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No Exit: New Season, New Sounds at SPACES Gallery (Oct. 19)

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by Daniel Hathaway

No Exit New Music’s events are like carefully curated art shows, and come complete with printed programs that more resemble exhibition catalogs than what you’d normally be handed at the door of a concert venue.

It takes some space to present the often complex back stories of contemporary works, and the ensemble’s triad of October programs, simply titled “New Season, New Sounds” was accompanied by a colorful, artsy, 39-page booklet that could become a collector’s item.

I joined a good-sized and enthusiastic audience to attend the third performance at SPACES Gallery on Saturday evening, October 19. [Read more…]

Jason Vieaux & Mari Sato open 2024 Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival (June 6)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Jason Vieaux, a guitarist with an uncommonly clean technique and broad palette, made a fine opening act for the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall on Thursday, June 6. He was joined in the second half by violinist Mari Sato, an ideal chamber music partner. Vieaux’s ability to bestow tonal and dynamic nuance gave refreshing variety to every piece, and his cleanly articulated rhythms added panache and polish.

The concert opened with Mexican composer Manuel Ponce’s Sonatina Meridional (“Southern Sonatina”), written to sound Spanish at the behest of Andrés Segovia. Vieaux brought out the linear elegance of the first movement, called “Campo” by Segovia, and the right amount of Iberian swing. So convincing was his ability to change color, you might have thought he had changed instruments if you weren’t looking — the low-register “pizzicato” passages, for example, sounded like an electric bass. The following two movements, “Copla” and “Fiesta,” were artfully done, too, with Segovia-like virtues: a multitude of colors, subtle dynamics, and long arcs of phrasing. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival marks its 24th season this weekend at CIM

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by Daniel Hathaway

From Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9 the Cleveland Institute of Music will host the 24th edition of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Presented by Guitars International, the Festival features a rich mix of recitals, master classes, and lectures by eminent guitarists, bracketed by the fourth annual James Stroud Youth Competition. In a telephone conversation earlier this week, founder and artistic director Armin Kelly said, “It’s a lot of work and a lot of worry, but I love it.”

Considering the festival’s many moving parts, only one complication arose this time around that required quick action on Kelly’s part. “We did have one concert artist we were hoping to bring this year, who a week or two ago informed us that their U.S. visa had been denied. Fortunately, we had another guitarist who lives in Colorado we were planning on bringing next year who we were able to move up to this year.”

That problem having been solved, I asked Kelly what particularly excites him about this year’s lineup. “Obviously, the festival reflects my taste,” he said, “but the individual refinement of our artists is, I think, quite special.” [Read more…]

Jason Vieaux opens the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival (June 1)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

On Thursday, June 1 at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall, guitarist Jason Vieaux opened the 2023 Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival with a sparkling display, mixing assured technique with an impressively broad guitar ethos. In a program stretching from Albéniz to Metheny, Vieaux acquitted himself with ease and authority, setting a high bar for every festival recital to follow.

The night began with one of Andrés Segovia’s favorite works, Albéniz’s Torre Bermeja, a short piano piece that, in the hands of a skilled player like Vieaux at least, seems more suited to the guitar. His touch throughout was light, particularly in the repeated sixteenth-note triplets, which imparted buoyancy and optimism. 

[Read more…]

CD Review: Margaret Brouwer Reactions 

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by Nicolette Cheauré

Margaret Brouwer’s latest album, Reactions: Songs and Chamber Music, released in April of this year, is an exploration of shared humanity, connection, love, and responses to universal life experiences.

Through a mix of instrumental and vocal chamber music featuring Sarah Beaty (mezzo-soprano), Brian Skoog (tenor), Mari Sato (violin and narration), Eliesha Nelson (viola), and Shuai Wang (piano), Brouwer offers a study of the range of human emotion. [Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland: “Tales and Scenes” (Jan. 21)

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by Stephanie Manning

The Christmas season appeared to still be in full swing at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus on January 21. Merry wreaths, festive trees, and twinkling lights filled the cavernous space three weeks into the new year. The evening was a chilly one, and most audience members chose to keep their coats on as they settled into their seats for CityMusic Cleveland’s captivating chamber program, “Tales and Scenes.”

The Pantheon Ensemble kicked off the concert with J.S. Bach’s Concerto in f, where pianist Elizabeth DeMio was joined by violinists Masha Andreini and Mari Sato, violist Yaël Senamaud-Cohen, cellist Nataliya Pschenychna, and bassist Tracy Rowell. The group approached the Bach with a rich, dramatic style fitting for both the piece and the venue. But although the architecture of St. Stanislaus is visually impressive, its extremely resonant space was not always beneficial to the ensemble’s blend and balance.

[Read more…]

Buoyed into the evening:
30 minutes of No Exit (Aug. 27)

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by Jarrett Hoffman

By unofficial consensus, it’s best when virtual concerts wrap up in under an hour. The new music ensemble No Exit took that idea to another level on Friday, August 27 with a pre-recorded video of less than half that length.

In person, that might feel like an abrupt end to your plans for the night, given the effort needed to find some decent clothes and squeal out the driveway. But at home on Friday, when the concert was over, I felt refreshed in a way I didn’t expect. While full-length concerts can take something out of you energy-wise, here I felt almost buoyed into the rest of the evening.

[Read more…]

Sato & Sords send off Earth & Air with Bologne & Bach

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Earth and Air: String Orchestra is taking its final bow next week, but they won’t be going away quietly. The chamber ensemble has enlisted not one but two soloists for the occasion, more specifically two “Dueling Divas,” as violinists Andrew Sords and Mari Sato call their duo.

Another intriguing pairing is the program itself, which places J.S. Bach and his popular Concerto for two violins in d side by side with the Symphonie Concertante in G of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, an 18th-century Black composer who is only recently receiving his due recognition both in the history books and the concert hall.

The free concert airs on YouTube on the morning of Tuesday, April 20, the fruits of a recording session held earlier this month at Trinity Cathedral and engineered by Paul Eachus, with video direction by Mathias Reed and cinematography by Robert Reiland.

“It has been a wonderful run of six years,” director David Ellis (below) wrote on the ensemble’s website. “We are so grateful to our loyal audience and patrons. We couldn’t have done this without you!” He also left the door open just a crack: “We anticipate other individual and small ensemble projects in the future on a more limited basis.”

[Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland:
Pantheon Ensemble (Nov. 8)

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by Jarrett Hoffman

In 2020, our minds have all been occupied by crucial issues of the now: the pandemic, the movement for racial justice, the election. Because of that, one important anniversary has flown a little bit under the radar: the centennial of the 19th amendment, ratified on August 18, 1920, which gave American women the right to vote.

CityMusic Cleveland is celebrating that milestone with this season’s Chamber Music Series, which continued on November 7 and 8 with a performance by six women of the Pantheon Ensemble, made up of CityMusic players and friends. I heard the concert on November 8, a live stream from the Maltz Performing Arts Center.

[Read more…]

CityMusic chamber music at Praxis Workshop (Jan. 24)

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by David Kulma

CityMusic Cleveland is best known for the free orchestra concerts it gives all over the Cleveland area, often in large churches and synagogues. But another feature of this group’s programming is its chamber music series at Praxis Fiber Workshop in Collinwood. This cosy art space was perfect for the concert I heard on Friday, January 24. People filled the room, and the music enveloped the space for an immersive experience. I highly recommend trying to get a seat in the quasi-alcove off to the side.

[Read more…]

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