CityMusic Cleveland
Encyclopedia
CityMusic Cleveland is an American
chamber orchestra
based in Cleveland
, Ohio
. It was founded in the summer of 2004 to give free concerts throughout the Northeast Ohio
area. Composed of professional free-lance musicians from the Cleveland area and beyond, the orchestra partners with community leaders, mayors, council members, and local civic organizations, to expand the audience for cultural events. Concerts are accompanied by art exhibits, featuring local and regional artists.
James Gaffigan was the orchestra's music director in July 2005 till January 2010 until he resigned after a dispute with management over their allegedly poor treatment of the musicians. The orchestra's flexible membership ranges between 34 and 44 performers.
CityMusic Cleveland has been reviewed and/or featured in The Plain Dealer, Gramophone, Northern Ohio Live, and the Continental Airlines
magazine, among other publications.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
chamber orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
based in Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. It was founded in the summer of 2004 to give free concerts throughout the Northeast Ohio
Greater Cleveland
Greater Cleveland is a nickname for the metropolitan area surrounding Cleveland, Ohio and is part of what used to be the Connecticut Western Reserve.Northeast Ohio refers to a similar but substantially larger area as described below...
area. Composed of professional free-lance musicians from the Cleveland area and beyond, the orchestra partners with community leaders, mayors, council members, and local civic organizations, to expand the audience for cultural events. Concerts are accompanied by art exhibits, featuring local and regional artists.
James Gaffigan was the orchestra's music director in July 2005 till January 2010 until he resigned after a dispute with management over their allegedly poor treatment of the musicians. The orchestra's flexible membership ranges between 34 and 44 performers.
CityMusic Cleveland has been reviewed and/or featured in The Plain Dealer, Gramophone, Northern Ohio Live, and the Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines was a major American airline now merged with United Airlines. On May 3, 2010, Continental Airlines, Inc. and UAL, Inc. announced a merger via a stock swap, and on October 1, 2010, the merger closed and UAL changed its name to United Continental Holdings, Inc...
magazine, among other publications.
Recordings
- Mostly Mozart (CMC1) featuring guest conductor Andrea Raffanini and violin soloist Kyung Sun Lee: a live recording of the début concert (October 24, 2004), including Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Violin Concerto No. 5Violin Concerto No. 5 (Mozart)The Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1775, premiering during the holiday season that year in Salzburg. It follows the typical fast-slow-fast musical structure.- Background :...
in A Major (K. 219) and Symphony #40 in G MinorSymphony No. 40 (Mozart)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Symphony No. 40 in G minor, KV. 550, in 1788. It is sometimes referred to as the "Great G minor symphony," to distinguish it from the "Little G minor symphony," No. 25. The two are the only minor key symphonies Mozart wrote....
(K. 550), plus Brian Suit's arrangement and variations on George GershwinGeorge GershwinGeorge Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
's "I've Got Rhythm." - Beethoven • Respighi • Rossini • Mascagni (CMC2) featuring music director James Gaffigan: excerpts recorded live in concert during 2005 and 2006, including Gioachino Rossini's Overture to The Barber of SevilleThe Barber of SevilleThe Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
; Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Triple ConcertoTriple Concerto (Beethoven)Ludwig van Beethoven's Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C Major, Op. 56, more commonly known as the Triple Concerto, was composed in 1803 and later published in 1804 under Breitkopf & Hartel. The choice of the three solo instruments effectively makes this a concerto for piano trio and the...
in C Major (Op. 56) with violinist Kyung Sun Lee, cellist Edward Arron, and pianist Daniel Shapiro; Pietro MascagniPietro MascagniPietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
's Intermezzo sinfonico from Cavalleria rusticanaCavalleria rusticanaCavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
; and Ottorino RespighiOttorino RespighiOttorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome ; Pines of Rome ; and Roman Festivals...
's Trittico Botticelliano. - On the Move (CMC3), featuring music director James Gaffigan: excerpts recorded live in concert during 2005 and 2006, including Giuseppe VerdiGiuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Prelude to Act I of La traviataLa traviataLa traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
; Franz SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Overture in C Major (D.591); Ermanno Wolf-FerrariErmanno Wolf-FerrariErmanno Wolf-Ferrari was an Italian composer and teacher. He is best known for his comic operas such as Il segreto di Susanna...
's Intermezzo #1 from The Jewels of the Madonna; Joseph HaydnJoseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
's Symphony #49 in F Minor; Franz SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Symphony #5 in B-flat Major (D. 485); Jean SibeliusJean SibeliusJean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...
's incidental music for Pelléas et MélisandePelléas et Mélisande (Sibelius)Pelléas et Mélisande, is incidental music in ten parts written in 1905 by Jean Sibelius, for Maurice Maeterlinck's 1892 drama Pelléas et Mélisande. Sibelius later on slightly rearranged the music into an nine movement suite, published as Op...
; and Gioachino Rossini's Overture to L'italiana in AlgeriL'italiana in AlgeriL'italiana in Algeri is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca...
. - CityMusic LIVE (CMC4), featuring music director James Gaffigan and concertmaster Michi Wiancko: recorded live in concert during May 2007, featuring the world premiere of Margaret BrouwerMargaret BrouwerMargaret Brouwer Margaret Brouwer Margaret Brouwer (b. Ann Arbor, Michigan, is an American composer.Brouwer studied at Oberlin College, graduating in 1962, and received her master's degree from Michigan State University. Having started her musical career as a professional violinist with the Fort...
's Concerto for Violin and Chamber Orchestra, commissioned by CityMusic Cleveland; Igor StravinskyIgor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's Danses concertantes; and Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Symphony no. 39Symphony No. 39 (Mozart)The Symphony No. 39 in E-flat major of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 543, was completed on 26 June 1788.-Composition and premiere:The 39th Symphony is the first of a set of three that Mozart composed in rapid succession during the summer of 1788. No. 40 was completed 25 July and No. 41 on 10...
in E-flat Major (K. 543).
External links
- CityMusic Cleveland official site
- Review for The Plain Dealer by Donald Rosenberg
- Preview for CoolCleveland.com by Kelly Ferjutz
- Resignation of music director
See also
- Cleveland Chamber SymphonyCleveland Chamber SymphonyThe Cleveland Chamber Symphony is an American chamber orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music, and has presented over 200 performance premieres.-History:...
- Red (an orchestra)
- Cleveland OrchestraCleveland OrchestraThe Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...
- Cleveland Philharmonic
- Cleveland Women's OrchestraCleveland Women's OrchestraThe Cleveland Women's Orchestra is an American orchestra made up entirely of female musicians, based in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 1935 and performed its first concert in 1936. It is the oldest women's orchestra in the world....