Thu 3/12 @ 7PM
Fri 3/13 @ 7PM
Sat 3/14 @ 7PM
Cleveland ensemble/music presenting organization No Exit New Music has been focused on presenting avant-garde concert music — both frequent world premieres and foundational and influential pieces — for nearly two decades. A dozen core members including artistic director Timothy Beyer form the basis of the group, which often adds guest musicians or brings in similarly minded ensembles from out of town. They never stop looking for creative ways to expand their reach.
In 2023-24, they celebrated the “Year of Surreality,” drawing on the surrealist movement in the arts to fuel their programming. In a similar multi-disciplinary effort, they’re presenting a program this weekend called Cleveland Renaissance: Art of the Cleveland School, inspired by the artists (mostly painters) of the so-called “Cleveland School” on the early-mid 20th century.
“I’ve always thought that Cleveland is a city that doesn’t have a great sense of its own history,” says Beyer. “I think about the Cleveland School artists and that time in our city when there was a really incredible artistic zeitgeist—many of these artists were amongst the most significant of their era. And so this concert series is meant to be a celebration of that… a celebration of these great luminaries of the Cleveland School. And I hope in some small way it will also bring a little more hometown awareness to these outstanding artists.”
The program is composed of six world-premiere pieces of music dedicated to Cleveland school artists, all written in 2026. Chris Neiner’s Figures with Birds is based on a painting of that name by August Biehle. Greg D’Alessio composed Clarence Carter inspired by the work of painter Clarence Holbrook Carter. Left Unsaid by Adonai Henderson was based on Hughie Lee-Smith’s 1970 painting “The Confrontation.” Anti-Fascist Triptych by James Praznik draws from the 1945 work of the same name by Clarence Van Duzer. VANITY by Gleb Kanasevich draws on Clara Deike’s 1937 work “Shells.” The musical part of the program is rounded out with Beyer’s own The Japanese Bridge, based on William Sommer’s 1913 painting of that name.
But there’s more: Local performance poets Ray McNiece and Raja Belle Freeman have written poetic tributes to Cleveland school painters. McNiece’s “Plume” honors William Sommer’s “The Brandywine in Winter” from the 1920s, while Freeman contributes “Hi Stranger,” based on “Bedtime” by Charles Sallée. They’ll also do a reading of Northeast Ohio-born writer Hart Crane’s 1927 poem “Sunday Morning Apples,” inspired by and dedicated to about Sommer.
The ensemble will be joined by noted local experimental harp player Stephan Haluska.
They’ll perform the concert three times: Thursday March 12 at the Praxis Fiber Workshop Gallery in the Waterloo Arts District; on Friday March 13 at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium; and on Saturday March 14 at SPACEs.
As always, No Exit concerts are free and open to all. No tickets are required — just show up with an open mind. Get more information here.