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The Cleveland Institute of Music is heavily involved with the Violins of Hope Project (a series of events designed around the current exhibit at the Maltz Museum — twenty violins that survived the Holocaust). A faculty recital on Wednesday, October 6 at 8:00 pm in Kulas Hall at CIM will feature music by Oded Zehavi (Seagull, 2015), Erwin Schulhoff (Duo for Violins and Cello, 1925) and Olivier Messiaen (Quartet for the End of Time, 1940-41) performed by pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi, clarinetist Franklin Cohen, violinists Joan Kwuon and Jaime Laredo, and cellist Sharon Robinson. The connections? Messiaen wrote his cosmic piece for fellow prisoners in a German concentration camp. Schulhoff died of tuberculosis in the Wülzburg concentration camp in 1942. Zehavi, who is currently the Schusterman visiting artist at the Israel Institute, will tell you more in a 7:15 pre-concert lecture. The performance in CIM’s Kulas Hall is free.
Speaking of Olivier Messiaen, The Cleveland Orchestra will play three of that French visionary’s works this weekend under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst. On Thursday at 7:30 pm in Severance Hall, his Romantic-sounding Ascension Suite will precede his dazzling Couleurs de la cité céleste, featuring pianist Joela Jones. The orchestra will round out the program with Richard Strauss’s famous Also sprach Zarathrustra (think of the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, then settle in for 30 more minutes of spectacular music). The program gets tweaked on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm. Friday’s menu swaps out the Ascension Suite for Messiaen’s percussion-rich Chronochromie, and the Strauss for two of Giuseppi Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces starring the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. Strauss is back on Saturday’s program, plus Couleurs de la cité céleste and the two Verdi pieces, Stabat Mater and Te Deum. (The orchestra’s programmers have had fun mixing pieces up for this set of concerts.) Tickets are available online.
Like Olivier Messiaen, the Russian-French artist Marc Chagall was a true original. His works and his world view will be the subject of a conference this weekend at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle that includes two concerts. On Friday, October 9 at 7:30 pm, the Covenant Choir and the R. Nathaniel Dett Concert Choir of the Cleveland School of the Arts will join trumpeter Roy Poper, organist Jonathan Moyer, and other musicians for Libby Larsen’s Eternal Ruler of the Ceaseless Round, Petr Eben’s Okna, selected songs by Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Then on Sunday, October 11 at 2:00 pm, pianist Seth Weinstein will talk about the compositional process behind his Chagall Suite, and a performance of the work will follow. Both events at the Church of the Covenant, 11205 Euclid Avenue in University Circle, are free.
The Cleveland Composers Guild will present a concert of new chamber music by its members on Sunday, October 11 at 3:00 pm in Drinko Recital Hall at Cleveland State University. Hear the latest music, hot off the press, including Larry Baker’s Burn Green, Robert Beckstrom’s Phoneoum III, Loris Chobanian’s Sparks, Joseph Hollings’ Standing on the Bank of the River Pant, Jeffrey Mumford’s Four Dances for Boris, Nick Puin’s One or the Other, Frank Wiley’s Portals of Light, and Kevin Wilson’s Dance Suite. The event is free.
Finally, the next Music for Miles afternoon at Waterloo Arts, 15605 Waterloo Road in Collinwood on Sunday, October 11 at 4:00 pm, will feature Kent State University’s faculty ensemble, The Black Squirrel Wind Quintet (Diane McCloskey Fiocca, flute, Danna Sundet, oboe, Amitai Vardi, clarinet, Kent Larmee, horn, and Mark DeMio, bassoon). The kid-friendly program includes Darius Milhaud’s La Cheminée du Roi René and Cleveland native Eric Ewazen’s Roaring Fork. An extended intermission will feature fun things for children to do, and the next-door Callaloo Café will be open for drinks and refreshments for adults. The concert’s free.
Check out a complete two-week calendar of classical music events here.
