A & E News

Artful, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing safe, affordable and accessible studio space, has purchased the former St. Alban’s Episcopal Church at 2555 Euclid Heights Blvd. This marks a major step toward establishing a permanent home for artists in the heart of the Heights, strengthening Cleveland Heights’ reputation as a “Home to the Arts.”

In the coming months, Artful will begin moving artists into the new location, which will house 25–30 permanent studios. The organization also plans to launch programming for artists seeking flexible workspace and storage options.

Artful was among the nonprofits displaced from the Coventry PEACE Building after its owner, the Cleveland Heights – University Heights Public Library System, decided to close the facility.

During three weeks this June, Cleveland Heights will experience the arrivals (and departures) of more than 30 extraordinary musicians, hailing from around the country and around the world. Many are award-winning artists, and most are between the ages of 20 and 35. They include a composer-in-residence from Scotland, a 2024 Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano, the 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition winner, and several Avery Fisher Career Grant recipients.

ChamberFest Cleveland (CFC), now in its 13th season, is bringing these artists to town. It was co-founded in 2012 by longtime Cleveland Heights resident Franklin Cohen (principal clarinet emeritus of The Cleveland Orchestra) and his daughter Diana (concertmaster of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and recent inductee to the Cleveland Heights High School Hall of Fame). In 2022, Diana’s husband, pianist Roman Rabinovich, joined CFC as a co-artistic director.

Creative Spaces Cultural Arts (CSCA), a nonprofit dedicated to fostering creativity and community engagement through the arts, is launching a monthlong fundraising campaign this June. The goal is to raise $10,000 to support programming for all ages and organizational growth.

Founded in 2022 and operating out of the Disciples Christian Church building on Mayfield Road, CSCA was created in response to a 2020 community visioning process that identified a pressing need for more accessible, high-quality arts education for young people. Since then, the organization has become a dynamic hub where artists, nonprofits, and young people participate in programming that ranges from samba and circus arts to yoga, music, and dance.

This campaign comes at an exciting time for CSCA. In March, the nonprofit was selected as one of the National Benevolent Association’s newest Incubate Partners—a partnership that comes with a $54,000 grant that will be disbursed over two years.

Ukulele players at all levels—experts through wannabee beginners—are invited to join the “Heights Uke Jam” now hosted by the Noble Neighborhood Library on the second Tuesday of every month. The next gathering is June 10, with a start time of 7 p.m.

Other acoustic stringed instrumentalists are encouraged to participate in this fun musical experience.

While primarily featuring ukuleles, past gatherings have welcomed guitars, banjos, fiddles, and the occasional cello. Music is provided. Players are encouraged to bring their own music stand.

You know Jim Sollisch. Or somebody like him. He’s that “gray-haired, middle-aged man in jeans and tennis shoes” (his words) in the Heights. “If you ran into me on the street,” he noted, “you might guess that I was a father or a husband. You might think I was a Democrat or the owner of a foreign car.”

Sollisch has just published a collection of his personal essays, How Donating a Kidney Fixed my Jump Shot. He is a copywriter at the Marcus Thomas ad agency and has written two Super Bowl commercials. His side hustle is getting op-eds published in newspapers like the Plain Dealer, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

His book contains 74 essays. Sollisch knows how to write; he’s not writing treacly nostalgia about Rocky Colavito. He has a wide-ranging sensibility, and to boot, he likes Cleveland. He is feminine, marvelous and tough (to steal a phrase from poet Ted Berrigan).

Let’s get ready to rock! Or folk, hip hop, classical, jazz and any other of a multitude of musical genres that will be represented at this year's 13th annual Height Music Hop.  

FutureHeights’ Heights Music Hop is a free, annual music festival that promotes local music and celebrates the diversity of Cleveland Heights and University Heights. Launched in 2013, the festival has evolved into a premier celebration of the community’s artistry and authenticity—as well as just a good time. In 2025, FutureHeights continues the tradition of showcasing abundant local talent and supporting businesses in the Heights’ commercial districts.

It has been 20 years since the founding of the Reaching Heights Summer Music Camp—a summer enrichment experience for Heights middle-school musicians.

This year, the weeklong camp begins June 9. It is open to this year’s sixth- , seventh- and eighth-graders who are enrolled in their school’s instrumental music program and want to immerse themselves in music, have fun, work hard, and grow by leaps and bounds. The camp experience ends with a public performance for the community on June 14.

Families who reside in the CH-UH district can register their musicians until May 15.

The Resonance Project will present its final concert of the season on Sunday, June 1, 5 p.m., at Forest Hill Church Presbyterian.

Featuring CLE Concierto and Senegalese drummer Papa Assane M’Baye, the performance will be a dynamic celebration of Baroque music and African drums. 

