By Stephanie Manning|Cleveland Classical
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Like clockwork, spring has sprung, and so too has the traditional Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra spring concert — a celebratory affair that marks the final, bittersweet performance for the high school seniors in the group.
This annual concert always features the ensemble’s most recent Concerto Competition winner, an honor bestowed this year on trombonist Grace Berendt. With so much wonderful string and piano literature, wind and brass instruments often face an uphill battle during these types of competitions, making Berendt’s opportunity feel particularly exciting.
On Sunday, May 10, the Aurora High School senior came to the front of the Mandel Concert Hall stage to perform Ferdinand David’s Trombone Concertino under the direction of James Feddeck.
“We love coming here!” CityMusic Cleveland’s managing director Henry Peyrebrune said in his opening remarks on Friday at St. Noel Catholic Church. Open and modern and warmly lit, St. Noel proved a welcoming setting for December 5th’s well-attended concert. Many pews had been claimed early, and finding a seat required a bit of roaming. As always with CityMusic, admission was free, with only a suggested ticket price and friendly greeters at the door.
This article was originally published on 
This article was originally published on 
As any brass, woodwind, or low-string player in an orchestra may confess under mild pressure, it can feel profoundly liberating to play music that draws the spotlight away from their colleagues in the violin section, especially for extended periods. Rare though this repertoire may be — Stravinsky favored winds and percussion, and Glass wrote a whole opera without violins — pieces that foreground these parts of the classical instrumentarium do appear at the heart of the canon. Filling the stage for its 60th-Anniversary Gala concert, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society placed conductor James Feddeck at the helm for an event featuring 21 musicians — violists, cellists, bassists, and wind players.