Piano Days @CLE Archives - Cleveland Classical

Piano Days @CLE: Dueling Pianist Benito Gonzalez

August 11, 2022 by Mike Telin

by Mike Telin

Two-time GRAMMY Award-nominated pianist and contemporary jazz master Benito Gonzalez combines a long lineage of American jazz traditions with rhythms from around the world. His sound is recognizable for the powerful rhythm section and Afro-Latin patterns he prioritizes across his projects, working with luminaries from across the spectrum of jazz.

On Sunday August 14 at 5:00 pm at The Madison, Piano Days @CLE will feature Gonzalez in a Dueling Piano Gala as he faces off with Cleveland’s own Jackie Warren in a thrilling musical showdown. Purchase tickets here. purchase tickets here. [Read more…]

Piano Days: a conversation with Apostle Jones’ Mikey Silas

July 29, 2022 by Noah Auby

by Noah Auby

Mikey Silas, of Apostle Jones fame, is proud of what he and his band have been able to accomplish in such a short period of time. Formed in late 2018, Apostle Jones has been on an impressive run in the Cleveland music scene like no other. Over the last four years, they have managed to release a studio EP as well as four live performance compilations.

Speaking of live performance, Mikey Silas along with the rest of Apostle Jones will be performing on Friday, July 29th as part of Piano Cleveland’s “PianoDays @CLE.” Their 7:00pm “Rock the Classics” program takes place at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Union Home Mortgage Plaza outdoor stage. The event will be free and open to the public.

During a recent Zoom conversation, I asked the Cleveland native about the upcoming show and his musical career. [Read more…]

Anthony McGill and Daniel Schlosberg at Kent Blossom Music Festival (July 13)

by Jacob Strauss

On Wednesday July 13, clarinetist Anthony McGill, pianist Daniel Schlosberg, and soprano Colleen Longshaw Jackson gave a masterful performance in Ludwig Recital Hall at Kent State University’s Kent Blossom Music Festival.

The scheduled program by the McGill/McHale Trio was changed due to the unavailability of flutist Demarre McGill and pianist Michael McHale, but there was no change in expectation for the artistry that was going to occur. Anthony McGill is world-renowned, and Daniel Schlosberg is a talented composer and performer who has collaborated with some of our best contemporary musicians.

Jackson began the program with a recitation of Langston Hughes’ poem “Helen Keller” — the first of five poems by Hughes that served as interludes between each piece on the first half. [Read on…]

ChamberFest Cleveland at The Madison (July 1)

by Jacob Strauss

ChamberFest Cleveland put on a spectacular event on July 1 at The Madison. They proclaimed that it was unorthodox fitting a round into a square in the old luxury faucet plant located at 46th and Payne in Midtown.

Pianos with pins and tape on strings, a bass drum and tam tam, crotales, Almglocken, and vibes. Microphones were hooked up all around the instruments. The feed was sent to speakers around the room. Lighting designer Nicholas Houfek hung incandescent globes over the arrangement of instruments from thin black wires stretching across the beams. [Read on…]

Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom with Elim Chan & Benjamin Grosvenor (July 9)

by Peter Feher

The Cleveland Orchestra told a familiar story, but with some unfamiliar faces, on July 9 at Blossom Music Center. The narrative sweep of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade was the highlight of an all-Romantic program that let several excellent young musicians take center stage.

From the podium, Elim Chan set an ambitious tone for the evening. The rising star conductor, here in her Cleveland Orchestra debut, has a commanding style, and every twist and turn in Saturday’s performance tracked closely with her baton. [Read on…]

ENCORE: A Tasteful showcase— “Tales of Travel & Transformation” (July 3)

by Jacob Strauss

ENCORE Chamber Music held a musical tasting on Sunday afternoon, July 3rd at the Dodero Center for the Performing Arts. “Tales of Travel and Transformation” featured members of the Verona Quartet, artistic director Jinjoo Cho, and other faculty of the summer institute.

Cellist Max Geissler led off with composer-in-residence Andrew Rindfleisch’s Quiet Music for Solo Violoncello. Gymnastic hand positions land on natural harmonics in “Waltz Music.” Heavy rhythmic lines roll under chords played assertively by Geissler in “Fast Music,” then become quiet while wind chimes glisten in “Slow Music.” [Read on…]

Nightingale Opera Theater: Jake Heggie’s If I Were You (July 9)

by Jacob Strauss

Si j’etais vous, I would not trust anyone who tries to solve your problems for you. You have to do it yourself, face up to the bleak black wall looming above and keep standing straight. You succumb if you don’t, and that spells long, regressive rest. Atrophying strength. Decomposition.

In Nightingale Opera Theater’s production of Jake Heggie’s 2019 two-act opera If I Were You — presented at Hudson’s Barlow Community Center on Saturday, July 9 — the protagonist, Fabian Hart (tenor Ye Lynn Han), buys the snake oil offered by Brittomara (mezzo-soprano Sydney Murrell), and Hart keeps asking for more. Dressed in red and black, Murrell gave a sharp, Luciferean performance, enabling the young Fabian’s destructive behavior. [Read on…]

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