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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.

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Season 14 of Close Encounters, Year 20 of Heights Arts

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Close Encounters Chamber Music and artistic director Isabel Trautwein have two reasons to celebrate: the series’ 14th season, and the 20th year of its parent organization, Heights Arts.

The minds behind the scheduling have kept things simple for concertgoers to store away in their brains (and for writers to explain): the four concerts take place on Sundays at 3:00 pm, which does seem like a particularly nice time for “up close and personal” chamber music, just as the series likes it. Single and season tickets are available online.

Up first is the Omni Quartet on October 13 at a Carriage House on Herrick Mews Lane in Cleveland Heights. Cleveland Orchestra musicians Amy Lee and Alicia Koelz, violins, Wesley Collins, viola, and Tanya Ell, cello, will bring along Haydn’s Trio in C, Hob V:G1, Mozart’s Quartet No. 22 in B-flat, and Robert Schumann’s Quartet No. 3 in A — written during his exuberant, love-filled first year of marriage to Clara Wieck.

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Andrew Sords & friends in Rocky River (Sept. 22)

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by David Kulma

As violinist Andrew Sords criss-crosses the continent playing violin concerti, he builds into his schedule hometown concerts to play with his Cleveland-area colleagues. “An Afternoon of Romantic Chamber Music,” the program he anchored for Rocky River Presbyterian Church’s Artist Concert Series on Sunday, September 22, was an opportunity to perform music written specifically by composers to play with their friends. [Read more…]

Violinist Andrew Sords: at home, with friends 

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by Mike Telin 

While violinist Andrew Sords’ prolific career as a soloist and chamber musician takes him around the world to far away places, there’s just something about coming back to Cleveland and making music with his friends. “There’s nothing better than to rehearse with these high-level colleagues, and have dinner afterwards,” the Cleveland Institute of Music graduate said by telephone on his way to Toronto.

On Sunday, September 22 at 3:00 pm at Rocky River Presbyterian Church, Sords will join violinist Mari Sato, violist Eric Wong, cellist Nathanael Matthews, and pianist Elizabeth DeMio for a program titled “An Afternoon of Romantic Chamber Music.” The free concert is presented as part of the church’s Artist Concert Series.

“Liz and I have done nearly 400 performances together,” Sords said, “and I’ve known Nate Matthews for a number of years. Mari was a coach of mine at CIM. We get along so well and I’m always inspired by her classy playing. And Eric and I were both students at CIM but never worked together until this year, when we played the Schumann piano quintet back in January. I thought wow, what a player.”

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A Friday evening and Sunday afternoon at ENCORE Chamber Music (June 14 & 16)

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by Daniel Hathaway

That the Cavani String Quartet, even in its transitional state, continues to draw a large and devoted following attests to its long and close relationship with the many students the ensemble mentored during its tenure at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Those fans, along with current ENCORE Chamber Music participants, packed the music room at Gilmour Academy’s Tudor House on Friday, June 14 for a program of Mozart, Martinů, and Dvořák. [Read more…]

Heights Arts Close Encounters features women composers (Nov. 11)

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by Nicholas Stevens

The cloud-enshrouded last weeks of the year have come fast, and soon, list-making journalists will issue postmortems and praises for 2018 — summaries and “best of” lists by the dozen. What a perfect time, then, for five Northeast Ohio string players to make a strong case for Concert of the Year, under the auspices of Heights Arts’ Close Encounters Chamber Music series. [Read more…]

Arts Renaissance Tremont: Cavani Quartet & Okantah (Oct. 14)

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by Nicholas Stevens

“…or does it explode?” In a concert last week on the Arts Renaissance Tremont series, the poet Mwatabu Okantah spoke this line from Langston Hughes’s Harlem as the final chord of a movement from Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4 resounded. While the Cavani String Quartet, Okantah’s collaborators in the Collage: Music and Poetry project, paused, the Professor and Poet-in-Residence at Kent State University shot the audience a knowing smile and asked, “is everyone alright?” [Read more…]

Mwatabu Okantah to join Cavani Quartet for “Collage: Music & Poetry” this weekend

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by Jarrett Hoffman

If you’ve ever been curious about weaving together music and spoken word — or if you’ve ever doubted it’s even worthwhile trying — take a listen here to a powerful, surprising combination: the music of Dvořák, played by the Cavani Quartet, and the original poetry of Mwatabu Okantah.

Then, for the price of a freewill offering, go hear the Quartet and Okantah in their program “Collage: Music & Poetry” on the Arts Renaissance Tremont series this Sunday, October 14 at 3:00 pm at Pilgrim Congregational Church. The interweaving not only of two art forms, but also of African and European cultural roots, promises to be fascinating — and a different experience from watching it online, as Cavani violinist Mari Sato told me during a recent telephone conversation.

“If you have that afternoon free and can experience it live, I have to say it’s quite magical,” Sato said. “The messages of the African-American experience, self-discovery, and friendship resonate deeply and move me every time. And the weaving in and out of the poetry with the music is different with each performance as we feed off of one another’s energy and enjoy the interplay of the two art forms. That spontaneity makes for a very live experience. There is nothing like it.” [Read more…]

ENCORE: Cavani Quartet with Mathias & Kim at Tudor House (June 15)

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by Robert Rollin

Mathias-ChantalLast Friday evening, June 15, ENCORE presented an enchanting program of chamber music featuring the Cavani String Quartet, soprano Chantal Mathias, and pianist Hyun Soo Kim. The concert, in the Tudor House at  Gilmour Academy, was a delightful mélange of short, intimate pieces with neo-Romantic, folk-song, and nostalgic connections. [Read more…]

Cavani String Quartet to present “A Viennese Legacy” December 3rd

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by Mike Telin

Cavani-June-2017On Sunday, December 3, at 7:00 pm in Mixon Hall, the Cavani String Quartet — Annie Fullard and Mari Sato, violins, Eric Wong, viola, and Si-Yan Darren Li, cello —  will present a recital as part of the Cleveland Institute of Music’s annual Winter Chamber Music Festival. “A Viennese Legacy” will include Haydn’s Quartet in F, Op. 77, No. 2, Webern’s Langsamer Satz, and Beethoven’s Quartet No. 15 in A, Op. 132. The concert is free but seating passes are required and available online. For a complete list of Festival events click here.

Last August, just after violist Eric Wong and cellist Si-Yan Darren Li had joined the ensemble, ClevelandClassical.com spoke with all four members of the Cavani Quartet. The following was originally published on August 7 before the Quartet’s performance on the Cuyahoga Valley National Park series.

When two longtime members of a string quartet decide to leave the ensemble, the remaining musicians have to ask themselves what to do next. [Read more…]

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