by Jarrett Hoffman
Bokyung Byun is the kind of performer who exudes a cool and collected sense of control and comfort with her instrument. During her Cleveland Classical Guitar Society debut on October 17 — a pre-recorded recital from her home in Los Angeles — she showed off a thorough expressivity and impressive technical agility, seemingly without breaking a sweat.
by Jarrett Hoffman
Remote, pre-recorded performances have become an important part of the concert world during the coronavirus pandemic, but we’re all still figuring out how to talk about them.
When the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society presents Bokyung Byun in just such a performance on Saturday, October 17 at 7:30 pm, can we call it her Cleveland debut, even though she’ll be at her home in Los Angeles? And when she brings Theo Chandler’s Six Melodies to listeners’ ears for the first time in the work’s history, can we call it the premiere, even though it won’t be live?
Maybe the particular words don’t matter so much. The fact is, there’s plenty that’s new in this concert.
by Jarrett Hoffman
During the COVID-19 pandemic, performers and presenters have grappled with cancellations by giving virtual performances and releasing videos from the past.
Composers have been flying a little more under the radar — and in a way, that’s natural. “Sheltering in place isn’t that much different than being on deadline for a piece,” Oberlin Conservatory professor Stephen Hartke wrote by email. Cleveland Institute of Music professor Keith Fitch agreed: “A quarantined composer is not so different from a non-quarantined composer.”
Hartke and Fitch are two of the eight composers — including professors, freelancers, and young professionals — who agreed to share their thoughts for this article. After establishing that all things considered, they’re healthy and well, we delved into how — or whether — the pandemic has impacted their writing.
by Daniel Hathaway
Les Délices concluded their tenth anniversary season from April 5-7 with evocations of what our Baroque forebears thought to be the basic constituents of the natural world. The three programs sprang from founder and oboist Debra Nagy’s arrangement of Jean-Féry Rebel’s brilliant Les Elements, but also included extracts from the operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau, and a new work commissioned from Theo Chandler. Harpsichordist Mark Edwards provided a complementary interlude: two of Rameau’s keyboard works that express the powers of nature. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Over the past ten years the music of Jean-Féry Rebel has become familiar to Les Délices audiences. The ensemble has performed several of the composer’s violin and trio sonatas, scenes from his opera L’Ulysse which highlighted the Odyssey-inspired program Myths & Allegories, and his early choreographed symphonies such as Caractères de la danse, which have become signature pieces for the group.
This week Les Délices will return to the music of Rebel when they present a program titled “The Elements” which is centered around Rebel’s 1737 masterpiece of the same name. The program also includes music of Rameau and the premiere of a new, nature-inspired piece for period instruments by Theo Chandler.
Concerts take place on Friday, April 5 at 7:30 pm at Akron’s Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Saturday the 6th at 8:00 pm at Lakewood Congregational Church, and Sunday the 7th at 4:00 pm in Herr Chapel at Plymouth Church. Tickets are available online. On Saturday beginning at 3:00 pm at the Bop Stop, Les Délices will present “Mother Nature Makes Music,” a free 45-minute program designed for children ages 5-12.
by Mike Telin
To inaugurate their first season as ensemble in residence at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ohio City’s Hingetown neighborhood in partnership with St. John’s Institute, the Syndicate for the New Arts recently presented two concerts that provided audiences with completely different listening experiences. The concerts also provided a glimpse into the types of out-of-the-box programming the Syndicate might have in store for the future. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Born in Romania, displaced by the Nazis, educated in Hungary, and finally settling first in Vienna then in Germany after the 1956 Hungarian revolution, György Ligeti spent a lot of his life on the move. Musically nomadic as well, he chased after a number of different compositional styles. Two of Ligeti’s pieces composed thirty years apart formed the backbone of the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble’s arresting program in Gartner Auditorium of the Cleveland Museum of Art on Saturday afternoon, April 11. [Read more…]