Our spirit is riding high CPT mounts a pro-choice play, Apollo’s Fire tackles Bach, Ohio Shakespeare Festival follows the yellow brick road, Silkroad Ensemble performs at Oberlin, Dominick Farinacci returns to feature young jazz musicians, and the graduating BW Musical Theatre seniors premiere the showcase they’ll be taking to NYC. Con brio! Learn about Cleveland’s protected bikeways, catch a fine arts fair at CMA, pull weeds at Shaker Lakes, share creativity at PEACE Pops, groove on books and more at To Books and Beyond at Mahall’s, receive guidance as an emerging artist from Valle ..read more

Sat 4/27 @ noon Reading about Cleveland mixed-media artist Ed Raffle’s work can make it sound pedantic. But seeing it can elicit a “wow!” For instance, the artist statement for his show, Analog Man in a Digital World, currently on view at BAYarts, says “The pieces adhere strictly to minimalist values, with structural and esthetic concerns overriding decorative or ornamental ones. Patterns of 2 and 3 dimensions are used to both elucidate information and avoid the burden of composition, with both color and humor adding an engaging playfulness the viewer cannot ignore.” Whether or not you know a ..read more

After serving as the interim executive director for a year, Effie A. Nunes has been officially appointed as executive director of the 64-year-old Cleveland Arts Prize. She has also been on CAP’s board of trustees for seven years. She succeeded Aseelah Shareef who moved on to a position at Karamu House and is currently the CAP board’s co-chair with Kurt Karakul and Kathleen Futey. Prior to serving as head of CAP, Nunes worked in arts administration, marketing, event planning and public relations, working with organizations such as Kent State University’s College of the Arts and Kent State’s Sc ..read more

Wed 4/24 @ 9AM-5PM What a weird spring. Some things were too early, some things were late. And some trees blossomed right on time. We almost missed the daffodils but it looks like everything is coming up tulips now. And after each Cleveland winter, it’s therapeutic to get outside and see what’s going on with nature. The ideal time to do so is right now as the trees are about to leaf out, and the ideal place to do so is Holden Arboretum in Kirtland with its meadows and woods and ponds and many trails to hike. You can also view the incipient greenery from up above by ascending the Kalberer Emer ..read more

Fri 4/26 @ 7:30PM The Silk Road Project, now simply Silkroad, was founded in 1998 by eclectic-minded cellist Yo-Yo Ma to bring together musicians from various cultures to ignite new cross-cultural collaboration and ideas. Its musical collective the Silk Road Ensemble is a group of variable size, membership and instrumentation, featuring players from a wide range of Eurasian cultures, bringing their native sounds and distinctive instruments to a variety of newly commissioned works. In 2020, Yo-Yo Ma passed the leadership of the nonprofit organization to Rhiannon Giddens, known for her wide-ran ..read more

Photo by Marco Borggreve “Go away Winter. Here’s Spring. We love you, let’s dance.” That seemed to be the message the Cleveland Orchestra, led by visiting conductor Klaus Mäkelä, conveyed in April 18th’s scintillating concert. Mäkelä, in the second of two weekends guest-directing the Cleveland Orchestra, showed why he has been snapped up as the Chicago Symphony’s newest maestro. Not only is his conducting nuanced and intuitive, it is also very physical (and hence) fun to watch. French composer Darius Milhaud’s The Ox on the Roof or Le Boeuf sur le toit, Op. 58 (1920) opened the program. Whil ..read more

Roy Berko has been reviewing theater for CoolCleveland.com since 2010, but his interest in, and passion for, theater goes back to the 1950s. He’s a virtually walking encyclopedia of information about virtually any past production you can name. He’s a member of the Cleveland Critics Circle, the American Theater Critics Association and Dance Critics Association. He also contributes to New York-based Broadwayworld.com, which has 5.5 million monthly visitors. Recently, Alan Henry, Broadwayworld.com’s Director of Digital Strategy and Regional Media, informed Berko that“you’ve been deemed to be one ..read more

Sat 4/27 @ 11AM-4PM The folks at Mahall’s 20 Lanes are saying that its upcoming event To Books and Beyond will remind you of an adult version of your elementary school Scholastic book fair. Let’s hope not! It’s going to feature a lot of stuff they wouldn’t let walk in the door of your old school (although if you live in Florida that’s pretty much everything.) Taking place on Independent Bookstore Day, it will of course include books — lots of them, courtesy of local book dealers. But it will also feature jewelry and clothing, original art and handcrafted items, candles, stationery, baked good ..read more

Sat 4/27 @ 8PM Third Law Collective, which performs monthly at the BOP STOP, features ten of northeast Ohio’s top jazz musicians, ranging from rising young stars to seasoned veterans such as CSU music professor emeritus, sax player Howie Smith. The ensemble was created as a vehicle to showcase composition and arrangements by the group’s members. Smith is one of the group’s co-leaders and composers, along with guitarist Dan Bruce, bassist Aidan Plank, sax players Chris Coles and Brad Wagner, and flute player Bryan Kennard, who’s also the director of the BOP STOP. Rounding out the ensemble curr ..read more

Fri 4/26 @ 7PM Sat 4/27 @ 1PM & 7PM The Cleveland Ballet has been through some tumultuous times in the last half year, but with a new artistic and executive team in place and dancers who just kept on dancing, it appears to be headed for calmer waters. And it ends its season as scheduled with performances of the full-length story ballet, Sleeping Beauty. There are few people of any age who don’t know the plot line of this fairy tale which takes on another level of enchantment when danced to the familiar music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Ticket holders not only can enjoy the show, but also ..read more