Cleveland Chamber Symphony returns

The Cleveland Chamber Symphony, which focuses on modern classical music, has announced that its first concert of the new season will be held at 3 p.m. Oct. 7 at Gamble Auditorium at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea (e.g. in the music building, in downtown Berea). This is serious mark-your-calendar stuff -- the performance is free, but the CCS is also very good and coming off a Grammy Award earlier this year.

The CCS web site promises that more details of the upcoming concert season will be announced soon.

I exchanged e-mails recently with a CCS insider who assures me that the orchestra is in good shape in its ongoing rebuilding, has received several grants, and expects to get more soon.

Cleveland composers' new concert season

The Cleveland Composers Guild has posted its schedule of free concerts for 2007-2008; the first concert will be at 3 p.m. Sept. 23, a Sunday, at Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University and will feature pieces by Eric Charnofsky (scroll down this page for bio), Stephen Stanziano, Larry Baker, Amy Kaplan, Margaret Griebling-Haigh and Monica Houghton. Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out what's happening with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, whose Web site hasn't been updated for a few months.

Join the Australian performance of iOrpheus

As the Friday performance of William Duckworth's iOrpheus in Brisbane, Australia, looms (Thursday night in North America), the composer has posted instructions on how folks from around the world can contribute sounds to the production.