The Cleveland Orchestra “California Masterworks”

The Cleveland Orchestra’s performances in the museum in May 2011 were a milestone event and, according to the Plain Dealer, among the year’s “high notes” in classical music. This groundbreaking collaboration continues, again following a masterworks theme, this time turning attention to the west coast of the United States. Classical music was inexorably bumped off its European axis with the emergence of California composers including Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, and Henry Cowell, among many others. After all, California, which faces away from the influential European cities, welcomed to its shores the cultures of Southeast Asia and Latin America. Non-European percussion traditions, tuning systems, and compositional architectures found their way into music composed for orchestra and the concert stage, creating a classical canon of a different sort—refreshing and exciting.

Tickets $29–$44 (each program)

Program 1
Wednesday, May 1, 2013 - 7:30pm

Henry Cowell: Sinfonietta
Dane Rudhyar: Out of the Darkness [*world premiere]
Lou Harrison: Suite for Violin with String Orchestra (featuring Steve Rose)

Free pre-concert talk at 6:00 by Henry Adams “The Quest for Nirvana and the Birth of Modern Art”

Program 2
Friday, May 3, 2013 - 7:30pm

James Tenney: Clang
John Adams: Shaker Loops
Terry Riley: The Sands (featuring the Calder Quartet)

Free pre-concert talk at 6:00pm by Henry Adams “The Funkiness of California Art in the 20th Century”