Roger Mastroianni
Cleveland’s French Baroque ensemble Les Délices occasionally ventures into different territory, as Debra Nagy and her colleagues did in their recent “Songs Without Words” program, which combines 17th-century songs for instruments with 20th-century torch songs and jazz standards arranged and improvised by the ensemble. You can watch the group rehearse the program on Thursday, September 21 from 6:30-9:30 pm at Historic St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ohio City (it’s free), then catch the show itself on Sunday, September 24 at 12:30 pm when they present a Jazz Brunch at Nighttown. Tickets available online.
If you missed Yuval Sharon’s imaginative production of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen at Severance Hall two seasons ago, you have three opportunities to make your acquaintance with the piece — or to see it again. The Cleveland Orchestra will open its centennial season under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst on Saturday, September 23 at 8:00 pm with a revival of the opera featuring computer projections inspired by the newspaper cartoons that inspired the composer. Two more performances follow on Sunday, September 24 at 3:00 pm and Tuesday, September 26 at 7:30 pm. Watch a series of production diaries and interviews here, and reserve tickets through the Severance Hall Box Office.
Timothy Beyer’s new music ensemble, No Exit, begins its season with world premieres of Matthew Ivic’s Septet, Nasim Khorassani’s Growth for string trio, and Michael Rene Torres’s …his existence a flux… at Heights Arts on Saturday, September 23 at 8:00 pm. There are two further performances, all free and all at 8:00 pm, on Friday, September 29 at CSU’s Drinko Hall, and Saturday, September 30 at SPACES.
And fans of organ recitals will need to make a tough choice on Sunday, September 25, when three important performances will coincide at exactly 4:00 pm. James Higdon plays works by 20th-century visionary Jehan Alain on the Ars Organi series at St. Paul’s in Cleveland Heights, but that afternoon also features Isabelle Demers at Fairmount Presbyterian in Cleveland Heights in a concert including her own arrangement of a Harry Potter Suite, and William Kuhlman performing at Holy Trinity Lutheran in Akron. They’re all free.
For details of these and other events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page.
