Mwatabu Okantah Archives - Cleveland Classical

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

October 18, 2018 by Nicholas Stevens

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

October 9, 2018 by Jarrett Hoffman

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…]

SalonEra: Medieval Christmas

by Nicholas Stevens

Art often transcends without trying, remaining rooted in its specific regional, topical, or historical niche yet appealing well beyond. A humble central-German cantor became Bach, an observer of social posturing in a narrow slice of the gentry became Austen, an aerosol virtuoso known to tag lower-Manhattan walls became Basquiat.

Northeast Ohio’s Les Délices has long been that rarest of beasts: a world-class organization so proud of its region (ours) and repertoire (distinct niches in pre-1800 music) that it never tries to be everything to everyone, paradoxically making a strong case for a broad, curious international following. In the December episode of its SalonEra series, the ensemble embraces its strengths and community to marvelous effect. [Read on…]

Piano quintets from
Local 4 Music Fund (Dec. 17)

by Jarrett Hoffman

The Local 4 Music Fund continued its “Tuning In” series on December 17 with an engaging, emotionally wide-ranging program of piano quintets, streamed live from the Steinway Piano Gallery of Cleveland.

The opener was Amy Beach’s Op. 67 (1907), a late-Romantic showcase of powerful and direct expressiveness. The closer was Dmitri Shostakovich’s intense but close-to-the-vest Op. 57 (1940). And in between was Eric Charnofsky’s 5 by 5 (2011), in one respect a hybrid of those other styles of musical communication: sometimes overtly emotional, but often exhibiting a coolness in its leaping gestures and its glassy harmonies.

[Read on…]

Music From The Western Reserve: Shapiro continues Beethoven cycle (Dec. 13)

by Nicholas Stevens

Music From The Western Reserve concerts always fall on Sunday, even as streams. December 13 was therefore as close to Beethoven’s likely birthdate on the 16th as the presenters could come to throwing a virtual party. Debuting their stream before that occasion made little difference in the concert’s power: over a week later, pianist Daniel Shapiro’s stunning interpretations remained lodged in this reviewer’s mind. As social media lit up with tributes and music-lovers around the world raised a glass, Shapiro’s MFTWR video remains on YouTube, where those interested can still listen and learn what it means to truly engage with Beethoven.

[Read on…]

Cleveland Opera Theater: Amahl and the Night Visitors

by Mike Telin

What’s on your list of favorite holiday classics? The ones you remember from childhood and — as an adult — still look forward to seeing. My list begins with Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, followed by Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. And I still enjoy How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas — especially Vince Guaraldi’s musical score.

Another I remember fondly is Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. Commissioned by NBC, the one act, made-for-television opera, premiered on December 24, 1951, at the network’s studios in New York’s Rockefeller Center. And now, through the wonders of technology, Cleveland Opera Theater has created a magical new production of the work which is available on demand through January 6, 2021 (Three Kings Day). [Read on…]

CD Review—
Bassoonist Dana Jessen: Winter Chapel

by Mike Telin

Improvisation: the act of creating something without preparation.

Inspiration: The process of being mentally stimulated to do something creative.

On her debut album Carve, Dana Jessen challenged listeners to discard any preconceived notions they might have had about the bassoon, and allow themselves to be swept into a magical world of colorful acoustic and electronic soundscapes. The album included commissioned works interwoven with improvisations.

Jessen has now followed up with her second solo CD, Winter Chapel. Recorded on January 17, 2020 in Oberlin College’s Fairchild Chapel and available on Carrier Records, the album is a continuum in Jessen’s journey to push the musical boundaries of her instrument and herself as an improviser. [Read on…]

CD Review— Eighth Blackbird: Singing in the Dead of Night

by Lilyanna D’Amato

I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

Thus begins the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens’ intensely evocative poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, which describes the haunting flight of a blackbird against the backdrop of a devastatingly still, snowy night.

Enigmatic but vivid, Stevens’ imagery now serves as the artistic cornerstone of a premiere contemporary classical ensemble: Eighth Blackbird. [Read on…]

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