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She Scores: a dazzling display from composers & performers (June 2)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

You might have gone to the Sunday, June 2 She Scores concert to hear exemplary works by female and nonbinary composers, or simply to enjoy some fresh new sounds. But once there, you would have stayed for the dazzling expertise on display, from both composers and performers alike.

Credit the Local 4 Music Fund and executive director Amber Rogers for organizing the fourth annual iteration of this splendid concert series, which ran from May 30-June 2 in CIM’s lovely Mixon Hall. Genre or gender aside, this was an afternoon of superb music.

Margi Griebling-Haigh’s Triskaidekaphilia (“love of the number thirteen”) for three violins made for an arresting and mathematical start. Violinists Ken Johnston, Leah Goor-Burtnett, and Emily Cornelius drew out the composer’s introspective and playful sides in this well-crafted three-movement work. [Read more…]

CD Review: Veil,
Chamber Music of Greg D’Alessio
Ars Futura • Navona Records

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by Hannah Schoepe

To be “veiled” suggests a loss of orientation, dimmed sight, and a shadowy sense of mystery — ideas that are captured in Cleveland-based Ars Futura Ensemble’s newest album, Veil. Released by Navona Records on September 14, the playlist consists of five multifaceted, many-hued works by Cleveland State University faculty member Greg D’Alessio. [Read more…]

Time Canvas Ensemble and Archie Green to explore “Hip Hop and Minimalism”

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by Alice Koeninger

Time Canvas Ensemble will cap off their Home Not Home concert trilogy with four performances of “Hip Hop and Minimalism,” featuring hip-hop artist and mental health advocate Archie Green (left). Three house shows will take place on Thursday, August 9 and Friday the 10th at 6:30 pm, and on Sunday the 12th at 4:00 pm. RSVP through their website and get an email with the house address the day before. A fourth performance will take place at Historic St. John’s on Saturday, August 11 at 8:00 pm — buy tickets here.

In a phone interview with Time Canvas guitarist and executive director Joshua Stauffer, he described how the title Home Not Home relates to hip-hop and minimalism through the African American experience. “Many people don’t feel at home, or completely welcome in their own country,” he said. The Ensemble — which also includes violinist and artistic director Chiara Stauffer and cellist Robert Nicholson — thought that this phenomenon was important to include in their discussion of refugees and what it means to call a country home, especially in a city like Cleveland that is becoming so gentrified.

Stauffer said he thought of Green right away because of his work advocating for mental health in the African American community in Cleveland. Time Canvas is excited to collaborate with him while he raps over and in between minimalist pieces such as John Cage’s In a landscape and Philip Glass’s Mad Rush. Stauffer emphasized that since he is not black, he could not speak to the African American experience, and that Time Canvas’s goal as an ensemble is to “get out of the way” and give Green a platform to speak. “We’re just giving him a lot of paint and putting up a canvas and saying, ‘Go for it!’”

[Read more…]

Blue Streak Ensemble at Heights Arts: “Looking Back” (October 13)

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by Daniel Hathaway

blue-streak-collageComposer Margaret Brouwer curated a fascinating playlist for the most recent concert by her Blue Streak Ensemble. At Heights Arts on October 13, the seven musicians wrapped a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Bascom Little Fund and a remembrance of the victims of 9/11 into a single program, “Looking Back.” [Read more…]

Blue Streak Ensemble to present “Down Home Classical” February 25

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by Carlyn Kessler

Brouwer-Margaret“I thought the name ‘Down Home Classical’ fit perfectly because chamber music originally started in the home,” composer Margaret Brouwer explained in a telephone conversation. “Back before television, families would get together and play chamber music in the home, and all of this music is very much that kind of chamber music. And the place where we’re performing, Dunham Tavern, is like a great big living room. The audience will be sitting pretty close to the musicians, which will be almost like a home environment.”

On Thursday, February 25 at 7:30 pm at Cleveland’s Dunham Tavern Museum, the Blue Streak Ensemble (BSE), directed by award-winning composer Margaret Brouwer, will present “Down Home Classical,” an evening of American porch music. “It’s very American music,” said Brouwer. “There are a lot of beautiful melodies, wonderful sparkling sounds, and fun, catchy rhythms.” [Read more…]

FiveOne Experimental Orchestra to launch workplace concerts

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by Mike Telin

51XO-GroupSince 2008 audiences have come to expect the unexpected from the Cleveland-based FiveOne Experimental Orchestra (51XO). The ensemble regularly presents concerts in truly non-traditional spaces including warehouses, cemeteries, sculpture gardens, and even at a vintage consignment store. Beginning in January, 51XO will extend their innovative approach to the sustainability side of the organization with a new outreach program that enables Cleveland-area employers to hire the ensemble to perform for their employees onsite.

“Sustainability is the holy grail of non-profit organizations,” 51XO cofounder and executive director Jeremy Allen said during a telephone conversation. “We are constantly tasked with finding new and increasingly sustainable ways to share art with our community. Grants are wonderful when you get them, but you can’t build a revenue model around them.”

Allen said that 51XO has learned a lot about sustainability during the past couple of years through the training they’ve received from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. “We’re creative people and we should be using those creative energies to develop new programs in both artistic and organizational capacities. I anticipate that we will have a good bit of interest in this program once the word gets out.”   [Read more…]

FiveOne Experimental Orchestra: “Sacrum Silentium” at Disciples Church (Nov. 13)

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by Timothy Robson

FiveOne-Experimental-OrchestraA concert of “new music” conjures up for some listeners the works of the atonal and twelve-tone works of the likes of Arnold Schoenberg and his disciples, the austere works of Pierre Boulez, or the dense modernist Harrison Birtwistle. But these days composers of contemporary “classical” music are no longer bound by such musico-political considerations. There is no “accepted” modern style. Instead composers now draw upon a wide variety of inspiration: old works, pop and rock music, jazz and world music, among other influences. [Read more…]

FiveOne Experimental Orchestra to perform at Flower Child September 26

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by Mike Telin

51XO-1Since May of 2008, the Cleveland-based FiveOne Experimental Orchestra (51XO) has presented concerts featuring an eclectic mix of repertoire that bridges the gap between pop and art music at out of the ordinary venues such as the Sculpture Garden and the East Cleveland Cemetery. On Saturday, September 26 at 8:00 pm, 51XO will push the envelope of unusual venues even further with their latest program, “Dream House,” a guided labyrinth of solo works performed by the ensemble’s eight members throughout the two floors of Cleveland’s premier retro vintage shop, Flower Child, located at 11508 Clifton Boulevard.

“This is going to be a cool concert,” 51XO’s executive director Jeremy Allen said enthusiastically during a telephone conversation. “We’re asking people to arrive at 8:00 pm and spend the first half hour exploring the space. I’ve talked to a lot of people who know where it is but have never been inside, so we want to give everyone a chance to get a feel for the space, and do some shopping if they want to.” [Read more…]

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