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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…]

She Scores: a night of musical excellence and importance (May 31)

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by Max Newman

Even in the Cleveland music scene’s creatively positive atmosphere, female and non-binary composers are often underrepresented on the concert stage, and the Local 4 Music Fund’s She Scores series is looking to change this.

The series, which aims to remind us of “the urgent need to redouble our efforts toward closing the chasm of opportunity and representation that separates women from men,” was held between May 30 and June 2 at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall, showcasing an impressive catalog of works that spanned a wide variety of styles and moods. I was lucky enough to attend the May 31 performance.

The striking setting went a long way in terms of adding to the experience. Curved rows of seats gently descended down to a well-lit stage, just in front of the space’s crown jewel: a floor-to-ceiling window that looked out upon the beautiful architecture and vegetation of the CIM campus. As the evening sky darkened over the course of the concert’s two hours, the program order seemed to match it in mood, with bright, energetic, and percussive pieces towards the beginning, and more contemplative and somber works towards the conclusion.

[Read more…]

She Scores: Celebrating Underrepresented Composers

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by Mike Telin

Since 2021, Local 4 Music Fund’s She Scores project has been providing a platform for underrepresented composers who, despite their immense talents, face barriers to having their works performed. And what began with performances of works by 16 composers has now blossomed into a four-concert series featuring works by 31 living composers who identify as female or nonbinary. “We have over 70 people involved in the festival this year,” Local 4 Music Fund executive director Amber Rogers said during a telephone interview.

The fourth edition of She Scores runs May 30 – June 2 at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall, with performances at 7:00 Thursday-Saturday and 4:00 on Sunday. Emily Laurance will present a pre-concert lecture one hour prior to each performance. All concerts are free. Click here to read bios of the composers and performers.

“In the past, the call for scores only went out to composers in Ohio. This year we added Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, and West Virginia. And we have composers from every one of those states represented in the programming,” Rogers said, adding that the jury reviewed around 80 submissions, all evaluated anonymously — the jury didn’t know who wrote what, or what their backgrounds were.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir: Considering Matthew Shepard

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by Mike Telin

Statement from President Joe Biden on the 25th Anniversary of the Tragic Death of Matthew Shepard:

October 12, 2023

Twenty-five years ago today, Matthew Shepard lost his life to a brutal act of hate and violence that shocked our nation and the world. The week prior, Matthew had been viciously attacked in a horrific anti-gay hate crime and left to die – simply for being himself.

Matthew’s tragic and senseless murder shook the conscience of the American people. And his courageous parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, turned Matthew’s memory into a movement, galvanizing millions of people to combat the scourge of anti-LGBTQI+ hate and violence in America.

On October 6, 1998 Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, accepted a ride home from two men at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie. Instead, Shepard was driven to a remote area where he was pistol-whipped, tortured, tied to a fence, and left for dead. Shepard died six days later from brain damage.

Shepard’s murder would later become the inspiration for Craig Hella Johnson’s fusion oratorio Considering Matthew Shepard.

[Read more…]

She Scores: a cornucopia of first-rate pieces (June 3)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Seven first-rate pieces for small ensembles received superb performances on Saturday, June 3 as part of the Local 4 Music Fund’s She Scores series, which spanned three programs over three days in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University. Oberlin Conservatory musicology professor Emily Laurance provided informative and engaging remarks beforehand. The program offered a cornucopia of ear-tugging, seldom-heard pieces, or premieres, all by women-identifying or non-binary composers, many with Ohio or Cleveland connections.

Akron native Margi Griebling-Haigh, a longtime fixture of the Cleveland new music scene, was represented by ¡de Chiripa!, the opening work. The title translates to “by chance” or “by a fluke,” suggesting a playful or casual perspective. Scored for English horn and two guitars, the work references Spanish music both through its title and its use of Phrygian semitones and dance rhythms. Guitarists Andy Poxon and Bryan Reichert contributed to the Mediterranean warmth, and English hornist Cyn Warren displayed apt nobility and ardor.

