by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

April brings showers and the annual Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival in Berea. Music director Dirk Garner leads the three major festival concerts, beginning on Friday with a “Concerto Countdown” of Johann Sebastian Bach’s concerti for four, three, and two harpsichords. On Saturday at 2, he conducts BWV: Cleveland’s Bach Choir in Arvo Pärt’s Berliner Mass and Magnificat, and the Festival culminates on Saturday with the Bach Festival Orchestra, and BW Motet Choir performing J.S. Bach’s Mass in g & Magnificat. Evening concerts are at 7 in Gamble Auditorium, the afternoon performance in Lindsay-Crossman Chapel.

There are four concerts to highlight on Sunday. At 3:30 pm The Cleveland Women’s Orchestra plays its 91st Anniversary Concert under Eric Benjamin at Severance Music Center with pianist Angelin Chang. At 4 pm – Linking Legacies, a collective of African-American classical musicians, raises awareness of local African-American composers with historical significance in First Church of Christ, Scientist in Rocky River.

On Sunday at 4, Sounds of St. James offers an afternoon of Sacred Music performed by the Case Western Reserve University Early Music Singers, Elena Bailey, director, the Aeterna Chamber Choir, James Flood, director, and guests in St. James Church in Lakewood.

And at 4:30, Steven Smith and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony collaborate with Cleveland Contemporary Ballet for the world premiere of Margaret Brouwer’s City Life and her Mandala, & Inner Voices at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Piano Cleveland has named the thirteen young artists who will be invited to Cleveland in July for the Semi-Final Round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists: three contestants from the Rising Star Division (ages 10-12) and five pianists from each of the Junior (ages 13-15) and Senior (ages 16-18) Divisions. [Read More…]