by Daniel Hathaway
WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:
MAY 1 – FRIDAY
Cleveland Orchestra Family Concert. James Feddeck leads Mo Willems’s Because, a sensory-friendly concert designed for ages 7-12, with illustrations by Amber Ren and music by Jessie Montgomery. (7:30 in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, repeated on Sunday).
Oberlin Collegium Musicum. Steven Plank, director, leads the choir (pictured) in William Cornysh’s elaborate, pre-reformation polyphony from the Eton Choirbook, John Sheppard’s compline responsories, and anthems and motets by William Byrd (7:30 in Fairchild Chapel, repeated on Saturday).
MAY 2 – SATURDAY
Jörg Widmann conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in his own works plus Felix Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony (7:30 in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center).
BlueWater Chamber Orchestra presents Rustic Reverie, Daniel Meyer, conducting, with Midori Marsh, soprano, in Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne, Douglas Moore’s Farm Journal, and Haydn’s Symphony No. 99 (7:30 at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle, repeated on Sunday at 3 in Morley Musical Hall in Painesville).
MAY 3 – SUNDAY
Oberlin College Choir and Musical Union with Oberlin Brass Ensemble. Gregory Ristow conducts Paul Hindemith’s Apparebit repentina dies and Joseph Jongen’s Mass (2:30 in Finney Chapel).
MAY 5 – TUESDAY
This weekend spills over into next week as Canadian virtuoso pianist Marc-André Hamelin returns to Severance Music Center for a “blockbuster recital” featuring works by Haydn, Beethoven, Weinberg, and Rachmaninoff, including the composer’s Second Piano Sonata, “the perfect vehicle for Hamelin’s astonishing technique.” (7:30 in Mandel Concert Hall).
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
Today’s honorees include Austro-Hungarian operetta composer Franz Lehár (born on April 30, 1870 in Komárom, now Komárno, Slovakia), American conductor Robert Shaw (born on this date in 1916 in Red Bluff, Iowa), and American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (who entered the world in Miami on this date in 1939). [Read More…]
When the Phantom of the Opera North American tour visits Playhouse Square in April 2027, Midori Marsh will have plenty of reasons to celebrate. The soprano — who is currently playing the role of Carlotta — grew up in Cleveland Heights, and the city is still home to many of her friends and family.