The Best Classical Music to Catch This Weekend in Cleveland

On Friday at 2:30 & 7:30, the Cooper International Violin Competition continues vetting its 18 semi-finalists in 30-minute recitals, then after a cut, the six remaining violinists will play 45-minute recitals on Saturday at 3 pm and 8 pm. Moving into next week, three finalists will play complete concertos on Monday at 7:30 with the Columbus ProMusica Chamber Orchestra and conductor David Danzmayr, while violinists who didn’t survive the final cut will play an Honors Recital on Sunday, August 9 featuring outstanding performances selected from the first three days of the competition. All events are free and will be live streamed from Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall.

Lawrence Loh will conduct The Cleveland Orchestra in the live to screen score of John Powell’s How to Train Your Dragon on Friday at 7 and Sunday at 3 in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center. And Lucas Waldin will be on the podium at Blossom Music Center on Saturday at 7 as the Orchestra presents vocalists Capathia Jenkins & Ryan Shaw in hits by Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Whitney Houston & Elvis Presley.

On Friday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 4, The Cleveland Opera and Cleveland Ballet will stage the 14-year-old Mozart’s opera Mitridate, rè di Ponto (Mithridates, King of Pontus). Grzegorz Nowak, conducts, and tenor David Sadlier sings the title role at First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland.

And on Saturday at 7:30 in the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus and Sunday at 4 in Federated Church in Chagrin Falls, the Fryderyk Chopin Institute of Ohio will present pianist Kamil Pacholec on its summer series, featuring works by Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy.

For details of these and other classical music events, please visit the ClevelandClassical.com concert listings.