The program comprises Vivaldi’s ever-popular L’estate (Summer) with violinist Ann Yu, the newly rediscovered La tempestad del mar by Spanish composer Davide Perez, and the revolutionary Le Cahos by Jean-Féry Rebel, in a special arrangement by cellist René Schiffer.

On May 17, Dobama Theatre, in conjunction with The Carolyn L. Farrell Foundation, will host a free, one-hour conversation and performance intended to provide new approaches for those experiencing dementia-related communication challenges in a home setting.

Ann McEvoy, a Cleveland-based writer, playwright, and a nationally known actress, created the play “Yes, And . . . Adventures in Communication with Loved Ones with Dementia" based on the work of Anne Basting, Ph.D. 

Basting, author of Creative Care: A Revolutionary Approach to Demential and Elder Care, is an expert on aging, memory, and dementia, and on the use of song, dance, improvisation, and theater to elicit joy.

Heights Youth Theatre (HYT) will present “Cinderella”—inspired by the 1997 teleplay starring Brandy and Whitney Houston—beginning Friday, May 16, at the Wiley building in University Heights.

The show’s cast comprises nearly 60 young actors in grades 1–12.

Director Eugene Sumlin, a Cleveland Heights resident, noted, “Over the years, this classic fairytale has had many variations and adaptations. . . . In our productions, we want to lean into the magic of the story, and real magic does not happen until you believe in yourself.”

Heights residents and musicians are bringing the experience of movies with live music back to Cleveland-area theaters.

Are these movies accompanied by live music? Concerts paired with films? Regardless, the Cleveland Silent Film Festival (CSFF), founded by Cleveland Heights resident Emily Laurance, has scheduled monthly screenings of classic films with live music this spring and summer. The screenings are free and open to the public; no reservations are required. For additional information, visit www.clevelandsilentfilmfestival.org/.

As part of the festival, Cleveland Heights’ David Blazer, the organist at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River, will play the organ for a May 4, 7 p.m. screening of Buster Keaton’s classic comedy “Steamboat Bill Jr.” at the church.

The Resonance Project at Forest Hill Church continues its first season on May 2, 7:30 p.m., with a powerful and unsettling program confronting themes of political oppression.
 
Violinist Ann Yu, cellist Sarah Tindall, and pianist Irwin Shung will present In the Face of Silence, a chamber music recital featuring Shostakovich's tormented Piano Trio No. 2 and Prokofiev's chilling Violin Sonata No. 1, both written in Stalin's Russia amid the devastation of World War II.

Heights Arts has named Michelle Smith its 12th poet laureate. She will serve a two-year term beginning in April. Heights Arts’ Heights Writes Community Team selected Smith, a poet and literary advocate, from more than a dozen applicants to be the Heights poet laureate for the cities of Cleveland Heights and University Heights.

Heights Arts Executive Director Rachel Bernstein said, “We are very excited to welcome Michelle Smith as our 12th Poet Laureate. Her enthusiasm for the role combined with her compelling poetry, civic engagement history, and community connections will serve to elevate this art form to the highest level in the Heights communities. I can’t wait to see her in action."

 “I am grateful for this opportunity and looking forward to a wonderful two years,” said Smith. “I thank Heights Arts and everyone that participated in the selection process.”

As it embarks on its 55th season, University Heights Symphonic Band will present its annual free spring concert on Sunday, April 6, 3:30 p.m., at John Carroll University's (JCU) Dolan Science Atrium, under the direction of Music Director Devlin Pope. The performance is partially sponsored by the city of University Heights.

The concert's theme is "Stories and Folklore,” and each selection in the program will have a story behind the music. The concert will include music by George Gershwin, Leroy Anderson, Richard Wagner, Samuel R. Hazo, Steve Reineke, Moises Molerio, Richard Saucedo, John Philip Sousa and more.

A series of paintings by Cleveland Heights artist, jazz violinist, and educator William Reed Simon will be on view at The Wine Spot through May 31.

The exhibition's theme is "A Street at Dawn."

The Wine Spot is located at 2271 Lee Road.

To close out its 2024–25 season, Dobama Theatre will present the world premiere of “Rust: A Story of Steel and Grit,” directed by Laura Kepley. Performances are Thursdays through Sundays, April 25 through May 18.

The play, adapted by George Brant from the memoir by Eliese Colette Goldbach, is based on the true story of a young woman in Cleveland whose unanticipated slog in the bowels of a steel mill spurs a journey into the recesses of her own mind.

Dobama Theatre commissioned the play, reaching out in 2020 to Brant, a Cleveland resident at the time, to gauge his interest in adapting Goldbach’s celebrated memoir for the stage.

