Janelle Gelfand's writings on classical music, arts and more
Author: janellegelfand
I have covered classical music and the arts in Cincinnati for more than three decades, play piano and tennis and enjoy traveling.
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Although the Cincinnati Opera 2021 Summer Festival isn’t over yet, I was lucky enough to attend all three opera productions, as well as the concert, “Opera in the Park.” As you know, the company mounted its 101st season outdoors at Summit Park, Blue Ash.
Musica Sacra in a recording session for a livestream during Covid last season. The chorus will return to in-person performances.
As the nation reopens from a year of lockdowns, more choruses are announcing that they will be returning to live performances. Of course, during the pandemic, vocal music was considered the most deadly form of spreading the Covid-19 virus.
Musica Sacra, a 60-member chorus founded in 1965, joyfully returns for its 56th season, live and in person. This year, the chorus will also collaborate with the CCM Chorale in Patricia Corbett Theater on the UC campus.
After a year of virtual programming, this season will be emotional, said director Brett Scott.
“The selections across this season present a range of emotions that may echo what many experienced in the past year,” Scott said. “From the terrifying trumpets at the opening of our first selection, the Lord Nelson Mass, to the poignant chorales of the Christmas Oratorio that are contrasted with grand, exuberant chorus movements, to the exquisitely tender consolation that envelops you throughout the German Requiem, each of these masterworks speaks to the heart of the human experience. They are audience-pleasing works in the best sense of the word and we are thrilled that our audiences will be able to experience them with us this year.”Read More »
The gifted Cincinnati pianist Kasey Shao, 17, received an artist grant of $5,000 from the Cincinnati MacDowell Society earlier this summer. For 108 years, the local chapter of the MacDowell Society has awarded artist grants in various disciplines.
The 2021 Presidential Scholar and Young Steinway Artist began piano at the age of 6 and is currently studying with Ran Dank, faculty member at CCM. When she was 12, she made her concerto debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nezet Seguin as the first place winner of the Albert M. Greenfield Concerto Competition.
Kasey has won numerous awards, and this year was a finalist in the prestigious Gina Bachauer Piano Competition. She has performed with the Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra under Michael Chertok and the Louisville Orchestra under Teddy Abrams. Kasey has appeared in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center, Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Whitney Hall of the Kentucky Center.
Locally, she was also a 2021 and 2020 Matinee Musicale Nancy F. Walker Memorial Scholarship winner. A cum laude graduate from Walnut Hills High School, Kasey will attend Princeton University in the fall. She plans to study composition and piano.
The Cincinnati MacDowell Society was founded in 1913. It had significant ties with the MacDowell Colony, an artist residency in New Hampshire founded by American composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, Marian MacDowell. It was Marian’s friendship with Cincinnati philanthropist Mary Emery as well as Clara Baur and her niece Bertha Baur, — the founders of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music — that resulted in the society being formed here. For more about the society’s history and current activities, click here.
J’Nai Bridges performed a sizzling rendition of the Habanera from “Carmen”
The weather gods were smiling on Cincinnati Opera last night. The company managed to squeak past a turbulent day of downpours to mount its Opera in the Park concert last night at Summit Park in Blue Ash. The crowds turned out, and from all reports, a good time was had by all.
Audiences arriving at Summit Park, searching for their personal pods
Due to Covid, Cincinnati Opera is holding its 101st season outdoors in the park. We all sat in distanced “pods,” and the orchestra and cast performed on a specially erected, massive outdoor stage. We were treated to operatic chestnuts performed by some of the terrific cast members who will be appearing soon in “Carmen,” “Tosca” and “The Barber of Seville.”
One of the towers flanking the stage
I was pleasantly impressed by the sound quality, too. (You’ll read more about all that in this Friday’s Cincinnati Business Courier.)
Those who stayed home were treated by a live broadcast over WGUC-FM (90.9), hosted by Suzanne Bona and Cincinnati Opera artistic director Evans Mirageas. After more than a year away from the stage, Mirageas was visibly moved by the experience. He put it this way:
“Tonight is proof positive of the resilience of our staff, the steadfast devotion of our board and patrons, the dedication of all our artists onstage and backstage, and, most of all, the transcendent power of this art form of opera.”
The operas will be fully costumed and staged. Stay tuned for opera reviews and more at bizjournals.com. And remember, you can read for free, but you may be asked to register.
A visitor views a photo wall with the Berlin 202 that toured America in the ’40s. Photo by Cliff Fennel
Cincinnati Art Museum’s “Paintings, Politics and the Monuments Men: The Berlin Masterpieces in America” (July 9-Oct. 3) is a fascinating, not-to-be-missed exhibition on several levels. It explores the controversy of removing art that was patrimony of the German people after World War II. It tells the story of Cincinnati’s own “Monuments Man” Walter Farmer. It also tells the true story of the first blockbuster exhibition of European art to tour in America.
I attended the media preview last week, and of course, I was wowed by the star of the show, Botticelli’s “Vivid Portrait of a Lady.” Susan Stamberg did a lovely piece on NPR about her.
There is much more to ponder here, starting with four of the original paintings that toured America after the war and drew an unprecedented 2.5 million visitors.
My personal favorite was this 17th-century landscape by Philips Koninck, “Panorama of Holland,” on loan from the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. It was shown in all 14 stops of the US tour. You must stand there a while to drink it all in — the sunbreak in the threatening sky, the water ways and the little villages.
