Thu 10/22-Sat 10/24 @ 7:30PM
Sun 10/25 @ 2:30PM
There are lots of ways to celebrate America in this, its 250th year, now coming to a close. You can have a disastrous “state fair” on the mall in Washington D.C. or you can have a concert offering a diverse sampling of music by American composers performed by outstanding area musicians for free inside area churches where you know it will not rain.
CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra is offering the latter. In keeping with its mission of presenting a mix of classical and popular styles, noted and underrepresented composers, new and old pieces, its upcoming series of concerts, titled “American Roots,” will center on Geoge Gershwin’s noted 1924 piece for pianist and jazz ensemble titled “Rhapsody in Blue,” featuring Cleveland International Piano Competition artistic director Yaron Kohlberg as the pianist. The program also offers another Gershwin piece, Overture to Girl Crazy; Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” and “Sunflower Slow Drag,” John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme (with a CityMusic-commissioned arrangement by David Balakrishman of the Turtle Island Quartet), and William Still Grant’s The Black Man Dances.
Conductor John McLaughlin Williams will be leading the concerts. Thursday evening’s takes place at Fairmount Presbyterian Church; Friday’s is at St. Noel Church; Saturdays is at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus; and Sunday’s is at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium. As always, CityMusic concerts are free and open to all.
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