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Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (first of two articles)

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by Mike Telin

Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of reason, the power by which humans understand the universe and improve their own condition. The goals of rational humanity were considered to be knowledge, freedom, and happiness. (Encyclopedia Britannica)

On Friday, November 22 at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series will present the Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment. Under the direction of Jonathan Cohen, the program will include Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Albinoni’s Oboe Concerto No. 2 in d, Op. 9, and Vivaldi’s Gloria. The concert will feature sopranos Katherine Watson and Rowan Pierce, countertenor Iestyn Davies, and oboist Katharina Spreckelsen. Tickets are available online.

Following the performance, you can unwind with members of the OAE during The Night Shift. The free hangout and performance will take place at the Birenbaum club, on the lower level of the Hotel at Oberlin. Capacity is limited, and guests will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis.

[Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Spring Quartet at Finney (Apr. 17)

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by Nia Burger
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

The Spring Quartet — bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding, saxophonist Joe Lovano, drummer Jack DeJohnette, and pianist Leo Genovese — was warmly welcomed to the Finney stage by a sold-out audience on April 17. The show, part of the Artist Recital Series and the 30th anniversary of Oberlin’s Jazz Studies program, started with a fitting tune titled Spring Day written and led by Lovano. Each player was individually brilliant in personal style, and yet they also melded seamlessly into a powerfully dynamic quartet. [Read more…]

The Spring Quartet: a conversation with Joe Lovano and Jack DeJohnette

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by Mike Telin

On Wednesday, April 17 at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series will present The Spring Quartet, an all-star ensemble that includes drummer Jack DeJohnette, saxman Joe Lovano, bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding, and pianist Leo Genovese. The concert is part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the Conservatory’s Jazz Studies Program. Tickets are limited and available online.

Click here to read a preview of tomorrow night’s concert. Here we continue our conversations with Lovano and DeJohnette to talk about their careers and how they came to jazz.

Joe Lovano was born in Cleveland, where his father was a noted tenor saxophonist. After graduating from Euclid High School he went on to study at the Berklee College of Music. Lovano is a self-proclaimed Cleveland ambassador and is thrilled to have recently spent two nights at the Bop Stop recording for National Public Radio’s Jazz Night in America. When I spoke to him, he was in a four-day residency at San Francisco Jazz.

[Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: pianist Alexandre Tharaud (Apr. 3)

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by Daniel Hathaway

It’s a near-sacred tenet of the concert business that the show must go on. Happily for the Oberlin Artist Recital Series, French pianist Alexandre Tharaud made that happen when he stepped in on very short notice — and soon after an international flight — to replace Piotr Anderszewski in Finney Chapel on April 3. And with J.S. Bach’s daunting “Goldberg” Variations, no less. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: The Spring Quartet

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by Mike Telin

It’s been three decades since the Oberlin Conservatory launched its Jazz Studies Program, and beginning on Monday, April 15, the school will mark the milestone with a three-day celebration. (A full schedule is below.) The festivities will culminate on Wednesday, April 17 at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel with an Artist Recital Series performance by The Spring Quartet, an all-star ensemble that includes drummer Jack DeJohnette, saxman Joe Lovano, bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding, and pianist Leo Genovese. Tickets are limited and available online.

The membership of the Spring Quartet spans three generations, something that DeJohnette, a 2012 NEA Jazz Master, said makes for a nice balance of older and younger generations. “There’s this exchange of inspiration from Esperanza and Leo and you need that young energy,” he said during an interview.

In a separate interview Joe Lovano said that the group shares a common musical vocabulary which is the reason the four members “clicked from the very first downbeat.”

DeJohnette agreed. “Sometimes people come together and the magic happens,” he said. “We have a lot of love and respect for each other as people and as artists, and the propensity to work together cooperatively is greatly enhanced because of that.” [Read more…]

Tharaud to replace Anderszewski on Oberlin Artist Recital Series April 3

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by Daniel Hathaway

French pianist Alexandre Tharaud will step in on short notice for Piotr Anderszewski on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series this Wednesday evening, April 3 at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel. Anderszewski has withdrawn from his current recital tour due to illness. Tickets for the cancelled recital will be honored at the door, and new ticket buyers can reserve online here.

