by Mike Telin
If you ask a musician what new skill they learned during the past eighteen months, more often than not, the answer is video editing. And, in a relatively short amount of time, many became quite good at it.
“Everyone we knew learned how to video-edit,” Marissa Glynias Moore, executive director at Piano Cleveland, said via Zoom. “So we thought, what would be a cool way for us to tap into that creativity?”
On Wednesday, October 27 at 7:00 pm, Piano Cleveland will debut PianoFlicks, a new video contest showcasing pianists as they creatively re-imagine how classical music is presented and enjoyed by audiences. Throughout the broadcast — which will air on the Piano Cleveland website — viewers will have the opportunity to cast their vote for the Audience Prize. They can also cast their votes over the course of the next week — details below. All participants will receive prize money for their participation in the contest.
“Everything we do is about making classical music more accessible, not only for the audience, but for young pianists as well — making yourself and what you do accessible is an important part of being an artist in today’s world,” Moore said.
After a three-day break, Competition first-round performances will continue on Thursday, July 15 at 7:00 pm. Audiences can also experience that evening’s session by attending the Watch Party at the Beachwood Community Center. Pack a picnic and bring your chairs to watch performances under the stars and on the big screen. Click 
As the classical music community knows, wind instruments have been fairly quiet over the past year. But knowing is different from feeling, and a pre-recorded concert by the Black Squirrel Winds on Sunday, April 11 turned out to be even more welcome than expected. Not only was it a rare showcase these days of the beautiful, colorful combination of sounds that make up the wind quintet, but it was played in an impressive fashion that’s far less common than a black squirrel sighting in Kent.
For 36 seasons, 
Friends of fifteen years will come together as duo partners in the next concert on the Arts Renaissance Tremont series. On Sunday, January 21 at 3:00 pm at Pilgrim Congregational Church, clarinetist Franklin Cohen and pianist Zsolt Bognár will play a program that includes art songs by Beethoven and Fauré, two famous sonatas by Poulenc and Brahms, and a rarely-heard sonata by Mieczysław Weinberg. A freewill offering is requested.