[Read more…]

Local 4 Music Fund’s She Scores: Round Three

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by Mike Telin

When the Institute for Composer Diversity analyzed the 2019-20 seasons of 120 American orchestras, it found that just eight percent of all pieces performed were composed by women. For Amber Rogers, artistic director of the Local 4 Music Fund, that statistic was a call for action. “The idea of concerts featuring female composers isn’t new, but I didn’t see anything quite like this in Cleveland,” Rogers told ClevelandClassical.com’s Stephanie Manning in June of 2021.

On June 2 and 3 at 7:00 pm and June 4 at 4:00 pm at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Hall, She Scores 2023 will feature nineteen compositions by fourteen composers. Emily Laurance will present a pre-concert lecture 45 minutes prior to each free performance. Visit our Concert Listings page for composer names, composition titles, and performers.

“We are adding one piece to the June 3rd concert to honor the late composer Dolores White,” Rogers said during a recent telephone conversation. “Eric Charnofsky met with Dolores’s daughter Dianna and she gave him a couple of scores to pick from. We talked about them and looked at our instrumentation, and Eric and Drew Hosler are doing a piece for saxophone and piano.”

[Read more…]

She Scores: A Local 4 Series Celebrating Women Composers

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by Noah Auby

Amber Rogers is no stranger to overcoming logistical hurdles. As Executive Director of the Cleveland Federation of Musicians’ Local 4 Music Fund, she is in her second year of coordinating She Scores — a concert series solely dedicated to living female composers. Rogers is grateful that her series has been renewed and revitalized in a big way.

She Scores 2022 will kick off on June 23rd at 7:00 pm in Case Western Reserve’s Harkness Chapel and continue at the same time and location on June 24th and 25th. A pre-concert talk will be given by Destinee Siebe on the 23rd at 6:30 pm. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

I caught up with Amber Rogers via Zoom and asked the Duluth, Minnesota native about She Scores 2022 as well as about her music career. [Read more…]

Local 4 presents an engaging variety of music by women in final concert of She Scores

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by Stephanie Manning

After a year with no shortage of pre-recorded performances, watching musicians play together live and unmasked — even through a computer screen — feels like a breath of fresh air.

Though there was no audience in the room, the energy was palpable as the musicians of the Local 4 Music Fund’s She Scores concert series came together on Sunday for an afternoon of music at the Pilgrim UCC. [Read more…]

Local 4 Music Fund brings women composers and new music to the forefront with She Scores

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by Stephanie Manning

When the Institute for Composer Diversity analyzed the 2019-20 seasons of 120 American orchestras, it found that just eight percent of all pieces performed were composed by women. For Amber Rogers, artistic director of the Local 4 Music Fund, data like this combined with her own experiences as a violist inspired her latest project — one she’s been thinking about for a long time.

“The idea of concerts featuring female composers isn’t new, but I didn’t see anything quite like this in Cleveland,” Rogers said in a recent interview. “I’ve wanted to do something like this for about a decade.” After almost two years of preparation, her dream will soon be realized through She Scores, a series of three concerts from June 25-27. Livestreamed on Facebook and Local 4’s website, the performances will feature works by sixteen women composers in a variety of musical styles and ensemble configurations.

[Read more…]

Local 4 Music Fund:
Duo Anime (Jan. 14)

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by Jarrett Hoffman

A varied, compelling, and concise program came to life through excellent performances when percussionists Andrew Pongracz and Mell Csicsila of Duo Anime visited Survival Kit on January 14. The live-streamed concert was presented as part of the Local 4 Music Fund’s Tuning In series.

The program spanned from the Baroque era to the 20th century, and from mallets to a menagerie of unpitched instruments. It was mostly laid out in sets, creating the satisfying feeling of turning from one chapter to the next. On the technological side of things, the video went through periods of freezing up, and the camera fell askew a couple of times, but more importantly, the audio was pristine throughout.

[Read more…]

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