Natsumi Shibagaki

Irwin Shun

Saturday, February 22, 2020, 7 pm

Heights Arts

Free Admission

Natsumi Shibagaki, a native of Japan, serves as staff pianist at the Cleveland Institute of Music. An avid chamber musician and collaborator, Ms. Shibagaki has performed with numerous artists in the greater Cleveland area, including members of the Canton Symphony, the Akron Symphony, Cleveland State University, and the Cleveland Orchestra. Ms. Shibagaki has participated in a number of international music festivals since arriving in the States, including the Music Academy of West, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Mendocino Music Festival – Emerging Artists Program, and the Interlochen Arts Camp. Ms. Shibagaki received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music degrees in solo piano performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a student of Mack McCray. She moved to Cleveland in 2011 to pursue a Professional Studies diploma in collaborative piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) with Anita Pontremoli, where she received the Rosa Lobe Collaborative Piano Award. Besides fulfilling her responsibilities as an in-demand collaborative pianist, Ms. Shibagaki also devotes herself to the education of younger students. In addition to maintaining a private studio in Cleveland, Shibagaki also worked as an educator for the Cleveland International Piano Competition and the Advanced Suzuki Institute of Stanford, and currently serves as adjunct piano faculty at the John Carroll University.

Dr. Irwin Shung, whose playing has been praised by State Magazine for its “ease, technique, and musicianship,” has performed in North America, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Shung served as theory faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music from 2015 to 2018, and also directs the Resonance Masters’ Series at the new performance hall, Resonance at SOMA, situated in Bellevue, Washington, which has featured internationally acclaimed artists such as Rachel Barton Pine, Jinjoo Cho (Oberlin Conservatory, McGill Conservatory), Daniel Shapiro (Cleveland Institute), Craig Sheppard (University of Washington, Guildhall School), and Adam Pearl (Peabody Institute).

Shung received his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music in January 2015, where he studied with Dr. Daniel Shapiro. He has also received instruction on piano from various distinguished teachers including Marian Hahn (Peabody Conservatory), Leon Fleisher (Peabody Conservatory), Herbert Stessin (Julliard School), and Gabriel Chodos (New England Conservatory). Awards received include the Pauline Favin Memorial Award from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and a win in the 2012 Darius Milhaud Competition.

Shung has been newly appointed piano faculty at Notre Dame College in Cleveland. His performances have been featured by KING FM in Seattle, as well as WCLV in Cleveland, and his complete recording of the first book of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier is available on the internet.

Mar 1, 2020, 3 pm  Eaton Mansion

All-Beethoven Program:

Early: Sonata for Horn and Piano in F Major, op. 17

Middle: Ghost Trio in D-Major, 0p. 70,1

Late: Cello Sonata in C-major op. 102,1

What better way to thank you, our loyal Heights Arts community, as we celebrate our 20^th year, than with a program of a beloved artist celebrating his 250^th ? Three works by Beethoven fill this program: one each from his early, middle, and late periods, allowing you to trace his development from the adoring young student of Papa Haydn to a rebellious avant-garde composer with bristling contempt for his contemporaries. “My music is for a later age,” he snapped at the critics of his late works. At 20 years old, Heights Arts is the perfect age to present this thrilling program!

Performers:

Patti Wolf (University of Texas, Austin), piano, Isabel Trautwein (the Cleveland Orchestra), violin, Tanya Ell (the Cleveland Orchestra), cello, and Richard King (the Cleveland Orchestra), french horn

Read about Close Encounters Season 14: 2019-20

Order early for guaranteed seats!

Concert tickets are available for purchase at Heights Arts, 2175 Lee Road in Cleveland Heights, via phone at 216-371-3457, or online. We are pleased to offer reduced-price tickets for students ages 8-23, thanks to generous funding from the Paul M. Angell Foundation. Students under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult (who also qualifies for the student ticket price).

All concert venues are wheelchair accessible. Directions for concerts at private residences are mailed a week in advance. Advance ticket purchase is necessary as seating is limited, and Close Encounters concerts have a tradition of selling out.

Season ticket purchases for Close Encounters Season 14 are no longer available.

