By Isaac Mell
In the summers of Diana Cohen’s childhood, long before she became first violinist (“concertmaster”) of the Richmond Symphony, she enjoyed traveling the country to attend chamber music festivals at which her parents performed.
These festivals—brief, intense, music-filled—found her and her family befriending performers with whom they would then be reunited the following year. Now, with the “Big Bang,” the inaugural season of ChamberFEST Cleveland (Wed 6/27 – Sun 7/1), Cohen brings this experience to us.
“There’s something really special about a concentrated period of time, and being really immersed in something for a week, or two, or whatever it is, to have that be your life for that period of time,” Cohen says. “That’s what we’re trying to create here in Cleveland.”
For her co-artistic director, she enlisted Franklin Cohen, principal clarinetist of The Cleveland Orchestra, who has long held an interest in her musical career, being, after all, her father. Beyond the thrill of sharing the stage with daughter and son (timpanist Alexander Cohen), he also anticipates the overlap of his two musical worlds.
“It’s my wish to connect these people in the audience that I know so well, that I’ve gotten to know over my 36 years in Cleveland, and to introduce them to some of my chamber music buddies and my extended family in that sense,” Franklin says.
After committing to the idea, Diana and Franklin Cohen called on their contacts, staged a benefit concert and obtained 501(c)(3) status—and then they actually had to create the festival. Along the way, they won the Council of Small Enterprises (COSE) 2012 Arts Business Challenge.
Formed in a timetable much shorter than would typically be afforded, ChamberFEST has burst into existence, as befits its “Big Bang” theme.
“We wanted the theme to be something very celebratory and inaugural-feeling, and really about birth and creation and newness and freshness and all those concepts into one,” Diana Cohen says. “We came up with this idea, ‘The Big Bang,’ because it is, in a way, a beginning, but it also has this explosive, energetic and dynamic quality.”
Performances will carry even more force for one’s proximity to the musicians.
“Chamber music is so personal and intimate that most people who have the opportunity to experience it fall in love,” Diana says. “When they come to a chamber music concert they feel like they’re part of the action, they’re close to the stage.”
Any closer and you’d be playing, too.
“You’ll see the sweat, you’ll see their expression, and you’ll get an idea for who they are as people as they play, and then have the opportunity to meet them afterwards,” Franklin says. “We will have little mini-parties, where if you want to meet one of the performers that you were taken by, there’ll be an opportunity. You can go up and ask them questions. And there’ll be a composer there, and if you’re curious about how he came up with his piece you can ask him.”
Music evokes emotion on its own, but understanding its intricacies can enhance one’s enjoyment.
“Ultimately, if performances are fabulous, you don’t really need to explain them, but I think it helps to know how certain pieces were constructed from the composer’s perspective: the germ of the piece and how the composer twists and turns these germs of creativity and creates a half-hour piece,” Franklin says.
To that end, ChamberFEST welcomes Patrick Castillo, who has arranged Mendelssohn for Emmanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman; produced CD-listeners’ guides for the Lincoln Center; and won the Brian M. Israel Prize for composers aged 30 and under. Assisted by performers and prompted by audience members, Castillo will give free pre-concert presentations Fri 6/29 @ 7pm; Sat 6/30 @ 7pm; and Sun 7/1 @ 2pm.
“I really, truly believe that our concerts will be accessible to anyone,” Diana Cohen says. “We’re hoping that the food and the drinks and the extra parties are going to be an additional way to bring people in.”
The festival’s premiere, the sold-out “Explosive Beginnings” (Wed 6/27 @ 8pm), presents impressive early pieces written by ripening composers: Witold Lutoslawski when he was 28, Mozart when he was 25, Shostakovich when he was 19 and, the piece de resistance, Mendelssohn when he was 16. The program also includes a work by Matan Porat, a young composer who is very much alive. Afterwards, those lucky enough to have already bought tickets will meet ChamberFEST performers and enjoy live Brazilian music at the kickoff party.
The Wine Spot hosts night two, “Movie Night” (Thu 6/28 @ 7:30pm), offering popcorn and complimentary wine as Porat improvises a piano soundtrack to the slapstick short “Sherlock, Jr.”
Diana says, “He actually comes up with a few little themes for each character. He improvises the whole score while he’s watching the movie, and it’s just amazing.”
Then, film clips will showcase composers who so effectively supplemented onscreen drama that they slipped boundary-pushing sounds past audiences’ awareness. People who missed “Explosive Beginnings” will experience a repeat performance of Shostakovich’s Two Pieces for Octet.
Translating its name into noise, “Big Bang” (Fri 6/29 @ 8pm at Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music, sold out) features loud, percussive pieces influenced by the flourishes of gypsy folksongs. During the afterparty, a boisterous set by gypsy band Harmonia will further extend East European traditions into the present.
On Sat 6/30 @ 8pm, “Rule Smashers” wreak havoc within the hallowed vault of CWRU’s Harkness Chapel. These are the works that obliterated tradition in the force of their unorthodoxy. Franklin Cohen will perform Debussy’s Premiere rhapsodie (First Rhapsody), the 1996 Cleveland Orchestra recording of which won him a Grammy. Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) witnesses the still-tonal Schoenberg in the instants before he jettisoned Romanticism. Afterwards, iconoclasts eat Mitchell’s ice cream and mingle with performers.
The final event, “Origins & Revelations” (Sun 7/1 @ 3pm — now sold out), safely returns festival-goers to the contemplation of classics by Mozart, Beethoven and Shostakovich. Simple motifs spiral and insinuate into the sublime. Dunham Tavern, an 1824 settler’s home, will uproot audience members from today’s milieu; an afternoon reception takes place amidst its gardens.
“Chamber music speaks for itself in many ways, but it is nice to add little touches here and there, and to try to appeal to as wide a range of people as possible,” Diana says. “I’m hoping to turn a lot of people into music lovers.”
Buy tickets and learn more at http://ChamberFestCleveland.com.
Isaac Mell grew up in South Euclid, OH and attended American Jewish University in Los Angeles. He welcomes conversations with potential employers, collaborators and friends.
2 Responses to “ChamberFEST Cleveland: Bursting on the music scene with a BANG!”
Jodi Kanter
Dear Mr. Mell,
We would love to connect with you, too. We have been presenting chamber music in intimate settings for more than five years now, as a non-profit org., including house concerts, the InterContinental Hotel, Hanna Perkins Center, and the Orange Village Hall rotunda. Please see our website to find our more about us and our mission of providing performance opportunites for rising stars from the local conservatories, including students, faculty, and recent graduates. and beyond.
Let me know if I can tell you more of our story, too.
Sincerely,
Jodi Kanter, Artistic Director
Isaac
Dear Ms. Kanter,
Of course we can connect. You can e-mail me at mell.isaac@gmail.com with a convenient time for an interview about “Stars in the Classics.”
Sincerely,
Isaac