CityMusic Cleveland Does Five Concerts in Five Days and the Rest of the Classical Music You Should Catch This Week

Oberlin Opera Theater will launch its production of Francis Poulenc’s The Dialogues of the Carmelites this week, with performances in Hall Auditorium on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, March 13, 15, and 16 at 8:00 pm, and Sunday, March 17 at 2:00 pm. The opera is about a community of Carmelite nuns who perish in the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution for refusing to denounce their faith, and represents the serious side of a composer whose music is often satirical and irreverent. As director Jonathon Field said in an interview, “Poulenc was inclined to silliness and thumbing his nose at various establishment figures. He was also a deeply devoted and spiritual person.” Christopher Larkin conducts the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra. Tickets are available online.

CityMusic Cleveland begins a perambulating five-concert series this week featuring Sayaka Shoji in the premiere of music director Avner Dorman’s Violin Concerto No. 3. Also on the program: Torū Takemitzu’s Waltz, and as a happy coincidence with Oberlin Opera, Francis Poulenc’s Sinfonietta. Performances are on Wednesday, March 13 at St. Jerome Church in Collinwood, Thursday, March 14 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center in University Circle, Friday, March 15 at Lakewood Congregational Church (all at 7:30 pm), Saturday, March 16 at 8:00 pm at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus in Slavic Village, and Sunday, March 17 at 4:00 pm at St. Noel’s Church in Willoughby Hills. All performances are free and a freewill offering will be received. The Maltz people ask you to reserve free tickets here.

Franz Welser-Möst is back in town this week to lead The Cleveland Orchestra in a four-concert run that features organist Paul Jacobs in the U.S. premiere of Viennese composer Bernd Richard Deutsch’s Okeanos. The program that spans three centuries of repertoire also includes Haydn’s Symphony No. 34 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. Catch a performance at Severance Hall on Thursday, March 14 at 7:30 pm, Friday or Saturday, March 15 and 16 at 8:00 pm, or Sunday, March 17 at 3:00 pm. The box office will sell you tickets online.

Local percussion hero Jamey Haddad will bring a bunch of his friends and an array of instruments to John Knox Presbyterian Church in North Olmsted on Friday, March 15 at 7:00 pm for a program he calls “Percussion and Beyond.” A freewill offering will be taken up.

A rare performance of Aaron Copland’s folksy American opera, The Tender Land, is the spring project for Kent State Opera stage director Marla Berg and music director Jay White. Marcus Dana will transform Ludwig Recital Hall into a theater, and Jungho Kim will conduct the Kent State Orchestra. Performances are on Friday and Saturday, March 15 and 16 at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, March 17 at 3:00 pm, and tickets can be ordered online.

Painesville native Tom Trenney founded Sounding Light: the Chamber Choir of Many Voices…One Song when he was working in the Detroit area. He’s now working in Nebraska, but he’s still leading the Detroit choir in performances of uplifting music several times a year. Trenney will bring the choir — along with the Stoney Creek High School Choir and an instrumental ensemble — to the Helen D. Schubert concert series at St. John’s Cathedral on Friday, March 15 at 7:30 pm for a performance of John Muehleisen’s Pietà (2012). It’s an oratorio that addresses the sorrow and pain of mothers who have lost their sons, and the way that love, compassion, and mercy can heal the void. A freewill offering will be received during the 90-minute performance.

With twelve nominations and five Grammy awards to her credit, Maria Schneider is spending several days in residence at Oberlin Conservatory this week, a visit that will culminate in a concert of her music with The Oberlin Jazz Ensemble in Finney Chapel on Saturday, March 16 at 7:30 pm. It’s free. If you can’t make it to Finney, there’s a live webcast you can access here.

Sure, it’s St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday, but it’s also Johann Sebastian Bach’s 334th birthday this week. Arts Renaissance Tremont will celebrate with a solo violin concert by Jinjoo Cho on Sunday, March 17 at 3:00 pm at Pilgrim Congregational Church. On the program: Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in a, BWV 1003, Bartók’s Bach-inspired Solo Violin Sonata, and Bach’s Partita No. 2 in d, BWV 1004, which includes the famous Chaconne. It’s free, but please put some cash in the collection plate.


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