Fri 3/19 @ 7PM
Sat 3/20 @ 7PM
Like many organizations, CityMusic planned to devote its 2020-2021 to honoring women on the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote, featuring music by women composers.
“As with women’s suffrage, it has taken far too long for the creative voices of half the world’s population to be properly heard,” they say. “The progress to overcome that prejudice has been remarkable, but the struggle for all human rights continues. CityMusic Cleveland’s recognition of the centenary of the 19th Amendment is therefore both a celebration of how much has been accomplished and how much still remains to be done.”
Like almost all organizations, what was expected last spring to be a full live season has turned into something else. “Celebrating Women’s Rights to Vote and Create” has become a hybrid, combining streaming concerts with limited-capacity in-person concerts.
The upcoming program is called “New Voices,” and spotlights music by living composers — a richer lode than pulling from the past when women’s talents were discouraged, marginalized and suppressed — as well as by Amy Beach who lived and worked in the late 19th and early/mid 20th centuries.
Violinists Susan Britton and Eunho Kim, violist Yael Senemaud-Cohen and cellist Sophie Benn will perform via live stream on Friday March 19 and in person at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus in Slavic Village Saturday March 20.
The program features Strum by 39-year-old African-American, New York City native Jessie Montgomery; Cloudshifts by 60-year-old Dr. Denise “Dede” Ondishko, whose diverse background includes teaching public school music and a stint teaching at Oberlin in the mid 80s; String Quartet No. 3 by 58-year-old Elena Ruehr, currently on faculty at MIT; and Beach’s String Quartet Op. 89.
As always, CityMusic Cleveland concerts are free. To listen to the livestream, go here. To RSVP for the March 20 performance, go here.
citymusiccleveland.org/current-season