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Tuesday Musical: Harlem Quartet with Aldo López-Gavilán (Mar. 1)

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by Peter Feher

The Harlem Quartet might consider changing its name to include an honorary fifth member. The string ensemble took the stage as part of Akron’s Tuesday Musical series on March 1, joined by pianist and composer Aldo López-Gavilán, whose close connection to the group brought out the best in each player.

If chamber music is all about relationships — the give and take between performers — then last week’s program at E.J. Thomas Hall had an unfair advantage. López-Gavilán’s brother, Ilmar, plays first violin for the Harlem, meaning the pair’s dynamic is more than strictly musical. [Read more…]

Harlem Quartet at Tuesday Musical:
“Los hermanos” López-Gavilán reunited

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Among the wide-ranging works of pianist and composer Aldo López-Gavilán is one that was inspired by the relationship between him and his brother, violinist and Harlem Quartet founder Ilmar López-Gavilán.

As Ilmar said during a recent telephone call, “This piece speaks to the moments that we did not have together.”

On Tuesday, March 1 at 7:30 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical will present a program titled “Los Hermanos Reunited.” The two Cuban-born brothers will come together with Ilmar’s quartet-mates in Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat and Aldo’s classically-influenced, stylistically-varied brand of Afro-Cuban jazz. Tickets are available here.

As a prelude to the concert, Tuesday Musical is collaborating with Akron’s Nightlight Cinema for screenings of Los Hermanos / The Brothers on Monday, February 28 at 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm. (Tickets are still available for the matinee.) The documentary is about their shared childhood, their separation as a result of geopolitics — Ilmar lives in the U.S., Aldo in Cuba — their reunion, and their subsequent performances across America.

[Read more…]

Joshua Bell and Larisa Martinez present an evening of romance with Tuesday Musical (Feb. 8)

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by Stephanie Manning

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Tuesday Musical delivered a sweet, romantic evening on Tuesday, February 8. Violinist Joshua Bell and soprano Larisa Martinez, who were wed shortly before the pandemic, made one of the first stops in their inaugural concert tour as a married couple at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall. Joined by pianist Peter Dugan, the pair presented “Voice and the Violin,” a variety of short selections that highlighted both their personal and musical partnership.

Given the theme of the evening, it seemed fitting to open the concert in the Romantic era with Mendelssohn’s “Ah, ritorna, età dell’oro” (Cavatina) from Infelice. Bell’s and Martinez’s musical sensibilities were evenly matched, the soprano’s delicate voice fitting well with the violinist’s effortless playing.

[Read more…]

Tuesday Musical presents violinist Joshua Bell and soprano Larisa Martinez

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by Mike Telin

If you’re bummed that Punxsutawney Phil has predicted six more weeks of winter, you can shed those cold weather blues on Tuesday, February 8 at 7:30 pm in E.J. Thomas Hall, when Tuesday Musical presents celebrated violinist Joshua Bell and acclaimed soprano Larisa Martinez.

The evening is also one of the first stops on their debut tour as a married couple. And remember that Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Click here for tickets.

The concept for their program — “Voice and the Violin” — began to take shape during the pandemic. “It actually worked in our favor,” Larisa Martinez said during a telephone interview. “We didn’t have a honeymoon because I had my Carnegie Hall debut four days after the wedding. Then we were both so hectic and in different countries, so the pandemic was almost a silver lining — which is how this program was born.”

In a separate interview, Joshua Bell said that creating a program for the two of them was inevitable. “We both respect each other’s musicianship. We’re married to each other so we were together in the house and somehow the lockdown helped give it a kick-start. It was a chance to work on some new arrangements and to look for little gems for voice and violin. And now it’s finally coming to fruition.” [Read more…]

Naughton Piano Duo at Tuesday Musical: two became one (Nov. 16)

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by Stephanie Manning

If you want to identify the Naughton sisters, look at their shoes. As the identical twin pianists took the stage for their recent performance at Tuesday Musical, each wore one red and one black heel, placed on opposite feet. It was a fitting choice — Christina and Michelle Naughton are distinct individuals, yet when playing together, they become one half of the same whole.

On the evening of November 16 at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron, the Naughton Piano Duo dazzled in Tuesday Musical’s Margaret Baxtresser Annual Piano Concert. The all-American program, which featured works from the 20th and 21st centuries, contrasted traditional styles with this music’s contemporary evolution.

[Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: an eclectic — and electric program by VOCES8 at E.J. Thomas (Oct. 19)

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by Peter Feher

VOCES8 sings a little something for everyone. The British a cappella ensemble had a packed house at E.J. Thomas Hall on October 19, ready for the group’s polished take on any song. The program, the first performance in Tuesday Musical’s 2021–2022 Akron Concert Series, ran from Renaissance music to jazz — styles that don’t intuitively go together.

But the key to unlocking the octet’s approach came in the first piece after intermission. A swinging, singing arrangement of Bach’s Bourreé II from the Second English Suite was a bridge between musical worlds. The number, not a VOCES8 original but something of an a cappella standard, takes the composer’s quintessential Baroque keyboard writing and delivers it with a wink, in la-la-la’s and doo-be-doo’s. A lighthearted way with otherwise staid classics might make for the group’s mission statement. [Read more…]

VOCES8 returns to Northeast Ohio for Akron performance on October 19

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by Daniel Hathaway

Last heard in a brilliant concert at Old Brooklyn’s Mary Queen of Peace Church in 2016, the British a cappella double quartet VOCES8 will return to our area on Tuesday, October 19 for a concert in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall co-sponsored by Tuesday Musical and the University of Akron.

Their appearance is part of an eleven-performance tour, the first the ensemble has been able to organize since the novel coronavirus called a halt to nearly everyone’s travel plans a year and a half ago.

“We were on tour in the U.S. just before the lockdown,” founder, artistic director, and countertenor Barnaby Smith told me in a recent Zoom conversation from his studio in London. “I was on one of the last planes bound for Europe after taking a small holiday in Vancouver — I can think of worse places to be marooned!”

After weathering the forced sabbatical of the pandemic, during which VOCES8 launched a series of intriguing online events, things are gradually returning to something approaching normal for the ensemble. “We’re about twenty live concerts into the season now, with a smattering of performances this summer in the U.K. Of course, we’re taking all the extra precautions and testing like crazy, but it’s a joy to be back,” Smith said. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: Chanticleer in Akron (July 27)

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by Timothy Robson

Chanticleer, the legendary all-male vocal ensemble, appeared on Tuesday Musical’s series at E.J. Thomas Hall on July 27. Founded in 1978, the ensemble presented one of their trademark eclectic programs, in which a Renaissance motet by William Byrd could bump up against Burton Lane’s pop song On a Clear Day, or a commissioned work might transition to a gospel song. Part of their first post-pandemic tour, this was their first performance in Northeast Ohio under new music director Tim Keeler, who had previously sung countertenor in the group.

[Read more…]

Chanticleer at Akron’s Tuesday Musical: a conversation with music director Tim Keeler

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by Daniel Hathaway

When Chanticleer sings a concert on the Tuesday Musical series at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron on July 27, it won’t just be business as usual for the twelve male singers of San Francisco’s “orchestra of voices.”

The ensemble, which normally spends much of the year on the road, has been becalmed by the pandemic for more than a year. Akron will be the next-to-last stop on its current, eight-concert tour, the first since the shutdown.

“We’ve had to reinvent everything for each venue,” Music Director Tim Keeler said in a telephone call from Chicago. “We’re grateful to each presenter for helping us figure everything out. There’s no rulebook for how to sing choral music at the end of a pandemic.”

[Read more…]

Tuesday Musical presents Sphinx Virtuosi in person

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by Jarrett Hoffman

One of the Sphinx Organization’s most important representatives onstage is the Sphinx Virtuosi. That string orchestra, primarily made up of Sphinx Competition alumni, is dedicated to increasing racial and ethnic diversity in classical music.

The Virtuosi embody that mission not only in their roster, but also through their programming. On Wednesday, May 26 at 7:30 pm, in a concert presented by Tuesday Musical, a quintet from the ensemble will visit E.J. Thomas Hall to share “Land of the Free.” The program includes works by Xavier Foley, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Andrea Casarrubios, Samuel Barber, and Antonín Dvořák. (Tickets are available here.)

In addition to showcasing a diversity of American and American-inspired composers, the selections explore interesting territory when it comes to instrumentation: chamber orchestra pieces scaled down as quintets, string quartets scaled up a notch with a double bass, and a solo cello piece in the middle.

[Read more…]

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