The musical “King! Jackson!” will be presented, free of charge, on Saturday, April 26, 2:30 p.m., at Forest Hill Church, followed by a jazz concert. The event is presented by the Racial Equity Buddies of Greater Cleveland along with Leonard DiCosimo, the executive secretary of the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor and Local 4 Music Fund.

“King! Jackson!” explores the friendship and partnership between the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the world-renowned gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. Jackson, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century, was a close friend and confidant of King.

Heights Arts continues its vibrant programming in the literary, musical, and visual arts despite the impact from the recent fire behind its building on Lee Road. The fire, which broke out in an unfinished apartment complex under construction behind the Cedar-Lee movie theater in late January, was contained before it could spread to surrounding businesses and homes.

Heights Arts Executive Director Rachel Bernstein said, “We are grateful our building remains intact thanks to the Cleveland Heights police and fire department, and their unprecedented efforts—a demonstration of our community’s determination to persevere.”

University Heights resident, author, and educator Cassidy Pietrick has released her debut children's book, The Pickle Tails. The story follows Pickle, a lovable little, long dog with a big heart and even bigger emotions. Through her exciting adventures, young readers are invited to explore the ups and downs of feelings while learning to manage their emotions in a fun and engaging way.

“Growing up in a family of artists, I’ve always dreamed of writing children’s books,” Pietrick said. “As a former elementary school teacher, I saw the need for imaginative stories that support social-emotional learning in young children.”

The Resonance Project at Forest Hill Church continues its inaugural season on March 15, 7:30 p.m., with a candlelight program featuring two Romantic workhorses for the virtuosic pianist.

Join pianist Irwin Shung as he presents Lenten Reflections, a solo piano recital, feturing Rachmaninov's lush and worldly Ten Preludes, op. 23, and Franck's visionary Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue.

As is its custom, the Resonance Project will present this program with a lively talk by Shung, who founded the popular library series "How to Fall in Love with Classical Music."

On April 5, 6–10 p.m., Dobama Theatre will host the aptly titled “Not Another F**king Gala” at the Grog Shop. The event will mark the theater’s 65th year of bucking the system, creating community, pushing boundaries, and provoking an examination of the contemporary world through Off-Broadway theater productions. 

Curated by Dobama’s Artistic Director Nathan Motta, the entertainment is sure to wow! This alternative-themed fundraiser will feature burlesque performances by Bella Sin and friends, drag performances by local queens including Veranda L’Ni and Dr. Lady J, music by DJ Candi Fresca, and much more. The evening will be hosted by emcee Ken Schneck, executive director of The Buckeye Flame.

On the heels of its production of Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Hot Wing King,” Dobama Theatre will present the Cleveland premiere of Sarah DeLappe’s Off-Broadway hit, “The Wolves,” March 7–30. 

A 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist, “The Wolves” has been described as a “dark coming-of-age story” that explores the shifting and complicated dynamics of a girls’ indoor soccer team. The play covers themes such as community, growing-up, humanity, friendship, and much more.

DeLappe said of “The Wolves,” her debut play, “I wanted to see a portrait of teenage girls as human beings—as complicated, nuanced, very idiosyncratic people who weren’t just girlfriends or sex objects or manic pixie dream girls but who were athletes and daughters and students and scholars and people who were trying actively to figure out who they were in this changing world around them.”

A free, weekly series debuted at B Side Lounge (2785 Euclid Heights Blvd.) in February, inspired by organizations that support social justice and the music that has soundtracked those movements.

Each Sunday, 5­–8 p.m., through April 27, the “Discover Weekly” series will pay it forward, highlighting a nonprofit as well as emerging musicians from throughout Greater Cleveland.

This programming, made possible by the Live Music Society through the Music in Action grant, encourages people to take their music listening experience off-app and into small venues and listening rooms, ensuring live music remains accessible to all.

In 2016, Deborah Derrickson Kossmann was living her own episode of “Hoarders,” emptying junk from her mother’s house in suburban New Jersey. It had been almost 20 years since anyone was allowed inside, and nothing, not even a Psy.D. in clinical psychology, had prepared Kossmann for what she found.

She wrote: “(T)here hadn’t been trash put outside for the last fifteen years. All that garbage is here, not only her own excrement but containers filled with leftovers like a liquified turkey club sandwich. There are chicken bones, apple cores, empty milk cartons, and a half-eaten jar of peanut butter, all of it just thrown on top of piles. She’s made her life a literal dump. Why is she unable to part with her own trash?”

John Carroll University (JCU) welcomes the internationally renowned Actors From The London Stage (AFTLS) for a six-day residency, Feb. 17–22. The residency, supported by the Gerard Manley Hopkins Professorship in the Department of English, will feature engaging classroom workshops and performances of William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, "Hamlet."

