Besides great performances in Cincinnati, 2024 was a year of anniversaries, historic firsts, farewells and new beginnings. In some instances, there was news-making connected with these performances. In chronological order:

1) Last February, when he led a thrilling and revelatory performance of Shostakovich’s monumental Symphony No. 11 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, we didn’t yet know that Cristian Macelaru would be announced as the 14th CSO music director. The conductor riveted listeners in Music Hall when he led Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, “The Year 1905.” He moved little as he led Shostakovich’s vast symphonic canvas, but the sheer visceral impact of this performance lingered long afterward. The orchestra’s musicians were impressed. For Macelaru, the feeling was mutual, he said in April, when his appointment was announced. Macelaru returns for his only performances with the CSO this season in February. And in other CSO leadership news, the CSO announced that President and CEO Jonathan Martin will retire Feb. 16.  Robert McGrath, the CSO’s chief operating officer, will then step in as acting president and CEO.

2) In March, Vocal Arts Ensemble Music director Craig Hella Johnson conducted a profound and transcendent journey through Bach’s towering achievement, the great B Minor Mass, at Christ Church Cathedral.  Johnson was leading his final performances as music director, making the occasion even more meaningful for these musicians and audience members. The Grammy Award-winning conductor, who also leads the vocal group he founded, Conspirare, was marking 12 years since his first performance here.

VAE has just announced the appointment of Joe Miller as the fifth music director in the ensemble’s 45-year history, following a search that drew national and international interest. Miller will begin his tenure as Music Director in the 2025–26 season. Miller serves as Professor of Conducting and Director of Choral Studies at CCM, where he earned two graduate degrees. In the 90s, he sang with VAE while working on his degrees.

3) In May, Louis Langrée received two standing ovations before he had conducted a note of his final concert in Music Hall as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.  Langrée conducted the program of his personal favorites with vigor, emotion and entirely from memory. He made heartwarming remarks to the audience throughout. But the biggest surprise came at the evening’s end. After multiple bows, the French conductor took the microphone and described how he only had one fantasy. It had been his dream to conduct “Mission Impossible.” He then launched into that epic theme song – again from memory — to the sound of the CSO’s big beat, bold brass and a roar in the crowd.

4) Cincinnati May Festival May Festival introduced its inaugural festival director, Julia Wolfe, whose festival programs enthralled. To me, the most sensational was “Natural History” by Michael Gordon. The conductor was Teddy Abrams, who led the world premiere of “Natural History” on the rim of Crater Lake in 2016.  It was an extraordinary scene: The Steiger Butte Drum family group of tribal drummers and singers encircled a large drum in front of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on Music Hall’s stage. From the upper reaches of the hall, trumpeters tossed out calls like flocks of geese. The sound of tambourines shimmered over the vast space like rattlesnakes. The May Festival Chorus, divided in two, echoed across Music Hall with words describing “Giiwas,” the spiritual place for the Klamath Tribe that is Crater Lake, Oregon. All that was missing was the lake.

It was also the final concerts prepared — and conducted — by Robert Porco. His direction of Haydn’s “The Creation” to open the May Festival resulted in a performance that was buoyant and uplifting. He was sincerely touched at the warm response from the audience at the conclusion of this 35-year tenure as director of choruses. Porco was succeeded by Matthew Swanson.

The Festival is continuing to make news. In October, it announced that five-time Grammy Award winning soprano Renée Fleming has been appointed as the 2025 director.

5) In July, Cincinnati Opera’s $1.3 million production of former Beatle Paul McCartney’s “Liverpool Oratorio” —in its first-ever operatic staging — thrust the company into the international spotlight. Combining McCartney’s pop tunes and ballads with the expressive power of (the  late) Carl Davis’ classical orchestrations, the oratorio is a bit quirky. Still, there was much to admire in this production, starting with its soaring lyricism and lush choruses – evidence of McCartney’s gift for melody. Stage director Caroline Clegg and scenic and costume designer Leslie Travers wisely crafted a cinematic production. For me, the most indelible scene was its opening, “War.” The viewer was instantly thrust into the Liverpool Blitz of 1942, a bombing by the Nazis during World War II, second in destruction only to that of the London Blitz. Searchlights shone throughout the darkened hall, and in the orchestra were pounding drumrolls portraying bombs and a soundscape of dissonant, eerie music. Citizens in period dress dashed up the aisles in search of shelter.

