by Neil McCalmont
On September 27, Tuesday Musical opened its 129th season with the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Shroud as performed by one of the world’s leading chamber groups, the Emerson String Quartet. With their legendary clarity and musicality, violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, violist Lawrence Dutton, and cellist Paul Watkins brought to life the Turnage and works by Mozart and Beethoven. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
In an interview with ClevelandClassical.com, composer and pianist Gregg Kallor said that when choosing a poem to set to music, it’s not enough for him to simply be moved by the text, the poem also needs to have a musical quality to it. On April 21, at E. J. Thomas Hall, Gregg Kallor and the excellent mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala performed an enthralling program of Kallor’s settings of poetry that touched on a range of emotions as well as being musically captivating. Presented by Tuesday Musical, the concert was given in honor of National Poetry Month. [Read more…]
by Jane Berkner
On February 9 in E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron, Tuesday Musical Association presented a pre-Valentine’s Day celebration of marriage. The wife and husband duo of flutist Marina Piccinini and pianist Andreas Haefliger gave masterful performances of demanding literature, gifting the audience with a world premiere and a few wedding presents. [Read more…]
by Christine Jay
What happens when the “Heifetz of the flute” (Gramophone) and a sensational pianist “at his peak” (International Record Review) converge to play music together? On February 9th in Akron’s E. J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical will present a “Valentine’s Day prelude” recital given by the husband-and-wife duo of flutist Marina Piccinini and pianist Andreas Haefliger. Prepare for more than just sparks to fly — this recital should inflame even the most frozen of hearts.
Ardent? Yes, but this duo is more than just a romantic married couple who perform together –– they function as a high-precision team. “Andreas Haefliger is just an amazing soloist,” Piccinini said during a recent telephone conversation. “When you have a partner like him to do a recital tour, you’re very careful to choose works that are incredible chamber pieces for both instruments.” [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Replicating in concert form the format he developed for his recent CD, Pictures, the 21-year-old piano phenomenon Conrad Tao walked his audience through two musical galleries on Wednesday evening, November 18. The second half of Tuesday Musical’s Margaret Baxtresser Annual Piano Concert had already been curated by Modest Mussorgsky, who used paintings by Victor Hartmann to inspire his popular suite Pictures at an Exhibition. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
It’s difficult to know where to begin when talking about pianist-composer Conrad Tao. At age twenty-one, he has already amassed a list of accomplishments worthy of an artist three times his age. Called a musician of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by the New York Times, and a “thoughtful and mature composer” by NPR, Tao was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts in 2011. In addition to a very busy concert schedule which includes serving as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s artist-in-residence, his new CD Pictures, on the Warner Classics label, was released in October.
Conrad Tao will make his Northeast Ohio debut on the Tuesday Musical series on Wednesday, November 18 at 7:30 in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall. Tao’s fascinating program, the 2015 Margaret Baxtresser Piano Recital, will include works by Lang, Bach, Carter, Wolfe, Rachmaninoff, and Mussorgsky.
During our extensive telephone interview, Tao revealed himself as thoughtful and down-to-earth, as well as a person who is acutely aware of the passage of time. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
On Tuesday, October 27 at 7:30 pm, pianist Wu Han, violinist Philip Setzer, and cellist David Finckel will return to the Tuesday Musical Series at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron to present the second and final installment of their project to perform all six of Ludwig van Beethoven’s trios for piano, violin, and cello in two concerts.
Last April, the three musicians played the first and third trios from Op. 1 and the “Archduke,” Op. 97. On October 27, they’ll finish the cycle with the G-Major Trio (Op. 1, No. 2), the D-Major Trio (Op. 70, No. 1), and the “Ghost” Trio in E-flat (Op. 70, No. 2). (Read a review of their March performance here.) [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
On Tuesday, March 31 at 7:30 pm, Tuesday Musical will present pianist Wu Han, violinist Philip Setzer and cellist David Finckel in a program of Beethoven piano trios at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron. We caught up with the effervescent Wu Han by cell phone to chat about next week’s program.
Daniel Hathaway: I’m guessing from the calendar on your website that you must be somewhere between Georgia and California.
Wu Han: (Laughs) Right now, I’m in downtown San Francisco driving towards the Napa Valley vineyard country.
DH: You have quite a travel schedule. Are you ever home?
WH: Good question! The answer is no.
DH: How do you manage such a busy musical life?
WH: I have a lot of help — people taking care of schedules and reservations for hotels, airlines and cars. All I have to think about is music, music, music, and thank God for that. You have to manage your life. I don’t get bogged down by the details. So you miss your flight? Wow, what’s the big deal? Let’s go have a coffee. Let’s listen to some Spotify.
By Mike Telin
Tuesday Musical marks the return of their popular FUZE! Series on Tuesday, August 12, at 7:00 pm at Steinway Piano Gallery in Boston Heights. The concert, titled The Composers Voice, features pianist/composer Gregg Kallor and cellist Dave Eggar.
Tuesday Musical’s choice to present Gregg Kallor on the FUZE! Series is a bit ironic given that his performances and his music are a fusion of classical, jazz and improvisation. But finding commonality between seemingly dissimilar things is a natural part of who Kallor is. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
The American mezzo-soprano Susan Graham was scheduled to close the 2013/14 season of Akron’s Tuesday Musical on April 10th, but a bad case of laryngitis caused her to cancel her Akron program (as well as a concert scheduled in Oberlin). Fortunately the Akron recital was rescheduled and took place on Monday, April 21, in E.J. Thomas Hall. Graham’s excellent piano accompanist was Bradley Moore.
Graham created an imaginative and varied program all based on, in the singer’s own words, “the ladies,” including the good girls (the Blessed Virgin, Ophelia and Mignon) in the first half of the concert, followed by “the bad girls” in the second (Lady Macbeth, and several other unnamed racy women.) Likewise, Susan Graham appeared for the second half of the program in an off-the-shoulder, glittering black gown with a slit up the side, replacing the first half’s more virginal flowing all-white dress.
Susan Graham opened with Henry Purcell’s Tell me, some pitying angel, often known as “The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation,” in which the Virgin Mary laments the necessity to escape to desert exile to protect her son from potential death at King Herod’s hand. [Read more…]