The five-actor troupe will arrive on Feb. 17. Throughout the week, AFTLS will host nearly 30 interactive classroom workshops, offering JCU students a dynamic and hands-on approach to topics such as Shakespearean verse, acting techniques, rhetoric, public speaking, and the power of body language.

CLE Concierto, the Cleveland Heights-based early-music ensemble founded in September, continues its inaugural season with a captivating program of Spanish music—A Spanish Affair—on Friday, Jan. 31, 7:30 p.m. The concert will be performed at Forest Hill Church, 3031 Monticello Blvd.

The concert will feature renowned violinist Guillermo Salas-Suárez, a specialist in Spanish violin music, alongside Brian Kay (historical plucked instruments and percussion) and a harpsichordist. The repertoire will include Felix Lopez's lively “Variaciones del Fandango;” José Herrando's evocative “El Jardín de Aranjuez,” which conjures the birdcalls and lush imagery of Madrid’s famous gardens; Luigi Boccherini’s rarely performed yet brilliant violin and harpsichord sonatas, and more.

The Cleveland Chamber Collective will present a free concert, Music of America VII, on Sunday, Jan. 12, at 3 p.m., at Disciples Christian Church in Cleveland Heights. The program will feature works inspired by sounds from around the world—from India to Buenos Aires, Bali and Manhattan.

Blaze, by Reena Esmail, brings Hindustani violin virtuosity to the Western concert hall, showcasing Emily Cornelius on violin and Dylan Moffitt on tabla. Salad Bar, by Cincinnati composer Ellen Ruth Harrison, is a unique duo featuring violist Brian Slawta and flutist Linda White. The work is inspired by the climate by the Baltic Sea (as well as a pretentious menu the composer encountered while on holiday). Also included in the set is a lament for the Jews deported from Szczecin, the first German Jews to be taken to the camps in Poland.

Dobama Theatre will present Katori Hall’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "The Hot Wing King," in a production that opens Jan. 24 and runs through Feb. 16.

The play explores themes such as family, community, masculinity, loss, self-acceptance, and Black and queer joy. It has been described as “theatrical comfort food, a satisfying concoction of amusing and touching—sweet, salty, and of course, spicy.”

Playwright Hall said the most important thing to her while writing the play was “that it not really be about them being gay. That it be about them being human; that it be about them loving each other; that it be about them supporting each other.

Heights Arts, the Cleveland Heights-based multidisciplinary arts organization, is seeking applications for the position of Heights Poet Laureate. The selected poet will serve a two-year term, April 2025 to March 2027, coinciding with the organization’s 25th anniversary.

The Heights Poet Laureate will receive an annual stipend and play an active role in community and civic events. Throughout their tenure, they will also lead Heights Arts’ beloved Ekphrastacy – Artists Talk and Poets Respond series, which connects visual and literary art.

Applications will be accepted through Dec. 31, 2024. Eligible candidates must commit to the full 24-month term and either reside in Cleveland Heights or University Heights, or demonstrate a strong connection to the Heights community.

Roots of American Music (ROOTS) held its annual fall event on Oct. 24 at the Music Box Supper Club in Cleveland. As part of its yearlong refresh, the Cleveland Heights-based nonprofit celebrated its story and service to the community. 

A vignette of ROOTS’ own “Blues is the Backbone” music education program was interactive, with teaching artist Jack Mizenko conducting the audience in the refrain of a blues song, and then of one adapted by students at Halle School.

Singer Evelyn Wright, accompanied by guitarist Michael Haburay and pianist Sebastain Mango, led guests through a vignette of the “Food for the Soul” program for seniors, which connects music with current topics, and sparks discussions among the seniors that encourage them to share their life experiences and revisit memories inspired by the music.

The N.B. White Gallery at St. Paul's has decked its walls with paintings, photographs, and woodworks this winter season. The show opens on Friday, Dec. 6, with an artist’s reception 5–7 p.m.

The bold and colorful paintings were created by DeAnne Smith of Cleveland, and by Jules Briggs, a Detroit-based painter and sculptor. J.W. Cooper’s photographs are on display as well, as are works in wood by Mike Nathal.

Smith creates flow in her art with shapes, patterns, and vibrant colors. Her large-scale, abstract paintings are influenced by her surroundings and by nature.

Briggs similarly uses a bold palette in her personal and fantastical artwork, portraying dreamscapes, fantasy scenes, and fictional characters.

Dec. 6–29, Dobama Theatre will present the professional Cleveland premiere of “Peter/Wendy,” a heartfelt, ethereal adaptation of J. M. Barrie’s classic Peter Pan, by Jeremy Bloom.

