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Autana Trio to open 25th season of Arts Renaissance Tremont on Oct. 4

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by Mike Telin

Autana-TrioOn 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…]

Cavani Quartet and friends mark 30th Anniversary at CIM (March 4)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cavani-Quartet-2015The Cavani Quartet isn’t easing up after thirty years as an ensemble. Its faculty recital on Wednesday evening, March 4 in Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music with guest musicians Donald Weilerstein and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein featured exciting and disciplined performances of two very different Shostakovich works, followed by an exuberant reading of a Mendelssohn quartet. [Read more…]

Cavani Quartet celebrates 30th Anniversary (the first in a series of articles)

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by Mike Telin

CavaniQuartetCelebrating your thirtieth anniversary is a big moment — especially if you’re a string quartet. Formed three decades ago in Columbus, Ohio, the Cavani Quartet is also celebrating its twenty-sixth year as Quartet-in-Residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music. What began in 1988 as a one-year residency with the support of a grant from Chamber Music America has turned into a long-term relationship. During that quarter-century, the Cavani have established themselves as one of the most successful community residencies in the country.

On Wednesday, March 4 at 8:00 pm in CIM’s Kulas Recital Hall, the Cavani Quartet, Annie Fullard and Mari Sato, violins, Kirsten Docter, viola and Merry Peckham, cello, will celebrate thirty years as a quartet in a free concert, when they will be joined by guest artists Donald Weilerstein, viola and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, piano. The program includes Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 9 in E-flat, op. 117 and Piano Quintet in g, op. 57 as well as Mendelssohn’s String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat, op. 87.

[Read more…]

Cavani Quartet celebrates 30th Anniversary (the second in a series of articles)

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by Mike Telin

Cavani-Quartet-2015When you walk into their studio, home of the Cavani’s Intensive Quartet Seminar program at CIM, you immediately understand why they have been a source of inspiration to so many young musicians. It’s a fairly large space, and in spite of the fact that there are no windows, it’s bright and cheery with its colorful, poster-covered walls. The perfect environment for honing one’s chamber music skills.

At the far corner of the studio sits a large chest of drawers. “Show him what’s in the drawer,” one of them says, laughing. “Let’s see,” Merry Peckham exclaims, producing two umbrellas, a coffee mug, the Annie wig and a bear hat. There’s also a bow case that no one claims, and a couple of folding music stands. “These are coaching accessories,” Peckham tells me, adding, “wait, these are nice stands, why are they in here?” The drawer also houses a number of packages of photographs of family and friends. [Read more…]

Cavani Quartet celebrates 30th Anniversary (the last in a series of articles)

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by Carlyn Kessler and Mike Telin

CAVANI-teaching

The Cavani’s Intensive Quartet Seminar is renowned for preparing well-rounded musicians. The program allows students to constructively track their progress alongside their peers, who, just like faculty members, are valuable resources. The IQS is an incubator for creative ideas, and a “safe place” for improvement, empathy and inspiration. We spoke to current IQS students and alums and asked them about the program’s impact on their education and careers.

“Working with the Cavani Quartet as part of the Intensive Quartet Seminar and Apprentice Quartet Program completely transformed how I thought about music and its relationship to the world,” violist Elizabeth Oaks said in a recent e-mail. “I learned that I could strive to perform the repertoire I loved at the highest possible level while working to bring music to a diverse range of audiences in a creative way.” [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra at Plymouth Church (November 1)

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by Daniel Hathaway

DUMM-as-BONESCarlton Woods and BlueWater Chamber Orchestra had a fine time celebrating the Halloween weekend in their concert at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights on Saturday evening. The featured work on the program was Jon Deak’s The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, an action-packed concerto for string quartet and orchestra, with narration read by WCLV president Robert Contrad. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra to feature Jon Deak’s “The Headless Horseman” on November 1

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by Mike Telin

Headless-Horseman-FOC-Darley-1849It’s that time of year when jack-o-lanterns are seen illuminating front porches, and scary tales of ghosts and goblins are told. One of those tales is “The Headless Horseman,” which has been popularized in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” On Saturday, November 1 at 7:30 pm in Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, Carlton R. Woods will lead the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra in Jon Deak’s Concerto for String Quartet, Narrator and Orchestra, The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, featuring violinists Kenneth Johnston and Charles Morey, violist Kirsten Docter, cellist Bryan Dumm and narrator Robert Conrad. [Read more…]

Review: Oberlin String Quartet Intensive & Festival — The Cavani Quartet in Kulas Hall (January 17)

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by Mike Telin

CavaniQuartetWhy is it that we so often take for granted the musical greatness that exists in our own town? Case in point: the Cavani Quartet.

Appointed quartet-in-residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1988, the Cavanis are the only ensemble to have twice received the Guarneri String Quartet Award for Artistic Excellence (2005 and 2011). In addition to their numerous recital appearances at CIM they are also committed to taking the great string quartet literature out of the recital hall and into the neighborhoods. An example is the Beethoven & Brotherhood Project – during which the Cavanis played the complete quartets of Beethoven, one at a time, in sixteen public libraries throughout the Cleveland area.

As educators, the Quartet developed CIM’s Intensive Quartet Seminar, the Apprentice Quartet Program and The Art of Engagement for student ensembles devoted to the serious study of chamber music. [Read more…]

Review: Oberlin String Quartet & Intensive — A Viennese Evening (January 10)

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by Daniel Hautzinger

Kulas-Oberlin“Viennese” is often a byword for “light.” It conjures images of bourgeois gentlemen nibbling cream-filled pastries while being entertained by effortless waltzes like “The Beautiful Blue Danube.” The second concert in Oberlin Conservatory’s String Quartet Intensive and Festival, “A Viennese Evening” on Jan. 10 in Kulas Recital Hall, was thus a charming and pleasant affair.

The program began with an oddity, Ferdinand Rebay’s Quartet in d minor for guitar and string trio. Rebay (1880-1953) spent most of his life in Vienna and died in obscurity after being blacklisted by the Nazis, as violist and organizer of the Festival Michael Strauss explained during intermission. Rebay is so unknown that Friday night was the U.S. premiere of the work. Strauss was joined by three other Oberlin faculty members for the piece: violinist David Bowlin, cellist Darrett Adkins, and guitarist Stephen Aron, who suggested the performance.

Guitar is rare in chamber music. Rebay, perhaps understanding its lack of projection, mostly uses the guitar in the d minor quartet to flesh out the harmony or to add rhythmic excitement. [Read more…]

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