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Imani Winds captivate in Kent Blossom debut (July 3)

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by Stephanie Manning

Given Imani Winds’ active touring schedule, it’s not unusual to see the group revisit the same part of the U.S. within a few months. So while it might feel like the wind quintet was just here for their March performance in Oberlin, July 3 saw them return to Northeast Ohio to appear on the Kent Blossom Music Festival’s Faculty Concert Series in Ludwig Recital Hall. Thankfully, this proximity was no issue — Imani is a group worth hearing again and again.

The evening’s program, “Black and Brown II: A Celebration of Composers of Color,” was understandably similar to the one from March, although not without some notable changes. [Read more…]

Myer + Miami return to Kent Blossom Music Festival

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Over the years, performances by pianist Spencer Myer with the Miami String Quartet at the Kent Blossom Music Festival have happened so regularly that you could almost set your watch to them. But 2020 derailed that, and in 2021 schedules didn’t line up to make it happen either.

Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in g will be the focus when Myer and the Miami get this tradition going again on Tuesday, July 19 at 7:30 pm at Kent State University’s Ludwig Recital Hall. Of course, the Quartet will be minus one fiddle for that piece, but not to worry: violinists Benny Kim and Cathy Meng Robinson, violist Scott Lee, and cellist Keith Robinson will all come together in string quartets by Joseph Haydn (Op. 77, No. 1) and Samuel Barber (Op. 11). Tickets are available here.

Myer has played Fauré’s First Piano Quartet before, but the g-minor — which he described as grittier and with more gravitas — is new to him. And what a warm welcome it gives to any pianist: a series of quick 32nd-note gestures right at the top, repeated again and again, and again.

[Read more…]

Kent Blossom Music Festival: Demarre McGill & Rodolfo Leone (July 21)

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by Peter Feher

Midway through his performance on July 21 at Ludwig Recital Hall — part of this year’s Kent Blossom Music Festival — flutist Demarre McGill invited the audience into an understanding of his program with an abstract but heartfelt speech. It was all preface to the next piece on the program, an arrangement of three short songs by William Grant Still.

McGill described the “unlikely duo” of emotions coursing through Still’s music, a balance between “mystery and hopefulness” or “nostalgia and energy” — or simply and musically put, major and minor. The flutist kept the discussion artistic, even suggesting that all this talk doesn’t really have any bearing on the music itself. [Read more…]

Kent Blossom Music Festival: a conversation with flutist Demarre McGill

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by Jarrett Hoffman

“The first thing I do is find music that I love, that I’m emotionally connected to, and that I believe the listener will enjoy,” flutist Demarre McGill said by telephone last week, explaining how he put together his upcoming program for the Kent Blossom Music Festival.

In addition to that, the identity of the composers played an important role. “You don’t need to be a female, gay, or Black musician to program female, gay, or Black composers,” he said. “This is my way of creating something that is truly representative of American classical music — this beautiful diversity. That’s intentional.”

On Wednesday, July 21 at 7:30 pm, Kent Blossom will continue its Faculty Concert Series by presenting another pair of Kulas Visiting Artists: McGill and pianist Rodolfo Leone. Their program includes Valerie Coleman’s Fanmi Imén, flute sonatas by Lowell Liebermann and Yuko Uebayashi, and William Grant Still’s Songs for Flute and Piano. Attend in person at Ludwig Recital Hall (tickets here), or catch the free livestream.

[Read more…]

andPlay @ Kent State’s Vanguard New Music Series 

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by Mike Telin

When the duo andPlay — Maya Bennardo, violin, and Hannah Levinson, viola — were in Cleveland to perform on the Re:Sound Festival last summer, ClevelandClassical.com critic Jarrett Hoffman wrote that “Bennardo and Levinson played with obvious chemistry, genuinely at ease with one another in the kind of way that just makes an audience feel good.”

On Thursday, November 21, andPlay will return to Northeast Ohio for a performance on the Kent State Vanguard New Music Series. The 7:30 pm concert in Ludwig Recital Hall will include Leah Asher’s Letters to My Future Self (2018), Clara Iannotta’s Limun (2011), Anthony Vine’s Terrain (2019), Scott Wollschleger’s Violain (2017), and the premiere of a new work by Adam Roberts. The event is free.

