by Jarrett Hoffman
“It’s a lovely day in Queens, New York,” conductor Randall Craig Fleischer said, answering his phone while walking with his daughter to the Joffrey Dance Center in an industrial part of the city. “No, actually it’s raining and noisy.”
Despite the gloomy weather, Fleischer talked animatedly over the next fifteen minutes about growing up in Northeast Ohio; his work in the genres of jazz, symphonic rock, and world music fusion; and his Cleveland Orchestra debut this Sunday.
On August 27 at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, he’ll lead “A Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald,” featuring vocalists Capathia Jenkins, Harolyn Blackwell, and Aisha de Haas. Also the TCO debut for de Haas, this celebration of Lady Ella’s 100th birthday includes Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, Someone to Watch Over Me, The Lady Is a Tramp, and Summertime.
Last Saturday evening, March 21, the Youngstown Symphony presented the second program of its Powers Auditorium classical series, City Lights, an interesting concert intermingling Mozart and film music by Charlie Chaplin. Conductor Randall Craig Fleisher gave a short prelude, astutely pointing out that both Mozart and Chaplin shared an ability to include humor, while at the same time imbuing their outputs with pathos. 
Last Saturday night the Youngtown Symphony opened its season with an excellent concert of Romantic audience favorites. The evening’s highlight was a scintillating performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Opus 43 by the gifted Japanese pianist Tomoki Sakata. Sakata was a finalist and the youngest competitor at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. 
This past Saturday evening the Youngstown Symphony presented the season’s last classical music program with a twentieth-century musical emphasis. Soprano Kendra Colton served as guest artist for the evening in a performance of Samuel Barber’s poignant Knoxville: Summer of 1915.
