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To•Day

DIARY: Wednesday, May 13, 2026

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 6 pm, Piano Cleveland Live presents Chaeyoung Park and friends at Edwins in Cleveland Heights. And at 7:30 the Cleveland Museum of Art hosts Grammy Award–winning jazz pianist Brad Mehldau and his Trio with Felix Moseholm and Jorge Rossy in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

For details of these and other classical music events, please visit the ClevelandClassical.com concert listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

This weekend marks an unusual collaboration between three of Cleveland’s musical organizations as Apollo’s Fire artistic director Jeannette Sorrell conducts CityMusic Chamber Orchestra with two of ChamberFest Cleveland’s artistic directors, violinist Diana Cohen and pianist Roman Rabinovich, in Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture, Mendelssohn’s Concerto for violin, piano, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in four different venues from Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon. See our concert listings for details about the free performances.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1842, composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan was born in London. [Read More…]

Pre•Views & Features

Isidore String Quartet and Jeremy Denk collaborate for Cleveland Chamber Music Society season finale

by Stephanie Manning

When the Isidore String Quartet performed in Northeast Ohio last year, they faced some unusual circumstances. On the way to their Tuesday Musical engagement with pianist Jeremy Denk, violist Devin Moore came down with a painful case of strep throat, and the group had to find a substitute player at the last minute.

In their more than three years of touring, the Isidore have faced obstacles like flight delays and other illnesses. But “ that was actually the first time that we’ve had to call someone else in,” said violinist Phoenix Avalon. Eva Kennedy, the violist of the Callisto Quartet, drove up from Columbus in time for the day-of rehearsal and soundcheck. ” It was very last-minute, but we were glad that she could come in.”

Next Tuesday, the Isidore will return to the area — with all four members thankfully in good health — for their 7:30 pm concert at the Cleveland Museum of Art, presented by the Cleveland Chamber Music Society. The Juilliard-trained group will present quartets by Haydn and Ligeti and reunite with Jeremy Denk for Brahms’ Quintet for Piano and Strings in f minor. Tickets for the May 19 concert are available online. [Read on…]

A Legacy of ART: a conversation with cellist Ralph Curry

by Mike Telin

Founded by Chris Haff Paluck in 1991 with a mission to enhance the quality and diversity of life in Tremont by providing the fine arts with a greater presence in its neighborhood, Arts Renaissance Tremont has played an important role in creating community and fostering a greater appreciation for the arts through accessible artistic programs.

Since her passing on April 25, 2020, the organization has experienced some setbacks, but this season, Arts Renaissance Tremont (ART) has returned to its founding home at Pilgrim Church UCC, and launched its 34th season.

On Sunday, May 17 at 3:00 pm, the organization will present “A Legacy of ART: Honoring Chris Haff Paluck.” Performers include the Amici String Quartet, guitarist Jason Vieaux, The Cleveland Orchestra Bass Quartet, and violinist Jason Yu. The concert is free.

To learn more about the event, I caught up with Cleveland Orchestra and Amici String Quartet cellist Ralph Curry, who had the pleasure of knowing Haff Paluck since they were freshman at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

“I basically knew Chris my entire adult life. And I remember that even as a student she was always willing to jump in and help do anything that needed to be done,” Curry said during a telephone conversation.

[Read on…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir to present “La Fleur de la Renaissance”

by Daniel Hathaway

In an open letter to Cleveland Chamber Choir patrons, artistic director Gregory Ristow wrote:

“Our upcoming concert, La Fleur de la Renaissance, celebrates the new approach to harmony that emerged in the 1400s in the northern reaches of the French empire…To my ears, this is where Western classical choral singing as we know it began. To return to this music is to come back to the source, to explore consonance and dissonance in their purest forms, to delight in how these composers wrote glorious melodies for each part of the ensemble, while also allowing them to come together to form beautifully resonant sonorities.”

On Friday, May 8 at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, and Saturday, May 9 at First Lutheran Church in Lorain, the Cleveland Chamber Choir will present “The Flower of the Renaissance,” a compendium of works by six composers in the form of a Roman Catholic Mass that explore this new style. Both performances begin at 7:30.

The program also demonstrates the popular practice among Renaissance composers of embedding pre-existing material in new pieces, something that would come to be regarded as plagiarism in modern times, but were meant as tributes back in the day. Ristow has constructed his imaginary mass from movements of the forty-some Renaissance works based on the mysterious secular song, L’Homme armé. [Read on…]

See all previews

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