But there are so many other riches in this exhibition — a Watteau, a Titian, a Rubens. Then there is the remarkable story — and the excellent book that goes with the exhibition. Its authors and co-curators, Peter Jonathan Bell and Kristi A. Nelson, were there last week for a long-postponed opening. Of courses, the show was to have opened during the pandemic last year.
The co-curators Bell and Nelson share a moment/photo by Cliff Fennel
I plan to make several visits. Do go when the crowds are not large. You might also want to learn more in these special events:
See the Story Book Club: Monuments Men by Bret Witter and Robert Edsel – July 17, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Join librarians from the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library and members of the Cincinnati Art Museum staff for this bi-monthly book club. You can check out the book, e-book, or audio book at CinLib.org/monuments-men
Art After Dark | A Monumental Celebration – July 30. 5-9 p.m. Free admission. Registration not required. Enjoy live music from the Monday Night Big Band in the Alice Bimel Courtyard, swing dancing with Pones, food for purchase from Dewey’s Pizza, cash bars and free admission to special exhibition Paintings, Politics, and the Monuments Men. #ArtAfterDarkCincy
Monuments Men Symposium – September 24 (details to be announced)
More will likely be added to the calendar in September. Here’s the link.
The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra opens its summer series this weekend
The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, led by James R. Cassidy, will open its three-concert summer series with a nostalgic 1970s Trumpet-palooza on July 10 & 11 in Devou and Tower Parks in Northern Kentucky.
“This marks the 27th Summer that the KSO has provided free family-friendly culture and entertainment for Tri-state residents. Forty percent of those attending drive from Hamilton County,” says J.R.
Talented trumpeters for this program — Matthew Anklan, Joshua Kauffman, Rob Parton, John Zappa and Hank Mautner — will recreate the sounds of of the ’70s as performed by trumpeters Maynard Ferguson, Doc Severinsen, Don Ellis, Bill Chase and Chuck Mangione. They’ll appear with the KSO’s own jazz orchestra.
Volunteers will be taking people on guided tours inside Music Hall again soon. Photo Credit: Joanne Grueter
I hope you have been able to see a live show, recital or art exhibition now that things are reopening, post-pandemic. This week, Friends of Music Hall, the volunteer support organization for Music Hall, is announcing that they will resume in-person tours of the 1878 venue on July 9.
Designed by legendary architect Samuel Hannaford, the spectacular hall was the envy of countless cities in the 19th century. Today it’s the cornerstone of the 21st-century renaissance of Cincinnati’s cultural heart in historic Over-the-Rhine.
Friends of Music Hall’s knowledgeable volunteer tour guides will offer tours at 1 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays and on Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. After August 23, check back for weekly dates.
Music Hall has been slowly reopening, since the CSO began in-person concerts for limited audiences this winter.
Also, outside tours of Music Hall’s remarkable Victorian High Gothic exterior are regularly offered at 4 p.m. on Thursdays and at 10 a.m. Saturdays.
Tickets ($15 per person; $5 children under age 12) can be purchased at cincinnatiarts.org or by calling (513) 621-2787 up until three hours before a specific tour start time. Tickets must be purchased in advance.
Groups of 30 or more and student groups should book tours through the Friends of Music Hall office by emailing musichalltour@friendsofmusicall.org.
The Friends of Music Hall continue to follow the guidance of the CDC, state, and local health departments for COVID-19 safety measures. Visitors are urged to check our website at FriendsofMusicHall.org for up-to-date health and safety requirements.
The College-Conservatory of Music at UC has been busy adding faculty members recently. Dean Stanley Romanstein announced these prominent new profs this week:
Kristin Lee has been appointed Assistant Professor of Violin beginning Aug. 15, 2021. She is a recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as a top prizewinner of the 2012 Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions.
BOLD MOVES PLUS Cincinnati Ballet June 16-20 Aronoff Center P&G Hall [Downtown] This mixed-rep program is being re-imagined with the health and safety of our dancers and patrons top of mind. Wed-Thu, June 16-17 at 7:30pm Fri, June 18 at 8pm Sat, June 19 at 2pm & 8pm Sun, June 20 at 1pm & 6:30pm […]
Brian Newman, a CCM alumnus, with Lady Gaga in Las Vegas, is podcast guest on June 14.
A new podcast created by UC College-Conservatory of Music alumni takes listeners inside the entertainment industry with stories and advice from Broadway performers, television actors, movie producers, make-up artists and more.
“School, Stage & Screen” is a revealing 11-episode podcast about success stories and fantastic failures from the entertainment industry — as experienced by graduates of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Producer Brian J. Leitten (BFA E-Media, ’02) and Broadway performer Dylan Mulvaney (BFA Musical Theatre, ’19) delve into the differences between college and the real world with other CCM alumni like Diana Maria Riva (actor from Netflix’s Dead To Me), Andrea Stilgenbauer (producer of Kidding and The Affair on Showtime) and Brian Newman (Jazz Musician and Bandleader/Arranger for Lady Gaga’s Vegas Residency “Jazz & Piano Show”).
Episode 2, which dropped this week is a conversation about big breaks and national tours by original and current cast members of Hamilton on Broadway; Andrew Chappelle (BFA Musical Theatre, ’09) discusses the difficulties of finding his voice as an artist, while Raven Thomas (BFA Musical Theatre, ’16) dishes about losing hers mid-show.
