by Daniel Hathaway
LOOKING AHEAD IN JANUARY
Until administrators in Imperial Rome began fiddling with the calendar, the year very sensibly began in March with the reblooming of nature, rather than in January when “dogs are sticking to the sidewalks” and it can seem like the beginning of a new Ice Age, as in Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of our Teeth. But the Northeast Ohio concert calendar is already bustling with activity. Here’s a rundown for the next four weeks.
Apollo’s Fire and The Cleveland Orchestra are back in business early following the holidays, the former with two Baroque Bistros that promise to “Drive the Cold Winter Away (January 7 and 8), the latter with a guest appearance by conductor Alan Gilbert and the premiere by Paul Yancich of a new timpani concerto by James Oliverio and Nielsen’s somewhat obscure Sinfonia espansiva (second and last performance Jan. 7). Franz Welser-Möst returns to Severance Music Center with the Orchestra and Chorus for Schubert’s Mass in E-flat, flanked by Schubert’s 8th Symphony and Berg’s Lyric Suite (Jan. 12, 13 & 14).
Christopher Wilkins and the Akron Symphony are back early in the month as well on Jan. 14 for Julia Perry’s Pastoral, Xavier Foley’s Double Concerto “For Justice and Peace,” featuring bassist and composer Foley with violinist Eunice Kim (Foley also solos in Bottesini’s Double Bass Concerto No. 2).
Peter Lawson Jones will emcee the annual Martin Luther King Birthday concert on Jan. 15 at Severance Music Center, with The Cleveland Orchestra and Celebration Chorus performing music by Black composers Florence Price and William L. Dawson, and an afternoon Music Settlement concert at the Bop Stop will celebrate King’s mission through music and the written word.
Other orchestras will chime in during the month — Cleveland Pops on Jan. 21 with Joan Ellison channeling Judy Garland, the Akron Youth Orchestras on Jan. 22, the Canton Symphony on Jan. 22 with a world premiere of a work by Quinn Mason, and the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra with the Musical Theater Project on Jan. 28. The month ends with concerts by the Youngstown Symphony (Strauss, Coleridge-Taylor, Dvorak, and Haydn with guest conductor Albert Bade and trumpeter Brian Neal, and the Suburban Symphony on Jan. 29 (Schumann, Beethoven, and Sibelius with violinist Marina Ziegler).
One-off performances during January include a Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project performance by Chicago-based improvisers Ken Vandermark (reeds) & Tim Daisy (percussion) with an opening performance by Dana Jessen (bassoon) on Jan. 13, Prism with Anthony Fuoco, piano Carrie Klayman Singler, violin John Klayman, woodwinds Jeff Singler, cello Aidan Plank, bass, and Sunceray Tabler, drums and percussion, presented by Local #4 of the Musicians’ Union on Jan. 19, and saxophonist Perry Roth & pianist Hana Chu at Church of the Western Reserve on Jan. 22.
CityMusic Cleveland Baroque Ensemble will explore Spanish-influenced work at Praxis Gallery on Jan. 27, Trobár Medieval will celebrate the music and visions of two abbesses — ninth-century Byzantine-Greek Kassia, and twelfth-century German Hildegard von Bingen — on Jan. 27 and 28, classical guitarist René Izquierdo appears on the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series on Jan. 28, and Jeffrey Siegel dedicates his next Keyboard Conversation on Jan. 29 at the Maltz PAC to music inspired by love from Romantic era composers.
January ends with several extravaganzas and an opera.
On Jan. 29, the Cleveland Cello Society will showcase its Scholarship Winners at the Music Settlement, and Cleveland Composers Guild will show the products of its membership in a vocal music extravaganza at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church.
Michelle Abraham and Francesca DePasquale will join Oberlin faculty pianist Peter Takács on his continuing voyage through Beethoven’s violin sonatas on Jan. 29.
And that opera — composer Melissa Dunphy and librettist Jacqueline Goldfinger, follow four archeologists who unearth clues to the mysterious death of Alice Tierney in Colonial Philadelphia, resulting in an opera by the same name that debuts in Finney Chapel on Jan. 27, 28, and 29.
Details in our Concert Listings. Explore and enjoy!
Published on ClevelandClassical.com January 6, 2023.
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