Cleveland Chamber Symphony
Encyclopedia
The 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.
At the peak of its activity, CCS presented a concert series of eight programs and numerous recording sessions in each season under the direction of Edwin London. Performances were offered at Cleveland State University and many other Cleveland venues, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Trinity Cathedral, Public Hall, Karamu House, Liberty Hill Baptist Church, Old Stone Church and John Carroll University. In addition, the ensemble offered "encore" performances in communities adjacent to Cuyahoga County and throughout the Midwest.
Composers in Cleveland and around the world began to see the Cleveland Chamber Symphony as an important resource for their work and the work of their younger students. Composers of national and international stature whose works were being commissioned and performed by CCS were drawn to Cleveland as guest conductors and pedagogues. A hallmark of the ensemble was the close collaborative relationship it shared with many composers. In many ways, CCS set the standard for the performance of contemporary orchestral music. A critically acclaimed performance of Bernard Rand's Canti Trilogy led to a national tour culminating in a memorable performance in Paine Hall at Harvard University.
In 2007, the group won a Grammy Award
in the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra)
category, for its recording of Olivier Messiaen
's Oiseaux exotiques with pianist Angelin Chang
.
From 1997 to 2003, Steven Smith served as the Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. Particularly interested in the role of orchestras in arts education, he assisted in the planning and conducting of the Cleveland Orchestra's educational and family concerts and hosted the orchestra’s annual broadcast video-conference, which won an Emmy Award in 2001. For five seasons he also served as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra during which time they appeared by invitation at Carnegie Hall. During 2002-05, he also served on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory, leading both orchestral and operatic performances.
Steven Smith is also an active ASCAP award-winning composer, receiving commissions from the Cleveland Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, Eugene Youth Symphony and solo artists. He was named Ohio Composer of the Year for 2008.
(GM 2039 )
The New American Scene
(Albany Records, Troy 298)
Cleveland Chamber Symphony Vol 6
(TNC CD 1515)
but is now based at The Music School Settlement in partnership with Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music
. The Cleveland Chamber Symphony is led by Music Director Steven Smith.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
chamber orchestra 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 is dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
, and has presented over 200 performance premieres.
History
The Cleveland Chamber Symphony (CCS) was founded in 1980 by composer Edwin London as a professional ensemble in residence at Cleveland State University to perform new, primarily American music. Through the vision and expertise of Dr. London and the talent of a dedicated core of Cleveland musicians, the ensemble steadily grew in scope and stature throughout the following two decades, performing, recording and commissioning contemporary orchestral music.At the peak of its activity, CCS presented a concert series of eight programs and numerous recording sessions in each season under the direction of Edwin London. Performances were offered at Cleveland State University and many other Cleveland venues, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Trinity Cathedral, Public Hall, Karamu House, Liberty Hill Baptist Church, Old Stone Church and John Carroll University. In addition, the ensemble offered "encore" performances in communities adjacent to Cuyahoga County and throughout the Midwest.
Composers in Cleveland and around the world began to see the Cleveland Chamber Symphony as an important resource for their work and the work of their younger students. Composers of national and international stature whose works were being commissioned and performed by CCS were drawn to Cleveland as guest conductors and pedagogues. A hallmark of the ensemble was the close collaborative relationship it shared with many composers. In many ways, CCS set the standard for the performance of contemporary orchestral music. A critically acclaimed performance of Bernard Rand's Canti Trilogy led to a national tour culminating in a memorable performance in Paine Hall at Harvard University.
In 2007, the group won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
in the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra)
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra)
The Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance was awarded from 1959 to 2011. From 1967 to 1971 and in 1987 the award was combined with the award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance and awarded as the Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance - Instrumental Soloist or...
category, for its recording of Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
's Oiseaux exotiques with pianist Angelin Chang
Angelin Chang
Angelin Chang is a Grammy® Award-winning classical pianist and professor of music at Cleveland State University. She heads the university's keyboard studies program and coordinates the university's chamber music program...
.
Young & Emerging Composers
Each Spring CCS holds their Young and Emerging Composers Concert, a unique performance featuring only music by student composers selected through a competitive process. This concert, a staple of the Chamber Symphony‘s programming since its founding in 1980, represents the best in a longstanding tradition of collegiality, apprenticeship and collaboration. Through rehearsals, the performance, and interaction with highly-trained professional musicians, it offers student composers an interactive laboratory within which they can create, experiment with, and refine their music.Music Director Steven Smith
Steven Smith has served as Music Director of the Grammy Award-winning Cleveland Chamber Symphony since 2005. He recently began his tenure as Music Director of the Richmond Symphony with a Gala performance in April, 2010. He has served as Music Director of Santa Fe Symphony & Chorus since 1999.From 1997 to 2003, Steven Smith served as the Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. Particularly interested in the role of orchestras in arts education, he assisted in the planning and conducting of the Cleveland Orchestra's educational and family concerts and hosted the orchestra’s annual broadcast video-conference, which won an Emmy Award in 2001. For five seasons he also served as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra during which time they appeared by invitation at Carnegie Hall. During 2002-05, he also served on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory, leading both orchestral and operatic performances.
Steven Smith is also an active ASCAP award-winning composer, receiving commissions from the Cleveland Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, Eugene Youth Symphony and solo artists. He was named Ohio Composer of the Year for 2008.
Select Recordings
Sound Encounters I(GM 2039 )
- Libby Larsen: What the Monster Saw
- Salvatore Martirano: LON/dons - Howie Smith, saxophone
- Bernard Rands: London Serenade
- Roger Reynolds: The Dream of the Infinite Rooms - Regina Mushabac, cello
The New American Scene
(Albany Records, Troy 298)
- Ronald Perera: Music for Flute and Orchestra - William Wittig, flute
- Howie Smith: Songs for the Children - Howie Smith, wind controller/alto saxophone
- Edwin London: una novella della sera primavera - Harry Sargous, oboe
- John Eaton: Songs of Desperation & Comfort - Nelda Nelson, mezzo-soprano
Cleveland Chamber Symphony Vol 6
(TNC CD 1515)
- Danceanu: Chinonic, Op. 67
- Messiaen: Oiseaux Exotiques (Exotic Birds) - Angelin Chang - piano
- Ligeti: Chamber Concerto for 13 Instrumentalists
- Shostakovich: Concerto no. 1 for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 35
- The recording of Oiseaux Exotique by Olivier Messiaen has been awarded a 2007 Grammy Award in the category of Classical Music: Best Instrumental Solo with Orchestra
Locations
The orchestra was formerly based at Cleveland State UniversityCleveland State University
Cleveland State University is a public university located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1964 when the state of Ohio assumed control of Fenn College, and it absorbed the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1969...
but is now based at The Music School Settlement in partnership with Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music
Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music
The Baldwin–Wallace College Conservatory of Music is part of Baldwin-Wallace College which is located in Berea, Ohio. The main building is Kulas Hall. The Conservatory is home to the Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival, the oldest collegiate Bach Festival in the United States.-History:The...
. The Cleveland Chamber Symphony is led by Music Director Steven Smith.
External links
- Cleveland Chamber Symphony official site
- Cleveland Chamber Symphony YouTube site
- Cleveland Chamber Symphony Facebook page
See also
- Blue Water Chamber Orchestra
- CityMusic ClevelandCityMusic ClevelandCityMusic 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...
- 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....