Margret Erlendsdottir, a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra made her Cleveland Orchestra debut today during a Cleveland Orchestra/Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra "Side By Side" concert attended by 1,400 high school students from 14 schools in Northeast Ohio.
Supported by her parents, teachers, and the entire upper school from Hawken School in Gates Mills, Miss Erlendsdottir debuted with the first movement of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. The Principal Keyboardist of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Miss Erlendsdottir also participates in the orchestra in the violin section.
Three Cleveland television stations - WKYC, WEWS, and FOX 8 came to film the special event. Read details here.
Community Music Initiative: Sixteen Year-Old Makes Cleveland Orchestra Debut
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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Joela Jones remembers Porgy and Bess in Ohio Magazine
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Revisiting a Classic
Cleveland Orchestra principal keyboardist Joela Jones reminisces about recording ‘Porgy and Bess.’
By Linda Feagler
Just as “Porgy and Bess” broke new ground when it debuted 75 years ago, so, too, did the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus’ interpretation of Gershwin’s masterpiece leave its audience dazzled after it was recorded in 1975: For not only was it the first time the complete opera was produced in stereo, but the three-disc compilation also had the distinction of being the first opera recording ever made by the Cleveland Orchestra.
To Joela Jones, a then-recent graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music who’d been appointed the orchestra’s principal keyboardist a scant three years before, playing such an instrumental part in the landmark recording is an experience she’ll treasure forever.
“Maybe its because I’m an American,” Jones muses, “ but I’m very proud that this magnificent piece was written by an American and performed so beautifully by an American orchestra and conducted by Lorin Maazel, an American conductor.”
Unlike his predecessors, who focused on European symphonies, says Jones, Maazel was a versatile artist who also embraced the operatic.
“He approached ‘Porgy and Bess’ the way he would a work by Wagner or Puccini,” she explains. “Maazel gave it tremendous vitality and value, elevating it to where it should be.
“I think,” Jones adds, “that comes across in our playing.”
Indeed, Maazel and producer Michael Woolcock left no detail to chance. And that included crafting the honky-tonk sound they decided was a key component of the overture (listen below), in which Jones tickles the ivories as Jasbo Brown.
The duo prowled the corridors and back rooms of Cleveland’s Masonic Hall –– where the recording would be made –– in search of a badly out-of-tune piano that would provide the noteworthy ambiance they were searching for. They found one, and had it moved to the stage, next to the 9-foot concert grand, which Jones would also play.
As was the practice before recording sessions commenced, a piano tuner was called in to check the concert grand.
“When Maazel came in several hours later,” Jones recalls, “he just about died.”
For the piano tuner had done his work well –– on both pianos: The honky-tonk sound was gone.
There was only one thing to do.
“They paid him,” Jones says, “to untune it.”
To hear the recording, visit Ohio Magazine.
Orchestra joins national food drive
Friday, March 5, 2010
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In response to the growing need in our community, The Cleveland Orchestra will collect food items to be donated to the Cleveland Foodbank at several c0ncerts during the month of March.
Audience members are invited to bring non-perishable food items to Severance Hall on March 9, 14, 18, and 20. Donated items can be brought beginning two hours in advance of the concerts on these dates.
The food drive is part of "Orchestras Feeding America," the second national food drive by America's symphony orchestras. The Orchestra's collection last year netted nearly 1,000 pounds of food locally, all of which was donated to the Cleveland Foodbank.
We will collect non-perishable food items at the following Severance Hall performances:
Tuesday March 9 at 12:00 p.m.
High School Concert
Sunday, March 14 at 2:00 p.m.
Family Concert
Sunday, March 14 at 7:00 p.m.
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra/Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus Concert
Thursday, March 18 at 8:00 p.m.
Cleveland Orchestra Concert
Saturday, March 20 at 8:00 p.m.
Cleveland Orchestra Concert
Food donations may be dropped off beginning two hours in advance of the events listed above.
Please put donated items in prominently marked Orchestras Feeding America collection bins located in Severance Hall lobby areas. Thank you for your contribution.
What to Donate
Boxed Dry Soup
Boxed Rice
Powdered/Canned Milk
Boxed Macaroni and Cheeses
Peanut Butter
Canned Beans
Canned Fruit and Vegetables
Canned Tuna
Canned Meats
Canned Stew
Canned Soup
Boxed Pasta
Boxed Cereal
Boxed or Bottled Fruit Juices/Sip-sized Juices
Items We Cannot Accept
Expired products
Glass jars or bottles
Other non-food items
Monetary donations
Unlabeled or dented cans
Any open or resealed packaging
Perishable foods
Homemade foods
For more information, call (216) 231-7353 or click here to view a printable flyer. Thank you for your support!