Individual Concerts $55 | $45 Heights Arts members | $15 Student (additional $15 parent)

Saturday, March 14, 2020, 7 pm

Heights Arts

Free Admission

Established in 2009, Red Campion is an energetic ensemble of four singers and one pianist. Based in the Cleveland-Akron area, Red Campion presents performances and educational programs that showcase the glories of the voice and vocal literature. Performances cause audience members to tap their toes, discreetly hum along and smile. Red Campion’s performances include thrilling renditions of beloved opera and concert melodies alongside delightful introductions to lesser known pieces from the concert hall and theatre stage. Red Campion artists include Lara Troyer, soprano, Denise Milner-Howell, mezzo-soprano, Timothy Culver, tenor, Brian Keith Johnson, baritone and Judith Ryder, pianist.

Photo credit: Robert Muller

Saturday, April 11, 2020, 7 pm

Heights Arts

Free Admission

Described by the Washington Post as “completely engrossing powerful and elegant” The Cavani Quartet has dedicated its artistic life to  communicating the joy of discovery in the service of some of the most powerful music ever written. “Their artistic excellence, their generous spirit, and their fervent ambassadorship for great music make them unique among America’s greatest string quartets.” The Cavani Quartet continues its unique journey maintaining an energetic balance between performing masterpieces by composers such as Mozart, Beethoven and Bartok; collaborating with living composers; and creating new programming that joins music, poetry, and dance. The quartet continues to inspire and shape the musical lives of the next generation through their acclaimed Art of Collaboration Seminar which emphasizes a “team -work” approach. The quartet’s thirty year legacy has garnered impressive recognition including the Ohio Governors Award for the Arts, Musical America Magazine’s Young Artists of the Year, Naumburg Chamber Music Award, The Cleveland Quartet Award at Eastman and the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. The Quartet has been featured on NPR Performance Today and St Paul Sunday Morning, and “Says You”. In addition the quartet has commissioned, premiered the music of more than thirty living composers, and collaborated with some of the greatest artists of our time including Alisa Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, Sergei Babayan, Jaime Laredo, Joseph Kalichstein, Sharon Robinson, Kim Kashkashian as well as members of the Cleveland,Takacs, Juilliard, Tokyo, Ying, Emerson, Cleveland, Amadeus and Guarneri Quartets. For more than 30 years, the Cavani String Quartet served as faculty and Artists- in -Residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music.where they developed and curated nationally acclaimed programs for student ensembles devoted to the serious study of chamber music.

The Cavani Quartet frequently performs their electrifying multi discipline program COLLAGE: Music & Poetry, with Poet and Professor of Pan African Studies, Mwatabu Okantah at universities and communities through the country. Other innovative programs include CONFLUENCE: New Music by Female Composers, The Art of Listening: Music and Color, as well as inspiring K-12 school workshop, MAP : Music, Art and Poetry, and for igniting instrumental music programs for elementary school children, TEAM UP WITH MUSIC.©

“A ravishing tapestry of audible human expression … By simply bringing together these connections in such an evocative way, “COLLAGE” taught me to introspective how I experience and direct emotions, leading me towards possibilities for empathy and human connect in ways I couldn’t  have envisioned. “ ~ The Hudson Review 

Website: http://cavanistringquartet.com/

May 3, 2020, 3 pm  Hermit Club, Playhouse Square

Program:

Selections from string quartets by three Cleveland composers:

Edward Kresja

Charles Rychlik

Johann Heinrich Beck

—–

Antonin Dvorak Quartet – The “American” Quartet, Op. 96

In the late 1800s, something special was happening in Cleveland: some of our local kids were so musically gifted that they were sent (by steamship!) to Europe to study at the top schools with famous teachers such as Antonin Dvorak and Johannes Brahms. In time, they returned home to become notable composers and teachers, creating the fertile ground for institutions we still enjoy—among them, the Cleveland Orchestra.

Johann Heinrich Beck, Edward Kresja, and Charles Rychlik were three of these Cleveland kids. Exactly 100 years ago, they were famous here for their playing, teaching, and also orchestral and chamber music writing. Their compositions have been stored unpublished in boxes at our Cleveland Public Library since then. Be among the first to hear their refreshing chamber works again alongside a masterpiece by their beloved teacher: Dvorak’s fabulous “American” Quartet.

If you have never seen the Hermit Club in Playhouse Square, you are in for a glorious surprise.

