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Cellist Darrett Adkins: solo recital on LCCC Signature Series (Sept. 28)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Nothing seems to exemplify classical music during the COVID era quite so much as performances by solo cellists — often J.S. Bach solo suites, and usually broadcast online from the safe havens of musicians’ homes.

Now that live concerts are beginning to proliferate, it was delightful to hear Oberlin cello professor Darrett Adkins ring a change on the solo suite format with his Hypersuite No. 3 on September 28 in the Cirigliano Studio Theatre at Lorain County Community College. His program opened the new season of Signature Series performances in Elyria, and was dedicated to the memory of Eva Hornyak. [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…]

LCCC Signature Series to present pianist Awadagin Pratt on Nov. 18

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cincinnati-based pianist Awadagin Pratt will perform on the Lorain County Community College Signature Series on Monday, November 18 at 7:30 pm in the Cinema Hall at the Stocker Arts Center in Elyria. The free event is the annual Eva Hornyak Memorial Concert, for which Pratt will play Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31, Op. 110, Franck’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue, and Liszt’s Sonata in b.

We last caught up with the pianist two years ago this month, before his performance on the Tri-C Classical Piano Series. In an interview with Jarrett Hoffman, Pratt talked about his training at the Peabody Conservatory (where he was the first to graduate with three diplomas — in piano, violin, and conducting), his prizes (he won the 1992 Naumburg Piano Competition and an Avery Fisher Career Grant two years later), his three visits to the White House (under presidents Clinton and Obama), and his appearance on Sesame Street (when he shared a piano with Big Bird).

I spoke with Awadagin Pratt by telephone at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory, where he teaches, and began by asking what’s been happening in his life during the last two years. [Read more…]

LCCC Signature Series: a conversation with violist Marina Thibeault

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by Daniel Hathaway

Canadian violist Marina Thibeault, who will play a solo recital on the Lorain County Community College Signature Series on Monday, March 4 at 7:30 pm, switched from violin to viola early on. “There weren’t that many violists in Quebec City when I was growing up. I heard a concert that included both Brahms sonatas when I was 15 and if I had known earlier that such an amazing sound existed, I probably would never have played the violin,” she said in a recent telephone conversation from her home in Montreal. [Read more…]

LCCC Signature Series: Transient Canvas (Nov. 21)

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by Nicholas Stevens

transient-canvasAt their best, contemporary art exhibitions stop just short of overwhelming a visitor, coaxing forth contradictory emotions and images. True to their name, Transient Canvas — the Boston-based duo of bass clarinetist Amy Advocat and marimba specialist Matt Sharrock — capture the spirit of today’s visual art scene in their performances, curating pieces and assembling them into diverse yet coherent collections. In a concert on Lorain County Community College’s Signature Series last week, Sharrock drew this very comparison, likening one of the pieces on the program to a mammoth avant-garde painting. [Read more…]

Ars Futura to perform Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at CIM & LCCC

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by Mike Telin

Schoenberg-self-portrait-1910“I believe I am approaching a new way of expression,” composer Arnold Schoenberg wrote in his diary on March 12, 1912. The work Schoenberg is referring to is none other than his pioneering Pierrot Lunaire.

On Wednesday March 2 at 8:00 pm in CIM’s Mixon Hall, and Monday March 7 at 7:30 in Lorain County Community College’s Cirigliano Studio Theatre, the Cleveland-based new music ensemble Ars Futura will present Schoenberg’s melodrama. [Read more…]

Les Délices to open the LCCC Signature Series on September 24

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by Mike Telin

Les-Delices-3The Cleveland-based early music ensemble Les Délices will open the Signature Series at Lorain County Community College on Thursday, September 24 at 7:30 pm with their newest program, titled Toutes Suites. “The program is all about the genesis of the French baroque instrumental dance suite,” the ensemble’s creative and resourceful artistic director Debra Nagy told us by telephone. The concert, to be held in the Cirigliano Theater, will include music by Lully, Marais, and Couperin performed by Debra Nagy (baroque oboe), Julie Andrijeski (baroque violin), David Ellis (viola da gamba), and Simon Martyn-Ellis (theorbo).

“Toutes Suites is all about the development of the instrumental suite. I’ll talk about how it began with a pairing of traditional dances like a pavane and gaillard during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and how that concept developed into the standard format that we have today, with a prelude followed by a very specific series of dances like an allemande, courante, minuet, and gavotte,” Nagy explained. “I’ll also talk about how the instrumental suites were not necessarily meant to be danced, but rather they were composed for solo instruments like the harpsichord, the lute, or for a small ensemble.” [Read more…]

Lorain Community College Signature Series: recent concerts by Nicholas Underhill and Shelly Du

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by Daniel Hathaway

UnderhillWebHeld in the black box Studio Theater at the Stocker Center in Elyria, the Signature Series concerts curated by composer Jeffrey Mumford for Lorain Community College are usually spaced throughout the season. Last week there were two in a row. On Monday, March 2, pianist Nicholas Underhill played a solo recital, followed by harpist Shelly Du on Thursday, March 5, who in addition to performing solo pieces was joined by violinist Jeanelle Brierley in a work by Mumford. [Read more…]

duo parnas to perform on LCCC Signature Series

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by Mike Telin

Duo-ParnasOn Tuesday, November 25, Lorain County Community College’s Signature Series will continue with a performance by duo parnas, Madalyn Parnas, violin, and Cicely Parnas, cello. The free concert, which begins at 7:30 pm in the Studio Theatre at the Stocker Center for the Arts, includes music by Haydn, Tcherepnin, Moravec, and Handel-Halvorsen.

“This is our Northeast Ohio debut and I’m looking forward to the concert; it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Madalyn said during a telephone conversation from Washington D.C. where she and her sister were performing the Brahms Double Concerto with the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. “I love the program. It’s repertoire that audiences don’t often get to hear.”

I asked Madalyn Parnas to say a bit about each of the works on their program. [Read more…]

Classical saxophonists Jake & Sarah to open LCCC Signature Series October 13

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by Mike Telin

Jake-and-SarahAlthough the saxophone is not commonly thought of as a classical instrument —most tend to think of it as a jazz and rock instrument — the classical saxophonists Jake Swanson and Sarah Marchitelli like to remind people that it was the classical romantic music scene of the mid-1800’s where the instrument was born. On Monday, October 13 at 7:30 pm in the Studio Theatre in the Stocker Center for the Arts, Jake & Sarah will return to Northeast Ohio to open the 2014-15 season of Lorain County Community College’s Signature Series. [Read more…]

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