Long String Instrument Archives - Cleveland Classical

CMA: Ellen Fullman and Theresa Wong at Transformer Station (September 25)

September 29, 2015 by Daniel Hathaway

by Daniel Hathaway

When you go to one of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s concerts at Transformer Station in Hingetown on Cleveland’s near West Side, expect to hear music as edgy and provocative as the art on the walls (and just as hip: the current exhibition from the collection of the Akron Art Museum dispenses with wall tags in favor of elucidation from your smart phone). The performance on Friday, September 25, the second of three concerts by featured performer Ellen Fullman and cellist Theresa Wong, fit that m.o. perfectly. [Read more…]

Cleveland Museum of Arts’ Performing Arts Series to open with Ellen Fullman and the “Long String Instrument”

September 22, 2015 by Daniel Hathaway

by Mike Telin

Ever since the Cleveland Museum of Art began presenting concerts in the Transformer Station, Tom Welsh, director of CMA’s Performing Arts series, has carefully curated programs that celebrate the art of improvisation and musical experimentation. This week’s series-opening concerts are no exception. Beginning on Thursday, September 24 at 7:30 pm, composer Ellen Fullman will make her Cleveland debut at Transformer Station with her “Long String Instrument.” The concert, titled “Foghorns,” is a collaboration with composer, cellist, and vocalist Theresa Wong. (The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday, September 25 and 26 at 7:30 pm.)

The concerts represent more than 30 years of work-in-progress for Fullman, who over time has created her own unique sound world. In the spirit of music expressing what words cannot, click here to listen to examples of the haunting sounds of an instrument described as “an installation of dozens of wires 50 feet or longer tuned in just intonation and ‘bowed’ with rosin-coated fingers.” [Read more…]

Oberlin Opera stages a Cendrillon of professional quality (Nov. 10)

by Daniel Hathaway

Any regional opera company would be popping its buttons with pride to have produced such an impressive performance of Jules Massenet’s Cendrillion (Cinderella) as Oberlin Opera did in Hall Auditorium on Sunday afternoon, November 10.

Imaginative staging by Stephanie Havey, skillful pacing by conductor James Feddeck, beautiful set design and costuming by Laura Carlson-Tarantowski and Chris Flaharty, respectively, plus dramatic and — for the fairies — enchanting lighting by Jeremy K. Benjamin provided a supportive environment for splendid singing by the cast and brilliant playing by the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra.

Literally thousands of versions of the Cinderella tale exist in cultures around the globe, but many of the details of Massenet’s opera date back to Charles Perrault’s 1697 Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre, which adds what have now become essential elements to the tale: a young girl mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, who temporarily attracts the attention of a handsome prince at a royal ball and is eventually reunited with him to become a princess herself. [Read on…]

Seraph Brass dances through musical travels in Rocky River (Nov. 11)

by Stephanie Manning

Before Seraph Brass arrived in Ohio on November 11, the group’s fall touring season had taken them on the road to Missouri, Florida, New York, and even Peru. And at the Rocky River Chamber Music Society, they gave the audience a taste of the traveling life right from the first piece.

The “Prelude” from Edvard Greig’s Holberg Suite whisked listeners away to Norway, with a melody surely familiar to many. It was extra familiar to the brass quintet themselves, who launched into their opening number without sheet music. Playing memorized is part of the group’s trademark, and they smoothly alternated using music and no music throughout the evening. Either way, the wide-ranging program had those at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church spellbound.

Trumpet players Mary Elizabeth Bowden and Raquel Samayoa, horn player Layan Atieh, trombonist Lauren Casey-Clyde, and tuba player Robyn Black sounded equally comfortable in Romantic and contemporary repertoire, flipping between both with practiced ease. [Read on…]

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