The Cleveland Orchestra announces updates to inaugural Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream – May 11 to 20
Three concert performances May 14, 17 and 20 of Puccini’s opera La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) are the centerpiece
New: May 11 Alisa Weilerstein’s groundbreaking new project, FRAGMENTS
Update/New: May 13 Keynote speaker Isabel Wilkerson at Severance, live streamed on Adella.live in partnership with The City Club of Cleveland, Ideastream Public Media and Chautauqua Institution
Update: May 13 free event United in Song! A Community Celebration
Update: May 19 concert features music of Scott Joplin, Julia Perry, William Grant Still, Bernard Herrmann, Raven Chacon, and Edgard Varèse
Update: partner details: Festival themes will be explored with humanities and cultural partner organizations including Case Western Reserve University, Chautauqua Institution, Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Public Library, The City Club of Cleveland, Ideastream Public Media, and Karamu House
CLEVELAND – Today, The Cleveland Orchestra announced updates to its inaugural Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream, which takes place at Severance Music Center and with Cleveland partner organizations. Since the November 10 announcement of the festival title, vision, and initial programming details, this February announcement contains updates noted below. The American Dreamfestival includes opera performances, an orchestra concert, education concerts, discussions, a free choral event for the community, festival keynote, film screening, poetry readings, as well as visual arts and theater programming. The festival includes twelve free performances and events, and the in-person May 13 keynote with Pulitzer Prize Winner and author Isabel Wilkerson at Severance Music Center will be live streamed. Updated information about concerts, events, as well as humanities and cultural organization festival partners are listed below.
The American Dream Festival Vision
Building on the success in recent years of The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst’s tradition of innovative opera presentations, this year’s version will link the opera to an ambitious undertaking with themes and subjects that are explored through humanities programming. Curated by Elena Dubinets, The Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream is a series of opportunities for discussion created for the greater Cleveland community and headlined by concert performances of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West)conducted by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst at Severance Music Center (May 14, 17, and 20). The festival is devoted to the examination, exploration, and changing promise of the American Dream. The American Dream festival will aspire to engage conversation from different perspectives including: What is the relevance of the American Dream today?; What does it mean to the Greater Cleveland community?
From what was at first a yearning for self-rule, religious freedom, and democracy, the American Dream evolved to an ideal that anyone living in America would be able to succeed through opportunity and hard work — to forge a better life for yourself and your family, to get rich from your own initiative and efforts, to move up and prosper.
Each person’s view of the American Dream varies widely, dependent on age, race, country of origin, generation as an American, social strata, economic status, talent, abilities, field of study, etc. In some cases, priorities and opportunities have changed dramatically for people in different circumstances and different generations.
Today, there are many who wholeheartedly embrace the ideals of the American Dream, but there is also a widespread view that the systems that make the dream possible in this country are not working equally for all. It seems urgent to turn within, to explore ideas and listen, and to seek inspiration and meaning from the arts and literature.
The 2023 Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival offers a unique opportunity to explore and reflect on the American Dream of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, through discussions and presentations, through art and music. We will look at the Dream’s evolution from hard work and sacrifice to lottery luck and skipping ahead in line, from exploiting rules to a new embrace of democracy, fairness, justice, and opportunity.
With Gratitude: The Cleveland Orchestra’s annual Opera and Humanities Festival is supported by an historic grant from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation. This and future festivals will engage the Greater Cleveland community and will further establish Severance Music Center as a convening place for the entire community, as well as one of the country’s great cultural centers. The National Endowment for the Arts supports The Cleveland Orchestra’s annual opera presentations.
André Gremillet, The Cleveland Orchestra’s President & CEO said, “With this season’s inaugural Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream and future annual festivals, The Cleveland Orchestra is creating space and a forum at Severance Music Center and within the greater Cleveland community to explore broader topics through music and art. We hope to spark and inspire relevant conversations and reflections as a convener, and partner with area humanities and cultural organizations to promote great Cleveland institutions as well as Cleveland as a cultural destination. We are grateful to the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation for their historic grant, of which a portion is dedicated to supporting The Cleveland Orchestra’s annual opera and humanities festival.
