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Rocky River Chamber Music Society: horn, violin, and piano make a delightful trio (May 5)

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by Stephanie Manning

The Rocky River Chamber Music Society’s season-ending concert, featuring the principal horn of The Cleveland Orchestra, was understandably marketed as “Nathaniel Silberschlag & Friends.” But the other two names contained in the “& Friends” — violinist Genevieve Smelser and pianist Alicja Basinka — were equally as important to the evening’s success.

On May 5 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the trio of local musicians delivered a wonderfully relaxing evening of chamber music by Johannes Brahms and Charles Koechlin. [Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: North Coast Winds (Apr. 7)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

According to Ben Chen’s program notes for the North Coast Winds concert on April 7 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the jazz age, which began in the 1920s,  coincided with the emergence of the woodwind quintet as a standard chamber ensemble. This made an appealing premise for the ensemble’s programming. But if jazz as a musical style and aesthetic was hard to detect that evening, it mattered little.

What did matter was the quality of the music performed and the playing of the ensemble, which was refined and persuasive. [Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: JR Fralick & Friends (Feb. 24)

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by Kate MacKenzie

From somber Shostakovich to carousing cabaret, tenor JR Fralick displayed a range of his abilities on the Rocky River Chamber Music Society’s February 24th’s concert at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church.

Fellow Baldwin Wallace faculty members Christine Fuoco, piano, Steve Sang Kyun Koh, violin, Lembi Veskimets, viola, and Khari Joyner, cello, collaborated with the vocalist for an evening of song.

Shostakovich’s Seven Romances on Poems by Aleksandr Blok was a dark but gripping start to the evening. Though written for tenor and piano trio, the full ensemble rarely played at once; instead, a dramatic range of moods and timbres emerged as the composer explored different combinations of instruments song by song. [Read more…]

Seraph Brass dances through musical travels in Rocky River (Nov. 11)

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by Stephanie Manning

Before Seraph Brass arrived in Ohio on November 11, the group’s fall touring season had taken them on the road to Missouri, Florida, New York, and even Peru. And at the Rocky River Chamber Music Society, they gave the audience a taste of the traveling life right from the first piece.

The “Prelude” from Edvard Greig’s Holberg Suite whisked listeners away to Norway, with a melody surely familiar to many. It was extra familiar to the brass quintet themselves, who launched into their opening number without sheet music. Playing memorized is part of the group’s trademark, and they smoothly alternated using music and no music throughout the evening. Either way, the wide-ranging program had those at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church spellbound.

Trumpet players Mary Elizabeth Bowden and Raquel Samayoa, horn player Layan Atieh, trombonist Lauren Casey-Clyde, and tuba player Robyn Black sounded equally comfortable in Romantic and contemporary repertoire, flipping between both with practiced ease. [Read more…]

Seraph Brass visits Rocky River with their newest member

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by Stephanie Manning

Seraph Brass welcomed Layan Atieh as their newest core member two months ago — but it may as well have been a lifetime. “I feel like I’ve known them forever,” Atieh said about her new colleagues in a recent interview. “We spend so much time together, I feel like I know everything about them.”

2024 has been quite the busy year for the French horn player, who graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music shortly before winning her audition to be part of the all-female brass quintet. She also recently moved to Chicago to take up a position with the Civic Orchestra there.

But Atieh can’t stay away from Northeast Ohio for too long — and on Monday, November 11 at 7:30 pm, she’ll perform with Seraph Brass for the Rocky River Chamber Music Society. This free concert will take place at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. More information and the livestream link are available here. [Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: clarinet trios among friends (May 6)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

What is a little chamber music among friends? Pure enjoyment, that’s what. On Monday, May 6 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, you got the feeling that the pleasure had by this group — clarinetist Afendi Yusuf, violist Wesley Collins, and pianist Dawoon Chung — might have occurred with or without the rapt Rocky River Chamber Music Society audience in attendance.

But, lucky for us, we were. The program — clarinet trios by Mozart, Bruch, and Robert Schumann — brought together not only infrequently performed repertoire, but an obviously friendly group of collaborators.

[Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: A celebration of friendship

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by Mike Telin

“The thing about this concert is that it’s grounded in friendship and family,” Rocky River Chamber Music Society board member Dan McKelway said during a telephone conversation.

On Monday, May 6 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, Rocky River Chamber Music Society will host Cleveland Orchestra principals, clarinetist Afendi Yusuf and violist Wesley Collins, with pianist Dawoon Chung, in a program that will feature trios by Bruch, Mozart, and Robert Schumann. The concert is free. Click here to watch the livestream.

[Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: Busch Trio from Amsterdam (Jan. 29)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Making their Cleveland debut on Monday, January 29 in Rocky River Chamber Music Society’s already highlight-filled season, the Busch Trio showed itself to be an astonishing young ensemble. They brought youth and energy, yes (all are still in their twenties), but they also brought a fearlessness to their program — trios of Mozart, Ravel, and Tchaikovsky — and a level of musicianship and precision that made this reviewer’s jaw drop.

[Read more…]

Generosity and poise at the Rocky River Chamber Music Society (Nov. 6)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Generosity and poise are two qualities a chamber musician would be fortunate to possess. Fortunately for those of us in attendance at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River on Monday, November 6, cellist Keith Robinson and pianist Hyunsoon Whang are endowed amply with both, thus conveying only the pleasure of performance in two difficult cello sonatas — Barber’s early Op. 6 and Prokofiev’s late Op. 116. Whang also lent ease and grace to Brahms’ solo Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 2, and clarinetist Daniel McKelway lent luster in the Brahms Trio, Op. 114 on the second half.

Poise was tested early, as no sooner had our musicians sat down to begin when a stentorian “Ah-choo!” boomed out from somewhere in the audience. Startled, Robinson nodded in the sneezer’s direction with a good-natured, “You scared me!” [Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: a conversation with cellist Keith Robinson

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by Mike Telin

While it is common to discover that a trio of musicians all attended the same conservatory or university, it is not so common to discover that the trio all attended the same high school. “Hyunsoon and I were in high school together at the North Carolina School of the Arts,” cellist Keith Robinson said during a recent phone call. “In fact, Dan went there too.”

On Monday, November 6 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, Robinson will be joined by pianist Hyunsoon Whang and clarinetist Daniel McKelway in a concert that includes Samuel Barber’s Cello Sonata in c, Sergei Prokofiev’s Cello Sonata in C, and Johannes Brahms’ Intermezzo in A, Op. 118, No. 2 as well as his Clarinet Trio. The free concert is part of the Rocky River Chamber Music Society series. Click here for the livestream.

Robinson, who is a founding member of the Miami String Quartet, noted that Monday’s concert will be his debut performance of the Prokofiev Sonata. “Hyunsoon and I have played the Barber and Rachmaninoff sonatas together and we were thinking about doing the same. Then we said, ‘Wait, let’s learn a new piece’ — it just makes it interesting for us.”

The cellist said that he has found the Prokofiev to be “really enchanting,” and that it complements Barber quite well. “They’re pretty close in age — Barber wrote his in 1932 and Prokofiev was in the late ‘40s. The Barber is dark and brooding, and the Prokofiev can be pretty funny at times. You can tell the Barber is heavily influenced by Brahms, and because it’s in the key of c-minor, it is dark.”

[Read more…]

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