On Wednesday, Tharaud will play J.S. Bach’s so-called Goldberg Variations, followed by a question and answer session moderated by Oberlin piano professor Robert Shannon. The popular title of the work refers to the tale — now regarded as spurious — of a harpsichordist named Goldberg who is supposed to have appealed to Bach for a work to entertain his insomniac patron during sleepless nights.

One of the only Bach works printed during his lifetime, the 1741 copper plate engraving by Nuremberg publisher Balthasar Schmid is titled “Keyboard Exercise, consisting of an ARIA with diverse variations for harpsichord with two manuals.” [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Joyce DiDonato in Songplay (Feb. 27)

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by Rory O’Donoghue

Joyce DiDonato wants you to play with the song, and she’ll tell you why. The multiple Grammy award-winning mezzo-soprano brought a full house to Oberlin College’s Finney Chapel on Wednesday, February 27, backed by an all-star ensemble. The program featured an array of songs from her recent album Songplay, and although moments bordered on theatrical cheese, DiDonato delivered the goods with her signature panache. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Doric String Quartet (Feb. 22)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The superb London-based Doric String Quartet brought both musical and equipment surprises to their riveting performance on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series in Finney Chapel on February 22. Period bows came out not only for the opening Haydn quartet but also for the concluding Mendelssohn, lending extra flexibility to the former and an unusual suppleness to the latter. And Britten’s String Quartet No. 3 enjoyed an extra dollop of authenticity through Hélène Clément’s viola, an 1843 instrument by Giussani that had been gifted by Frank Bridge to Britten — his star pupil — just before the composer had sailed off to the United States. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series:
Craig Terry talks about “Songplay”

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by Mike Telin

Last week, pianist Craig Terry shared Akron’s Thomas Hall stage with opera stars Lawrence Brownlee and Eric Owens for a Tuesday Musical concert — it was fantastic. On Wednesday, February 27 at 7:30 pm, the pianist will return to Northeast Ohio for a performance on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series, where he will share the Finney Chapel stage with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato.

The evening, titled “Songplay,” is based on DiDonato’s recently released album of the same name, with arrangements by Terry. It features songs from the early Baroque to American Classics, and from pure classical to improvised jazz. Tickets are available online.

“This tour has six stops, and the one with Larry and Eric has eight,” Terry said during a recent telephone conversation. “On Sunday I perform with Larry and Eric in Seattle, and on Monday the Joyce tour starts in the same theater. I’ve never played consecutive dates in the same space with different artists before, but this is a really fun time for me.”   [Read more…]

Doric String Quartet to make Northeast Ohio debut at Oberlin

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by Mike Telin

Over the years I have heard many interesting stories about how chamber music ensembles have come into existence. But I was not prepared for the answer I received from cellist John Myerscough of the Doric String Quartet.

“Alex Redington and myself are the two founding members,” he said. “We’ve known each other since we were nine years old. We met at a chamber music camp for kids in the U.K. — we used to go during the school holidays. Then, when we were fifteen or sixteen we were put into the quartet that we are still in today. It just really worked, so we kept going. There never was a moment where it was a decision to try and make it professionally — it just took us and we’ve always been doing it. It’s our life I suppose.” In 2018 the Quartet celebrated their twentieth anniversary.

On Friday, February 22 at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel, the Doric String Quartet (Alex Redington and Ying Xue, violins, Hélène Clément, viola, and John Myerscough, cello) will make their Northeast Ohio debut with a concert on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series. Tickets are available online. Beginning at 9:30 am on Saturday, February 23 in the Conservatory, the Doric will give four master classes — each member will work with at least one student chamber music ensemble. [Read more…]

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