“The Cleveland Orchestra aspires to present an opera and humanities festival that stimulates contemplation and ideas, celebrates diversity of thought, and inspires self-reflection. These festivals combine intellectual curiosity and emotional depth, where the music making is informed by the complex subtleties of the world that produced it.”
Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director, The Cleveland Orchestra said, “Puccini’s underappreciated masterpiece La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) headlines our 2023 Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream, featuring an exploration of the changing promise of the American Dream. Often dismissed as a naïve ‘cowboy opera,‘ the story of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West is set in the American frontier of the California Gold Rush in 1849. The opera brings to a boil conflicting desires for fortune and friendship. Its characters give their all in a rough-and-tumble scramble for money, love, and loyalty — heightened by a passionate music score that boldly underscores dreams of riches, hope, desperation, and desire. This opera and our annual opera presentations showcase The Cleveland Orchestra’s remarkable versatility and artistic ambition as a symphonic and opera ensemble.”
Dr. Jehuda Reinharz, President & CEO of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation said, “The Mandel Foundation is pleased to support the ambitious and inclusive programming and events for the inaugural Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream. The performances and presentations offered through the festival create opportunities for learning, exploration and dialogue, which we hope will strengthen the sense of community that The Cleveland Orchestra fosters as a cultural convener for our region. In addition to their deep commitment to the humanities, the Mandel brothers embodied the spirit of the American Dream, and it is fitting that this would be the theme of the inaugural Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival.”
Elena Dubinets is the Curator for The Cleveland Orchestra’s Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream, and is Artistic Director for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. She previously held top artistic planning positions at the Seattle and Atlanta symphony orchestras. Elena has taught at universities in the United States, Russia, and Costa Rica; published six books; and written hundreds of articles, liner and program notes in multiple languages. Her latest book, Russian Composers Abroad: How They Left, Stayed, Returned, was published by Indiana University Press in 2021. Dr. Dubinets received her MA and PhD degrees from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia, lived in the U.S. since 1996 and moved to London in 2021.
“The music and stories explored at the Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream speak to such essential topics as the underlying social contract in the US, access to education, cultural displacement, lack of representation, racism, and migration,” said festival curator Elena Dubinets. “By performing music created by composers of different nationalities, gender, skin color, and background we will initiate robust conversations about the American Dream by participants from across political, social, economic, and cultural spectrums. Community music events, film screenings, literary readings, exhibitions, scholarly presentations, and panel discussions will constitute the “humanities” portion of the festival surrounding and informing The Cleveland Orchestra performances.”
Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream partner organizations
Updates: See calendar section below for detailsCase Western Reserve University (May 20)
Chautauqua Institution (May 13)
Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque (May 16)
Cleveland Museum of Art (May to August)
Cleveland Public Library (May 19)
The City Club of Cleveland (May 13 and 20)
Ideastream Public Media (May 13 and 20)
Karamu House (April 21 to May 14)
Ideastream Public Media is a valued media partner for the 2023 Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream.
Update: Free Community Concert & Student Concerts: April 18-21: Ellis Island: The Dream of America
Leading up to the festival, The Cleveland Orchestra will present free performances for the community and for schools of Ellis Island: The Dream of America, a multimedia work for orchestra created by Grammy-nominated composer Peter Boyer. Ellis Island: The Dream of America honors the immigrant experience with a compelling combination of music, spoken word, and historic images as it traces the poignant and moving real-life stories of seven immigrants from seven countries (Greece, Italy, Hungary, Belgium, Ireland, and Russia) on their way to America, beginning in the early parts of the twentieth century. Spoken texts and historic images come from the Ellis Island Oral History Project. On Tuesday, April 18, Ellis Island: The Dream of America will be performed at 7:30pm for an adult audience and is free and open to the public. The concert is one-hour in length with no intermission. Free tickets for the April 18 presentation will be available beginning on Saturday, March 18 at 10:00am by contacting the Severance Music Center Ticket Office or online at clevelandorchestra.com. Schools may register for free daytime education concerts on April 19, 20, 21 at clevelandorchestra.com/attend/concerts-for-schools/.
