by Nicholas Stevens
What requires thirty-five music stands, involves movement and memorization, and sheds new light on the works of the classical canon? Last Saturday afternoon, June 23 at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Hall, it was the student participants and associates of the Cleveland Trombone Seminar, playing together as a choir. The low brass players worked wonders in a program of Austro-German Baroque and Romantic repertoire. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Creating a sonorous volume of sound you could hardly imagine without being there, more than 40 trombonists marked the end of the 2016 Cleveland Trombone Seminar with a massed performance of music by Wagner, Mozart, Mahler, and Richard Strauss on Sunday, June 19 in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Summer is the time when musical birds of a feather decide to flock together. During the month of June, critical masses of violists, trombonists, and lutenists will convene for festivals and seminars at the Oberlin Conservatory, Cleveland State University, and Case Western Reserve University.
It all starts with the American Viola Society, who will offer four public concerts in conjunction with their convention this week in Oberlin. On Wednesday, June 8 at 7:30 pm, the Jasper String Quartet (left) will open the series in Warner Concert Hall with guest violist Liz Freivogel and music by Beethoven, Missy Mazzoli, Donnacha Dennehy, and Brahms.
A Warner Concert Hall event on the following evening, June 9 at 7:30 pm, will celebrate the career achievement of Robert Vernon, principal viola of The Cleveland Orchestra, with a program of music by Max Bruch, Robert Schumann, and Gabriel Fauré performed by Vernon, violinist Elmar Oliveira, cellist Ralph Curry, and pianist Carolyn Warner. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The Cleveland Trombone Seminar capped its fourth annual summer gathering on Sunday afternoon, June 14 in Cleveland State University’s Waetjen Auditorium with a glorious performance of a piece you might never have thought you’d hear arranged for nearly forty trombones, four flugelhorns, tuba, harp, organ, and solo soprano. Arranger Mark Lusk said the idea first occurred to him when he passed a fellow student’s door at Eastman and heard heavenly music issuing forth. “That would sound good on trombones,” he thought. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The Cleveland Trombone Seminar, the brainchild of Cleveland Orchestra assistant principal trombone and CSU faculty member Shachar Israel, will bring distinguished trombonists and students together on the campus of Cleveland State University for a variety of masterclasses, lectures, and performances from June 6 through June 14
The first of six public performances will feature Shachar Israel himself in a 2:00 pm solo recital on Saturday, June 6. Mark Lusk of The Pennsylvania State University will play on Monday, June 8 at 6 pm, followed by the Great Lakes Trombone Ensemble (comprising players from the orchestras of Buffalo, Rochester, Erie, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toledo and Detroit) on Tuesday, June 9 at 6 pm.
by Daniel Hathaway
It’s a fine thing when your business doubles from one year to the next. In June of 2012, when Cleveland Orchestra assistant principal trombonist Shachar Israel launched the Cleveland Trombone Seminar, the week-long event brought seventeen trombonists to the Cleveland State University campus for master classes, workshops and performances. This year CTS expects thirty-four participants and associates. “We’re extremely happy with the response,” Israel told us last week in a cell phone conversation while he was enroute to Penn State to rehearse and play a recital. “This year they’re coming from as far away as California and ages range from 18 to 45. Thirteen out of the seventeen from last year were going to come back, though two eventually had to back out. Return customers were not something we were planning on, but we seem to offer something they want and need.”
This year’s seminar, which runs from June 8 through June 16, is a day and a half longer and two new faculty members have been added.
[Read more…]