by Daniel Hathaway
That the Cavani String Quartet, even in its transitional state, continues to draw a large and devoted following attests to its long and close relationship with the many students the ensemble mentored during its tenure at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Those fans, along with current ENCORE Chamber Music participants, packed the music room at Gilmour Academy’s Tudor House on Friday, June 14 for a program of Mozart, Martinů, and Dvořák. [Read more…]
by Rory O’Donoghue
The Jupiter Quartet comes home this weekend. “Cleveland’s one of our favorite places — we love coming back,” cellist Dan McDonough remarked in an interview last Friday. “Three of us went to school at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Cavani Quartet were our mentors. It’s always so nice to come back and catch up with them.”
Jupiter aligns at the 2019 ENCORE Chamber Music Festival in concerts on Friday, June 7 and Sunday, June 9, with master classes in between, all at the Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills. This is the quartet’s second ENCORE appearance, and McDonough identifies festival-director-dynamo Jinjoo Cho as a crucial factor in the enterprise’s rapid ascendency. “Jinjoo and all the faculty build a wonderful sense of community and collaboration. All of the ideals that the Cavani taught us twenty years ago are still cherished, and taught with great enthusiasm.” [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
Bohemian music celebrating life and the arts is the theme for ENCORE Chamber Music’s fourth season, titled “La Bohème.” From June through mid-July, the festival will present eight ticketed faculty concerts, seven free student performances, and seventeen free master classes, all at the Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills. Both single tickets and season passes are available.
The Jupiter String Quartet (above) kicks off the season on Friday, June 7 at 7:00 pm at the Tudor House with a program that includes Puccini’s Crisantemi (“Chrysanthemums”), Janáček’s Quartet No. 1, “Kreutzer Sonata,” and Dvořák’s Quartet No. 13 in G.
Another side of the Jupiter will be on display the next day, June 8 during master classes at 10:00 am and 4:00 pm at the campus’s middle school band room.
by Daniel Hathaway
On Sunday afternoon, April 7, the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra made its 84th annual visit to Severance Hall, dedicating its program to the memory of Robert L. Cronquist, who led the ensemble from 1990 until his passing early last fall. The program, led by John Thomas Dodson, featured violinist Jinjoo Cho for the fifth time since her debut with the ensemble in 2003, and included works that Cronquist had conducted during his long tenure with the Orchestra. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Following the unexpected passing at the beginning of the season of its longtime conductor Robert Cronquist (left) — only the second person in its history to lead the ensemble — the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra found itself scrambling for podium leadership. Guest conductor John Thomas Dodson has stepped into that role for the ensemble’s 84th annual concert at Severance Hall on Sunday, April 7 at 3:30 pm, and violinist Jinjoo Cho will be the featured soloist.
Founded in 1935 by Cleveland Orchestra violinist Hyman Schandler at a time when symphony orchestras were the exclusive province of male musicians, the Cleveland ensemble is the oldest women’s orchestra in the United States. After Schandler’s death in 1990, Cronquist took over the podium in addition to his posts as music director of the Mansfield Symphony and the summertime Lakeside Festival Orchestra. During his tenure, he established an endowment to sustain the ensemble as it moved into the 21st century. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
Sometimes it feels appropriate to get right down to business. Last week, when I got in touch with Jinjoo Cho, that would have meant delving immediately into Korngold’s Concerto, which she played in the final round at the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis enroute to winning the Gold Medal. She’ll revisit the piece with Christopher Wilkins and the Akron Symphony this Saturday, March 16 at 8:00 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall.
But there was something I’d read at the bottom of her bio that I needed to clear up first. So when she picked up the phone, I quickly put on my reporter’s hat and began to investigate.
“In the beginning they were more like souvenirs,” Cho said of her collection of kitchen magnets. “I would get one that reminded me of someplace. Now I feel like it’s become a full-on obsession. Whenever I see a cute one, I just can’t not buy it.”
by David Kulma
ENCORE Chamber Music’s final Sunday Unplugged concert of the summer on July 8 focused on composers of “diverse cultural backgrounds.” Its title, “Imagine No Country,” paraphrased a line from John Lennon’s peace anthem Imagine. The international music featured was by four composers: two living — American Richard Danielpour and Argentine Osvaldo Golijov, both of Jewish descent — and two deceased — Japanese Tōru Takemitsu and Romanian George Enescu. [Read more…]
by Delaney Meyers
ENCORE Chamber Music continued on Friday evening, July 6 in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music, featuring violinist and founder Jinjoo Cho with renowned pianist Itamar Golan. Their partnership was immediately evident in Britten’s Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 6. The March was fearless, vigorous, and playful, and the Molto perpetuo was full of appropriately relentless grit. [Read more…]
by David Kulma
ENCORE Chamber Music continued its third season on Friday, June 29 in CIM’s Mixon Hall with an enjoyable concert celebrating “music written and inspired by fiery female artists” and entitled “Nasty Women.” This reference is to Donald Trump’s ad hominem attack on Hillary Clinton during the third presidential debate, which many liberal women immediately adopted as a badge of honor. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
For those who enjoy a touch of tradition — yet are troubled by how often pieces by the same cast of composers are performed — ENCORE Chamber Music’s third season, titled “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” should fit the bill.
“Our concert programs not only feature composers firmly set in the Western musical canon, but also celebrate music written and inspired by women, composers whose sexual orientation put their careers and their lives in jeopardy, and artists who struggled with their racial and religious identities,” ENCORE artistic director Jinjoo Cho said in an email.
“Comprised of music written by composers of diverse backgrounds, and dedicated to all the artists of past and present who have had to fight against societal bias, to me this season is a reminder that love is our most important virtue,” Cho continued. “Love holds us together even at the darkest moments of life, and I wanted to celebrate that.” [Read more…]