by Daniel Hathaway
May 4, 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of the tragic shooting of Kent State students by Ohio National Guard members during protests around the Vietnam War, but COVID-19 upstaged KSU’s plans for a memorial.
Two years later, the University will be ferrying more than 300 performers from Kent to Cleveland for an extraordinary event at Severance Music Center on Monday, May 2 at 7:00 pm.
Musicians, dancers, singers, and poetry readers will commemorate the events of that day in 1970 in a mammoth concert. According to a press release, Stories of Peace, Protest and Reflection “explores social justice, civil rights and the complex emotions felt before, during and after tragedy.”
Having read the press materials, I was eager to learn more about how this event was put together — a feat of human choreography and logistics that seemed comparable to staging a small version of D-Day. Happily, I was referred to an old colleague, clarinet professor Amitai Vardi, who was charged with coordinating the event. In a phone call, I asked him how it all came about. [Read more…]
Northeast Ohio’s newest youth ensemble will burst onto the scene on Saturday, November at 7:00 pm at Kent State University, when the Kent State Youth Winds make their debut in Cartwright Auditorium.
In his remarks before the July 28 Kent Blossom Music Festival concert, featuring members of The Cleveland Orchestra, Kent State University president Todd Diacon noted that while the past year has not been easy, “It has been made easier by the arts.” This statement was ratified by the performances that followed, where the freedom and passion in the musicians’ playing created a restorative sense of joy and optimism.
“What a year!” Kent Blossom Music Festival director Ricardo Sepúlveda said in a recent telephone conversation. “But we’ve been fortunate. The challenges of the pandemic provided us with opportunities to learn, to explore, to be creative and innovative, and how to adapt to rapid change.”
On May 27 Kent State University’s Glauser School of Music announced the appointment of saxophonist Perry Roth as an instructor of music. Roth begins in the upcoming fall 2020 semester, having previously served on the faculties of both The Hartt School at the University of Hartford and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. At Kent State, Roth will teach the classical saxophone studio as well as work with chamber music groups.
Composers have always turned to works of art, literature, folklore, and music by other composers as sources of inspiration. This week, St. Paul-based 
When the duo andPlay — Maya Bennardo, violin, and Hannah Levinson, viola — were in Cleveland to perform on the Re:Sound Festival last summer, 
We live in a time when outside political forces are driving more musicians to handle politics directly on stage, proffering emotionally powerful performances as vehicles for expanding a listener’s empathy. And since percussionists are among the most versatile of musicians — needing to strike any number of objects well and precisely — it is only logical that they add their voices to the mix.
Imagine spending even a year of your life in jail, and what that would do to you and to those around you. Now imagine it’s for a crime you didn’t commit, and that the punishment stretches on much longer than one year, possibly for decades.