Update/Livestream: May 13 keynote speaker, Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize Winner and Author
In partnership with The City Club of Cleveland, Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times best-selling author Isabel Wilkerson will present the Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream keynote. Wilkerson will be joined by Dan Moulthrop, CEO of The City Club of Cleveland. The presentation will also include chamber music performances by members of The Cleveland Orchestra. For additional information, see the calendar listing section below. This event will be livestreamed on adella.live and by Chautauqua Institution on CHQ Assembly at assembly.chq.org in partnership with The City Club of Cleveland and Ideastream Public Media.
Update: May 13 for United in Song! A Free Community Celebration
A free afternoon of choral music performances at Severance Music Center with choruses from the Greater Cleveland community hosted by Orlando Watson. Details of performers and programming are included in the calendar section below.
Update: May 19 program update Cleveland Orchestra festival concert
The Cleveland Orchestra festival concert on May 18 which was originally announced has been cancelled and the May 19 concert program has been updated. Additional details, including a program description are available in the calendar section below.
May 19: The American Dream Festival Concert
Musical Reflections: Dreams We’ve Dreamed; Songs We’ve Sung; Hopes We’ve Held
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Scott Joplin: Treemonisha Overture
Julia Perry: Short Piece for Orchestra
William Grant Still: Darker America
Bernard Herrmann: Suite from Vertigo
Raven Chacon: Voiceless Mass
Edgard Varèse: Amériques (1929 version)
Severance Music Center Ticket Information
Tickets to 2022-23 Severance season individual performances are on sale now. For more information about the variety of subscription packages offered, or for other questions, call Cleveland Orchestra Ticket Services at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141, email BoxOffice@ClevelandOrchestra.com, or visit clevelandorchestra.com.
Tickets for The American Dream festival concert on May 19 start at $30 each. Patrons who purchase or already have a ticket to The Girl of the Golden West performances on May 14, 17, 20 will receive 50% off the festival concert ticket ($25 or $15). The discount will automatically be applied in the shopping cart when ordering online or calling Ticket Services.
Update: Festival Ticket Package/Passes: 4-concert Festival Passes start at just $52. Purchase a festival pass for all 4 performances and save up to 50% over individual ticket prices. Those who already have a ticket to any performance of Puccini’s opera Girl of the Golden West will receive the discounted rate when they purchase other festival programs.
Festival passes include:
Puccini’s Girl of the Golden West
FRAGMENTS with Alisa Weilerstein
Musical Reflections
Keynote with Isabel Wilkerson
Hospitality bag at Study Day
CALENDAR LISTING / PROGRAM INFORMATION (as of February 22, 2023)
Update (Free Event):
Associated Programming: Community and Education Concerts: Ellis Island: The Dream of America
Severance Music Center, Mandel Concert Hall
Tuesday, April 18 at 7:30pm *free community concert for adults
Wednesday, April 19 at 10:00am **concert for schools
Thursday, April 20 at 10:00AM and 12:00pm **concert for schools
Friday, April 21 at 10:00AM and 12:00pm **concert for schools
The Cleveland Orchestra
Daniel Reith, conductor
Donald Carrier, director
A multimedia work for orchestra, Ellis Island: The Dream of America honors the immigrant experience with a compelling combination of music, narration, and historic images. It traces the experiences of seven immigrants from seven countries on their way to America, beginning in the early parts of the past century. The actor’s monologues/narratives are a powerful testament to the experience of thousands of immigrants who entered America through that iconic portal. The text from “Ellis Island” comes from The Ellis Island Oral History Project. By the time the doors were closed in 1954, more than 12 million immigrants had come through. The concert is a timely reminder that, for so many who have come here, America has been a symbol of freedom and opportunity for new life.
*free tickets for April 18 required, tickets available beginning March 18 by visiting clevelandorchestra.com or contacting the Severance Ticket Office
**free tickets for April 19-21, school registration is required; education concerts recommended for middle and high school students, for more information, including information on how to register schools and students for a performance, as well educator materials for the concert, visit clevelandorchestra.com/attend/concerts-for-schools/.
Tickets to Education Concerts at Severance Music Center are free for all students thanks to the Jane B. Nord Education Concert Access Fund, established through an extraordinary donation to The Cleveland Orchestra Education Endowment. Additional support for Education Concerts is provided by The Jones Day Foundation and the Louise H. and David S. Ingalls Foundation.
