Introduction
The West Shore Concert Series was an effort to enhance the cultural offerings of Cleveland's West suburban area, which began in 1950 and continued until 1986.

This Website is a collection of actual program notes from the series and newspaper articles from The Cleveland Press, The Plain Dealer, and various other local newspapers.

From a conversation with Dr. Koch:

"In the summer of 1950, some friends and I initiated a concert series for the west side which we called the West Shore Concerts. Our purpose was to give performance opportunities to Cleveland artists and composers. The founding group consisted of myself, Frederick Koch, music director, Ed Fisher Jr., artistic director, Ethel Witt, secretary, George Schrobotor and Ed Brink, treasurer. The administration of the school, Koch School of Music, started in 1952.

The concerts were originally started in Lakewood in a community hall known as the Lakewood Community Center on St. Charles Ave. We often cleaned the hall, arranged the chairs, had the piano tuned, set up the art exhibit and refreshment table, and then went home and changed into a tux or evening dress to play a concert.

For each concert we arranged an art exhibit with local artists and coffee was served courtesy of the Borden Company in compensation for displaying a huge poster of Elsie the cow.

Ed Fisher Jr. designed attractive brochures for advertising the series and he also designed the program and logo that we used on letterheads and on the program itself.

In the first season I played a piano recital and accompanied Joyce Rowbotham, soprano, in a program for soprano and string quartet. I also participated in a concert of contemporary music with a composition of mine for two pianos and one by pianist Earl Kelley from Akron.

All of this was going on while I was completing my Master’s Degree at Case Western Reserve University. I saw myself as somewhat of a musical evangelist and the publicity received helped my teaching and the school.

In the first season we introduced two outstanding black musicians; Howard Roberts, tenor, now head of the Howard Roberts choral, and the former ranger for the Alvin Aley dance company and Harry Bellefonte. We also introduced composer Hale Smith, who is known nationwide as composer and jazz pianist.

After the Howard Roberts concert, I wanted to have an after-concert party at Howard Johnson’s on Lake Avenue in Cleveland, but was turned down. I was upset to realize that the West Side community had harbored racist feelings.

Our contemporary program was a little severe for the first season as we presented a cycle of dark poems of Langston Hughes set by Hale Smith. Also on the program was a string quartet by Howard Whittaker, then director of the Cleveland Music School Settlement and a member of Lakewood, a piano work by Robert Brintnall, an acretio for two pianos by Earl Kelley, and an American set of variations of mine.

The music critics then, Elmore Beacon, of the Cleveland News, and Herbert Elwill of the Plain Dealer were very supportive of the founding of the West Shore concerts and they gave good reviews which helped attendance.

I served as music director of the series for ten years and after our first season we ran into some opposition from a community concert group from New York which wanted to run us out of business. But we marshaled our forces at a town meeting in the Lakewood City Hall and informed representatives of this group that we were going to include New York artists as well as those from Cleveland. They backed down and we were able to continue.

We had a season of concerts at the Lakewood Community Center and then with a new board of trustees headed by Justin Macklin of Lakewood, we moved the series into the new Rocky River High School Auditorium, which seated over 800.

Retired school teacher, Mrs. Jonathon Baker, and supporter of the arts, formed the first women’s committee to assist with the after-concert coffee hour and to sell the season coupon books. Mrs. Baker sold over a hundred or so each year. Other ladies who featured prominently in the committee were Mrs. Carl Hayell of Lakewood, who sponsored a number of special parties at the Clifton Club, Mrs. Howard Sprague, Mrs. Hazel McGinley, and Mrs. Justin Macklin who hosted parties in her apartment at the Lakeshore Hotel. At one of these parties we entertained a Bach Aria group with Eileen Farrell, soprano, and John Pierce, tenor. On another time, the South American pianist Claudia Warrel. Her husband, Justin Macklin, a patent attorney, was president of the West  Shore Concerts for a number of years, and his daughter Myrna, a concert pianist, performed a Beethoven concerto with the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra. This was a performance not to be forgotten, for we had an ice storm and during the performance the lights kept going up and down. The musicians kept playing even without lights at one point but we finally had to wait until a generator could provide current so that the concert could continue.

In the third year we brought the Jose Limon Dance Company and in subsequent years we presented the  Boris Goldovsky Opera Theater, Lotte Goslar Pantomime Circus, the Ballet Janine Charrat from Paris, Mildred Miller, mezzo-soprano from the Metropolitan Opera, and also featured were Cleveland’s notable pianists Beryl Rubinstein, head of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Arthur Loesser and Leonard Shure, who appeared not only in recital but with the fine arts quartet Chicago.

Each season we presented Cleveland artists along with other artists. Until the series became an outlet for the Cleveland Orchestra.

My first orchestral work, ‘Cleveland: A Cuyahoga River Journey,’ was premiered at a summer concert under Lewis Lane and the Cleveland Orchestra at Public Hall. It was repeated at one of the West Shore concerts in the Lakewood Civic Auditorium.