Directed by Nathan Motta, Dobama Theatre’s artistic director, this family-friendly holiday show offers an immersive, interactive experience to delight kids and adults alike. Fairies, pirates, mermaids, and more will take the stage, encouraging audiences to think of and share their “happy thoughts.”

“The idea of ‘thinking a happy thought’ might seem trite or childish on the surface, but, as it turns out, happy thoughts can elevate us, and sharing gratitude and happiness with others lifts them up as well. We hope that ‘Peter/ Wendy’ will help do just that for audiences this December,” said Motta.

Cleveland Heights resident Sid Lenington’s book-length debut, Donovan’s M.I.A., is filled with taut, lyrical, and funny dispatches from the front lines of the Anthropocene.

He will be joining Dan Chaon, author of, most recently, Sleepwalker, for a reading and discussion as part of the Coventry Village Author Series at the Coventry Village Library on Thursday, Nov.  21, at 7 p.m.

The book comprises two short stories and two novellas filled with images of garden hoses, donuts, lost puppets, troubled characters, and Rust Belt rot. It’s a glimpse into a mind which, blasted and cratered from decades of drinking, is beginning to heal after 13 years of sobriety.

The University Heights Symphonic Band will present its free, annual fall concert at John Carroll University's (JCU) Dolan Science Atrium on Sunday, Nov. 3, at 3:30 p.m.

The building is located near the Fairmount Circle entrance to the campus, just behind Hamlin Quad where the band's outdoor concerts are annually held.

This year's program, titled Distant Travels, will musically take the audience around the world, and beyond. Conducted by Music Director Devlin Pope, the performance will include the following selections: Four Scottish Dances by Arnold, Sea Songs by Williams, A Nordic Trilogy by Erickson, Metroplex: Three Postcards from Manhattan by Sheldon, Afterlife by Galante, and a percussion feature by Hazo titled A Zillion Nickels.

On Friday, Nov. 1, Heights Arts opens its 23rd annual Holiday Store to the public, offering unique, handmade gifts created by more than 100 local artists. The store holds its general opening 6–8 p.m., following a Heights Arts members-only preview 5–6 p.m. The 2024 Holiday store will be open through Dec. 30.

Shoppers will find an array of distinctive items, including decorative boxes, candles, jewelry, ornaments, and a wide variety of artworks such as prints, paintings, photography, sculptural glass, and ceramics. The Holiday Store not only provides an opportunity to discover one-of-a-kind gifts, but also supports local artisans and celebrates the creative spirit of the community.

Also in November, Heights Arts kicks off its signature concert series, Close Encounters, with a performance titled "OUVRAGE DE DAME: Music for Winds by Women" on Sunday, Nov. 3, 3–4:30 p.m.

On Saturday, Oct. 19, 4–7 p.m., Dobama Theatre will present its fourth Annual Heights Halloween Festival in the Cedar Lee Business District.

This free, family-friendly event will feature costumed characters, large-scale puppets, face painting, a DJ, dancing, games, a scavenger hunt, and circus performers from Wizbang.

The Heights Halloween Festival will also include the beloved, traditional Candy Crawl, so families should dress up and bring their goodie bags to be ready to trick-or-treat at participating businesses throughout Cedar Lee.

Dobama Theatre will present the Cleveland premiere of Selina Fillinger’s Broadway hit and three-time Tony Award-nominated farce, “POTUS: or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.” Performances are Oct. 4–27.

When a presidential PR nightmare triggers a domino effect, unraveling layers of personal and political catastrophe with escalating worldwide implications, seven women scramble to save a White House in shambles. In “POTUS,” outrageous antics and irreverent conversations abound. The show provides contemporary commentary on the timeless concerns of gendered power structures and dynamics—while also delivering an endless stream of laughs.

Chapter Q of P.E.O. International will present “An afternoon with Amanda Flower” on Saturday, Nov.  9, 2 p.m., at Forest Hill Presbyterian Church. While the program is free, donations are encouraged. All funds raised will support women’s education through P.E.O.’s educational projects.

At the event, two-time Agatha Award-winning and USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower will discuss her latest mystery, To Slip the Bonds of Earth, released in March 2024.

Flower’s radiant historical mystery novel was inspired by the real sister of the Wright brothers. While not as famous as her older siblings Wilbur and Orville, the celebrated inventors of flight, Katharine Wright was actively involved in her brothers’ aviation achievements. In the novel, Katharine is equally as inventive as her brothers—especially when it comes to solving crimes.

Making a connection between her writing and P.E.O.’s mission to educate women, Flowers had this to say: “Women's way of knowing and learning certainly impacted my writing. I write historical mysteries about women who have used their education and experience to uplift their life and the lives of the people around them.”