Partner Update (Free): Cleveland Museum of Art
The American Dream: Community Voices
May to August 2023
11150 East Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) will explore through its project The American Dream: Community Voices how works of art can address the concept of the American dream. As humans, we naturally perceive the world through our individual lived experience; and we each bring our lived experience to looking at art. CMA invited a variety of Cleveland residents and prominent figures in the community to select a work of art from the museum’s collection that resonates with them around the festival’s multifaceted exploration of the American dream of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. From May through August 2023, visitors will find more than twenty works of art selected by community members and be able to read their thoughts about how such works of art evoke the American dream in all its complexities. Tours of American Dream works of art selected and interpreted by community members will occur beginning in May and throughout the summer. For tour schedules, visit clevelandart.org. For tour schedules, visit clevelandart.org.
New: Alisa Weilerstein FRAGMENTS
Thursday, May 11 at 7:30pm*
Severance Music Center, Mandel Concert Hall
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
With FRAGMENTS, cellist Alisa Weilerstein creates an immersive musical space that is at once intimate and expansive. This groundbreaking multi-year project for solo cello weaves together movements of Bach’s six cello suites with newly commissioned works by 27 of today’s most exciting composers, including The Cleveland Orchestra’s Composer Fellow Allison Loggins-Hull.
In FRAGMENTS 1, audiences will experience selections of these newly commissioned works thoughtfully integrated with Bach’s first cello suite to create a wholly original emotional arc. Enhanced by responsive lighting and scenic architecture, the music is performed without pause and without a program, creating an atmosphere of enchantment, adventure, and discovery.
*Post-concert discussion with Alisa Weilerstein and the FRAGMENTS creative team.
Alisa Weilerstein’s performance is sponsored by Tony and Diane Wynshaw-Boris.
Update (Free Event): United in Song! A Free Community Choral Celebration
Saturday, May 13, 2:00pm-4:00pm
Severance Music Center, Mandel Concert Hall
Orlando Watson, host
A free afternoon of joyous vocal performances at Severance Music Center representing the rich diversity of the Greater Cleveland community, including Humbly Submitted Gospel Chorus; Andy Andino and Voces Hispanas, Tri-C Vocal Arts Academy + Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus, and ensembles from Cleveland’s immigrant community. Hosted by writer, spoken word poet, voiceover talent, and recording artist Orlando Watson, a Cleveland native who is currently the Senior Director of Programming for Pittsburgh’s August Wilson African American Cultural Center.
Free event, tickets not required.
Partner Update: Karamu House
The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin
The Cleveland Foundation Jelliffe Theatre
2355 Est 89th Street, Cleveland, Ohio
May 11 to May 14, 2023*
Kirsten Childs, playwright
Nina Domingue, director
What’s a Black girl from sunny Southern California to do? White people are blowing up black girls in Birmingham churches. Black people are shouting “Black is Beautiful” while straightening their hair and coveting light skin. Viveca Stanton’s answer: Slap on a bubbly smile and be as white as you can be! In a humorous and pointed coming-of-age story spanning the sixties through the nineties, Viveca blithely sails through the confusing worlds of racism, sexism, and Broadway showbiz until she’s forced to face the devastating effect that self-denial has had on her life. Karamu is excited to present this humorous musical that questions the toll assimilation takes on the Black artist in America. The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin is presented through a special agreement with Dramatist Play Service, Inc.
*Performances begin April 21. Tickets start at $25. For more information visit this link.
Update/Livestream: Keynote Speaker: Isabel Wilkerson
Saturday, May 13 at 7:30pm*
Severance Music Center, Mandel Concert Hall
Isabel Wilkerson, speakerDan Moulthrop, CEO The City Club of Cleveland, moderator
With musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra
Presented in partnership with The City Club of Cleveland
Keynote speaker Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer Prize Winner and author of critically acclaimed bestsellers, including The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, which was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction. Wilkerson’s New York Times best-selling book Caste (also an Oprah’s Book Club 2020 selection) is being adapted to film for Netflix by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay.
Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her deeply humane narrative writing while serving as Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times in 1994, making her the first Black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer Prize and the first African American to win for individual reporting. In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded Wilkerson the National Humanities Medal for “championing the stories of an unsung history.”
