Trio of orchestras, bluegrass group and a Hollywood ‘power couple’ among highlights, culminating in a June opera written by Case Western Reserve law professor
Arts lovers can look forward to diverse and dynamic offerings in the remainder of the spring 2022 season at the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at The Temple Tifereth-Israel.
Upcoming events at the arts center on the campus of Case Western Reserve University range from baroque dance to bluegrass to literary lectures to jazz and classical piano, and a ragtime orchestra. See the full calendar of events online.
“The variety of music and culture presented at the Maltz Center this spring is unprecedented,” said Maltz Center Director Jason Cohen. “The assortment of those offerings is enhanced by the radiance of Silver Hall,” the center’s 1,200-seat auditorium.
The Maltz Center was also chosen as the site for the April 13 “State of the City” address from Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, a Case Western Reserve University graduate.
Among the other expected highlights:
- April 23—The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra continues its “Women in Jazz” season with “Mardi Gras gets the Gospel,” a concert rescheduled from Feb. 11.
- May 1—An Evening with Mandy Patinkin & Kathryn Grody: Emmy and Tony award-winner, Mandy Patinkin, and wife and fellow actor, Kathryn Grody, will be on the Silver Hall stage in a Q&A style event.
- May 8—Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra: The orchestra recreates the syncopated stylings of a bygone era and underscores classic silent films providing family friendly entertainment.
The Maltz Center is also home to the Writers Center Stage, presented by the Cuyahoga County Public Library and The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Northeast Ohio’s premier jazz voice.
On May 2, the Writers Center Stage will host Anthony Doerr, bestselling author of All The Light We Cannot See, which spent more than three-and-a-half years on The New York Times‘ bestseller list.
On June 23, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson will be on the stage. Her latest book, Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, was called “an instant American classic” by The New York Times, and TIME magazine labeled it a 2020 must-read book.
Cleveland premiere of opera
The season will be capped by a summer opera: The Cleveland premiere of The Sparks Fly Upward, written by Cathy Lesser Mansfield, senior instructor at the Case Western Reserve School of Law, will be staged June 9-12.
Mansfield is composer and librettist of the opera, which premiered in 2008. The opera story follows three German families in Berlin—two Jewish and one Christian—through the Holocaust.
“I think the piece conveys so many things: history, the importance of tolerance and diversity, the risks all societies face when someone becomes ‘the other’ and the power of one person to alter the trajectory of another’s life by engaging in acts of kindness and generosity, large and small,” Mansfield said. “I think conveying these things through music reaches into people’s hearts and souls in a unique way.”
Mansfield, a Cleveland native, said that while this will be the official Cleveland premiere of The Sparks Fly Upward, an early iteration of the piece had been performed at the Jewish Community Center in Cleveland Heights as far back as 1977.
Ticket information, COVID protocols and schedule
Tickets are free to many events, and other performances start as low as $12. Each performance will also be livestreamed on the center website.
The Maltz Performing Arts Center is located in the former Temple-Tifereth Israel at 1855 Ansel Road in Cleveland.
The Maltz Center adheres to or exceeds all local, national and Case Western Reserve standards and recommendations for COVID-19 protocols, including installation of a new, state-of-the-art HVAC system, touchless transactions, extensive cleaning protocols and an indoor mask requirement.
COVID-19 protocols can be found online.
For more information, contact Mike Scott at mike.scott@case.edu.