Opera at Severance Hall - Reviews are in!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
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Last night, The Cleveland Orchestra, Music Director Franz Welser-Most, and an international cast of singers performed Mozart's opera Cosi fan tutte at Severance Hall.
WCLV's Jerome Crossley called the production a "beautifully sung, intelligently conducted production."
Zachary Lewis of The Plain Dealer commented, "just as the characters in Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte" engage in mischief but ultimately remain true, so, too, has the orchestra under music director Franz Welser-Most mounted a luminous production balancing interpretive liberties and fidelity to the score's essential nature."
Saturday night's concert is sold out, but a few tickets are still available for the remaining performances on Thursday, March 4, and Monday, March 8.
Ingrid Fliter on Chopin
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“Chopin is not the typical so-called Romantic composer: He never shouts. He tells you a very deep, personal story. It’s like a friend who tells you a very big secret in your ear.”
I recently caught up with the articulate, energetic Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter, fresh off a flight from
Fliter spoke with feeling about performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with The Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Following are excerpts from the phone conversation.
On performing with Vladimir Ashkenazy:
You performed the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 at The
I have in my thoughts the fact that he could come down and play the piano better than me! So it’s quite a demanding situation, no doubt, for me, and very inspiring in any case. I haven’t met Ashkenazy yet, but I know from some people who knew him that he is a very generous man and a kind character – but besides that, music, I think, comes out from his body and from his soul.
The Chopin Concerto needs a very special combination between the conductor and performer. You need to breathe together. You cannot really predict in rehearsal where and when are you going to make a rubato or wait for this phrase to end. It’s something that has to become a natural way of talking and breathing.
You need that kind of communication with a conductor, so this is a very big advantage, the fact that he is a pianist and has played this concerto himself all his life. He knows exactly what is going on, and he knows every single note, where it is going.
On rubato in Chopin’s music
Rubato, the give and take in tempo that makes Chopin’s music so distinctive, requires something special from the performer -- an extra flexibility.
When we are talking, we don’t say everything in the same way or everything with the same speed. You give certain accents to certain words that we consider more important in the phrase. You bring your intensity down at certain moments of the phrasing that need less interest.
Chopin talks to us from his human experience. Rubato comes naturally out of that idea he had – to give himself, his experience of life, to us. That’s what I try to do when I play his music, I try to enter into his world and tell it to the public.
On her relationship to Chopin, who this year is being celebrated on the 200th anniversary of his birth:
Would you say Chopin is a composer whose music has always come naturally to you?
I grew up listening to Chopin’s music since I was a young child; my father played Chopin and we had many recordings of Arthur Rubinstein playing in our house. It was part of my everyday life, Chopin, so definitely that became part of my blood.
I am thankful to have discovered Chopin at a young age, because even if it is difficult for a young child to understand Chopin, or the depth of it at a young age, Chopin develops so many aspects for the interpreter.
He had a very deep relationship with the piano, because he was a composer that basically composed for the piano. He developed a new way of playing the piano with his music, and a different physical relationship with the piano.
On Chopin’s revolution of piano technique
Physically, it’s a different experience to play his music than to play other composers’ music?
Yes. No doubt – starting with the position of the hands, which are slightly different when you play his music. They are slightly more open so you can embrace the keyboard in a more elastic way. He used to play like that, and some of his students used to talk about that, and his revolution to the piano technique.
The pedal is not used anymore in the classical way; Chopin uses it to give color. Listening to singers is very important [in playing Chopin], because it’s all about inflection and color. That is what singers are mostly interested in. It’s not mainly how you do it but how you detail the phrase.
If it’s about death or disappointment, the color has to change. OR, if you are singing something about life or love, the color changes. The world that you create in the imagination is very important in Chopin’s music. It’s like telling a story – you change the character.
On performing with The
When I played the Chopin Second Concerto with the Orchestra, I recall the feeling of flying, thanks to them – flying into another dimension. That’s actually what I always try to achieve when I play Chopin’s music, because it’s supposed to give you the possibility to go to
You are venturing into another dimension when you play Chopin’s music. With this orchestra I felt that previously, and I hope we can reproduce that next time we play together.
Is there something special that you’re looking forward to in
A place that is green, and a place that has some water – that’s my main interest. Besides discovering the beauty of a city itself, if it has some natural attractions I am even happier. Our activities are shut in a room and you are sitting in a room all day long, so I try to find a balance and find some fresh air, have a walk. That has become incredibly important to me.
– Interviewed by Elaine Guregian
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