Apollo’s Fire reprises its Christmas show “Sacrum Mysterium, a Celtic Christmas” this week with two local performances in Shaker Heights (Saturday, December 12 at 8:00 pm) and Willoughby Hills (Sunday, December 13 at 4:00 pm). Partnering with Montréal’s Ensemble La Nef, Jeannette Sorrell has created a festive mashup of pagan carols, Celtic fiddle tunes and dances, and a medieval Scottish Vespers Service featuring Jeffrey Strauss, baritone, and Sylvain Bergeron, archlute. The ensemble also tours the show to Canton on December 9 and New York (the Metropolitan Museum of Art) on December 11. Check here to see if there are still tickets available.
CityMusic Cleveland will welcome Stefan Willich back as its guest conductor for five performances of its December program around the region, beginning on Wednesday, December 9 in Willoughby Hills and ending on Sunday, December 13 in Lakewood. In between they’ll make their way to Elyria (December 10), University Heights (December 11), and Slavic Village (December 12). The free performances will feature Cleveland Orchestra violinist Miho Hashizume in Vivaldi’s “Winter” from The Four Seasons and Piazzolla’s “Spring” from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Hashizume will also team up with cellist Sophie Benn, oboist Eric Ohlsson, and bassoonist Laura Koepke as soloists in Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante. The programs end with Mozart’s last symphony, No. 41 in C, nicknamed (for no apparent reason) the “Jupiter.” Never mind. It’s a brilliant piece. See the ClevelandClassical.com concert listings for venues and times.
It’s the thirtieth anniversary of Back to the Future, the film that stars Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown, and the famous silver DeLorean as a time machine. The Cleveland Orchestra marks the occasion on Thursday, December 10 at 8:00 pm with a screening and live performance of Alan Silvestri’s epic score in Severance Hall. Tickets available here.
Liza Grossman conducts the Contemporary Youth Orchestra in Michael Daugherty’s Superman-inspired Metropolis Symphony in Cleveland State University’s Waetjen Auditorium on Saturday, December 12 at 7:00 pm. The program also features Cleveland’s DeeJay Doc in his Trust-Belt City: Concerto for Turntable and Orchestra and Leonard Bernstein’s Mambo. Tickets for this high-energy evening can be ordered online.
Like Brahms? Like Brunch? Combine those two on Sunday, December 13 at 11:00 am when violinist Mari Sato of the Cavani Quartet and pianist Robert Cassidy play Johannes Brahms’s complete works for violin and piano (that’s three sonatas) at the Bop Stop. Doors open at 10:30 am, and food and drinks will be available for sale. Admission is $10 and you can reserve ahead online. As a bonus event while he’s in town, Robert Cassidy will throw a CD release party for his new album Pathways (featuring music by Debussy, Chopin and Joel Feigin) on Monday, December 14 at 7:00 pm at Nighttown. Tickets are also $10. Book online here.
Check out a complete two-week calendar of classical music events here.
