The Bop Stop Archives - Cleveland Classical

Music by Cara Haxo roars at The Bop Stop

June 6, 2026 by Kevin McLaughlin

by Kevin McLaughlin

“She ROARS!,” a series celebrating living female composers, devoted its program at the Bop Stop on Sunday afternoon, May 31, to nine works by Cara Haxo performed by violinists Diana Pepelea Vardi and Callista Koh, violist Lauren Kuennen Poper, cellist Linda Atherton, flutist Linda White, and clarinetist Amitai Vardi.

Haxo’s use of varied instrumental combinations offered a glimpse into her creative process and Emily Laurance’s spoken introductions helped listeners understand the composer’s train of thought.

The opening work for string quartet, says the almanac (2024), inspired by Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “Sestina,” showed Haxo’s gift for turning literary structure into musical form. [Read more…]

Jason Vieaux takes a trip down memory lane at Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival (June 6)

by Stephanie Manning

More than five minutes after the scheduled 7:30 start time on June 4, Mixon Hall still buzzed with conversation. The first concert of the Cleveland International Guitar Festival had drawn a large crowd to the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the room’s murmur quickly morphed into applause with the arrival of the evening’s headliner, guitarist Jason Vieaux.

At this event, Vieaux is often a doubly-familiar face, recognizable both by frequent Festival attendees and by general Cleveland audiences. To kick off the 2026 event, he brought a program that he called “a trip through memory lane,” bringing together pieces he learned as a teenager but hadn’t formally performed in years.

Importantly, Vieaux made sure that he wasn’t simply blowing the dust off old interpretations, but revisiting beloved pieces with new maturity in life and in playing. [Read on…]

Music by Cara Haxo roars at The Bop Stop

by Kevin McLaughlin

Haxo’s use of varied instrumental combinations offered a glimpse into her creative process and Emily Laurance’s spoken introductions helped listeners understand the composer’s train of thought.

Trobár examines the female experience in “The Lady of Medieval Song” (May 22)

by Stephanie Manning

Obviously, the male perspective was not the main focus in a program called “The Lady of Medieval Song.” On May 23, Trobár’s audience at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church primarily heard repertoire written by or about women, favoring female voices and perspectives as much as possible.

However, more than five centuries removed from this music’s origin, these kinds of pieces are rare. And the reasons why are inextricably tied to the men who undervalued it — and often preferred their own point of view instead. Four of the selections listed in the program appeared under the headline “The Male Gaze,” with the pointed logic behind that choice to be revealed as the concert went on.

Although the pool of surviving music by women is limited, Trobár tapped into the larger availability of woman-authored texts, borrowing tunes from elsewhere when needed. [Read on…]

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