Here are six events (some of them with multiple performances) to catch between now and Memorial Day weekend.
Cellist Paul Watkins, who joined the Emerson String Quartet in 2013, is also a conductor. He’ll lead CityMusic Cleveland in the Orchestra’s final concert set of the season, beginning on Wednesday, May 17 in Elyria, and continuing through May 21 in Beachwood, Lakewood, Slavic Village, and Collinwood through Sunday, May 21. Dan Gilbert will be featured in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, and Watkins will lead the ensemble in Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. All performances are free.
French-born pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard will tackle György Ligeti’s Piano Concerto, one of the most formidable in the repertory, at The Cleveland Orchestra’s concerts on Thursday, May 18, Friday morning, May 19, and Saturday, May 20 (read a preview interview here). Music Director Franz Welser-Möst has chosen two Haydn symphonies to begin and end with, and audiences on Thursday and Saturday will also be in at the premiere of a new work, Anthony Cheung’s Topos (read an interview with the composer here.) Tickets are available online.
Oberlin Baroque flute professor Michael Lynn will join colleagues Kelsey Burnham, flutes Augusta McKay Lodge, violin, Jeff Girton, violin and viola, Catharine Meints, cello and Stephen Aron, guitar to demonstrate ten historic flutes at a special concert on Saturday morning, May 20 at 11 am in Kulas Recital Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory. The program includes music by 19th-century flutist-composers that no one has heard in modern times. Read more here. The concert is free.
Lakewood-born composer David Conte will be the special guest for the season’s final concert by Good Company, a vocal ensemble at Lakewood Presbyterian Church on Sunday, May 21 at 4:00 pm. The chorus will sing Conte’s Candles in the Wilderness and I Dream a World, along with music by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Ernani Aguiar, Arvo Pärt, Gwyneth Walker, and Vincent Persichetti. A freewill offering will be received. Conte also leads a free master class on the art of choral composition on Saturday, May 20 at 2:00 pm at the church.
Murray Perahia is the second piano soloist in a row to appear with The Cleveland Orchestra. On Thursday, May 25, Saturday, May 26, and Saturday, May 27, he’ll be featured in Beethoven’s radiant Fourth Concerto, and Franz Welser-Most will lead the Orchestra in 20th-century avant-garde music: Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht and Edgar Varèse’s Amériques. Tickets can be ordered from the Severance Hall box office.
No Exit will present the third performance of its tribute to Eric Dolphy at Bop Stop on Sunday, May 27 at 8:00 pm. The free concert also includes arrangements and new music by Andrew Rindfleisch, Bobby Selvaggio, Paul Epstein, James Praznik, Greg D’Alessio, and Timothy Beyer, with guest artists Scott McKee and Dustin May in addition to Selvaggio.
For details of these and many other events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page.
