Cleveland Classical

DIARY, Tuesday, January 14, 2025

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at Noon, organist Jonathan Moyer plays a free recital using both organs in University Circle’s Church of the Covenant: works by Nico Muhly and Samuel Scheidt on the 17th-century North German-style gallery organ, and 20th-century French pieces on the chancel instrument. You can hear the performance online.

And at 7:00 pm, The Singers’ Club of Cleveland, one of the longest continuing men’s choirs in the country, welcomes interested singers to a two-hour open rehearsal led by artistic director Don Verkuijlen at the Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights.

For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Several sources claim that the clarinet was invented by German woodwind builder Johann Christoph Denner on this date in 1690 in Nürnberg. [Read More…]

Cooper Violin Competition: final prizes announced (Jan. 10)

by Daniel Hathaway

Following Friday’s full concerto performances in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel with Norman Huynh and the Columbus-based ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, the panel of judges announced the three top winners in the 2025 Thomas and Evon Cooper International Violin Competition.

Taking first place with her performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto, 13-year-old Edna Unseld from Zurich, Switzerland (pictured, below) banked a cash prize of $20,000, plus a variety of professional opportunities. [Read on…]

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Fireworks in the key of D Major: Cooper Violin Competition Finals (Jan. 10)

by Stephanie Manning

With light snow and a winter wind blowing outside Oberlin’s Finney Chapel, the Final Round of the 2025 Cooper Competition — the January edition of the usual August event — looked a bit different this year. And yet, there was also a healthy sense of déjà vu.

The final three violinists, narrowed down from an initial field of nineteen, presented concertos by Brahms (once) and Tchaikovsky (twice) — coincidentally, the same program from 2022, the last time the competition was held for violin.

Joined by the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra and conductor Norman Huynh, this year’s finalists delivered an impressive evening of performances on January 10. [Read on…]

Cooper International Violin Competition Semi-Finals in Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall (Jan. 8)

After two days of impressive performances by the nineteen participants in the Cooper International Violin Competition, the Jury selected six to advance to Round Two. Yesterday at Oberlin Conservatory’s Warner Concert Hall, the six contestants — each vying for a spot among the final three — presented 45-minute programs with piano. Here are our impressions. [Read on…]

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The Kings Brass at Federated Church (Dec. 22)

by Kevin McLaughlin

The King’s Brass celebrated Christmas in bright and merry fashion with their trademark — pop-tinged arrangements of Christmas carols, hymns, and sing-alongs — on Sunday, December 22, as part of the Federated Church Performing Arts Series in Chagrin Falls.

The ensemble has been led for 47 years by Tim Zimmerman, who was a genial host and fine trumpeter. The well-blended group of nine musicians — Tim Zimmerman, Gregory Alley, Anthony Sanders (trumpet), Kyle Davidson, Kolbe Schnoebelen (trombone), Nate Petersen (bass trombone), Jacob Fulkerson (tuba), Colton Morris (percussion), and Rebecca Edmiston (piano/organ) — acquitted themselves well under Zimmerman’s leadership.

The arrangements, most of them by Zimmerman himself, suffered a little from sameness, but nevertheless supplied plenty of Holiday zip and opportunities for the brass to shine. [Read on…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir At Cleveland School of the Arts (Dec. 20)

by Peter Feher

Handel’s Messiah wasn’t the only oratorio you could hear in Northeast Ohio over the Holiday season. The Cleveland Chamber Choir offered a brilliant, bracing alternative with two performances of David Lang’s the little match girl passion, December 20 and 21 at Cleveland School of the Arts.

Friday’s concert saw expert singing in service of sincere emotion, vividly realizing this stark Christmas story adapted from Hans Christian Andersen.

There’s no trace of a happy ending in Andersen’s original 19th-century fairy tale. The titular character in “The Little Match Girl” freezes to death on New Year’s Eve after being kicked out of the house by her father, losing her slippers in the street, and failing to sell any matches to passersby who can’t spare so much as a penny. [Read on…]

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To•Day

DIARY, Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Pre•Views & Features

Cooper Violin Competition: final prizes announced (Jan. 10)

To•Day

Pre•Views & Features

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