SSO Presents "Mendelssohn and Klezmer"

Domenico Boyagian, Music Director of Suburban Symphony Orchestra and Cleveland Opera Theater, and Suburban Symphony Orchestra welcome Cleveland’s own internationally revered Klezmer violinist, Steven Greenman in a free performance at Beachwood High School. “Mendelssohn and Klezmer” will feature Felix Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, Steven Greenman’s Klezmer Suite for Solo Violin and Orchestra, with the composer as the violin soloist, and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 “Italian”. The concert will take place on Sunday, December 12 at 3:30pm.

Travel across Europe in this culturally diverse performance. Join us among the vast green landscape, crashing waves, and echoing caves of Scotland, depicted by Felix Mendelssohn in his Hebrides Overture. Then we’ll journey to eastern Europe and surround ourselves in the sounds of a Jewish wedding with Steven Greenman’s Klezmer Suite for Solo Violin and Orchestra, featuring the composer as lead violinist. Finally, we’ll make our way to Italy with what Mendelssohn described as his “most jolly work” as we explore the composer’s depictions of Rome and Naples in his Symphony No. 4 “Italian”.

Boyagian has been called a “born conductor” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer and has dedicated himself to symphonic music and opera. Boyagian was named “one of 10 most successful Italians in the U.S.” by the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce in New York City, and is a “Most Distinguished Artist” grant recipient from the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture in Cleveland, Ohio. He was born and raised in Bologna, Italy, and is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Described as “particularly impressive” by the Washington Post, Greenman is recognized as one of the finest practitioners of traditional East European Jewish klezmer violin music in the world today. He has traveled across the globe for performances on 3 continents, and is frequently sought out as an educator both locally and across the country. He has two degrees in violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music.