When classical musicians return to first principles, they return to the music of “The 3 Great B’s”: J.S. Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms. The first two are more fundamental to the Western classical canon than Brahms, but the German Romantic remains one of the most frequently performed of all composers (though mostly for [...]
Michael Andrews grew up in Wisconsin going frequently to art museums and galleries, with a mother and an aunt who both were art teachers. One day his musical life as a cellist and his art upbringing came together when he saw the great Cleveland Quartet play a concert at New York’s Mary Boone Gallery. “It [...]
Akron composer Amy Barlowe wrote a 10-part requiem for orchestra, chorus and soloists in honor of her father’s memory. And to think, all I did was go in on flowers with my brothers for our dad. Still, you don’t just sit down one day and write a major composition. “It has taken me almost 10 years,” [...]
To explain what last week’s concert by The Knights was like, it’s easiest to start not at the beginning, but with the encore. After finishing a satisfying program of classical-ish music from the Americas, a percussionist came up to the conductor’s box. He sat down. He pulled a rectangular box between his legs. The [...]
In the 30 years since Peter Shaffer’s play “Amadeus” first appeared at the National Theatre of Britain, it has played to much acclaim in various productions and revivals in London and on Broadway. Many of us came to it through a hit movie in 1984 that featured Tom Hulce as a madcap, foul-mouthed Mozart. When [...]
The Berlin-based Vogler Quartet is used to big tours. Its performance with Ute Lemper and Stefan Malzew at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall last week was part of a 10-city tour that includes stops at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. As it turns out, the four men of the Vogler Quartet are [...]
“It’s not very often that you hear “Carry On” played on bassoon,’’ the high school student sitting next to me at Friday night’s Sixth Floor Trio concert said appreciatively. Darn right, you don’t. And if a Kansas song played on piano, clarinet and bassoon not only sounds unlikely, but truly to be avoided, then surprise: [...]
Networking groups for young professionals are nothing new, but one in Akron that has the arts at its center has a different kind of appeal. ArtCetera is a project of the Akron Area Arts Alliance. Under the Arts Alliance’s umbrella, it’s reaching out to the younger audiences that every arts group craves. Lisa Knapp [...]
It takes tremendous imagination to conceive a program like the one that the Calder Quartet and singer/violinist Iva Bittová presented in such satisfying style on the FUZE! series at the Akron Art Museum on Feb. 17. The warmth of Hungarian/Czech/Moravian folk-infused writing miraculously folded into the rhythmic complexity and subtleties of a contemporary classical [...]
Nineteen years of following a dream of togetherness. That’s how co-chair and event coordinator Brenda Justice views the annual Gospel Meets Symphony concert by the Akron Symphony Orchestra, a Knight Arts grantee. On Saturday, Feb. 25, singers from 75 different area churches will coalesce into one powerful 200-voice choir to perform with the Akron Symphony [...]