Featuring a lineup of artists that include Grammy winners, Apollo’s Fire members, and Cleveland Institute of Music faculty, The Resonance Project carefully curates a musical series that bring ideas and worlds to life. 

New to Cleveland Heights, the classical group will perform a series of concerts at Forest Hill Church (3031 Monticello Blvd.), accompanied by compelling visuals and narration, where storytelling becomes just as important as playing.

The Resonance Project’s performances feature a diverse range of genres, and delve into the work of lesser-heard composers.

Cleveland Heights High School has its share of accomplished alumni. Authors and educators, doctors and inventors, artists and entrepreneurs, professional athletes and . . . bubblers?

Yes. Bubblers. Gary Pearlman, class of 1976, is a world-renowned bubbler and has held 15 Guinness World Records for his bubbling feats. We’re talking soap bubbles—the kind you blew through a ring when you were a little kid.

Pearlman, aka Dr. U. R. Awesome, may be a grown man but he makes his living (and makes his mark) blowing bubbles. 

He started out as a magician, a job he had for 40 years. His friend and fellow Wiley Junior High and Heights High classmate, Steve Presser, eventually invited Pearlman to perform his magic tricks at Presser’s famed Coventry store, Big Fun.

The Heights Music Hop returns at the end of this month, Sept. 27 and 28, with free performances planned in three locations—the Cedar Fairmount Business District, the Noble Gardeners’ Market, and the Cedar Lee Business District.

With its annual, one-of-kind, free music festival, FutureHeights brings together local music and local businesses to spotlight Cleveland Heights as a destination, and a great place in which to live, own a business, and shop and dine at locally owned, independent stores, bars and restaurants.

FutureHeights’ 2024 Hop will kick off on Friday, Sept. 27, 6–10 p.m., in Cedar Fairmount.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, the Noble Gardeners’ Market—which, as of Sept. 7, will have moved to its new location at the Noble Neighborhood Library, at 2800 Noble Road— will host live music from 10 a.m. to noon.

On Saturday evening, the festivities will move to Cedar Lee beginning at 6 p.m.

The Cleveland Arts Prize (CAP) has awarded Shannon Morris, co-founder and executive director of Artful Cleveland, its prestigious Robert P. Bergman Prize for 2024. This honor is a significant recognition of her dedication to fostering a vibrant artistic community and her commitment to making art accessible to all.

According to CAP, the Robert P. Bergman Prize “is awarded to an individual whose life and work are illuminated by an energetic and inspiring dedication to a democratic vision of art. The Bergman Prize recognizes the highest possible expression of art stewardship through long-term commitment.” It celebrates those who not only create art but also cultivate environments where creativity can flourish, reflecting the values of inclusivity and community.

Morris is a Cleveland Heights native whose vision of a safe, inclusive artist’s enclave—Artful—found a home in the Coventry PEACE Building.

Cleveland Heights resident and psychiatrist Joan Lederer has embraced photography as an artistic pursuit as well as a tool for community engagement and social change.

Currently, Lederer's focus is on The Old Angle Boxing Gym in Cleveland's near West Side, owned by Gary Horvath, a celebrated local boxer mentored by the renowned Jimmy Bivins. With a storied career that includes multiple Golden Glove titles and inductions into three halls of fame, Horvath embodies Cleveland’s rich boxing legacy. At 77, he remains deeply rooted in the community where he was born and raised.

"After years in community psychiatry,” said Lederer, “The Old Angle has become my sanctuary—a place where individuals from all walks of life support each other through shared dedication."

CLE Concierto, a newly founded early music ensemble, will perform its inaugural concert on Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m., at Forest Hill Church, 3031 Monticello Blvd., in Cleveland Heights. The program, "Perspectives: Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and her Musical Circle," highlights the circumstances female composers faced in 17th-century France.

Musicians performing in the concert are Apollo's Fire concertmaster Alan Choo (baroque violin), with friends Andréa Walker (soprano), René Schiffer (baroque cello), and CLE Concierto founder [and writer of this article] QinYing Tan (harpsichord).  

Inspired by the Spanish word "concertar," meaning "to come together in harmony," CLE Concierto is on a mission to identify composers whose stories are not often told by the mainstream.

Opening Friday, Sept. 6, at 5 p.m., Pinwheel Gallery presents KUMESO, a solo show of artwork by Cleveland Heights artist Sylvia Munodawafa. The show will be on view through Sept. 27.

Kumeso is the word for face in Shona, the language of Munodawafa’s country of origin, Zimbabwe. The artist’s abstract paintings and multimedia sculptures celebrate identity and connection, bridging the past with the present, and the personal with the universal.

