Victoria Petrak Archives - Cleveland Classical

Contemporary Youth Orchestra: a conversation with Andrew Sords

December 6, 2016 by Mike Telin

by Mike Telin

The Contemporary Youth Orchestra will kick off its 21st season with a concert on Saturday, December 10 at 7:00 at Cleveland State University’s Waetjen Auditorium. The program will feature celebrated violinist and CYO alum Andrew Sords in a performance of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto under the direction of Liza Grossman.

“I feel like I’m the only thirty-year-old violinist on the planet who’s never performed this concerto,” Andrew Sords said during a recent telephone conversation. “But I am of the Zen mindset that when it is meant to be, something or someone will show us that it’s the right time. And 20 years ago to the day of this performance, I played my first concert as a member of CYO.” [Read more…]

Labadie leads fresh-sounding performance of Messiah with Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus and solo quartet (Dec. 4)

By Daniel Hathaway|Cleveland Classical

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – On Thursday evening at Severance Music Center, guest conductor Bernard Labadie did far more than just hold the performance of Messiah by the Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus and solo quartet together, he led a surgically clean account of George Frideric Handel’s 1741 oratorio.

Like a London cabbie, Labadie knew all the available highways and byways for the two-hour musical journey and pointed out interesting sights we might otherwise have missed.

And to change metaphors, like a skilled restorer he gently removed layers of interpretive grime that has accumulated over the years from Handel’s score, allowing us to hear it with fresh ears. He also tucked in some surprises of his own for those of us who thought we knew the piece and how it should go.

[Read on…]

CityMusic Cleveland: Three Eras, One Conversation (Dec. 5)

by Kevin McLaughlin

“We love coming here!” CityMusic Cleveland’s managing director Henry Peyrebrune said in his opening remarks on Friday at St. Noel Catholic Church. Open and modern and warmly lit, St. Noel proved a welcoming setting for December 5th’s well-attended concert. Many pews had been claimed early, and finding a seat required a bit of roaming. As always with CityMusic, admission was free, with only a suggested ticket price and friendly greeters at the door.

The program, titled Three Eras, One Conversation (although I only counted two) traced a through-line from Mozart to Haydn to Stravinsky, with conductor James Feddeck clarifying the connections across style and time.

[Read on…]

Les Délices’ elaborate, entertaining Aesop Project (Nov. 22)

by Peter Feher

In the 1670s, Louis XIV commissioned a series of 39 fountains for the Gardens of Versailles, each modeled on a story from Aesop’s Fables and intended for the education of the king’s young son, the Dauphin.

The Aesop Project, the latest community offering from Les Délices and artistic director Debra Nagy, is slightly less ornate but just as inspired. Cleveland’s ever-resourceful period chamber ensemble partnered with local puppeteers and poets for this family-friendly program teaching music and morals.

After touring Northeast Ohio schools earlier in the week, the project received a public performance at the CMA Community Arts Center on Saturday morning, November 22. Children, parents, and committed patrons of early music sat down for the 35-minute show, surrounded by spectacular displays of costumes and props from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s annual Parade the Circle celebration.

[Read on…]

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