Ms. Wilkerson’s presentation will include chamber music performances by Cleveland Orchestra musicians of music by composers affected by the American Dream.
This event will be livestreamed on adella.live and by Chautauqua Institution on CHQ Assembly at assembly.chq.org, in partnership with Ideastream Public Media.
*A book signing with Ms. Wilkerson will immediately follow the event
The Girl of the Golden West
Sunday, May 14, 2023 at 3:00pm*
Wednesday, May 17 at 7:30pm
Saturday, May 20 at 7:30pm
Severance Music Center, Mandel Concert Hall
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Tamara Wilson, soprano (Minnie)
Limmie Pulliam, tenor (Dick Johnson)
Roman Burdenko, bass (Jack Rance)
Tony Stevenson, tenor (Nick)
Scott Conner, bass (Ashby)
Iurii Samoilov, baritone (Sonora)
Owen McCausland, tenor (Trin)
Reginald Smith, baritone (Sid)
Benjamin Taylor, baritone (Bello)
Joseph Tancredi, tenor (Harry)
Alex McKissick, tenor (Joe)
Joseph Barron, bass-baritone (Happy)
Kyle Miller, baritone (Jim Larkens)
Zachary Altman, bass-baritone (Billy Jackrabbit)
Taylor Raven, mezzo-soprano (Wowkle)
John Brancy, baritone (Jake Wallace)
Michael Adams, baritone (Jose Castro)
Men of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
PUCCINI La Fanciulla del West (opera in three acts, in concert) (Cleveland Orchestra Premiere)
Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West, the operatic equivalent of a spaghetti western, tells the tale of a love triangle between a sultry saloon owner, a carousing constable, and a disguised desperado. Set on the American frontier of the California Gold Rush in 1849, the opera brings to a boil conflicting desires for fortune, friendship, and the American Dream. Its characters give their all in a rough-and-tumble scramble for money, love, and loyalty — heightened by a passionate music score that boldly underscores dreams of riches and hope, desperation, and desire.
Sung in Italian with projected surtitles
*May 14 post-concert discussion featuring Music Director, Franz Welser-Möst
Presented with support from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Partner Update: Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque
Land of Gold
Tuesday, May 16 at 7:00pm
11610 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio
Filmmaker Jon Else recorded the rehearsals of the 2017 opera Girls of the Golden West by composer John Adams and director/librettist Peter Sellars (who conceived the idea for the work while doing research for a production of Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West) leading to its premiere at the San Francisco Opera with soprano Julia Bullock and mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges. The film grants audiences a detailed look behind the curtain at the production of the opera which tells the untold stories of groups who joined in the quest for riches during the California Gold Rush. Chronicled is the often-ignored story of brutal collision between Native Americans, European swashbucklers, Californianos, freed slaves, Chinese, Mexican, and Yankee gold seekers thrown together in the explosive free-for-all of California’s first great bubble. Directed by Jon Else (USA, 2021, 82 min). To view a trailer and for more information visit this link.
$11 general admission. $8 members and 25 and under. Tickets available at this link.
Update (Free Event): Jazz Lecture/Presentation
The American Dream, the American Nightmare, and Black American Music
Illustrated by live jazz, solo piano
Thursday, May 18 at 7:30pm
Severance Music Center, Reinberger Chamber Hall
Julian Davis Reid, presenter, pianoJulian Davis Reid is a pianist, producer, and composer, who has performed and spoken throughout the country and around the world in various solo and collaborative musical projects. In this presentation, he will reflect on his own experience as a Black composer and performer, the descendant of voluntary and involuntary migrants. He will be engaging Amiri Baraka’s book Blues People: Negro Music in White America. Music selections include: Come Sunday by Duke Ellington, Dolphin Dance by Herbie Hancock, What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye, and original compositions.
Free event, tickets not required.