Munodawafa explores materials and techniques at her studio at Artful Cleveland. She is skilled with acrylic paint, and willing to experiment with different paints, techniques and surfaces. 

Heights Arts named her one of its Emergent 2024 artists. She also has displayed her work at Negative Space Gallery, was a part of the SheArt show at Deep Roots Experience, and has exhibited locally, nationally and internationally. This is Munodawafa's first solo show. 

Munodawafa’s recent exploration into African spirituality and tradition is reflected in the show’s sculpted and painted masks, for which she has drawn inspiration from the rich cultural landscapes of Africa.

The Yiddishe Cup Klezmer Band will play a concert at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 28, at the outdoor, covered Wain Pavilion, on the grounds of Park Synagogue, 27500 Shaker Blvd., Pepper Pike.

The concert is free, but a donation is encouraged to the American Friends of Magen David Adom (Israel Red Cross).

Yiddishe Cup, founded in 1988, plays soul music: klezmer and Motown. During the past year, the band has performed in California, New York, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin, as well as throughout Ohio.

Four of the band's musicians live in Cleveland Heights. The other two live in Orange and Cleveland. (Can’t win ‘em all.)

The Heights Music hop returns for it's 11th year this September.

The two-day event will kick off in the Cedar Fairmount district on Friday, Sept. 27.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, the hop moves to the Noble Gardeners' Market, open from 10 a.m. to noon, at the corner of Noble and Roanoke roads. On Saturday evening, hop performances will take place in the Cedar Lee district.

The concert season at Walter Stinson Community Park is drawing to a close, but not before two big shows this month. University Heights resident Jason Patrick Meyers will perform on Aug. 8, and reggae group Carlos Jones and the PLUS Band concludes the season on Aug. 15.

Both shows are free, and will start promptly at 7 p.m. Food trucks will be at The Walt for both shows, as well as local bakery Milk & Cookies.

With his gritty vocals and acoustic guitar stylings, Meyers connects to his listeners with a well-crafted lyrical adventure of honesty lurking in every song. A 27-year veteran of the Cleveland music scene, Meyers spends his day as program coordinator in the Music Therapy Department at University Hospitals.

The Cleveland Chamber Collective will present a free concert on Saturday, Aug. 3, 7 p.m., at Disciples Christian Church (3663 Mayfield Road). The concert will feature award-winning composers Caroline Shaw, Missy Mazzoli and Jessie Montgomery, Canadian composer Michael Oesterle, and local favorites Trevor Kazarian and Eric Charnofsky. This summer’s evening of intimate works will have on display various styles and harmonic languages, from pop and jazz influenced, to the Baroque and Renaissance Ayres, not to mention sine waves and flower pots.

The concert features two works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Shaw, who has composed for performers from Yo Yo Ma to Beyonce. She creates strange but familiar worlds in both Boris S. Kerner, and Limestone and Felt. The first features Kazarian on cello, and Dylan Moffitt on an arrangement of flower pots.

This July, Dobama presents free performances at its Dobama Emerging Actors Program (DEAP) Showcase, featuring aspiring actors in high school and early college.

DEAP Showcase performances will take place July 26 and 27 at 7:30 p.m., and July 28 at 2:30 p.m. The free tickets are available first come, first served.

The black box-style production will present scenes from “Fuenteovejuna,” a classic play by Lope De Vega, showcasing the skills that the students have acquired and refined during Dobama’s summer intensive program. 

Now in its 13th year, the four-week, technique-based, process-centered program provides young actors with a high-quality, college-conservatory curriculum taught by area professionals in an exciting, experimental environment.

On Sunday, July 7, at 3 p.m., Lake View Cemetery will present the second concert in its Classically Lake View chamber music series, “Cleveland's Forgotten Composer, Guitar Hero, and Abolitionist, Justin Holland.”

The concert will take place at the cemetery’s Community Mausoleum, and will feature Damian Goggans (guitar), a rising senior at Oberlin Conservatory, alongside Cleveland Orchestra members Liyuan Xie and Isabel Trautwein (violins), Eliesha Nelson (viola), and Tanya Ell (cello), with Jennifer Coleman, program director for Creative Culture and Arts at the  Gund Foundation, as the evening's emcee.

The University Heights Summer Concert series heats up this month, with three artists making their Walter Stinson Community Park debut, plus a return engagement with the city’s Symphonic Band.

The Thursday night series resumes on July 11 at The Walt, with Afi ‘n the Mix. If you love the blues and love to groove, you will definitely want to be in the audience when Afi Scruggs and her band plays. A native of Nashville, Scruggs sings, and plays bass and piano. In addition, she’s a singer-songwriter as well as a producer.

