The NEOSonicFest, Highlighting New and Recently Composed Music, Plus the Rest of This Week's Classical Music Picks in Cleveland

NEOSonicFest, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony’s annual parade of new and recently-composed music, revs up on Thursday, April 5 with a 7:30 pm concert by clarinetist Carol Robinson and trumpeter Nate Wooley at MOCA Cleveland (tickets available online.) On Friday, April 6 at 8:00 pm, No Exit presents a free concert of music by Leo Ornstein, Ty Emerson, Per Nørgård, James Praznik, Andrew Rindfleisch, and Tristan Murail at Heights Arts, followed on Saturday, April; 7 at 7:00 pm by a free concert by the CIM New Music Ensemble at the Bop Stop (pieces by David Rakowski, Stephen Hartke, and Keith Fitch).

If you’d like to hear how new pieces are put together, Steven Smith invites you to an open rehearsal of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony’s “Young and Emerging Composers” concert on Sunday morning, April 8 at 10:00 am in Kulas Music Hall at Baldwin Wallace (the free concert itself is scheduled for Wednesday, April 11 at 7:00 pm in BW’s Gamble Auditorium).

On Sunday, April 8 at 7:00 pm, the Cleveland Composers Guild will team up with the Syndicate for The New Arts for “Small Pieces | Big Impressions,” a free program of music by CCG members in the ballroom at Judson Manor. And on Tuesday, April 10 at the Happy Dog in Gordon Square, pianist Rob Kovacs will play piano covers of classic Nintendo games.

Czech guest conductor Jakub Hrůša will return to Severance Hall this weekend to lead The Cleveland Orchestra in Josef Suk’s Second Symphony and Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the Armenian-born soloist Sergey Khachatyran, who in 2000 was the youngest musician ever to win the Jan Sibelius Competition (he was 15), Performances are on Thursday, April 5 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, April 7 at 8:00 pm, tickets available online.

David Ellis’ Earth and Air: String Orchestra welcomes Eastern Michigan University cello professor Deborah Pae as the ensemble’s featured soloist for its concert on Friday, April 6 at 7:30 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. Pae will play Cleveland composer Jeffrey Mumford’s Two Rhapsodies for cello and strings, and fill out the program with Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile for cello and strings. Tickets are $20 ($10 students) at the door.

Need some glee in your life? The glee clubs of Cornell and Case Western Reserve Universities will provide an abundance of that in their joint concert at the Church of the Covenant on Saturday, April 7 at 8:00 pm. Robert Isaacs and Jason Falofsky conduct the all-male choruses. Tickets can be reserved online.

Looking ahead to next week, Carl Topilow will be honored on his retirement after 36 years as director of the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra and orchestral conducting program in a concert by the CIM Orchestra at Severance Hall on Wednesday, April 11 at 8:00 pm. The concert includes music by Barber, Korngold, and Dvořák, with violin soloist Aaron Chan. It’s free, but tickets are required — reserve them here.

Check out details of these and many other classical music events on our Concert Listings page.