Economic strife weighs heavily in the nonprofit world, but Northeast Ohio’s classical, jazz and world-music scenes are not taking it lying down. The region’s orchestras and concert series just keep putting out great music. Some — with great new venues, new leadership and new programs — are charging energetically into the future.
APOLLO’S FIRE
apollosfire.org,
216.320.0012
Music director Jeannette Sorrell continues to explore the baroque
era with a couple of programs designed to charm. First comes
Gloria (Oct. 1-4), named for Vivaldi’s “Gloria” in D major,
written for the orphan girls of the Ospedale di la Pieta in Venice,
where the composer was choirmaster. Instead of orphans, Sorrell
presents it with the children’s chorus Apollo’s Musettes. Also on the
program: Highlights from the Bach B Minor Mass. Apollo’s schedule
continues with a new version of a program Sorrell presented in 2005,
Mediterranean Nights (Oct. 29-Nov. 5), which explores the rustic
side of the baroque era in Spain and Italy.
CITY MUSIC CLEVELAND
citymusiccleveland.org,
216.321.8273
Accessibility is not just a buzzword in City Music Cleveland’s
programming. Performances are held in venues all over Northeast Ohio,
with free admission and childcare. Conductor David Alan Miller opens
the season October 14-18 with a program that touches three musical
periods, featuring the world premiere of Christos Hatzis’ “Redemption,”
Mozart’s Serenade in D (which has the Pacifica Quartet cast as
“soloist”) and Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Suite.
CLEVELAND CHAMBER SYMPHONY
clevelandchambersymphony.org,
216.421.1062
Still in residence at Baldwin Wallace College, the Cleveland Chamber
Symphony has a new partnership with the Cleveland Music School
Settlement, where the ensemble gives the first of its free concerts
October 25. The program opens with the world premier of Jing Jing Luo’s
“Lagrimas Y Voces,” with flutist Sean Gabriel as soloist. Also on the
program are CCS artistic director Steven Smith’s String Quartet and
Frank Wiley’s “For Alexander Calder.”
CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF MUSIC
cim.edu, 216.791.5000
In 1920, Cleveland was the fifth largest city in the U.S., and
Swiss-born composer Ernest Bloch became the Cleveland Institute of
Music’s first director. C.I.M. celebrates Bloch’s life and work in a
series of concerts this year, beginning Sunday, September 20, with a 2
p.m. panel discussion and 4 p.m. faculty recital featuring the
Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio in three Bloch compositions (see the Get
Out! section). The salute continues with a faculty recital by violinist
Carol Ruzicka accompanied by pianist Cara Chowning (Nov. 1), a concert
by the CIM Chamber Orchestra (Nov. 4), and an all-Bloch program
featuring faculty and guest artists at Temple-Tifereth Israel (Nov. 8).
Otherwise, CIM’s calendar is packed as usual. Soprano Dawn Upshaw opens
the Mixon Masters series (Oct. 4), Tiempo Libre gives a benefit
performance featuring a concerto commissioned for them (Oct. 24), the
CIM New Music ensemble performs at MOCA (Nov. 11) and the Cavani
Quartet repeats its complete cycle of Beethoven string quartets at
Mixon Hall (starting Sept. 27).
THE CLEVELAND JAZZ ORCHESTRA
clevelandjazz.org,
440.942.9525.
Flush with good news, the CJO begins the season with a new music
director Sean Jones. Most recently, the Warren native was principal
trumpeter for Wynton Marsalis’ Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. The
31-year-old virtuoso says he’s happy to come back to Northeast Ohio and
re-join a group that helped nurture him. The band also has a new
downtown home. Beginning December 5 with a concert built to show off
Jones’ trumpet skills, CJO performs this year at the newly renovated
Hanna Theatre at PlayhouseSquare, a state-of-the-art hall with bar
service in the same room as the stage.
VIVA AND GALA
clemusart.com, 216.421.7340
The Cleveland Museum of Art continues touring local neighborhoods as
well as the world this fall, before moving back into the renovated
Gartner Auditorium early in 2010. For the next few months, at venues
around the city, the museum presents a spectacular range of world music
and movement, from traditional Dominican sonero Puerto Plata (Oct. 6)
and the gravity-defying Shaolin Warriors (Nov. 4) to Celtic violist
Garth Knox (Nov. 8) and the rhythmically charged Flamenco guitar
ensemble the Juan Carmona Septet (Nov. 14).
CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA
clevelandorchestra.com,
216.231.1111
The Cleveland Orchestra opens its season with a one-night-only
benefit performance (Sept. 26) featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9,
conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. But the most intriguing news of
the ensemble’s new season is a new Friday music series that starts
early and continues with a party offering food, drinks and world music
programmed by percussionist Jamey Haddad. The first Friday Nights at
Seven program (Oct. 9) includes Welser-Möst conducting a double
dose of Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 with Mitsuko Uchida as soloist,
and the ever-popular Symphony No. 5. World-beat percussionist Cyro
Baptista and his band Beat the Donkey play the afterparty. Other fall
highlights include November 19-21 performances by the much-in-demand
cellist Alisa Weilerstein, who recently joined CIM’s faculty. She’s
soloist in Dvorák’s Cello Concerto on a program that also
includes the world premiere of Julian Anderson’s “Fantasias” and
Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra.” And you don’t have to be
Irish to love rocking fiddler Eileen Ivers, whose group Immigrant Soul
performs with the orchestra Dec. 16-17.
OBERLIN CONSERVATORY
oberlin.edu, 440.775.8169
Superstars and diversity are a given in Oberlin’s Artist Recital
series. It opens with the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, which champions
black and Latino musicians (Sept. 20). You can add the words “famous
alumni” as the series continues with opera star Denyce Graves (class of
’85, Oct. 11) and violinist Jennifer Koh (class of ’97, Oct. 29).
CLEVELAND POPS
clevelandpops.com,
216.765.7677
Carl Topilow takes the spotlight as both the Cleveland Pops’
conductor and clarinetist in a salute to Benny Goodman and other stars
of the Big Band era (Oct. 30). The season-opening concert at Severance
Hall also features Jack Schantz on trumpet, Paul Ferguson on trombone
and George Judy on drums.
OPERA CLEVELAND
operacleveland.org,
216.575.0903
Mozart’s Don Giovanni has been staged in every imaginable
way, and Opera Cleveland’s final production of the 2009 season (and its
only one this fall) continues this tradition by mixing period costumes
and an abstract, modern set (Oct. 30-Nov. 7).
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2009.