by Neil McCalmont
On Sunday evening, July 17, The Cleveland Orchestra celebrated the centenary of the National Parks Service with an Americana-themed concert titled “An American in Paris” at Blossom Music Center — their own venue located in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The night’s program consisted of works by Ravel, Copland, and Gershwin conducted by Bramwell Tovey, with guest pianist Javier Perianes.
by Daniel Hathaway
English music doesn’t appear very often on American symphony orchestra programs — except when English conductors make guest appearances. Michael Francis brought along Edward Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s A London Symphony for his Blossom Music Festival visit. On Saturday evening, July 16, he paired engaging Britannic music both urban and bucolic with Mozart’s 21st concerto featuring Australian pianist David Fung. [Read more…]
Wesley Collins, currently third-chair viola in the Boston Symphony, will inherit the principal viola chair of The Cleveland Orchestra from Robert Vernon at the beginning of the next Severance Hall Season. A 2007 graduate of CIM, where he studied with Vernon, the Cincinnati native is the son of musicians. His father was the former principal trumpet of the Cincinnati Symphony.
by Daniel Hathaway
Summer is the time when musical birds of a feather decide to flock together. During the month of June, critical masses of violists, trombonists, and lutenists will convene for festivals and seminars at the Oberlin Conservatory, Cleveland State University, and Case Western Reserve University.
It all starts with the American Viola Society, who will offer four public concerts in conjunction with their convention this week in Oberlin. On Wednesday, June 8 at 7:30 pm, the Jasper String Quartet (left) will open the series in Warner Concert Hall with guest violist Liz Freivogel and music by Beethoven, Missy Mazzoli, Donnacha Dennehy, and Brahms.
A Warner Concert Hall event on the following evening, June 9 at 7:30 pm, will celebrate the career achievement of Robert Vernon, principal viola of The Cleveland Orchestra, with a program of music by Max Bruch, Robert Schumann, and Gabriel Fauré performed by Vernon, violinist Elmar Oliveira, cellist Ralph Curry, and pianist Carolyn Warner. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
While half of The Cleveland Orchestra was busy downtown providing incidental music for The Good Peaches at the Cleveland Play House on Thursday evening, April 14, the rest of the ensemble played a scintillating concert of music by Haydn and Mozart uptown at Severance Hall under guest conductor Jane Glover, featuring principal flute Joshua Smith and harpist Yolanda Kondonassis. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
This summer, Cleveland Orchestra principal viola Robert Vernon will retire after serving in that position since 1976. Before he steps down from his illustrious career in the ensemble, The Cleveland Orchestra Women’s Committee will honor him with a luncheon at Westwood Country Club in Rocky River on Friday, April 15 at 12 Noon.
On that occasion, a conversation with Vernon, the longest-tenured string principal in the history of The Cleveland Orchestra, will be moderated by one of the newest members of its staff. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Nostalgia was much in evidence at Severance Hall on Thursday evening, November 19. Music director laureate Christoph von Dohnányi, who conducted The Cleveland Orchestra from 1984-2002, made his annual return visit to the podium, obviously drawing a large audience of fans. Additionally, the premiere of Richard Sortomme’s Concerto for Two Violas on Themes from Smetana’s “From My Life” String Quartet served as a fond recollection of the composer’s long friendship with its dedicatee, principal viola Robert Vernon, who is scheduled to retire at the end of the Blossom season in 2016. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Since his appointment to The Cleveland Orchestra in 1976, principal viola Robert Vernon has appeared as soloist with the orchestra on more than 100 occasions, both in Cleveland and on tour.
On Thursday, November 18 at 7:30 pm in Severance Hall, Vernon will share the solo spotlight with his longtime stand partner and TCO first assistant principal viola, Lynne Ramsey, for the world premiere of Richard Sortomme’s Concerto for Two Violas on themes from Bedřich Smetana’s “From My Life” Quartet. The concert, under the direction of music director laureate Christoph von Dohnányi, will also include Smetana’s Overture to The Bartered Bride and Franz Schubert’s Symphony in C (“The Great”). The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Jones
Robert Vernon, the longtime principal viola of The Cleveland Orchestra, played chamber music Monday night at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church with six of his friends for the season finale of the Rocky River Chamber Music Society series. It was an evening of gorgeous chamber music by players who clearly enjoyed performing together.
by Daniel Hathaway
An elemental legend set to music by an imaginative composer, and performed by an exacting conductor, a first-class orchestra, a responsive, adaptable chorus, and four veteran soloists made The Cleveland Orchestra’s performance of Hector Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust on Thursday evening, May 7 an unforgettable experience. May the houses for the two remaining concerts on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon be packed to the rafters — a concert this gripping happens only once in a great while. [Read more…]