ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad

Chester Englander & his cimbalom return to No Exit this weekend

by

On Friday, October 23 at Praxis Fiber Workshop and Saturday, October 24 at SPACES, No Exit New Music kicks off their season with a program featuring cimbalom virtuoso Chester Englander.

The 7:00 pm free programs will include music by John Adams, Joseph Pereira, György Kurtág, Kaija Saariaho, Alfred Schnittke, and Miklos Rozsa.

The following interview has been reposted with the permission of No Exit.

by Laura King

Internationally acclaimed percussionist and cimbalom virtuoso Chester Englander has helped redefine the possibilities of the cimbalom, an instrument traditionally associated with Eastern European folk music, and brought its extraordinary sonic palette to the forefront of contemporary classical music.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Silent Film Festival: A Page of Madness with No Exit (Sept. 19)

by

by Daniel Hathaway

It took a while for sound tracks to be incorporated into cinematography in the 1920s, a gap in technology that opened up a variety of opportunities for live performers to creatively fill the sonic void in films of the period.

Cleveland’s Silent Film Festival has enhanced its screenings of historical footage with a variety of live musicians, including Cleveland’s new music ensemble No Exit, who provided a powerful, half-composed, half-improvised underscore for Teinosuke Kinugasa’s 1926 film, Kurutta Ichipeija (“A Page of Madness”) on September 19 at the Cleveland Museum of Art .

Under the expert curation of No Exit’s assistant director and pianist James Praznik, whose brain and fingers command an encyclopedic library of tunes and musical quotations, clarinetist Gunnar Owen Hirthe, violinist Cara Tweed, violist James Rhodes, cellist Nicholas Diodore, and percussionist Katalin La Favre reinforced the weirdness of the 70-minute film. [Read more…]

No Exit closes season with “Songs, Soundscapes and Sonnets”

by

By Daniel Hathaway

No Exit’s recent foray into art song brought new takes to sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay and traditional lullabies on Friday, May 29 at The Bop Stop. Cycles by Robert Honstein and Annika Sokefeldt were vividly realized by soprano Anika Kildegaard and the No Exit ensemble —  Cara Tweed (violin), Nicholas Diodore (cello), Sean Gabriel (flutes), Gunnar Owen Hirthe (clarinets), Shuai Wang & Rob Kovacs (pianos), and Katalin La Favre (percussion).

The composers had colorful texts to work with. Millay’s sonnets follow the traditional fourteen-line format in which the final couplet often contains a surprise, and Sokefeldt has deconstructed familiar “Mother Goose” rhymes — along with English and French songs — into what she calls “feminist rager lullabies,” “retelling old lullabies for a new, queer age.”

[Read more…]

No Exit welcomes Anika Kildegaard back to Cleveland for “Songs, Soundscapes and Sonnets”

by

by Mike Telin

In his composer note for Sonnets, Robert Honstein writes, “At a time of high poetic modernism, [Edna St. Vincent] Millay injects the ancient form with vitality and stylistic ingenuity. In her hands the sonnet feels fresh and urgent.”

On Thursday, May 28 at 7:00 pm at Waterloo Arts No Exit will present “Songs, Soundscapes and Sonnets” featuring soprano Anika Kildegaard. The setlist features Robert Honstein’s Sonnets, as well as Annika Socolofsky’s Don’t say a word, and Timothy Beyer’s Malekhamoves. The program will be repeated at 7:00 pm at  The Bop Stop (May 29) and Heights Arts (May 30). As always, No Exit concerts are free.

I reached Anika Kildegaard by phone and began by asking her about Hohnstein’s piece.

Anika Kildegaard: This is a work that Robert wrote for No Exit a few years ago. Five of the songs were premiered by soprano Lauren Pearl. I’ll be singing those plus three new ones.

[Read more…]

No Exit celebrates “Art of the Cleveland School”

by

by Mike Telin

In the first half of the 20th century, Cleveland was home to some of the most visionary and adventurous artists the United States has ever produced.

This week No Exit will present “Cleveland Renaissance: Art of the Cleveland School.” The program celebrates Cleveland School artists Clarence Holbrook Carter, William Sommer, Clara Deike, Hughie Lee-Smith, August Biehle, Clarence Van Duzer, and Charles Sallée. Their art has served as inspiration for new works by composers Adonai Henderson, Gleb Kanasevich, Christopher Neiner, Greg D’Alessio, James Praznik, and Timothy Beyer, along with new poetry by Ray McNiece and Raja Belle Freeman.

