LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE MUSIC
Concert Previews The Cleveland Orchestra offers a variety of options for learning more about the music before each concert begins. For each concert, the program book includes program notes commenting on and providing background about the composer and his or her work being performed that week, along with biographies of the guest artists and other information. You can read these before the concert, at intermission, or afterward. (Program notes are also posted ahead of time online at clevelandorchestra.com, usually by the Monday directly preceding the concert.) The Orchestra’s Music Study Groups also provide a way of exploring the music in more depth. These classes, professionally led by Dr. Rose Breckenridge, meet weekly in locations around Cleveland to explore the music being played each week and the stories behind the composers’ lives. Free Concert Previews are presented one hour before most subscription concerts throughout the season at Severance Hall. The previews (see listing at right) feature a variety of speakers and guest artists speaking or conversing about that weekend’s program, and often include the opportunity for audience members to ask questions.
Severance Hall 2013-14
Cleveland Orchestra Concert Previews are presented before every regular subscription concert, and are free to all ticketholders to that day’s performance. Previews are designed to enrich the concert-going experience for audience members of all levels of musical knowledge through a variety of interviews and through talks by local and national experts. Concert Previews are made possible by a generous endowment gift from Dorothy Humel Hovorka. March 27, 29, 30 “Schumann the Symphonist” with Jason Harris, assistant professor of choral conducting, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music
April 3, 4, 5 “Tales of a Virtuoso” with Francesca Brittan, assistant professor of musicology, Case Western Reserve University
April 10, 11, 12 “Romantic vs. Modern” with Rose Breckenridge, Cleveland Orchestra Music Study Groups administrator and lecturer
April 17, 19 “Bittersweet Farewells” with Rose Breckenridge, Cleveland Orchestra Music Study Groups administrator and lecturer
April 24, 26 “Bach’s Son, Papa Haydn, and Beethoven”
Concert Previews
with Pierre van der Westhuizen, executive director of the Cleveland International Piano Competition
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