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CityMusic Cleveland: “Symphonie Concertante” (Sept. 21)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

The concert by CityMusic Cleveland on Thursday, September 21 in Fairmount Presbyterian Church was a reminder of two things: that there is an abundance of appealing music yet to be heard or played out, and there are exceptional performers in Cleveland ready to play it. The consistently splendid CityMusic (now in its twentieth year) maintained its high standard with a program of infrequently heard works by George Walker, Joseph Bologne, Tōru Takemitsu, and W.A. Mozart, aided by guest solo violinists Kyung Sun Lee and Jung-Min Amy Lee (pictured at another venue).

Walker’s Lyric for Strings has the quiet solemnity of Barber’s famous Adagio for Strings, and like that piece, it started life as the second movement from an early string quartet. Walker added the title Lament (later Lyric for Strings) and dedicated it as an elegy to his grandmother. From the first notes the ensemble, led by concertmaster Laura Hamilton, conveyed the right mood and established a bath of tonal beauty that benefitted every piece to come.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir & Cleveland Composers Guild: a conversation with Natsumi Osborn

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Composer Natsumi Osborn remembers the first time she read October Danger, a poem by her friend Anabelle Clark.

“It’s very descriptive and kind of mystical,” Osborn said during a telephone conversation. “It evoked in my head the kinds of images and feelings that I always want to evoke in my music.”

Osborn went on to set that text to music with her choral work Autumn Reflections, for which she won the Cleveland Composers Guild’s 2019 Collegiate Composition Contest. She’s currently finishing up her second year at Oberlin College and Conservatory, where she studies composition with Stephen Hartke, Jesse Jones, and Elizabeth Ogonek.

In two concerts this weekend, the Cleveland Chamber Choir, under the direction of Scott MacPherson, will perform works by members of the Cleveland Composers Guild, including Osborn’s Autumn Reflections, and pieces by American and British women composers — details below.

[Read more…]

Simultaneous organ recitals by Isabelle Demers & James Higdon on opposite sides of Fairmount (Sep. 24)

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by Daniel Hathaway

DemersConflicts abound in Northeast Ohio’s concert schedule, but not so often do two enticing organ recitals take place at the same hour right across the street from one another. Given the choice of Isabelle Demers’ recital at Fairmount Presbyterian and James Higdon’s all-Alain program at St. Paul’s on September 24, what to do? I decided to catch part of both programs. [Read more…]

Organist Frederick Swann at Fairmount Presbyterian (Oct. 2)

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by Timothy Robson

swann-frederickLegendary American organist Frederick Swann — famous for his many years as organist at the Riverside Church in New York and the Crystal Cathedral in California, and for his countless recitals around the world — gave his next-to-last recital, ever, at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights on Sunday afternoon. Co-sponsored by the Cleveland Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, the concert drew a large audience to celebrate Swann’s impending retirement at the age of 85. [Read more…]

Organist Frederick Swann to give one of his last two recitals in Cleveland

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by Daniel Hathaway

swann-frederick“I’ve retired three or four times, but I really mean it this time. My recital at Fairmount will be my next-to-last recital,” Frederick Swann declared during a telephone conversation from his home in California.

The longtime organist of New York City’s Riverside Church and organist emeritus of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California has decided at the age of 85 to wind down his career as one of the most celebrated recitalists in North America. This fall he will play his last two recitals: in Cleveland on October 2 and in Kilgore, Texas, on November 10.

That penultimate concert will bring Swann back to the 100-rank Schantz instrument in Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights on Sunday, October 2 at 3:00 pm. [Read more…]

Organist David Baskeyfield at Fairmount Presbyterian Church (March 13)

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by Timothy Robson

BASKEYFIELD-DavidThe young British organist David Baskeyfield played a challenging recital program on Sunday afternoon, March 13, at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights. Baskeyfield was the winner of the 2014 Canadian International Organ Competition, as well as several other contests. He now lives in Rochester, New York, where he recently completed work on a doctorate in organ and improvisation at Eastman. He demonstrated fluent technique and generally strong musicianship, but still has room to grow as a concert artist. [Read more…]

Fairmount Music Series: a chat with organist David Baskeyfield

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by Daniel Hathaway

BASKEYFIELD-DavidThe major you declare in college doesn’t always turn out to be your career. Take the example of British-born organist David Baskeyfield, who will play a recital on Sunday, March 13 at 3:00 pm at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights.

Baskeyfield read Law at St. John’s College at Oxford University, where he also served as the college’s organ scholar. After graduation, he spent a year assisting at both Anglican Cathedrals in Dublin — Christ Church and St. Patrick’s — then crossed the pond to study for a doctorate in organ at the Eastman School of Music. [Read more…]

Preview: CityMusic Cleveland: a chat with clarinetist Daniel Gilbert

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by Mike Telin

It’s alwaysGilbert-Daniel good for orchestras to try something new or to do something just a little bit differently than it has been done in the past. On Wednesday evening, March 6 at 7:30 pm at Fairmount Presbyterian Church, CityMusic Cleveland presents the first of five performances at various venues around the area. But for this set of concerts, the orchestra is going it alone. “When you don’t have a conductor you are on your own, so you need to dive in and [be part of the creative process]. In a way it becomes much more personal,” says CityMusic principal clarinetist Daniel Gilbert.

“If you look at the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra it’s very similar in its structure to CityMusic. You have a core group of musicians who regularly work together and pool their musical concepts to create the product on their own.” This set of programs includes Mozart’s Symphony No. 26, Haydn’s Symphony No. 86. F and Weber’s Clarinet Quintet in the string orchestra version, featuring Gilbert as soloist.  [Read more…]

Concert Report — CityMusic Cleveland: Bright Mozart on a Dark Evening

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by Daniel Hathaway

Joel Smirnoff, CIM president, makes his Ohio conducting debut with CityMusic Cleveland

On a dark and windy night, with dire predictions of a major winter storm on its way (didn’t quite happen), what better refuge than a warm, brightly lit church and a free concert of some of Mozart’s most charming small orchestra music? Several hundred people thought so, packing Fairmount Presbyterian Church from narthex to chancel for Joel Smirnoff’s Ohio conducting debut with CityMusic Cleveland.

After a greeting from Fairmount pastor Louise Westfall, who led a charming, color coded tour through the deciduous program booklet’s coupons, surveys, concert handbills and donation forms, soloists Nathan Olson and Jessica Oudin came on with Maestro Smirnoff to give us the Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra, K.364.

[Read more…]

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