Upcoming Events and Projects

Baritone Andrew White will give two additional performances of "Five Songs on Poems of James Wright," the first one for the New Music Festival, February 6-7, and the second in a faculty recital on March 12, 2012. Both concerts will take place at University of Nebraska, Kearney.

On February 19, 2012, guitarist George Bachmann will perform "Blue Shuffle," and guitarist Stephen Aron, with soprano Lauren Feola, will perform "Talismans I-IV" for the second annual collaborative concert of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society and the Cleveland Composers Guild, 3 p.m.,  West Park United Church of Christ, 3909 Rocky River Drive, Cleveland, Ohio.

On April 29, 2012, the award winning ensemble panorámicos, with guest artist, Don Better, guitar, will present a concert featuring several works by  Monica Houghton, including a new work for flute, soprano voice, viola and piano, after a sonnet by Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, in Harkness Chapel at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ms. Houghton has been commissioned to write a new work to mark the 30th anniversary of Heights Chamber Orchestra. The composition of this new work is supported by a grant from Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Recent Events and Awards

Ms. Houghton spent most of the month of November 2011 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, studying Spanish.

A second performance of "Five Songs on Poems of James Wright" was given on April 3, 2011, by Andrew White, baritone, with Eric Charnofsky, piano, in a program sponsored by the Cleveland Composers Guild.

"Three Songs Without Words" premiered on February 20,2011, at Christ Episcopal Church, in Shaker Heights, Ohio, with Don Better, guitar, and Mary Kay Ferguson, flute, performing on a program jointly sponsored by the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society and the Cleveland Composers Guild. A second performance was given May 1,2011, for the Greater Cleveland Flute Society, with Martha Somach on flute.

The Contemporary Youth Orchestra premiered "ARP 87" on the evening of December 11, 2010, in Waetjen Auditorium at Cleveland State University.  The work is inspired by a Hubble Space Telescope image of a galaxy pair located 300 million light years from earth in the constellation Leo. To view the image click here http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0717a

ARP 87 was commissioned by Music Director Liza Grossman and the CYO. For a review of the concert visit http://www.clevelandclassical.com/121410cyorev

To order a copy of the concert DVD please visit http://www.cyorchestra.org

Eric Charnofsky, piano, Patricia Crispino, clarinet, Emily Nebel, violin, and Josue Gonzales, 'cello, performed "Here on Earth" in concert at Lorain Community College on December 5, 2010. This was the second performance of the work, and a very fine performance it was.

Ms. Houghton was awarded the Thanatopolis Music Prize in the category Rituel Adieux by the i-Park Foundation. Pianist Halida Dinova performed the winning composition, QUASE UM SONETO, for the Thanatopolis Exhibition, on October 9, 2010, in East Haddam, Connecticut.

Karel Paukert gave a lecture demonstration of "Erebus" at the Festival of Sacred Music, St. Martin Church, Nuremburg, Germany, on October 9, 2010.

The versatile guitarist Don Better performed "Blue Shuffle" for the first time on an electric guitar, on October 3, 2010, in Drinko Hall,at Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, presented by the Cleveland Composers Guild.

Patrick Mason, baritone, was eloquent in his premiere of Ms. Houghton's "Five Songs on Poems of James Wright," with pianist Alexandra Nguyen,for the Faculty Tuesdays Recital Series at UC Boulder, in Grusin Hall, on September 21, 2010, Boulder, Colorado.

"Whalefall" was a winner in the Art Song Category and was performed for the first Contemporary Americana Festival in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 24, 2010.

Tenor Christopher Aaron Smith performed "Three Songs on Poems of Walt Whitman," in recital in Boston, Massachusetts on May 9, 2010.

Organist Todd Wilson, with Drew Robertson, viola, gave a wonderfully nuanced performance of the instrumental verison of "Whalefall," March 21, 2010, at the Paul S. Weaver Memorial Auditorium, Morley Music Hall, Lake Erie College, Painesville, Ohio.

The choir of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights, under the direction of Karel Paukert, performed "Ave Redemptoris Mater" from "Four Antiphons of the Blessed Virgin," on December 6, 2009, for Lessons and Carols, and again on Chistmas Eve2009.

The Big Bonanza was selected recipientof the first NMNE Mainstage Award from Boston Metro Opera.

"Erebus" may now be heard on CD at Scott Base in Antarctica.

Soprano Andrea Chenoweth, together with pianist Eric Charnofsky, performed the aria "Oh Will, Come See" excerpted from The Big Bonanza in recital on August 22, 2008, at Epworth-Euclid United Methodist Church.

The Big Bonanza was heard in its entirety for the first time in a private reading on June 20, 2008,in Mixon Hall, at the Cleveland Institute of Music, under the expert direction of Music Director Steven Byess. The superb cast, consisting of Brian K. Johnson, baritone in the lead role; Andrea Chenoweth, soprano; Herb Lentz, tenor; Ray Liddle, bass; Kimberly Lauritsen, mezzo-soprano; Michael Jankosky, tenor; Lance Ashmore, baritone; and Elijah Bell, treble, were assisted powerfully by Eric Charnofsky at the piano. The project was supported in part by a generous grant from The Bascom Little Fund.