“If Debussy were alive today and living in Northeast Ohio, he might not have written ‘La Mer,’ that most famous of musical seascapes,” writes Zachary Lewis in Thursday’s (11/2) Plain Dealer (Cleveland). “Instead, he might been inspired to produce ‘Voice of the Lake,’ [Margaret Brouwer’s] tribute to [Lake Erie] the world’s second-largest body of fresh water and call to environmental awareness. Like Brouwer, too, he might have latched onto and set the poetry of Cleveland’s David Adams … He might even have done as she did and compiled photos and other visual material for a video with the music. ‘I found out a lot of things I didn’t know when I started the project,’ explained Brouwer, a professor emeritus at the Cleveland Institute of Music, noting such issues as runoff from distant farms and the toxicity of the material dredged from the Cuyahoga River…. Never in her long, distinguished career has Brouwer penned something so substantial—she estimates the work at 70 minutes—or for such large forces. Lined up for the premiere Nov. 12 are Brouwer’s own Blue Streak Ensemble, the Oberlin Musical Union, conductor Domenico Boyagian, the Cleveland Institute of Music Children’s Choir, and four [vocal] soloists.”
Posted November 6, 2017
