by Stephanie Manning
With a program of only two pieces, both of them staples in chamber music repertoire, creating the conditions for a standout performance might be more difficult than usual. But the musicians in Kent Blossom Music Festival’s final entry in this year’s Faculty Concert Series knew what to do.
“Friendship is a requirement to open up and enjoy this piece,” clarinetist Afendi Yusuf said of the opener, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet — though this sentiment could equally apply to Schubert’s Octet that followed. The July 17 performance in Kent State University’s Ludwig Recital Hall proved that the group had the friendship element in spades. [Read more…]
Choosing a mausoleum as a concert venue might imply a more somber occasion, but the atmosphere was distinctly lighthearted at the Classically Lake View concert on July 7. Held in the Lake View Cemetery’s Community Mausoleum on a sunny Sunday afternoon, a string quartet of Cleveland Orchestra members and an Oberlin student guitarist presented a spirited program of chamber music by Black composers.
Until recently, only a select few would have recognized the name John Stepan Zamecnik (1872–1953)
Close Encounters Chamber Music and artistic director Isabel Trautwein have two reasons to celebrate: the series’ 14th season, and the 20th year of its parent organization, Heights Arts.
The theme of ENCORE Chamber Music’s fourth season is “La Bohème: Art and Freedom,” mixing meanings of Bohemianism. It has brought together the 19th-century artistic movement that sought to break down conventions (think the characters from Puccini’s opera) with composers from Bohemia, of which Dvořák is the most famous. I attended three concerts where the overarching theme was successfully bent to include music from Mozart to living American composers.
Mid-February finds most Northeast Ohioans in a kind of limbo. A month remains before the sun once again shines for twelve hours a day. At a time of year like this, it helps the listener cope when musicians kindle sonic warmth. Playing in an intimate setting that looked out on the sparse, snow-dusted gardens of the Dunham Tavern Museum in Cleveland, the Omni Quartet and four guest players did just that on February 10, in an installment of Heights Arts’ Close Encounters Chamber Music series designed to combat the deepest winter blues.
