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Cleveland Repertory Orchestra’s season opener contemplates circles of life (Nov. 2)

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by Stephanie Manning

“This moment is full of wonders.” Composer Anna Clyne meditated on those words — written by Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh — as she wrote her orchestral work This Moment. That theme, of learning to cherish life more by reflecting on death, underscored most of the music chosen for the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra’s program on November 2.

The Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Christian Church hosted the season-opening concert, titled “Reflection and Revelations.” The venue’s dry acoustic helped the textures remain clear in Clyne’s piece, a somber and meditative seven minutes. [Read more…]

She Scores: a dazzling display from composers & performers (June 2)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

You might have gone to the Sunday, June 2 She Scores concert to hear exemplary works by female and nonbinary composers, or simply to enjoy some fresh new sounds. But once there, you would have stayed for the dazzling expertise on display, from both composers and performers alike.

Credit the Local 4 Music Fund and executive director Amber Rogers for organizing the fourth annual iteration of this splendid concert series, which ran from May 30-June 2 in CIM’s lovely Mixon Hall. Genre or gender aside, this was an afternoon of superb music.

Margi Griebling-Haigh’s Triskaidekaphilia (“love of the number thirteen”) for three violins made for an arresting and mathematical start. Violinists Ken Johnston, Leah Goor-Burtnett, and Emily Cornelius drew out the composer’s introspective and playful sides in this well-crafted three-movement work. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra at Plymouth Church (Feb. 1)

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by David Kulma

During Daniel Meyer’s short tenure as artistic director and conductor of BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, the ensemble has risen to a new level of quality. On Saturday, February 1 at Plymouth Church, Meyer and his ensemble performed an excellent program titled “A Classical Feast,” focusing on music from the late 18th century.

[Read more…]

BlueWater: chatting with violin soloists Ken Johnston and Emily Cornelius

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Two founding members of BlueWater Chamber Orchestra will partner as soloists this weekend, when conductor Daniel Meyer and the ensemble perform “A Classical Feast” at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights on Saturday, February 1 at 7:30 pm.

Concertmaster Ken Johnston and principal second violin Emily Cornelius will play the Op. 13 Symphonie Concertante in G by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who is remembered as the first known classical composer of African origin. One of his contemporaries was Mozart, whose Symphony No. 40 in g closes Saturday’s program. And in between those two works, soprano Laura Pedersen will be featured in Beethoven’s concert aria Ah, Perfido! Tickets are available online.

Johnston and Cornelius have known each other for at least ten years — BlueWater celebrates its own decade in 2020 — but this will be their first time appearing together as soloists. “At this point, she and I are old friends,” Johnston said by telephone last week. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for her musicianship. I think we share the same sense of humor in a lot of ways, and that comes across.”

[Read more…]

Ken Johnston to multi-task as concertmaster and conductor with BlueWater on Saturday

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by Daniel Hathaway

JohnstonSometime between the unfortunate episode when Jean Baptiste Lully, leading the Paris Opera orchestra by pounding on the floor with a staff, mortally wounded himself in the foot, and the time when dedicated conductors began waving pointed sticks around in front of their ensembles, concertmasters routinely led orchestras while simultaneously playing their violins.

That’s exactly the role that BlueWater Chamber Orchestra concertmaster Ken Johnston will be reviving this Saturday evening when he presides over an 8:00 pm program of music by Mozart, Dvořák, and Schoenberg at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights.

We reached Johnston, who also serves as concertmaster of the Erie Philharmonic, to ask how he was preparing for this weekend’s assignment, and what he thought the challenges might be. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra at the Breen with Mark Kosower & Ken Johnston (Sep. 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

BluewaterBreenStageAfter BlueWater Chamber Orchestra founder Carlton Woods’ untimely death in February, the Orchestra decided to continue with his plans for 2017-2018, calling on guest conductors and its own concertmaster to lead the new season’s programs. On Sunday afternoon, September 17 at the Breen Center in Ohio City, Octavio Más-Arocas led the ensemble in “The Captivating Cello,” and the captivating cellist was Cleveland Orchestra principal Mark Kosower. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra: a conversation with Octavio Más-Arocas

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Octavio-Mas-ArocasOnce a year, tens of thousands of people from around the world come to conductor Octavio Más-Arocas’ hometown of Buñol, Spain, for a tomato fight.

“It’s like the famous phrase about Times Square,” Más-Arocas said in a recent conversation. “If you stand there for two or three minutes, you can hear all the languages of the world. That happens in my little town on the last Wednesday of every August.”

After answering that yes, it can hurt to get hit by a tomato — especially a frozen one — the conductor made a surprising comparison: the tomato fight known as La Tomatina is not unlike music. “It’s funny to connect these two things, but I believe something unique happens in that moment in the fight, when you’re in the middle of it and thousands of people are around you. It’s barbaric, but at the same time it’s very touching in a way — human beings from all different backgrounds coming together to have fun.”

Más-Arocas hopes to bring that spirit of human connection to his debut as guest conductor with BlueWater Chamber Orchestra this Sunday, September 17 at 3:00 pm for the ensemble’s season-opening concert. “I have some dear friends in this orchestra, and it’s always great to make music with them. But in the end, they’re all going to be my friends because when I work with an orchestra, I want to create a friendship — that’s the only way I can make good music.”

[Read more…]

Save the dates for September’s early season openers & special events

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by Daniel Hathaway

hradetzky_usa_oh_cleveland_st_paulsAfter the gradual spinning down of the summer concert season, September can sneak up on you. Here’s a list of early season openers and one-off events that Northeast Ohio music lovers should be sure to jot down in their calendars.

Ars Organi at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights

Organist Karel Paukert has created a festival to celebrate the collection of organs (and a harpsichord) that grace the music program at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. The seven events in “Ars Organi” between September 15 and October 1 will feature the Walter Holtkamp Sr. instrument as well as the Vladimir Slajch chamber organ, the Gerhard Hradetzky Italian Baroque organ, and the Matthias Griewisch harpsichord — a fleet of keyboard instruments any church would be delighted to have at its disposal.

Performers include Prague organist Jaroslav Tuma (right) on Friday, September 15 at 7:30 jaroslav_tumapm and Saturday, September 16 at 4:00 pm (featuring his paraphrase of Smetana’s My Country); Oberlin professor James David Christie with members of Oberlin’s Collegium Musicum on Tuesday, September 19 at 7:30 pm; and University of Kansas professor James Higdon in a lecture and masterclass on Jehan Alain on Saturday, September 23 at 2:00 pm and a recital of Alain’s works on Sunday, September 24 at 4:00 pm. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra to go conductorless at the Breen

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by Mike Telin

Johnston“When a composer writes a piece of music, they don’t really picture someone with a stick telling the musicians what to do,” BlueWater Chamber Orchestra concertmaster Ken Johnston said during a recent telephone conversation. On Saturday, February 18 at 7:30 at the Breen Center for the Performing Arts, Johnston and his BlueWater colleagues will go conductorless when they perform works by Aaron Copland, Richard Wagner, and Benjamin Britten.

Johnston said that as concertmaster, he is always leading and communicating with the players. “I don’t think this is going to be a huge stretch from what I’m used to doing. And with a group this good, the leadership is going to be shared.” [Read more…]

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