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Courtesy BlueWater Chamber Orchestra

Here are ten events we recommend during the week before Thanksgiving — and slightly beyond.

Apollo’s Fire switches into its folk groove with “Scarborough Fayre: Music from Merry Old England,” including English ballads like the title tune (part of a whole family of songs requiring a suitor to perform impossible tasks to win a lady’s love), as well as tunes from Shakespeare plays and music by John Dowland and Henry Purcell. Jeannette Sorrell is director and host. The moveable Fayre begins in Akron on Thursday, November 21 with concerts in Cleveland Heights, Cleveland, and Rocky River through Sunday afternoon, November 24. Tickets and details here.


British-born guest conductor Nicholas McGegan leads The Cleveland Orchestra in selections from Schubert’s Rosamunde and Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 (“London”) this weekend at Severance Hall. All three concerts — Thursday the 21st at 7:30 pm, Friday the 22nd at 7:00 pm, and Saturday the 23rd at 7:30 pm — will feature principal trumpet Michael Sachs in Hummel’s Concerto. Friday’s performance is in the Fridays@7 Series, a straight-through concert followed by a royal cocktail party in the Lotus Club with British-themed appetizers and cocktails, including bangers and mash, fish and chips, sticky toffee pudding, and a selection of English beers. Tickets here.




Also on Thursday, Tuesday Musical will welcome pianist Fei-Fei for its annual Margaret Baxtresser recital. She’ll play music by Beethoven, Schumann, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall at 7:30 pm, preceded by a conversation with the pianist at 6:30 pm. Tickets are available online.


England’s Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment will pay a visit to the Oberlin Artist Recital Series in Finney Chapel on Friday, November 22 at 7:30 pm, the day after their appearance on Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival in New York. Jonathan Cohen will lead the ensemble from the keyboard in Vivaldi’s Gloria, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and Albinoni’s Oboe Concerto No. 2 in d, featuring Katherine Watson and Rowan Pierce, sopranos, Iestyn Davies, countertenor, and Katharina Spreckelsen, Baroque oboe. Tickets can be reserved online.


BlueWater Chamber Orchestra will give two performances of “Deceptive Cadences” this weekend, one ticketed, the other free. Daniel Meyer conducts, and violinist Jinjoo Cho will solo in the Tchaikovsky Concerto. The program also includes Robert Schumann’s Overture, Scherzo and Finale and Thomas Adès’ Three Studies from Couperin. You’ll need tickets for Saturday’s 7:30 performance at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, and you’ll be invited to contribute to a freewill offering for Sunday’s 3:00 pm concert at Pilgrim UCC, part of the Arts Renaissance Tremont series.


Pianist Soyeon Kate Lee, a medalist at the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2003, returns to play a free concert on the Tri-C Classical Piano Series at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Sunday, November 24 at 3:00 pm. Her program includes a Mozart sonata, excerpts from Debussy’s Préludes, Ravel’s La Valse, a selection from Lera Auerbach’s 24 Preludes, and Chopin’s great Sonata No. 2 in B. There’s no admission charge.


Mike Rosen’s Oberlin Percussion Group will give a free, pre-Thanksgiving concert in Warner Concert Hall on Tuesday, November 26 at 8:00 pm. These are always impressive affairs, almost as much for the choreography of instruments as for the music being played. The playlist for Tuesday includes works by William Russell, Lior Navok, Christopher Shulti, Bob Becker, John Eriksson, and Reiko Füting. Catch it by video stream if you can’t make it to Oberlin.


The Cleveland Orchestra has Thanksgiving weekend all to itself. On Friday and Saturday, November 29 and 30 at 8:00 pm, and Sunday, December 1 at 3:00 pm, guest conductor Lorenzo Viotti will preside over Prokofiev’s Suite from The Love for Three Oranges, Poulenc’s Sinfonietta, and Ravel’s La Valse. Piano phenom Yuja Wang will be featured in Rachmaninoff’s Fourth Concerto. Tickets here.


Moving into the following week, the Dover Quartet is the next ensemble scheduled for the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series. On Tuesday, December 3 at 7:30 pm, they’ll play Britten’s Quartet No. 1, David Bruce’s brand-new The Lick Quartet, and Brahms’ Quartet No. 3 in the society’s home venue, Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. Come at 6:30 pm to hear a talk about the music by Christopher Jenkins. Tickets are available online.


For details of these and other classical concerts, see our Concert Listings page.

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