Performers:

Miho Hashizume (the Cleveland Orchestra) and Isabel Trautwein (the Cleveland Orchestra), violins, YuJin (Indianapolis Symphony), viola, Paul Kushious (the Cleveland Orchestra), cello

Special Event: Post-Concert Mix’n’Mingle with Musicians in Hermit Club Tavern:

The Musicians and Hermits invite you to join us after the concert for beer or wine, German appetizers, and juicy stories about musical life in Cleveland between 1840 and 1920. The historic and secretive tavern directly below the Hermit Club performance hall has limited seating but unlimited Gemütlichkeit. Reserve early to mix and mingle with the musicians and guests and learn more about Cleveland’s rich and unusual musical history in a presentation given by Isabel Trautwein, Artistic Director of Heights Arts ‘Close Encounters’ concerts.

Tickets for Post-concert Mix’n’Mingle sold separately from concert tickets!

Read about Close Encounters Season 14: 2019-20

Order early for guaranteed seats!

Concert tickets are available for purchase at Heights Arts, 2175 Lee Road in Cleveland Heights, via phone at 216-371-3457, or online. We are pleased to offer reduced-price tickets for students ages 8-23, thanks to generous funding from the Paul M. Angell Foundation. Students under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult (who also qualifies for the student ticket price).

All concert venues are wheelchair accessible. Directions for concerts at private residences are mailed a week in advance. Advance ticket purchase is necessary as seating is limited, and Close Encounters concerts have a tradition of selling out.

Season ticket purchases for Close Encounters Season 14 are no longer available.

Individual Concerts $55 | $45 Heights Arts members | $15 Student (additional $15 parent)

French Flutist Louis Fleury (1878–1926) referred to music of the 19^th century as “idle twittering.” What’s the antidote? A flute group that not only twitters the Romantic, but chirps the Baroque, tweets the Modern and whistles some Jazz. A flock of flutes from Northeastern Ohio joins forces for a well rounded, tuneful and tootful evening. It’s a tribute to flute music through the ages on flutes of all shapes and sizes.

Jane Berkner was described by Flute Talk Magazine as “a versatile performer…(and) outstanding musician”. She was named Outstanding Artist in Music in the 2019 Akron Arts Alive Awards, and has played in the Akron, Ashland, Canton and Youngstown Symphonies, the Ohio Ballet Orchestra, the Botzum Summer Festival Orchestra, and for touring shows at EJ Thomas Hall in Akron, Playhouse Square in Cleveland, and Blossom Center’s Porthouse Theater. Along with Stephen Aron, the AronBerkner Duo has  presented concerts across the US and Europe. She is currently the Director of a summer Flute Choir Camp for adults at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. She is the founder of Urban Troubadour, about which Cleveland Classical said “Berkner’s flute sounded — well, magical”, and  “in the crowded field of efforts to “disrupt” the world of staid programming, Urban Troubadour’s multi-part evenings feel distinct and vital.”

Kyra Kester, 2nd Flutist in the Akron Symphony, is an active performer and teacher on both flute and piccolo. She held a one-year Piccolo position with the Cleveland Orchestra during their 2007-2008 Season and has performed with the Detroit Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Pittsburgh Opera and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. She also holds the position of 2nd Flutist with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and frequently performs with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio. She served on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory Department from 2006 to 2019 and was the temporary Assistant Professor of Flute at Kent State University during the spring 2012 semester.

George Pope is the Emeritus Professor of Flute at The University of Akron and Instructor of Flute at The Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. Principal Flute of the Akron Symphony from 1978-2002, Mr. Pope has also performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Blossom Festival Orchestra, the Brevard Music Center Orchestra and at the Spoleto Festival. He is a founding member of the Solaris Wind Quintet and the Chamber Music Society of Ohio. Mr. Pope was named “Arts Educator of 2009” by the Akron Area Arts Alliance. His solo CD “…some measures for living” was released in 2016 by Crystal Records.

A dynamic and versatile musician, flutist Linda White excels in an array of musical styles and plays the entire spectrum of flutes from the piccolo down to the contrabass flute. She regularly performs with classical guitarist Robert Gruca as part of the Gruca White Ensemble. Comfortable with both written and improvised forms, this duo stretches the boundaries of the standard classical concert with their improvisations and arrangements of rock, funk and Latin tunes. Linda is a founding member of the Blue Water Chamber Orchestra, and has also performed with The Cleveland Pops, The Cleveland Opera Orchestra, The Akron Symphony, The Canton Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, and The New World Symphony. An engaging teacher, Linda teaches at The Music Settlement, where she has students of all ages and abilities, and, along with her collegue Jane Berkner, directs two flute choirs.