by Peter Feher
The Cleveland Orchestra wasn’t going to let a season go by without Jahja Ling. The veteran conductor was back at Blossom Music Center on August 22, picking up just where he left off.
Concerts cancelled in 2020 may have put a brief gap in Ling’s record with the Orchestra (a program every season since 1984-1985), but the ensemble’s former resident conductor more than made up for it Sunday with a performance both commanding and personal. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
When Jahja Ling returns to the Blossom Music Center podium on Sunday, August 22 at 7:00 pm, the concert will mark the continuation of a relationship between Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra which began in 1984.
“My first concert was at Severance in January of ‘85 and my first Blossom concert was in July of ‘85,” Ling said during a recent telephone conversation. “Aside from last year, which was cancelled due to the pandemic, if you count from ‘85 until now, this is the 36th consecutive season. I think it is a record.”
The all-Brahms program will feature the Violin Concerto with Sayaka Shoji as soloist and Symphony No. 3. Tickets are available online.
The past year and a half has been difficult for many people, including the 69-year-old conductor. “I got COVID,” he said. “It was last July, so over a year ago. I was taken to L.A. because my son works at Cedars-Sinai, and was hospitalized for five days. I received very good treatment and have had no issues after that, thank God.”
Ling’s experience with COVID played an important part in his programming choices for Sunday’s concert. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Having performed on three occasions with CityMusic Cleveland, Japanese violinist Sayaka Shoji is no stranger to Northeast Ohio audiences. But when she returns to Cleveland this Sunday, August 22, it will be to make her debut with The Cleveland Orchestra, performing Brahms’ sublime Violin Concerto.
“I’m excited and very happy that this is happening,” Sayaka Shoji said by telephone from her home in Paris. “It was programmed last year, and of course we all had a difficult period, but they re-programmed it and I am very grateful.”
Under the direction of Jahja Ling, the 7:00 pm all-Brahms program also includes Symphony No. 3. Tickets are available online.
When asked why she thinks the concerto is one of the greatest in the repertoire, the violinist said it is partly because Brahms was a demanding, self-critical composer. “He also collaborated on the piece with his friend Joseph Joachim. And the result of that intensive collaboration is what makes it a jewel.”
by Jarrett Hoffman
Imagine two hypothetical works of music. Piece A has a story behind it — maybe a moment in history, or an issue facing the world, or that time the composer stubbed their toe — while Piece B is just music, period.
For composers, there are some advantages to writing a “Piece A.” They can easily describe it to people who might want to hear, publicize, perform, or present it. And those same people can quickly latch onto something that’s interesting (current event) or relatable (stubbed toe). But just as easily, that concrete description can come to overshadow the actual music in discussions about the piece.
Violinist Leila Josefowicz (above) gave me some gentle sass about this during an interview last fall. She was bringing John Adams’ Scheherazade.2 to The Cleveland Orchestra, and I had asked her a couple conceptual questions about the concerto, which reimagines the character of Scheherazade as a modern, empowered woman. Here’s what she said:
by David Kulma
CityMusic Cleveland celebrated its 15th season with a powerful new piece by its music director Avner Dorman. His Third Violin Concerto was debuted in free concerts with soloist Sayaka Shoji in five different venues across the Cleveland area. I attended the fourth performance on Saturday, March 16 at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus in Slavic Village. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
Local listeners might know that CityMusic Cleveland’s music director, Avner Dorman, is also a composer. His separate but related talents of the baton and of the pen will be on display when he leads the orchestra in the world premiere of Still, his third violin concerto, in five free concerts from March 13-17.
The soloist is a familiar face. Sayaka Shoji — first prize winner at the 1999 Paganini Competition — has in recent years joined CityMusic for the Brahms and Tchaikovsky concertos.
We last spoke to her in 2015 in a wide-ranging conversation that touched on her Japanese, Italian, and German upbringing (she now lives in Paris), her interest in jazz, the beginning of her solo career, her early dream of singing opera, and her previous work with Dorman — including commissioning a violin sonata from him.
I caught up with Shoji over email, and began by asking about the first time she heard Dorman’s music — in Verbier, Switzerland, where they met.
by Mike Telin
Since its founding in 2004, CityMusic Cleveland has been guided by a simple principle: that classical music should be available to all free of charge. Read a history of the ensemble here. This week the traveling chamber orchestra will kick off its fifteenth season with a program titled “A Bounty of Brahms.” Under the direction of Music Director Avner Dorman, the program includes the composer’s Double Concerto featuring a pair of CityMusic favorites, violinist Tessa Lark and cellist Edward Arron, and the Symphony No. 2.
The run begins on Wednesday, October 24 at 7:30 pm at St. Jerome Church in Collinwood, and continues on to Temple Tifereth-Israel in Beachwood (October 25 at 7:30 pm), St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills (October 26 at 7:30 pm), and the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus in Slavic Village (October 27 at 8:00 pm), finishing up at Lakewood Congregational Church on Sunday, October 28 at 5:00 pm. Concerts are free but you’ll want to leave a donation. Click here for further information.
On Sunday, November 4 at 7:00 pm at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, CityMusic will participate in the world premiere of Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard’s OUR VOICES: DEMOCRACY RE:visited. [Read more…]
by Robert Rollin
Last Wednesday night, October 19 at Fairmount Temple, CityMusic Cleveland kicked off its 13th season with an exceptional concert intermingling Classic, Romantic, and 21st-century works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Avner Dorman, the orchestra’s music director. The highlight was a magnificent performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto by stellar soloist Sayaka Shoji. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
CityMusic Cleveland, under the direction of music director Avner Dorman, will kick off its season this week with a program featuring Dorman’s After Brahms — Three Intermezzi, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with soloist Sayaka Shoji, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4. The first of five area performances will be presented on Wednesday, October 19 at 7:30 pm at Fairmount Temple. See our Concert Listings page for additional times and locations.
Prior to Shoji’s appearances with CityMusic in October of 2015, she spoke with ClevelandClassical.com and talked about her childhood, her passion for jazz, and her fascination with all things connected to the ‘70s. The following is a reprint of that interview. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
After a Wednesday evening concert in Dublin, near Columbus, CityMusic Cleveland opened its new season at Lakewood Congregational Church on October 15 with the first of four area concerts featuring violinist Sayaka Shoji. On Thursday, she turned in a tidy reading of the Brahms concerto, and the orchestra itself delivered an impressive, highly polished performance of Robert Schumann’s first symphony led by music director Avner Dorman. [Read more…]