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NEOSonicFest: Ed London tribute with CCS & CYO at Waetjen Auditorium (Mar. 24)

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by Daniel Hathaway

CCSRehearsalNEOSonicFest planned a big agenda for its fourth concert at CSU’s Waetjen Auditorium on Tuesday, March 24. The Cleveland Chamber Symphony brought works by five “Young and Emerging Composers” to life under music director Steven Smith; Liza Grossman and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra reprised Stefan Podell’s Concerto for Two Violas and Orchestra with Lynne Ramsey and Jeffrey Irvine; and the two orchestras played side-by-side under Smith’s direction in a performance of Bernard Rands’ London Serenade to honor the memory of CCS founder Edwin London. [Read more…]

NEOSonicFest: Concert No. 4 to feature CCS, CYO, Young Composers & an Ed London tribute

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by Mike Telin

London-EdWhen NEOSonicFest presents its fourth concert on Tuesday, March 24, at 7:30pm in Cleveland State University’s Waetjen Auditorium, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony (CCS) will pay tribute to its founder, the late Edwin London. The two-part musical evening will feature pieces by CCS’s 2015 Young and Emerging Composers competition winners, as well as a side-by-side performance with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra (CYO) of Bernard Rands’ London Serenade.

“We’re very excited about this concert,” said CCS’s conductor and Festival music director Steven Smith. “For the first time we will join forces with CYO for a side-by-side performance. This will be one of the highlights of the Festival, because Bernard wrote his London Serenade for the Chamber Symphony. We’ve played it several times over the years, and, I think there’s something poignant about bringing the piece back to life alongside a new generation of players.” [Read more…]

Contemporary Youth Orchestra at Waetjen Auditorium (December 7)

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by Mike Telin

Grossman-&-CYO

For the past nineteen seasons, Liza Grossman has been inspiring young musicians to become enthused about contemporary music. On Sunday evening, December 7, in Cleveland State University’s Waetjen Auditorium, the fruits of her tireless labor were fully realized in a glorious concert that began the Contemporary Youth Orchestra’s twentieth anniversary season. [Read more…]

Contemporary Youth Orchestra Part Two: Lynne Ramsey & Jeffrey Irvine discuss new double-viola concerto

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by Mike Telin

Ramsey-IrvineSince its founding, the Contemporary Youth Orchestra has given world premieres of over two hundred works, and this weekend’s concert is no exception. On Sunday, December 7 at 7:00 pm in Waetjen Auditorium at Cleveland State University, CYO will begin its twentieth anniversary season with a concert honoring composer Bernard Rands.

The program will include Rands’ London Serenade and Danza Petrificada as well as the world premiere of his Music for Liza and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra: Theme for CYO. Richard Hill and Chris Barber’s Concerto for Jazz Trombone and Orchestra will feature CYO concerto competition winner Rachel Waterbury as soloist.

The evening will also present the world premiere of Stefan Podell’s Concerto for Two Violas and Orchestra featuring Lynne Ramsey, First Assistant Principal Viola of The Cleveland Orchestra, and Jeffrey Irvine, Fynette H. Kulas Professor of Viola at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

[Read more…]

Preview: Classical Guitar Weekend: a conversation with Cleveland guitarist Jason Vieaux

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by Mike Telin

VIEAUX-JasonWhiteOn Thursday, May 23rd beginning at 8:00 pm in CIM’s Mixon Hall, Classical Guitar Weekend kicks off its 2013 edition with a recital by Jason Vieaux that features the music of Paganini, Piazzolla, Ponce, and Sor. Vieaux, who heads the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Guitar department and serves on the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, will be joined by hi CIM colleagues violinist Jinjoo Cho, violist Jeffrey Irvine, and cellist Melissa Kraut.

On Friday, May 24 beginning at 9:00 am, also in Mixon Hall, Vieaux will lead a master class via Distance Learning. Guitar students from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Royal Danish Academy of Music will perform on and off site via CIM’s innovative Distance Learning audio/video hook up and be coached by Jesper Sivebak, head of the RDAM guitar department.

Since winning the Guitar Foundation of America’s International Competition at the age of nineteen, Jason Vieaux has earned a reputation for putting his expressive gifts and virtuosity at the service of a remarkably wide range of music. [Read more…]

Review: Heights Chamber Orchestra with violist Jeffrey Irvine at Grace Lutheran (February 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

IRVINE-JeffreyNortheast Ohio abounds in avocational, community orchestras — more it would seem than most regions of the country can boast. One such ensemble, Heights Chamber Orchestra, now celebrating its thirtieth anniversary (with seven of its founding members still active and featured on its program cover), gave the third concert of its season on Sunday, February 17 at Grace Lutheran Church in Cleveland Heights. The imaginative program, conceived and conducted by music director Anthony Addison, was built around Lionel Tertis’s adaptation of the Elgar Cello Concerto, with CIM viola professor Jeffrey Irvine as soloist. The concert was dedicated to the late Edward Ormond, former first assistant principal violist with the Cleveland Orchestra, who played with HCO after his retirement.

Instrumentalists are fond of poaching each others’ sonatas and concertos — think of César Franck’s Violin Sonata, which has been successfully appropriated by cellists (and perhaps less convincingly by flutists). In this case, the translation from cello to viola by the foremost British violist of his era was vetted and approved by Elgar himself. [Read more…]

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