ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad
Ad

Re:Sound 2021 gives audiences the freedom to explore through interactive approach

by

by Stephanie Manning

After taking a year off, the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project (CUSP) is gearing up for its return with Re:Sound 2021, an innovative, online music festival that will premiere on June 3. Faced with an influx of pandemic-fueled virtual concerts,  “we decided to take a season to reconnect and think about what we wanted to do,” artistic director Sophie Benn said in a recent interview. She added that finally putting on an event again “feels amazing.”

An annual showcase of new and experimental music, CUSP’s Re:Sound Festival features artists from both the Cleveland area and around the country. COVID precautions will keep the 2021 Festival online this year — however, its approach to the new format is as unique as the music it will present. A variety of pre-recorded videos from all ten artists will go live on June 3 and be available through June 30, allowing audiences to watch whatever they want, whenever they want.

“I feel like I have a very poor attention span when I’m at my computer, and I think a lot of people feel that way,” Benn said. “We wanted to give people a lot of agency to experience the music on their own terms.” [Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland: Identity and “Syncretism”

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

syn·cre·tism — the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought (Oxford English Dictionary).

CityMusic Cleveland will explore that concept with an in-person concert of chamber music on Sunday, April 11 at 3:00 pm at Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus. (The audience will be limited to 250 people, and masks and social distancing are required. Click here to RSVP.)

The program begins with a quartet: Jungyoon Wie’s 2019 Han, played by violinists Miho Hashizume and Catherine Cosbey, violist Eric Wong, and cellist Sophie Benn. Then clarinetist Dan Gilbert will join the ensemble for Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s 1895 Clarinet Quintet in f-sharp.

On a purely musical level, it’s hard to pick two pieces that deserve a wider audience — one of them a fresh and riveting contemporary piece, the other a beautiful and unjustly neglected gem of the past. But these two composers also represent an intriguing pairing through the lens of syncretism.

[Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland:
“Baroque Reflections” (Dec. 6)

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

On December 6, CityMusic Cleveland continued its season-long chamber series celebrating 100 years of the 19th amendment with “Baroque Reflections,” streamed live from the Maltz Performing Arts Center.

Here are the numbers: seven masked performers (including several period-instrumentalists and, notably for these times, a soprano) alternated through multiple configurations from duo to sextet as they explored music by eight composers of the 17th and 18th centuries.

[Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland at Lakewood Congregational (Dec. 13)

by

by Nicholas Stevens

Mass media can make it feel as though the true color of the holiday season is a uniform Federal Reserve-issue sage, barely veiled by the colors of different proud traditions. The same ten songs blare in every grocery aisle. Yet on the ground, people find ways to wring something vital and unique out of a month when every icon of cheer feels somehow recycled. CityMusic Cleveland, prone to giving end-of-year concerts packed with music that knows no season, has found a way to reconcile seasonality with a respite. [Read more…]

Re:Sound Festival of New and Experimental Music — concerts one & six

by

by Mike Telin

It’s hard to believe that it was only a year and a half ago that area audiences were introduced to the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project (CUSP). With all of the high-quality programs they have produced since that time, the organization already feels like a trusted friend. Founded by saxophonist Noa Even and cellist Sophie Benn, CUSP’s engaging programming brings together the new music enthusiast and the new music curious. One way that is accomplished is through the annual Re:Sound Festival of New and Experimental Music, which ran from June 6 through June 9 and included six concerts featuring fourteen soloists and ensembles from across the United States at venues around the city. I attended the opening and closing events. [Read more…]

Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project announces CUSP Concert Series

by

by Mike Telin

With the debut of its highly successful Re:Sound New & Experimental Music Festival behind them, the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project sets its sights on a new endeavor: the free CUSP Concert Series. The inaugural event will be held on Sunday, November 4 at 7:30 pm at the Bop Stop.

“From the beginning we wanted to produce a concert series,” CUSP artistic director Sophie Benn said during a telephone conversation. “The lineup of artists is great, and we are so excited to share this music with the Cleveland community. We want CUSP to engage the community in different ways and this series is another way to do that.”

The concert will feature Nebraska-based tubist, composer, and audio engineer Aaron Hynds, who will perform his own project, Transformer, a large-scale, evolving work for tuba and computer. The work is inspired by the composer’s love of science fiction, and by the realization of the computer as an equal creative entity. [Read more…]

Report—
Re:Sound Festival Panel Discussion at Visible Voice Books (June 10)

by

by David Kulma

ReSoundlogo(color)On Sunday afternoon, June 10, at Visible Voice Books, as a part of the Re:Sound New Music Festival, co-artistic director Sophie Benn led a fascinating panel discussion featuring performers Elizabeth Baker, Will Mason, and the Popebama duo — Erin Rogers and Dennis Sullivan. Lasting an hour, their dialogue touched on topics ranging from artistic identity and the difficulties of the musical life to the definition of “new music” itself. [Read more…]

Re:Sound Festival — two shows at Bop Stop and CODA (June 9)

by

by Alice Koeninger

BobStopMatzkeMany of the sounds heard at the Re:Sound New Music Festival performances at the Bop Stop and CODA on Saturday, June 9 were reminiscent of noises made by ‘90s computers and played on old science fiction space TV shows. Relying heavily on electronics and other sound-manipulation techniques, each artist or group gave festivalgoers a taste of their music in a series of increasingly strange and interesting pieces. [Read more…]

Re:Sound New Music Festival opens with concert at Bop Stop (June 7)

by

by Timothy Robson

zeitgeistCleveland Uncommon Sound Project is a new non-profit devoted to the creation and performance of new music. Their first annual Re:Sound New Music Festival opened on Thursday evening, June 7 at the Bop Stop, where a large, diverse crowd sat around tables and the bar to hear four equally diverse and alluring ensembles. [Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us