Performances begin on Thursday, March 12 at 7:00 pm at Praxis Fiber Workshop, 15301 Waterloo Rd., Cleveland. The program will be repeated on Friday, March 13 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd., Cleveland (reserve free tickets online), and Saturday, March 14 at SPACES, 2900 Detroit Ave., Cleveland. All concerts are free.

[Read more…]

No Exit Presents LIGAMENT: an interview with Anika Kildegaard

by

by Mike Telin

This week No Exit presents LIGAMENT — Anika Kildegaard (voice) and Will Yager (double bass) — on Friday, February 6 at Kent State University’s Ludwig Recital Hall and on Saturday, February 7 at Praxis Fiber Workshop.

Their program features works by Zac Fick-Cambria, Ruby Fulton, James Dillon, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Katherine Balch. The Cleveland State Percussion Ensemble will perform a brief opening set. Both free concerts begin at 7:00 pm.

No Exit’s Laura King spoke with Anika Kildegaard  to learn more about her musical path and the intimate, exploratory listening experience LIGAMENT will offer their Northeastern Ohio audiences.

The interview is reposted with the permission of the ensemble and author. 

[Read more…]

No Exit and Zeitgeist: An Evocation of Our Current Time (Jan. 9)

by

by Mike Telin

On Saturday, January 9 at SPACES, Cleveland-based No Exit and St. Paul-based Zeitgeist continued their long-standing collaboration with An Evocation of Our Current Time.

Unlike most performances where the audience is aware of what they will be experiencing, this one gave you very little information in advance other than it was to be “a 55-minute multimedia experience that draws on improvisation, film, artificial intelligence, environmental manipulation, lies, magic, gaslighting and other forms of chicanery.”

Unlike most No Exit concerts there were no elaborate programs to follow. And instead of presenting a number of works by a variety of composers, An Evocation of Our Current Time was a single work by No Exit artistic director Timothy Beyer with technical assistance by James Praznik. As the capacity audience took their seats in the long gallery they were face to face with a dozen musicians, a projector, and a white wall.
[Read more…]

No Exit and Zeitgeist: An Evocation of Our Current Time

by

by Mike Telin

NO EXIT evocation_jan_2026This week Cleveland-based No Exit and St. Paul-based Zeitgeist will continue their long-standing collaboration with “An Evocation of Our Current Time.” This 55-minute multimedia experience draws on improvisation, film, artificial intelligence, environmental manipulation, lies, magic, gaslighting and other forms of chicanery.

The 7:00 pm free performances are on Thursday at Trinity Cathedral, Friday at SPACES, and Saturday at Heights Arts.

No Exit’s Laura King spoke with artistic director/composer Tim Beyer about how the ensemble’s recent Surreality season reshaped their creative trajectory, why it’s important for artists to grapple with the foundational instability of “now,” and how audiences might react when confronted with a work that both mirrors and distorts the world we inhabit.

The interview is reposted with the permission of the ensemble and author. 

Laura King: Tim, please talk about how Surreality reshaped your thinking about what a No Exit concert can be, and how An Evocation of Our Current Time has grown out of that evolution.

[Read more…]

No Exit opens season with “American Descent” at Praxis Fiber Workshop (Oct. 25)

by

by Mike Telin

There was not an open seat to be had at Praxis Fiber Workshop on Saturday, October 25 when the adventurous new music ensemble No Exit began their 17th season with a program of four thoroughly engaging works.

As a prelude to the program, James Rhodes presented two movements from Garth Knox’s Viola Spaces, a collection of eight etudes each of which focus on an extended technique.  

No. 2, “Ghosts,” examines the technique of sul tasto — on the fingerboard. Beginning with a pitchless bowing on the strings, Rhodes brilliantly produced spooky, breathy, brushing sounds.  In No. 6, “Harmonic Horizons,” Rhodes took listeners on a tour of the instrument’s harmonic series. Here he produced an interesting mix of straight-tones, double-stops, trills, and slides in every register of the viola.

[Read more…]

No Exit opens season with “American Descent”

by

by Mike Telin

The adventurous ensemble No Exit begins their 17th season this week with a variety of works that reflect on the unprecedented times in which we are living.

On October 23 at 7:00 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall at Kent State University, No Exit will present “American Descent.” The set list includes Garth Knox’s Viola Spaces, Geoffrey Burleson’s Cryptic Locomotion (premiere of 2025 version), June Young Will Kim’s After days of rain, construction fills the air, and Andrew Rindfleisch’s American Descent (world premiere).

The program will be repeated on Saturday, October 25 at 7:00 pm at Praxis Fiber Workshop. Both performances are free.

[Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us