by Mike Telin
During the past couple of years, No Exit has taken the online concert format to a new level. As ClevelandClassical.com’s Jarrett Hoffman noted: “Plenty of pre-recorded concerts have offered audiences some sort of new and compelling experience. But few organizations have mined that format with as much joy and silliness — and in general, personality — as Cleveland’s new music ensemble No Exit.”
Keeping that tradition alive, the ensemble chose to open their 2022-23 season with an online concert in collaboration with St. Paul-based Zeitgeist. “As far as the presentation goes it’s probably the best online concert we’ve ever done,” No Exit artistic director Timothy Beyer said during a recent telephone conversation.
The playlist includes Stephen Dembski’s Alta, Per Nørgård’s Night Descending, and the world premiere of Nasim Khorrassani’s Primary Call. That concert, released last week, is available for viewing on No Exit’s website. Click here to watch.
Beyer noted that beginning this week, the ensemble will put on its presenter hat. “I’m very excited about the next three events, because each one will be amazing. I know we’re always saying that, but it’s really true.”
Unless you have been through it, it is impossible to grasp the brutalities of war. You cannot imagine the violence, the hunger, the desperation, the isolation. You cannot reckon the infinite death sowed through the ground. Brutality is the reality. It creates a different kind of human.
If you thought the cimbalom was only used in Eastern European folk music, think again. “I got my start on it with the LA Philharmonic,” percussionist Chester Englander said during a recent telephone call. “They hired me to play a piece by Frank Zappa called Yellow Shark and it uses the cimbalom in ‘The Girl in the Magnesium Dress.’” From then on Englander has been on a mission to expand the instrument’s repertoire.
As the ongoing climate crisis continues to grow in severity, artists across all disciplines have turned to their work to bring about a call to action for members of society to do better — or perhaps, to remind them that this issue isn’t going to just go away. Brooklyn-based Unheard-of//Ensemble’s artistry takes this idea to a new level, inviting their audiences to fully engage with the music, space, and of course, nature that surrounds them during the evening.
When composer/pianist 
The third iteration of No Exit’s fall program took the ensemble to an intimate venue — the gallery of Heights Arts on Lee Road in Cleveland Heights, where space is at such a premium that percussionist Luke Rinderknecht’s big marimba was nearly marooned offstage, and a few dozen audience members added up to a packed crowd.
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.
Composer and flutist Hong-Da Chin has carved out a unique career. His music is influenced by folk music from his native Malaysia as well as Chinese and Indian cultures. A specialist in contemporary music, he is equally at home on modern and traditional Chinese flutes.
Although great strides have been made in audio technology, latency issues (lag in time due to internet connection) still prevent musicians from seamlessly passing musical lines from multiple locations in real-time. In their most recent collaboration, “New Sound Worlds,” Cleveland-based No Exit and St. Paul-based Zeitgeist bring life to a new work by Scott Miller during which members of both ensembles perform from their homes and studios. The concert is available on-demand 
The new music ensemble No Exit continues its longstanding collaboration with Zeitgeist, their counterparts from Minnesota’s Twin Cities, with “New Sound Worlds,” a free