The year we presented the Lotte Goslar Pantomime Circus it was a cold and snowy night. The concert was to begin at eight but no artists showed. We put on some music in the auditorium and announced that due to the weather the artists were delayed but we were hopeful of their arrival. At 8:30 we still had no artists, so the president of the series told the audience that we were sorry if some of the audience wanted to leave they could have a refund at the box office. No one left. My wife and I did a little praying over this and at a quarter to nine the group arrived and a six foot Danish dancer jumped on stage and began entertaining while the others unloaded their props and costumes. A little after nine the show was in full swing and it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable events we had presented. I’d remember seeing them in Los Angeles in my army days and she and her company were delightful.

One of the concerts at Rocky River High School included a performance of the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes for vocal quartet and piano for hands. Ethel Witt and I performed the piano and also the Mozart Sonata in D for two pianos, some Bach transcriptions and Scarmute Suite of Mio.

At another concert I collaborated with Oberlin pianist Carl Bobbish and we performed the Concerto in C for two pianos of Bach, the Schumann Adante with variations for two pianos and tuchellian horn,. I had obtained scoring parts from the Library of Congress because at that time it was not in print. We also performed the Revel Mother Goose Suite and the Rondo for two pianos of Chopin.

I brought the British composer, singer, pianist, Michael Head to the Koch School and while here we included in a concert, his songs and works for the piano. He was unique in that he sang to his own accompaniment. His songs are known around the world and many of them are really lovely. He was used to singing and playing in Wigmore Hall, which was very small, so when he walked out on the stage at Rocky River he thought he would never reach the piano. His light baritone projected well and he had excellent diction. To rest his voice he would play a piano work of Handel and some piano works of Debussy.

One year we included the Cleveland Chamber Symphony under Lewis Lane with the Chinese pianist  Tung Kwong-Kwong and later, tenor Glen Schnitke from Baldwin-Wallace College in a performance of Britain’s serenade for tenor and horn. Marie Simmelink Kraft who headed the voice department at the Cleveland Institute of Music gave a delightful program with pianist Marianne Mastics. I also remember accompanying the Cleveland Orchestra Cellist Albert Michelson in a program that consisted of a Handel sonata, the variations on a rococo of Tchaikovsky, a fantasy that I had composed for him and pieces for Ray Revelle and Chopin.

His wife was very fluent in Russian and taught the language to George Szell and members of the Cleveland Orchestra before a tour.

As the series grew in popularity and with an expanded board of trustees there was the feeling that the series should be presenting concerts by the Cleveland Orchestra and move to the new Lakewood Civic Auditorium which seated 1800.

That year, Wallace Teare, architect was the president and the next season included two concerts with the orchestra combined with other attractions. This made for a larger budget and more pressure to sell more tickets.

The board continued for a while having a varied series of attractions with two orchestra concerts and then it was decided to have an entire season of Cleveland Orchestra concerts.

By this time I had resigned as music director, for mostly, the original purpose to present Cleveland artists was lost, and most decisions as to choice of artists were made by George Szell at Severance Hall.

I remember I had the idea of presenting Herbert Alwell’s violin concerto with Sydney Hearth as soloist. This was before it had been done at Severance Hall. Szell was a little upset about this but he did conduct, though he was not comfortable conducting contemporary music, he usually had left this to Lewis Lane. After the performance, Szell took a bow but never acknowledged Herbert Alwell. Alwell was furious and would not attend the after-concert party. The work was repeated later at Severance Hall with Jerome Gross as the violin soloist.

Another incident when baritone George London of the Metropolitan Opera appeared we were all looking forward to a program we had chosen as he had submitted several to us. He thought Lakewood was just another one of these community concert programs and he brought the wrong music. So he sang a few arias and then the rest from music from Broadway. The audience enjoyed it but I was very upset and when I went to New York to speak to his agent, he calmly said that George London just picked up the wrong music and made no apology.

In the course of many years, numerous Cleveland artists were given an opportunity to perform and Cleveland composers were given an opportunity to have their music heard. In addition to the Cleveland artists, we presented such groups as the Westminster Choir from Princeton, Joseph Gingold, then concert master of the Cleveland Orchestra, concert pianist Claudia Aurou, the Bach Aria Group, Anna Russell concert comedienne, the Mannes-Gimpel-Silva trio, the Alvanery trio, William Primrose, viola, Metropolitan Opera soprano Heidi Krall, the Wallfisch Duo, viola and piano, and others,

When the concerts became solely orchestral, many of the concerts were repeats of what had just been played at Severance Hall, so the ticket holders became a little disenchanted.

Mrs. Earl Williamson and Mrs. Edith Baker, the prime ticket sellers, were becoming tired of doing this year after year and there were no younger members willing to take on the responsibility.

So after 35 years, the series closed. I still feel if the board had continued offering a varied series with local artists, chamber groups, dance groups and perhaps just one orchestral concert, the series would still be operative.

The bringing of music to the west side did much to awaken the public here and helped them to appreciate the wealth of Cleveland talent that is available.

As an outgrowth of this series was the Rocky River Chamber Music series, founded by pianist Jean Stell, myself and a number of other musicians including Harlan Thomas, who was director of music at Rocky River High School, and flutist Walter Mayhall. Thanks to Jean’s perseverance and dedication the series is still going strong. I feel all of this activity has contributed to a cultural awakening of the west side."
 

Opening Letter from  the Series founder, Dr.  Koch