With WCPN's Dee Perry — Dec 16, 09

Dee Perry considers the local harmonies of Quire Cleveland which recently recorded variations on the theme for NPR’s All Things Considered. The acclaimed a cappella group performs Carols from the Old and New Worlds this weekend at Trinity Cathedral. More at WCPN.org.

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Mike Telin, ClevelandClassical.com — Dec 15, 09

In less then two years, Quire Cleveland has received accolades from all of the local classical music press for being an ensemble that posses “exceptional purity of pitch” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer) “Equally at home in the late Classical Style [as with a cappella music from the Renaissance]” (ClevelandClassical.com) as well as for producing “joyful sounds” (Cool Cleveland). In addition to presenting solo performances, Quire Cleveland has also served as the chorus for CityMusic Cleveland. Adding to the list of accomplishments, the ensemble has received praise for presenting creative and well-researched programs that are attractive to all audiences.

For their first holiday concert presentation, Quire Cleveland has assembled an intriguing and charming variety of holiday carols titled “Carols for Quire from the Old and New Worlds.” Upon receiving an advance copy of the program notes, it was easy to tell that this is not a program merely consisting of one carol from every part of the globe, but rather a program that demonstrates the interesting journeys around the globe that many of the carols have taken. Continue reading »

William Fazekas, ClevelandClassical.com — May 11, 09

Several weeks a year, for the past five years, Clevelanders have been given wonderful treats — fine concerts of orchestral music performed free of charge and brought to venues in their own neighborhoods. Oh, and with “Clevelanders”, it seems we can include our neighbors in Lorain and Lake counties, as well as urban and suburban Cuyahoga. I’m speaking, of course, about CityMusic Cleveland, which celebrated its five year run of free neighborhood concerts this week with a program it called Heaven & Earth, including Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’ Symphony (No. 41 in C, K.551), and Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G. As always, the program was repeated at half a dozen venues in the course of the week; this reviewer caught the performance Saturday evening at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood. Continue reading »

7 centuries in 29 seconds — May 10, 09

All Things Considered, the daily afternoon news program on National Public Radio, has a well-known musical theme; when played after the news, it’s called a “trixie:”

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Staff at ATC recently invited Quire Cleveland’s president, Ross Duffin, to compose some trixies in an early-music style. Duffin composed six of them, ranging in style from 13th-century organum to Carl Orff’s well-known 1936 composition “Carmina Burana.” And he recruited the members of Quire Cleveland, as well as faculty of Case Western Reserve University’s Early Music Program, to record them. Here’s what he came up with. Continue reading (2) »