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Tuesday Musical: a conversation with tenor Lawrence Brownlee

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by Daniel Hathaway

Tenor Lawrence Brownlee will join bass-baritone Eric Owens in a wide-ranging duo recital with pianist Craig Terry on the Tuesday Musical series at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall on February 12 at 7:30 pm. The program includes opera arias and duets, traditional Spirituals, American popular songs, and Gospel favorites.

Born in Youngstown, Brownlee has established a distinguished international career as a bel canto tenor. We caught up with him on the road in Dallas, where he was returning from an appearance in Bizet’s Pearl Fishers with Houston Grand Opera.

Daniel Hathaway: We were sorry to miss hearing you in January when you were in Cleveland to sing a Rossini aria for the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration with The Cleveland Orchestra.

Lawrence Brownlee: I told somebody I wasn’t sure if I was in Siberia or Cleveland, but it was good to be back in Northeast Ohio, my neck of the woods. My parents would have come, but the weather was a little bit too bad. I hope things will clear up next week so I can get a chance to see some of my people and they can support me.

DH: You have a long tour ahead with Eric Owens and this duo recital. I count eleven performances between now and summer. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: Inon Barnatan & Calidore Quartet play Bach (Jan. 22)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Historically Informed Performance movement has made such an impact that the idea of performing Bach fugues and keyboard concertos with piano and string quartet seems like a throwback to the mid-20th century. But Inon Barnatan and the Calidore String Quartet used their modern instruments to fine effect in their January 22 all-Bach program on the Tuesday Musical series in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: pianist Inon Barnatan and the Calidore String Quartet

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by Jarrett Hoffman

“This was fun, let’s do it again sometime” — what we all say after any gathering. And sometimes, we really do mean it.

That was the case after pianist Inon Barnatan and the Calidore String Quartet collaborated for the first time a few years ago, exploring Bach’s keyboard concerti. As Barnatan told me during a recent phone call, “It was such a joy to make this music together that we decided we have to do it again. So here we are.”

On January 22 at 7:30 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall, Barnatan and the Calidore will revisit Bach during a concert on Akron’s Tuesday Musical series. The program begins with selections from The Art of Fugue, then turns to the keyboard concertos No. 1 in d, No. 7 in g, No. 4 in A, and No. 5 in f. A pre-concert conversation with the musicians takes place at 6:30 pm, and tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Anthony Roth Costanzo & Les Violons du Roy at Tuesday Musical (Oct. 16)

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by Timothy Robson

American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and the Quebec-based Baroque orchestra Les Violons du Roy, with their new music director Jonathan Cohen, made a stop at E.J. Thomas Hall at the University of Akron on Tuesday, October 16, in a presentation by Tuesday Musical. The concert included music from their recent album ARC – Glass / Handel, plus a Handel concerto grosso and an excerpt from a Philip Glass symphony. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical to present Les Violons du Roy: A conversation with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo

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by Mike Telin

When countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo was thinking about what to include on his debut recording for Decca Gold, he wanted more than just an anthology of arias from one composer. “As a countertenor my repertoire is split between the contemporary and the Baroque, so I started thinking about how to bridge that gap,” Costanzo said during a telephone conversation. “I have sung Handel all my life. My technique has been defined by that and my soul lies there. And when I sang the music of Philip Glass for the first time it changed me. It influenced my thinking about making art and about being a dramatic singer.”

On Tuesday, October 16 at 7:30 pm in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical will present Anthony Roth Costanzo and the Montreal-based Baroque orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, under the direction of Jonathan Cohen. The program will feature works from that debut album: ARC Glass/Handel. Tickets are available online.

Costanzo said that the music of Handel and Glass have similar qualities when it comes to harmonic language and emotional impact, as well as repetition. “Handel has the da capo aria — A and B sections then the A section repeated. He’ll also take lines of text and he’ll chunk them up by repeating a couple of words in that line several times, then he’ll go onto the next set of words and he’ll repeat them a few times. That’s almost exactly what Glass does, except he repeats the music itself.”

[Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: Orpheus with Augustin Hadelich (Mar. 28)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TMA HadelichOrpheus Chamber Orchestra, the New York-based conductorless ensemble, joined violinist Augustin Hadelich in an impressive program of string music by Irving Fine, Haydn, Schubert, and Tchaikovsky at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall on Wednesday evening, March 28. Their assured playing on the Tuesday Musical series proved that you don’t always need a baton-wielding leader out in front to inspire an excellent sense of ensemble — though sometimes it can be a good idea from an interpretational point of view.

[Read more…]

Tuesday Musical to present Orpheus Chamber Orchestra: a conversation with violinist Augustin Hadelich

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by Mike Telin

Hadelich by Suxiao YangA highlight of last summer’s Cleveland Orchestra concerts at Blossom Music Center was Augustin Hadelich’s performance of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto. On Wednesday, March 28 at 7:30 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall, the 2018 Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year will return to the area as soloist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Presented by Tuesday Musical, the program will include Irving Fine’s Serious Song (lament for string orchestra), Schubert’s Rondo in A for violin and strings, Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C, and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. A pre-concert talk by Akron Symphony bassoonist Coltan Foster begins at 6:30 pm. Tickets are available online.

“The Haydn Concerto has been one of my favorite classical pieces to play for a long time — I’m in love with it,” the 33-year-old said by telephone from Vancouver, where he was performing Bernstein’s Serenade with Bramwell Tovey and the Vancouver Symphony. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: Andreas Haefliger in annual Baxtresser Recital (March 8)

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by David Kulma

TMA HaefligerAs snow came down outside on Thursday, March 8, an absorbing evening of piano cornerstones warmed the inside of E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron. This performance by Andreas Haefliger was the 12th of Tuesday Musical Association’s annual concerts that honor the late pianist Margaret Baxtresser, a musical giant of Northeast Ohio.

[Read more…]

Chamber Music from Lincoln Center on Tuesday Musical series (January 23)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TMAJan23During Tuesday Musical’s pre-concert chat at E.J. Thomas Hall on January 23, one of the members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center referred to the touring ensemble who were appearing as part of the Clara I. Knight Young Artists Series as “Wu Han and the boys.” Afterwards, the seasoned chamber music pianist teamed up with her younger colleagues — pianist Michael Brown, violinists Chad Hoopes and Paul Huang, violist Matthew Lipman, and cellist Dmitri Atapine — for fresh, riveting performances of works by Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák that melded experience with youthful exuberance. [Read more…]

Vienna Boys Choir brings
“Christmas in Vienna” to Akron

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by Jarrett Hoffman

VBC Brucknerchor 2017 (Large) (1) copyWith Medieval roots and impressive singers age ten to fourteen, the Vienna Boys Choir didn’t begin giving concerts outside Vienna’s Imperial Chapel (Hofmusikkapelle) until 1926, but these days they’re globetrotters. The choir of boys from all over the world spends up to eleven weeks of every school year traveling.

The Choir’s latest tour, a 48-concert canvassing of the U.S., will bring them to E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron next Wednesday, November 29 at 7:30 pm. Led by conductor Manolo Cagnin, they’ll perform holiday tunes, classical selections, and Austrian folk songs for “Christmas in Vienna,” part of Tuesday Musical’s Fuze Series.

“What can I say? Christmas for me is good feelings, peace and quiet,” Cagnin said from the Choir’s stop in Ames, Iowa. “The program starts with ‘Walking in the Air’ from the the 1982 film The Snowman, then we try to ‘walk and fly’ all over and see the Christmases in different parts of the world. Ukraine, France, England, America, Sweden — in every country there’s a different color. The last song is Feliz Navidad, and that’s Christmas in South America.”

[Read more…]

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