6) In August, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra celebrated 50 years by doing what may have seemed the impossible. It mounted Beethoven’s Ninth, a work calling for large choral and orchestral forces — a recent performance by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra had 236 performers. Conducted by Music Director Eckart Preu, Beethoven’s largest and grandest symphony required more musicians than the orchestra’s usual 32 players, as well as a chorus to sing Friedrich Schiller’s famous “Ode to Joy” in the finale. Beethoven’s Ninth presented a substantial challenge for the chamber-sized ensemble. In all, Preu’s forces were boosted to more than 50 musicians, plus a chorus of 32 and a quartet of soloists. The impressive result brought listeners in Corbett Theater at the School for Creative and Performing Arts to their feet with cheers at its conclusion. In addition, the month-long festival was rewarded by record-breaking attendance, its largest season since 2005.

7) Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park had a major milestone this season, with “Rutka: A New Musical.” The pre-premiere of the musical in October on its journey to Broadway cast Cincinnati in the national spotlight. “Rutka” is based on “Rutka’s Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust,” the long-lost diary of a 14-year-old girl who documented her life over several months in 1943, to be murdered by Nazis at Auschwitz the same year.

The indie-rock musical riveted theater-goers. Rutka’s true-life story was told in a performance that was emotional, bittersweet and intense. A top-notch cast headed by Lana Schwartz in the title role populated Moe and Jack’s Place – the Rouse Theatre. Playwright Neena Beber (known for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) vividly captured the essence of Rutka’s diary, sprinkling some of the teen’s own thoughts and observations throughout the work. But this was not a docudrama. It was a living, breathing snapshot of life in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II, seen through a teenage lens and told by a company of bright, energetic young people. Against an attractive indie-rock score by Jocelyn Mackenzie and Jeremy Lloyd-Styles (formerly of the band Pearl and the Beard), the gang of friends shared dreams, fears and even a stolen kiss against the relentless drumbeat of unspeakable horrors occurring around them.

8) In October, violinist Benjamin Beilman gave a sensational performance of a treacherous showpiece, playing a violin that has Cincinnati connections in its history. Beilman’s performance as soloist in Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on Oct. 26 was just one of the highlights of a rewarding program led by guest conductor Ramón Tebar. In the slow movement, a “barcarolle,” you could admire the burnished tone of Beilman’s violin, the “Ysaÿe” Guarneri del Gesù of 1740, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. It’s compelling to think that Eugène Ysaÿe, a Belgian virtuoso violinist and former music director of the Cincinnati Symphony, probably played this instrument on Music Hall’s stage.

9) In November, Marin Alsop’s powerful Shostakovich “Leningrad” Symphony was a night to remember. Alsop is a pioneer among women conductors. After witnessing her inspiring leadership in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, “Leningrad,” with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on Nov. 16, I’m convinced she is one of the great conductors of our time. Her artistry was on full display in Shostakovich’s sprawling, 75-minute symphony through raucous climaxes, emotional themes and bleak landscapes. From beginning to end, the orchestra performed with thrilling precision and power.

10) British sister-brother duo of Isata Kanneh-Mason and Sheku Kanneh-Mason for their television appearances, documentaries and viral videos. Their radiant performance on Dec. 10 for Chamber Music Cincinnati before a sold-out audience in Memorial Hall was mesmerizing to watch and inspiring to hear. There is something special about the unspoken communication that these siblings share from many years of playing together. This was chamber music at its finest.

Unfortunately, the brother-sister duo experienced a large snafu the next day at CVG, when Air Canada refused to let them board with Sheku’s rare, $3.2 million 1700 Goffriller cello (on loan), even though he’d purchased a seat for the instrument. Consequently, their sold-out concert in Toronto had to be canceled, and the news of their Air Canada woes went viral.

11) In December, I felt lucky to attend opening night of Cincinnati Ballet’s 50^th anniversary of the “Nutcracker” in Cincinnati. Not only was its first conductor, Carmon DeLeone, leading the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra that night, but the newly-announced  artistic director, Cervilio Amador, was onstage in Music Hall to introduce the performance. Also just announced this year — a new president and CEO Deborah Brant. Spotted in the audience – Victoria Morgan, who created this charming “Nutcracker” production. I will never forget the incredible pas de deux danced that night by principal dancers Melissa Gelfin and Rafael Quenedit. Cincinnati Ballet is a company of stunning talent, and it will be fun to watch it grow under Amador’s leadership.