by Mike Telin
A fixture of the Cleveland classical music scene since 1978, the popular Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concerts will kick off their 2016-17 season on Wednesday, October 5 at 12:10 pm. Saxophonists Jake Swanson and Sarah Marchitelli will join Todd Wilson and Trinity Chamber Orchestra in performances of works by Eric Ewazen, Alexander Glazunov, and Erland von Koch.
“It’s been a busy year for us,” Jake Swanson said during a recent telephone conversation. “Sarah and I had a residency in Oslo, Norway, and my first CD was released earlier this month. And we’re excited to be returning to the Brownbag Concert series.” [Read more…]
Although composer Claude Debussy rejected the term “impressionism” and referred to music writers who used the term as “fools,” today Debussy’s music is synonymous with the impressionist movement. On his self-titled CD from back in 2012, pianist Robert Cassidy captured the essence of the composer’s music with his performances of the twelve Préludes of Book 1. On his latest recording, Pathways, Cassidy once again demonstrates his affinity for this music with discerning interpretations of the twelve preludes that comprise Debussy’s second book, as well as works by Chopin and Feigin.
According to Wikipedia, in the early decades of the 20th century there were as many as 7,000 organs installed in movie theaters in the United States for the purposes of entertaining audiences before and between shows and, especially, for accompanying silent films. The theaters have, alas, mostly vanished, the organs either destroyed or re-installed elsewhere, and the skills for accompanying silent films have been lost. That is why organist Todd Wilson’s performance on Friday night at Severance Hall accompanying the 1923 American film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Lon Chaney was such a brilliant feat of musical invention, theatricality and stamina. 
Todd Wilson returned to Stambaugh Auditorium’s Skinner organ on Sunday afternoon, October 25, to improvise a score to Charlie Chaplin’s 1925 silent film, The Gold Rush. Wilson, who is organist at Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral and chair of the organ department at the Cleveland Institute of Music, played a similar role last season in providing musical accompaniment to the Harold Lloyd comedy Speedy. Though The Gold Rush is also a comedy, it focuses on Chaplin’s beloved little tramp character in an unusual context. 
On Friday, November 21, Trinity Cathedral’s Choir, Chamber Singers and instrumentalists, directed by Todd Wilson, presented a “Bach by Candlelight” concert in their home church with violinist Jinjoo Cho, oboist Danna Sundet and organist Parker Ramsay. It was a glorious setting in the magnificent Trinity Cathedral nave with its ornate organ case the center of attention.