Jump and jive at JazzFest
The 2025 Tri-C JazzFest heats up Cleveland’s theater district both inside and out with big names fronting their big bands. Bass legend Stanley Clarke headlines the indoor concerts inside Playhouse Square, while legendary local musicians Ernie Krivda, Becky Boyd, Sammy DeLeon and Carlos Jones light up the night outside. It’s all happening at the corner of East 14th Street and Euclid Avenue, Thursday through Sunday.
Search for snakes
Meet a snake charmer in Chesterland as the Geauga Park District hosts a special family-friendly expedition to search for some sneaky serpents. Park naturalist Andy Avram teaches the art of finding garter snakes, water snakes and maybe even a rat snake. The snake search starts on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the park’s Rookery on Cedar Road. And to be on the safe side, all children must be accompanied by an adult.
Lifting Lithuanian voices
The Lithuanian Song Festival makes its debut in Cleveland Sunday with a concert that could raise the roof off Public Hall. That’s because 65 Lithuanian choirs from across the U.S., Canada and Europe converge for a single concert in Downtown Cleveland’s Public Auditorium. That totals more than 1,500 voices singing in unison starting at 2 p.m. Don’t worry if you don’t speak Lithuanian, because onscreen English supertitles are included for this historic performance.
‘Saving Face’ through photography
Turn of the century portrait photographer Henry Clay Fleming focused on the people of the Ohio River town of Ravenswood, West Virginia. Decades later, Ohio University art instructor Kent Vanderplas searched out and saved thousands of Fleming’s glass plates, later donating them to the Massillon Museum. Those historic images, capturing early 20th century Appalachian life, are on view for the first time in more than a decade in the exhibition “Saving Face: Salvaged Negatives of Henry Clay Fleming” at MassMu through the end of the year.
Imani Winds blow through Kent State
Grammy-winning classical wind quintet Imani Winds is teaching at this summer’s Kent Blossom Music Festival, where the group’s clarinetist, Mark Dover, is an alumnus. For more than 50 years, the festival has nurtured young classical musicians at Kent State University and Blossom Music Center in partnership with the Cleveland Orchestra. Imani Winds performs as part of the festival’s faculty concert series Wednesday at 7 p.m. inside the university’s Ludwig Recital Hall.
