Iron Composer competition to move to Great Lakes Science Center, Cleveland for final concert September 26

by Jarrett Hoffman

A live gerbil as compositional material—it’s the most recent suggestion for a “secret musical ingredient” on the Iron Composer competition’s Facebook page, and contest director Joe Drew, for one, is open to it. “People say stuff, and they think it’s too crazy, but I could see a scenario where that would work,” said Drew over telephone as we talked about the upcoming 8^th installment of Iron Composer, a project of Analog Arts. The competition will take place September 26 and will culminate in a free public concert at 8:00 that evening at the Great Lakes Science Center on Erieside Avenue in downtown Cleveland. Emceed by Mark Satola of WCLV, the concert will also be broadcast live on the station (104.9 FM) and on wclv.com.

If you’re not familiar with Iron Composer, the Iron Chef-inspired composing contest unveils an instrumentation and a secret ingredient in the morning, then gives five composers just five hours to craft compositions around those specifications. After receiving thirty minutes of rehearsal each, the pieces are performed that same night and judged based on a set of criteria including their use of the secret ingredient and their originality. This year’s winner will come away with $500 in cash as well as a $500 commission by Blue Water Chamber Orchestra for a new work to be performed during their 2014-15 season.

Preview: Six choirs are finalists in the sixth annual Jubliation! Elizabeth Stuart Church Choir Festival

by Daniel Hathaway

If you’re a church or synagogue-goer, your house of worship probably comes equipped with a choir. Whether they’re made up of amateur or professional singers or a mixture of both, hard-working choirs don’t get out to hear each other very often and have the opportunity to be inspired by other ensembles.

Half a dozen years ago the late Elizabeth Stuart, a WCLV account executive and a fine church choir soprano and soloist herself, decided to fix that. She came up with the idea of a choir festival to be sponsored by Cleveland’s classical FM station. Intended to foster quality choral singing in houses of worship in Northeast Ohio, the festival would also be a competition with prizes attached. After Stuart’s untimely death in December, 2010, WCLV renamed the church choir festival in her honor.

On Thursday and Friday, May 9 and 10 at 8 pm, the six finalists in the 2013 Jubilation! Elizabeth Stuart Church Choir Festival will sing their final rounds, three choirs each night, as part of the Helen D. Schubert Concert Series at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Cleveland. Both evenings will be broadcast live over WCLV, 104.9 FM and emceed by Bill O’Connell.

Preview: Cleveland Orchestra’s MLK Celebration to feature Sphinx competition winner Adé Williams

by Mike Telin

On Sunday, January 20, 2013, at 7:00 pm, The Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Tito Muñoz, will perform its 33^rd annual concert in celebration of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., a tradition that began even before Dr. King’s birthday became a national holiday.

The concert will include the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Chorus (a 125-member volunteer chorus from the greater Cleveland community) and the Central State University Chorus, both prepared by William Henry Caldwell, and will feature Sphinx Competition prizewinner Adé Williams as violin soloist. All available tickets have already been distributed, but listeners can tune into a live broadcast on WCLV (104.9 FM) and WCPN (90.3 FM) or on the stations’ live Internet streams.