I caught up with the duo by telephone and began our conversation by asking how their invitation to Kent came about.

[Read more…]

KSU Vanguard Series: Otte & Lane in The Innocents (Sep. 14)

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by David Kulma

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.

[Read more…]

Wrongful conviction as told through music: KSU and Oberlin to present The Innocents

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by Jarrett Hoffman

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.

That scenario is more common than you may think. Percussionists Allen Otte and John Lane will explore the issue of wrongful conviction in the U.S. justice system this weekend through their work The Innocents, which involves the spoken word, non-traditional instruments, African mbiras/kalimbas, and electronics.

The free concerts take place at Ludwig Recital Hall at Kent State University on Saturday, September 14 at 7:30 pm, presented as part of the Vanguard Guest Artists Series, and at Stull Recital Hall at Oberlin Conservatory on Sunday, September 15 at 4:30 pm.

[Read more…]

Flute and piccolo featured
at Kent Blossom this week

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Planning a recital means choosing music, of course, but also choosing people, and at this Wednesday’s faculty concert at the Kent Blossom Music Festival, Mary Kay Fink knew she wanted to play with Jessica Sindell.

The two have worked together in The Cleveland Orchestra for a season now — Fink, principal piccolo, has been in the flute section since 1990, while Sindell joined as assistant principal flute last fall. But their history runs deeper: Sindell studied with Fink in high school, having grown up in Pepper Pike. Later on, when she was preparing for professional auditions, she would sometimes play for Fink.

“I encouraged her to go the piccolo route,” Fink said during a recent interview, “and then she got the job in Rochester [solo piccolo in the Rochester Philharmonic].” Fink noted that she didn’t coach Sindell before the audition in Cleveland, but said that it’s been a great fit this past season. “She had subbed with us, and [principal flute] Josh [Smith] really enjoyed her. And her first teacher was Saeran St. Christopher, who plays second flute. It’s been a pretty easy transition — it’s been really wonderful.”

[Read more…]

Kent Blossom: Spencer Myer on Beethoven

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by Jarrett Hoffman

The Faculty Concert Series at Kent Blossom Music Festival continues next week with the latest chapter in a long partnership: the Miami String Quartet and pianist Spencer Myer.

This year they turn their attention to Beethoven’s Op. 16 in E-flat. It’s most often played by a quintet of piano and winds but will be performed here in its quartet version for piano and strings. The Miami will open the program on Wednesday, July 10 at 7:30 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall at Kent State with Haydn’s Quartet No. 64 in D, “Largo,” and they’ll conclude the evening with Bruch’s Quartet No. 1 in c. Tickets are available here.

Myer, the Gold Medalist in the 2008 New Orleans International Piano Competition, had just finished up a trip to the gym when I reached him by telephone. His coaching duties at Kent Blossom weren’t set to begin for over a week, but he was already in town, having taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Summer Sonata program.

[Read more…]

Digging into Kent Blossom with Mark Kosower

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Cellist Mark Kosower and pianist Jee-Won Oh will find themselves in a familiar place on Wednesday, July 3 at 7:30 pm: in Ludwig Recital Hall at Kent State University, where they’ll once again open the faculty concert series at this year’s Kent Blossom Music Festival. There’s a reason for that — whether at Kent or elsewhere, they always come up with a program that’s worth talking about.

And that’s exactly what Kosower and I did for about twenty minutes over the phone earlier this week. We discussed his and Oh’s choices of works by Beethoven, Fauré, Bach, Chausson, and Schubert, with conversational side trips both poignant and silly.

Jarrett Hoffman: I’m excited to talk to you about this program.

Mark Kosower: There are a number of themes running through it. There’s the French contingent and impressionism, with Chausson being a bridge composer between Romanticism and impressionism. Then you have the Germanic theme with Bach, Schubert, and of course Beethoven, who had a picture of Bach on his wall in at least 1 of his 39 Viennese apartments. He was always being evicted.

[Read more…]

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