busy these past few months. “Like most musicians, my work is really the center of my life—it’s not just a job, it’s who I am,” she said in a recent Zoom interview.

“To get to continue doing that in some form is enormous.” With her time in Erie now behind her, she is focusing on her next performance, a live streamed recital on November 19th sponsored by the Local 4 Music Fund.

The three composers and their pieces on the program are all well-known, but familiarity was the goal. She and her collaborator, pianist Eric Charnofsky, chose works “that would be personally challenging and satisfying for us to play and hopefully a joy for the audience to hear.” [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra at Plymouth Church (Feb. 1)

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by David Kulma

During Daniel Meyer’s short tenure as artistic director and conductor of BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, the ensemble has risen to a new level of quality. On Saturday, February 1 at Plymouth Church, Meyer and his ensemble performed an excellent program titled “A Classical Feast,” focusing on music from the late 18th century.

[Read more…]

BlueWater: chatting with violin soloists Ken Johnston and Emily Cornelius

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Two founding members of BlueWater Chamber Orchestra will partner as soloists this weekend, when conductor Daniel Meyer and the ensemble perform “A Classical Feast” at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights on Saturday, February 1 at 7:30 pm.

Concertmaster Ken Johnston and principal second violin Emily Cornelius will play the Op. 13 Symphonie Concertante in G by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who is remembered as the first known classical composer of African origin. One of his contemporaries was Mozart, whose Symphony No. 40 in g closes Saturday’s program. And in between those two works, soprano Laura Pedersen will be featured in Beethoven’s concert aria Ah, Perfido! Tickets are available online.

Johnston and Cornelius have known each other for at least ten years — BlueWater celebrates its own decade in 2020 — but this will be their first time appearing together as soloists. “At this point, she and I are old friends,” Johnston said by telephone last week. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for her musicianship. I think we share the same sense of humor in a lot of ways, and that comes across.”

[Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra at The Temple-Tifereth Israel (Sep. 15)

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by Robert Rollin

Last Sunday afternoon, September 15, the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, under conductor and artistic director Daniel Meyer, opened its season with an imaginatively varied concert at The Temple-Tifereth Israel. Amitai Vardi was featured in Srul Irving Glick’s The Klezmer’s Wedding, a delightful one-movement piece for clarinet and string orchestra.

[Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra at Plymouth Church (Feb. 2)

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by Nicholas Stevens

Variety can be the salvation or the undoing of a concert. A century and a half ago, most Americans would have heard what we now think of as the bedrock repertoire of the classical tradition in bewildering shows that often included comedy and drama as well. In recent decades, however, even diversity of historical period and musical style — let alone type of entertainment — has become optional, rather than expected. In a recent concert led by Daniel Meyer, BlueWater Chamber Orchestra successfully embraced stylistic pluralism, mixing new music and a rarity with standard audience favorites.

[Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra with Chang & Neubert (Nov. 10)

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by Nicholas Stevens

That time of year has come: lawns turn white with snow as day arrives late, puddles freeze over when night comes early, and Northeast Ohioans glance outside with the knowledge that this is only the beginning. In this season, when the world outside seems to reject us with what feels like personal hostility, it takes real incentives to lure listeners to concert halls. Fortunately, the area offers many such tempting opportunities, and last weekend, a program by BlueWater Chamber Orchestra made the trip outside well worth it. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra at the Breen Center (Sept. 16)

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by Nicholas Stevens

Sometimes, the concerts that a music-lover remembers best revolve around isolated points of interest: a moving phrase here, a glowing chord there, the consistent verve of one player over the course of an evening. However, some performances contain such long successions of bright points that a pattern forms, and the entire experience becomes one protracted highlight. When the musicians of BlueWater Chamber Orchestra opened their ninth season last weekend, it became difficult to miss the forest for the trees: delightful moments kept arriving. [Read more…]

String Orchestras: Earth and Air at St. Paul’s (Nov. 4), & BlueWater Chamber Orchestra at Pilgrim (Nov. 6)

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by Mike Telin

earthandairWhen we think of the works of Felix Mendelssohn, a few that immediately come to mind are his Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the “Italian Symphony,” and the Violin Concerto, as well as several pieces of chamber music. On Friday, November 4 in Tucker Hall at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, the talented Earth and Air: String Orchestra, under the direction of David B. Ellis, led a program of lesser-known but equally engaging works by the composer titled “Mendelssohn String Symphonies — Part I.” The evening included three works which the composer wrote between the ages of 12 and 14. [Read more…]

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