Partner Update (Free Event):
Cleveland Public Library, Main Library
The American Dream: Superheroes in Poetry
Youth Poetry Reading: Works of Langston Hughes and Julia De Burgos
325 Superior Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio
Friday, May 19, 12:00pm – 1:00PM
Dr. Raquel M. Ortiz, host
Experience the works of Langston Hughes and Julia De Burgos, performed by middle school students from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and accompanied by live music, in collaboration with Cleveland Public Library’s writer-in-residence and host Dr. Raquel M. Ortiz. Dr. Ortiz is an anthropologist, educator, activist, songwriter, and author of several bilingual children’s books including Sofi and the Magic, Musical Mural (2015), Sofi Paints her Dreams (2019), When Julia Danced Bomba (2019). Her stories about Afro-Caribbean and Latinx culture invite children and adults to join in on adventures, featuring children as the protagonists so that they see and celebrate their creativity and valor.
Join Cleveland Reads and help the city get to 1 million. The Mayor’s Office of Cleveland, Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland Metropolitan Schools, and dozens of other organizations have joined forces to encourage children and adults to take the Cleveland Reads Citywide Reading Challenge to collectively read 1 million books in 2023.
As part of Cleveland Reads, The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2023 Mandel Opera and Humanities Festival: The American Dream is partnering with Cleveland Public Library to encourage everyone to read The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson who also wrote the bestseller, Caste. The book counts towards the Cleveland Reads challenge. For more information or to join the Cleveland Reads Challenge, visit clevelandreads.com. Isabel Wilkerson will be The American Dream festival’s keynote speaker on May 13 at Severance Music Center’s Mandel Concert Hall.
Free event, no tickets required.
Update: The American Dream Festival Concert
Musical Reflections: Dreams We’ve Dreamed; Songs We’ve Sung; Hopes We’ve Held
Friday, May 19 at 7:30pm*
Severance Music Center, Mandel Concert Hall
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, conductorScott Joplin: Treemonisha Overture
Julia Perry: Short Piece for Orchestra
William Grant Still: Darker America
Bernard Herrmann: Suite from Vertigo
Raven Chacon: Voiceless Mass
Edgard Varèse: Amériques (1929 version)The perception and existence of the American Dream varies widely across age, race, country of origin, generation, and economic status. Composers Scott Joplin, Julia Perry, William Grant Still, Bernard Herrmann, Raven Chacon, and Edgard Varèse represent a multiplicity of backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints, which manifest in their music to profound effect. Beautiful and discordant, poetic and potent, this range of composers’ voices come together for a concert filled with an expanse of sonic colors and meanings.
*Pre-concert discussion at 6:30pm led by Kira Thurman and Douglas Shadle.
Partner Update (Free Events): Case Western Reserve University
A Study Day: Explorations, The American Dream
Saturday, May 20 times listed below
Tinkham Veale University Center Ballroom A, 11038 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, Ohio
Presented in partnership with Case Western Reserve University
Join two robust conversations about the American Dream by participants sharing diverse viewpoints from across political, social, economic, and cultural spectrums. A performance of the opera, La Fanciulla del West, follows the day’s presentations.
12:00pm – 2:00pm / Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West and its influences: placing the opera into a perspective
With Allison Loggins-Hull, Kira Thurman, Douglas Shadle
Elena Dubinets, moderator
Presentations/discussions by leading musicologists studying the opera, its time, reception, and influences. Kira Thurman, author of Singing Like Germans, will speak about the American Dream from a perspective of an African-American scholar studying the musicianship of black artists. Douglas Shadle, author of Orchestrating the Nation: The Nineteenth-Century American Symphonic Enterprise and co-author of a forthcoming book about Florence Price,willaddress institutional problems related to underrepresented composers in the United States. Allison Loggins-Hull is The Cleveland Orchestra’s Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow, and Elena Dubinets is Curator of the Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream.
3:00 – 5:00pm / Cleveland’s Cultural DNA and The American Dream: Past, Present, and Future
Co-presented by The City Club of Cleveland and in partnership with Ideastream Public Media
Rick Jackson, moderator, Ideastream Public Media Senior Host/Producer
Panelists to be announced
This panel will examine how the idea of the American Dream has played out in Cleveland, starting with the displacement of Indigenous people at the founding of the city. While Cleveland’s role in both the Underground Railroad and later the Great Migration held out hope for access to opportunity, that hope was often undermined by policies that shaped economic reality throughout the 20th century and up to the present day. And as we look toward the future for our city, we will dream together about the creation of opportunity across our diverse communities.
Free events, tickets not required.