Since 2008, the Jubilation Church Choir Festival has celebrated the unique contribution choirs make to their communities of worship. No longer a competition, the 10th Anniversary edition of the Festival, is open to all church choirs in Northeast Ohio. [Read more…]
Iron Composer returns to Baldwin Wallace: a conversation with director Joe Drew
by Mike Telin
On Friday, September 4 at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, the creativity of five composers will be tested when they have five hours to write a brand new piece of music in order to win the coveted titled of Iron Composer. Competition director Joe Drew said that this years contestants are all accomplished composers and college-level teachers whose musical styles are quite varied. “We try to select as diverse a group as possible. We are putting on a show, and it wouldn’t work if we had a group of composers who all write in similar styles, or who would all have a similar response to the stimulus of the challenge.”
What is that challenge? On Friday at 9:00 am in the Chamber Hall, the five finalists will be assigned an instrumentation and a secret musical ingredient that must be incorporated into their work. Past challenges have paired piano trio with a Monet painting, pipe organ with 19th-century music boxes, and brass trio with audience participation. After five hours, the composers must submit a score and parts for their finished piece. Their work will be performed and judged during a free public concert at 8 pm in Gamble Auditorium. Following the performance, prizes will be awarded, and the title of Iron Composer will be bestowed.
Review: WCLV’s Jubilation! Elizabeth Stuart Church Choir Festival inspires friendly competition at St. John’s Cathedral (May 9 & 10)
by Daniel Hathaway
Though The Ensemble from Federated Church in Chagrin Falls was the ultimate winner of the 2013 Jubilation! Elizabeth Stuart Church Choir Festival jointly sponsored by WCLV, 104.9 FM and the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, all six choirs took home a cash prize and a plaque as well as the invaluable experience of appearing with each other in a warmly supportive festival. The well-attended finals were held at St. John’s Cathedral on May 9 and 10 and judged by Robert Page, Frank Bianchi and Peter Jarjisian.
On Thursday evening, the Festival Choir of Gesu Parish in University Heights (27 singers) drew the opening slot. Directed by Joseph Metzinger with instrumental assistance from pianist Julia Russ and violinist James Thompson, the ensemble sang a range of music from repurposed Handel choruses to African Chants, a famous Sistine Chapel motet and a Mozart mass movement. [Read more…]
Last Night of the Proms
Writing in the Telegraph, Ivan Hewett considers the longevity and popularity of the “Last Night of the Proms.” The exuberant Last Night performance, always memorable for the audience’s funny hats, noisemakers, and singalong choruses of “Rule Britannia” and “Land of Hope and Glory,” is a spectacle, and as is the case with most spectacles, some find it downright embarrassing.
Hewett observes that recent Prom Directors, in an effort to moderate the overt nationalism of the evening
…have adopted something like the American policy of ‘containment’ in the Cold War. They acknowledge a ‘sphere of influence’ for the fun and jingoist songs, but they try to box it in and if possible shrink it. They’ve made the serious first half longer, and have slipped serious things into the second half. But the audience gets its revenge. Their silly hats and klaxons create a kind of Last Night Miasma which takes over everything.
So why does the Last Night persist? What might the future hold? The article is here.
On Saturday, September 12, WCLV will broadcast the famous “Last Night of the Proms” live beginning at 2:00 pm.
WCLV Re-broadcasts CIPC Final Four this week
We asked for details a bit late, but wanted our readers to know that WCLV, 104.9 FM, will be re-broadcasting the concerto performances of the Final Four this week on the station’s Big Work at One series. Here’s the schedule:
Tuesday, August 11 at 1 pm: fourth-place winner Evgeny Brakhman in Rachmaninoff’s third concerto.
Wednesday, August 12 at 1 pm: third-place winner William Youn in Brahms’ first concerto.
Thursday, August 13 at 1 pm: second place winner Dmitri Levkovich in Rachmaninoff’s second concerto.
Friday, August 14 at 1 pm: first-place winner Martina Filjak in Rachmaninoff’s second concerto.
Any remaining time before two p.m. each day will feature Martina Filjak in solo performances from earlier rounds of the competition.