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Tuesday Musical: a conversation with pianist and composer Conrad Tao

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by Mike Telin

TAO-ConradIt’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…]

Tuesday Musical: Catching up with pianist Wu Han about Beethoven trios

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by Daniel Hathaway

WuHan-Setzer-FinckelOn 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…]

Tuesday Musical: Catching up with pianist Wu Han about Beethoven trios

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by Daniel Hathaway

photoOn 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.

[Read more…]

Tuesday Musical’s FUZE! Series: a conversation with Greg Kallor

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By Mike Telin

KallorTuesday 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…]

Review: Ten days later: Susan Graham charms Akron with songs about “the ladies”

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by Timothy Robson

GRAHAM-SusanThe 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…]

Review: Mezzo-Soprano Susan Graham to sing both on Oberlin Artist and Tuesday Musical Series on April 6 and 10

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by Mike Telin

GRAHAM-Susan[Note: on Friday, April 4, Ms. Graham’s management announced the cancellation of her Oberlin concert and masterclass due to illness. The performance will not be rescheduled.]

Susan Graham, the vocalist Gramophone called “America’s favorite mezzo,” and pianist Bradley Moore will present recitals on Sunday, April 6 at 4:00 pm in Finney Chapel as part of Oberlin’s Artist Recital Series and on Thursday, April 10 at 7:30 pm in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall as part of the Tuesday Musical Series.

Internationally acclaimed as an operatic singer and known for embracing a challenge, Susan Graham’s repertoire spans works from the 17th through the 21st centuries. She has earned critical accolades as well as a Grammy Award for her recording of Ives songs. Recognizing her commitment to French music, the French government awarded her the prestigious Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur.

The Oberlin and Akron performances will feature music that celebrates great women throughout history and literature, and spans from the Baroque period with Purcell’s Tell me, some pitying angel (The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation) through the 20th century with Poulenc’s song cycle, Fiançailles pour rire, and Joseph Horovitz’s Lady Macbeth. [Read more…]

Preview: Tuesday Musical to present A Far Cry with Matt Haimovitz on March 11

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by Mike Telin

HAIMOVITZ-MattCellist Matt Haimovitz will be the featured soloist with the Boston-based chamber orchestra, A Far Cry, on the Tuesday Musical Series at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron on March 11 at 7:30 pm.

Haimovitz, who made his debut at the age of 13 with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic, and his first recording four years later with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony, first appeared on the Tuesday Musical series in 1991. A Far Cry, a self-conducted ensemble, was founded in 2007 by “The Criers,” a collective of 17 young professional musicians who intended to develop an innovative, rotating leadership both on and off stage.

The Akron concert will include two works by Luigi Boccherini, his Quintet in C, subtitled “Night Music on the Streets of Madrid,” and his Cello Concerto in C. Haimovitz will also be featured in the first performance of Luna Pearl Woolf’s arrangement of Bloch’s Prayer from Jewish Life, and the orchestra will complete the program with Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro and Janáček’s Idyll. [Read more…]

Preview: Tuesday Musical — a conversation with pianist Jeremy Denk

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by Daniel Hautzinger

DENK-JeremyJeremy Denk disproves the theory that all men are created equal. He is a classical pianist who was named Musical America’s 2014 Instrumentalist of the Year, received a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2013, writes an engaging blog as well as having been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times Review of Books, wrote a libretto for a new opera, has a contract to pen a memoir for Random House, and received two degrees upon graduating from Oberlin (young, no less), in chemistry and music. Is there anything he can’t do? “I’m not good at washing the dishes,” he said in a phone conversation. “Or many other real life things.”

That self-deprecating humor underlies much of his work, and how he thinks about music. “It really is an important part of my worldview,” he said. Take for example the program he will perform on Feb. 4 at EJ Thomas Hall in Akron, as part of the Tuesday Musical Concert Series. “In this program there is a strong obsession with humor.” It features Mozart’s Piano Sonata K. 533/494, three Ligeti etudes, and Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze and Carnaval. “These are dances but also satires of dances, with an incredible sense of wit and mockery of the Philistines,” he said of Carnaval. [Read more…]

Preview: Tuesday Musical: Béla Fleck & Brooklyn Rider

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by Mike Telin

FLECK-BelaPrior to the performance of Imposter, Concerto for Banjo and Symphony Orchestra with The Cleveland Orchestra in December of last year, the 15-time Grammy Award-winning banjoist Béla Fleck told us about one of his recent classical compositions. “I’ve already finished my second commission, a 25-minute piece for banjo and string quartet,” Fleck said via e-mail. “The quartet is Brooklyn Rider and they are fantastic!

On Tuesday, November 12 beginning at 7:30 pm in E.J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical presents Béla Fleck & Brooklyn Rider in a concert featuring Fleck’s Night Flight over Water, Quintet for Banjo and String Quartet.The Tuesday Musical performance is the second stop on a 19-city North American tour.

Fans of Béla Fleck already know that from the beginning of his musical career Fleck was experimenting with ways to incorporate the banjo into all styles of music such as bebop and jazz. As a member of Sam Bush’s progressive bluegrass band, New Grass Revival, his blending of rock and country music with bluegrass caught the attention of audiences and critics. [Read more…]

Review: Cantus opens 2013-2014 Tuesday Musical Series at E.J. Thomas Hall (September 24)

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by Timothy Robson

CantusAkron’s Tuesday Musical opened its 126th season on September 24 at E.J. Thomas Hall in fine fashion with the Twin Cities-based, nine-voice men’s vocal ensemble Cantus. Cantus has distinguished itself from other male vocal ensembles – especially the San Francisco-based Chanticleer – by using the traditional configuration of tenors, baritones and basses, rather than also including male altos and sopranos. Throughout this concert, Cantus was a model of beautiful vocal sound, unanimity of ensemble and thoughtful, intriguing programming.

The title of Cantus’s program was “A Place for Us,” taken from a phrase in Stephen Sondheim & Leonard Bernstein’s song “Somewhere” in West Side Story. Spoken narrative linked the individual numbers together with poetry and excerpts from prose works expressing the experience of home, and how we know that a place is home to us.

An abbreviated version of “Somewhere” opened the concert, which was followed by the traditional Protestant hymn “This is my song” sung to the main theme from Jean Sibelius’s Finlandia. Cantus member Chris Foss’s complex arrangement of a traditional fiddle song followed, using jazz scat syllables to depict a country fiddler going at it. [Read more…]

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