Afi 'n the Mix is a family-friendly band that plays blues, rhythm & blues, soul and other grooving music. The group has played at several local festivals, including the South Euclid Food Truck Park, Public Square, Waterloo Arts Festival, and at the Beachland Tavern.

Blakk Jakk Dance Collective will offer dance instruction to 10- to 14-year-olds at its free summer dance camp, Aug. 12–16, to be held at the Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Christian Church (DCC). The camp’s theme is “Dance forms throughout the years.”

The five-day camp will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday though Friday. While the camp is free, space is limited. Register online at www.discipleschristian.org. Campers will need to provide their own lunches and snacks.

Blakk Jakk Dance Collective regularly offers programs for young people and adults at the Cultural Arts Center.

Back for its fourth year, the Noble Cigar Box Guitar Project is again offering a free summer Cigar Box Guitar Workshop for middle-schoolers. 

Many practitioners say that the first rule of cigar box guitars is that there are no rules. Cigar box guitars are versatile. They incorporate a range of materials—cigar boxes and cookie tins as bodies; paint-can lids or pie plates as resonators. They suit a range of musical styles—rock, jazz, folk, and blues. In the hands of creative people, cigar box guitars demonstrate how commonplace, throwaway objects can be re-purposed into impressive musical instruments.   

The workshop consists of four sessions over four days, Aug. 5, 6, 7, 8, 1:30–3 p.m., at Disciples Church, 3663 Mayfield Road, in Cleveland Heights.

Cain Park’s summer production of “Big Fish the Musical” is set to captivate audiences June 20–30, at Cain Park’s Alma Theater. Based on the celebrated novel by Daniel Wallace and the acclaimed film directed by Tim Burton, “Big Fish” promises an unforgettable theatrical experience that blends fantasy, romance, and heartfelt storytelling.

“Big Fish the Musical” follows the incredible life journey of Edward Bloom, a man with a penchant for telling larger-than-life stories about his adventures.

“Do You Remember” is the first single off Lauren Lanzaretta’s new album, Soul Ties. Residents and visitors will be treated to a powerful performance—one they will long remember—at Walter Stinson Community Park when Lanzaretta makes her University Heights debut on Thursday, June 13, at 7 p.m.

Lanzaretta says concertgoers can expect to hear original songs from her three studio albums, as well as a handful of fun covers.

“I love to connect with my audience—to go deeper and bring messages of hope and healing,” she said.

Building Heights, a cornerstone nonprofit in Cleveland Heights, proudly presents the fourth-season screening of Heights Middle School Shorts (HMSS) at the Cedar Lee Theatre on June 16 (Father’s Day), at 6:30 p.m. 

Initiated in 2020, HMSS is more than a film camp; it's a launchpad for young creatives in the Heights community. Supported tirelessly by the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District, HMSS has grown into a pivotal force in nurturing the filmmakers of tomorrow.

The 46th Annual Marilyn Bianchi Kids’ Playwriting Festival (MBKPF) will honor 24 young playwrights the weekend of June 7, 8, and 9. More than 250 students in grades 1–12 submitted plays to this year’s MBKPF, which is the oldest event of its kind in the nation.

MBKPF is the culmination of Dobama Theatre’s Young Playwrights Program, which teaches playwriting to students across Northeast Ohio. This year-round education program is taught by professional playwrights and theater artists. The wide-ranging resources available include classroom residencies, virtual workshops, instructional videos, and a fully adaptable curriculum based on grade level.

LaSaundra Robinson, an accomplished painter, curates the third annual Juneteenth exhibit at ARTFUL. The opening reception will be held June 15, 6–9 p.m., at Coventry PEACE Campus in Cleveland Heights. 

Robinson, who has had a studio at ARTFUL since 2017, recently answered some questions about her work and the Juneteenth exhibit:

What artist(s) most influence you? I wouldn't say that there are specific artists that influence my work directly, but there are definitely artists that inspire me. Henry Taylor, Kerry James Marshall, and Charly Palmer, along with countless YouTube and Instagram artists, keep me wanting to paint and try new things.

Can you describe how your style has evolved over the years? When I first started painting, I would just find a couple interesting images, put them together and try to make a story. I used a lot of mixed media then. I decided to focus on what I really wanted to paint and that was Black women.

This summer, ARTFUL is at it again—producing another community-devised theater piece through a series of workshops and summer youth camps. Batrachomyomachia—an Homeric epic, which translates as the battle between the frogs and the mice—is this year’s theme. 

The camps and workshops begin in mid-July, and the schedule will be posted by mid-June on ARTFUL’s website, https://artfulcleveland.org. For information, send an e-mail to artacts_ltd@outlook.com.

Already, high-school interns are working together to create prototypes for the murine and froggish headpieces, armor and other props that will bring to life this humorous epic.