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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…]

Guest essay: A Summer in Ohio (and a Thank You to Akron)

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by Levi Hammer
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

Hammer“Why, oh why, oh why, oh — why did I ever leave Ohio?” So goes Bernstein’s Broadway hit. In moments of discouragement in Berlin over the last year, my thoughts drifted to that tune. This summer brought me back to Ohio for my third season at Cincinnati Opera, where I worked on the Barrie Kosky production of The Magic Flute on loan from the Komische Oper Berlin. Spending a summer in my beloved Ohio has given me cause to reflect on my time there.

I first traveled to Ohio assisting Benjamin Zander when he was conducting Mahler’s Ninth Symphony with the Akron Symphony. I had never heard of this orchestra, let alone of the city of Akron, and I was unaware of the musical riches of Northeast Ohio, extending back to industrialization, and the two world-class orchestras in the region (The Cleveland Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony). [Read more…]

Akron Symphony: Mendelssohn’s Elijah at E.J. Thomas Hall (May 5)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ASO ElijahA critical mass of nearly 200 singers joined Christopher Wilkins, the Akron Symphony, and a first-rate quartet of soloists for a resounding performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah on Saturday evening, May 5 in E.J. Thomas Hall. Commissioned for the 1846 Birmingham Festival following the success of his earlier oratorio St. Paul, Mendelssohn’s concert-length work presents the life of the Hebrew prophet in several dramatic scenes.

[Read more…]

Akron Symphony & Choruses to present Mendelssohn’s Elijah

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by Daniel Hathaway

mendelssohnconductingelijahAt least one scholar has pointed out that the British entered the 19th century as a nation of folk singers, but emerged as a nation of oratorio singers. The Birmingham Triennial Festival, founded in 1787, became one of the principal commissioners of new works for large choruses and orchestras, and one of that festival’s favorite composers was Felix Mendelssohn.

Also a favorite of Queen Victoria and her Prince Consort Albert, Mendelssohn wrote and conducted St. Paul and his Second Piano Concerto for the 1837 Festival, and composed Elijah for the 1846 event, the year before he died. Elijah became so popular that it was performed at every successive festival until the series ended in 1912.

On Saturday, May 6 at 8:00 pm, Christopher Wilkins will conduct the Akron Symphony and the combined voices of the Akron Symphony Chorus, the Summit Choral Society’s Masterworks Chorale, and the University of Akron choruses, prepared by Marie Bucoy-Calavan, in Mendelssohn’s famous oratorio. [Read more…]

Sō Percussion to join UA Percussion Ensemble and Akron Symphony in concerts this week

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by Mike Telin

It’s all aboso-percussion-onstageut Sō Percussion in Akron this week. On Wednesday, October 12 at 7:00 pm in Guzzetta Recital Hall, Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting will team up with the University of Akron’s Percussion Ensemble for a performance of Steve Reich’s groundbreaking composition Drumming as part of Tuesday Musical’s FUZE series.

Then on Saturday, October 15 at 8:00 pm in E.J. Thomas Hall, Sō Percussion will join Christopher Wilkins and the Akron Symphony in Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang’s man made for percussion quartet and orchestra. The evening will also include Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Overture to The Wasps, Tan Dun’s Secret of Wind and Birds, and Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Lang and Wilkins will present the concert’s “Preview from the Podium” at 7:00 pm. [Read more…]

YSU and UA to Co-Host 2015 Piano Festival from October 4-7

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YSUUAKeyboard-Festival-2015Youngstown University’s Dana School of Music will collaborate with the University of Akron’s Kulas Concert Series to present a piano festival comprising seven events both in Youngstown and Akron between October 4 and 7.

Faculty and guest artists Zahari Metchkov, Joachim Reinhuber, Caroline Oltmanns, James Wilding and Sean Baran will play a variety of piano and harpsichord music during recitals throughout the week, and lectures and master classes will fill out the range of activities. The complete schedule follows. [Read more…]

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