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Baritone Edward Vogel creates a sentimental “Palace in the Wild” (May 11)

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by Stephanie Manning

Plenty of concerts trace a kind of journey, using music to tell a story. But Edward Vogel’s recent recital with the Rocky River Chamber Music Society felt particularly personal.

The baritone, who has lived and performed in Cleveland for five years, announced to the audience at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church that he and his husband would be relocating to Tennessee the very next day. Thankfully, before that happened, we got to hear “A Palace in the Wild: Journeys in British Art Song,” the beautiful program he brought to Rocky River on May 11.

Together with pianist Jenny Parker, Vogel guided the listeners through the five-part evening, contributing oral program notes throughout. The selections celebrate the “beautiful and underrated” genre of art song, specifically from British composers — a combination Vogel noted is less-often heard in the U.S. The structure followed the path of a life, from youthfulness, to seeking adventure, to grappling with a changed meaning of home.

[Read more…]

Chatham Baroque at Rocky River Chamber Music Society (Mar. 2)

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By Kevin McLaughlin

The Rocky River Chamber Music Society welcomed the Pittsburgh-based early-music ensemble Chatham Baroque on Friday, March 2, for a program of 17th and 18th century sonatas from the German-speaking world.

Performed at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the concert traced a path from the courts of Vienna and Salzburg to North German towns and, eventually to London. The three musicians played with distinction, vitality, and an easy rapport.

Founded in 1990, Chatham Baroque includes Andrew Fouts (violin), Patricia Halverson (viola da gamba), and Scott Pauley (archlute and theorbo). Even by period-instrument standards, the ensemble has a distinctive sound: violin and viola da gamba often share the lead, supported by the quiet plucked resonance of the lutes.

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Pittsburgh’s Chatham Baroque to visit Rocky River Chamber Music Society

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by Mike Telin

Chatham Baroque, Pittsburgh’s long-standing period instrument ensemble, will be featured on the Rocky River Chamber Music Society series on Monday, March 2 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. Violinist Andrew Fouts, violist da gamba Patricia Halverson, and theorboist and Baroque guitarist Scott Pauley will offer a program that Fouts said might be titled “Bach and Before.”

I recently caught up with Andrew Fouts for a telephone conversation about the group and their program.

Mike Telin: Is this going to be the group’s Cleveland debut?

Andrew Fouts: I’m in my eighteenth year with Chatham Baroque, and this will be the first time we’ve played in the Cleveland area.

[Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: Africa→West Percussion Trio (Jan. 26)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

On Monday evening, January 26  at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society offered listeners a kind of gentle shock: a stage transformed into what looked like a percussionist’s greenhouse — a whole garden of instruments, some recognizable, many not, brightly colored and often hard to name.

Africa → West Percussion Trio (Jamie Ryan, Ryan Korb, and Josh Ryan) made an evening out of that abundance, blending West African and Afro-Caribbean traditions with their Western classical and jazz training. The playing was expert, but the trio’s real gift was making the unfamiliar feel accessible — and joyful. [Read more…]

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…]

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