by Daniel Hathaway
Want a good return on your investment? Give scholarships to budding musicians to help them over the financial humps of their early careers. And if you’re smart, like Tuesday Musical, invite them back several years later to show scholarship donors how richly their contributions paid off. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
For over 60 years Akron’s Tuesday Musical Association has supported gifted students who are embarking on careers in music education and music performance through its annual Scholarship Competition.
On Tuesday, November 22 at 7:30 pm in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall, two scholarship winners who have gone on to have international careers will return to the Tuesday Musical stage for a concert titled We Knew Them When. Soprano Dina Kuznetsova and violinist Jinjoo Cho will be joined by pianist Hyun Soo Kim for performances of works by Britten, Mozart, Schubert, Rachmaninoff, and Tchaikovsky. University of Akron music professor Brooks Toliver will give a pre-concert talk at 6:30 pm. [Read more…]
by Tom Wachunas
On the evening of October 29, while the Cleveland Indians were playing the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in game four of the World Series, the Canton Symphony Orchestra wasted no time setting a festive mood right here in Umstattd Hall. From the rear of the house, all the CSO members — many wearing Indians caps or jerseys — strutted happily down the aisles and up on to the stage, all to boisterous cheers from the audience. Then Gerhardt Zimmermann led orchestra and audience in a stirring sing-along of Take Me Out to the Ball Game. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Founded in 1985 by David and Linda Cerone, the Encore School for Strings served as the summer session of the Cleveland Institute of Music until 2008 when the program was phased out following David Cerone’s retirement as president of CIM. The prestigious program’s alumni include violinists Ray Chen, Hilary Hahn, and Leila Josefowicz, to name only a few. Beginning on Monday, June 12 and continuing through Saturday, July 30, young string players from around the world will gather on the Gilmour Academy campus in Gates Mills to take part in the inaugural season of ENCORE Chamber Music. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Violinist Jinjoo Cho had barely achieved teenager status when she first appeared as soloist with the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra. She’s been back several times since that debut, meanwhile walking off with top prizes in the Buenos Aires and Indianapolis competitions. Cho returned to help CWO celebrate its 81st-anniversary concert in Severance Hall on Sunday, April 23, this time with a delightful traversal of Henri Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in d led by Robert Cronquist. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
On Sunday, May 1 at 3:30 pm, Robert Cronquist will lead the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra in its 81st anniversary concert at Severance Hall. The program will include Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Zoltán Kodály’s “Intermezzo” from Háry Janós, Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G, and Henri Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in d.
Not for the first time, the concert will feature violinist Jinjoo Cho, who first performed with CWO when she was in her teens. We caught up with the busy violinist on her cell phone while she was enjoying “a wonderful and rare morning off” walking her dog. We began by asking her how many times she’s appeared with the Women’s Orchestra. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
On Sunday October 4 at 3:00 pm in Pilgrim Congregational Church, Arts Renaissance Tremont (ART) will present its season opening concert with a performance by the award-winning Autana Trio, Yuri Noh, piano, Rubén Rengel, violin, and Anna Hurt, cello. The program will include Ludwig van Beethoven’s Trio in B-flat, Op. 97 (”Archduke”) and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Trio No. 2 in e, Op. 67.
The event will also mark ART’s twenty-fifth anniversary of presenting free concerts in the West Side Cleveland neighborhood. “Twenty five years, I can’t believe it,” ART’s founder and director Chris Haff- Paluck said during a telephone conversation. “It’s amazing how the series has grown and the neighborhood has changed. Many people don’t remember what Tremont was like back then.” [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
ChamberFest Cleveland added a new spin to the phrase “Something Borrowed, Something Blue” on Saturday, June 27 in Mixon Hall. Although no wedding took place, the program featured music that perfectly marries the classical ethos with jazz and folk idioms. As violinist Jinjoo Cho and pianist Roman Rabinovich prepared to open the concert with Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, suddenly from offstage, the sounds of the opening clarinet line from Rhapsody in Blue filled the hall. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Jones
ChamberFest Cleveland’s “Grab Bag!” concert on Tuesday was informal and eclectic, as the title implies. Seated fairly comfortably in Lee Road’s Wine Spot, the capacity audience was treated to a stimulating mix of instruments and musical styles — as well as a free glass of wine or beer. ChamberFest organizers Diana and Frank Cohen served as gracious hosts, giving impromptu commentaries between numbers. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
An evening of string quartet music can be a beautiful thing, but with a whole cast of musicians in residence, ChamberFest Cleveland enjoys the luxury of being able to field a variety of different ensembles on a single program. On Thursday, June 25 in CIM’s Mixon Hall, a concert that began with a Haydn quartet took on new sonorities with a Britten piece for oboe and three strings, expanded to include more strings plus harmonium and piano for a Johann Strauss Jr. waltz, then involved two pianists, two percussionists and a stage full of sound-generating devices in George Crumb’s Music for a Summer Evening. It was an amazing program. [Read more…]