Author: janellegelfand

I have covered classical music and the arts in Cincinnati for more than three decades, play piano and tennis and enjoy traveling. Note: As a guest posting content to this blog, you agree to the following guidelines: Keep the conversation civil, courteous and constructive. We encourage all viewpoints and ideas but ask that comments be respectful of others' views. No profane, offensive, harassing or inflammatory language please. Honor the copyrights and trademarks of others by not posting or uploading any material that infringes on the copyright, trademark, patent, or intellectual property rights of others. Do not post, upload or link to unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or promotional materials. Do not post, upload or link to content that contains any product, service or political endorsements. Thank you!

About that footbridge to Music Hall

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IMG_8653There are a lot of misconceptions in the online posts I’ve read about the Music Hall bridge that the city now says it will demolish and rebuild over Central Parkway. The elephant in the room that people are missing: There is no easy and safe pathway to the front door of Music Hall on Elm Street if you park behind the building, in the Town Center Garage on Central Parkway.

If the city-owned bridge, which leads from Town Center Garage to Music Hall, is rebuilt, the renovation team is pledging to construct a passageway into Music Hall from the Ballroom entrance on the second level — the new back door.

Here’s yesterday’s story.

Somehow amid expenditures of at least $135 million, planners decided not to provide a rear entrance to Music Hall. This intentional omission adversely affects many of the organizations that make Music Hall their home. People have been deciding not to renew subscriptions or to attend fewer concerts because of inconvenience and pedestrian safety.Read More »

A new color scheme for Music Hall

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Take a walk through Music Hall’s renovation by clicking here.

What do you think of Music Hall’s new color scheme?

Springer Auditorium’s new color scheme features dark taupe and cream throughout. Red seats will be installed this summer. The crystal chandelier is being restored to return to the hall.
A view of rosettes in the lobby areas shows the previous and new background colors, from rose to taupe.
Springer Auditorium’s previous color scheme featured gold trim and light cream with red seats and rose-colored and cream coffered ceilings.

How the performing arts are turning to multimedia

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I’ve been noticing that more performing arts organizations seem to be turning to multimedia to augment their presentation. Opening this weekend, the Cincinnati May Festival has hired as its creative partner Gerard McBurney, who will “curate” and “design” two evenings dubbed “Dream Project” at the festival this year. It means adding visuals, projections, actors, atmospheric lighting — whatever — to enhance what otherwise would just be a performance by chorus and orchestra.

A May Festival performance last season in Music Hall, where the visual “spectacle” had no multimedia.

It’s being done around the country — such as in Chicago (where McBurney designed “Beyond the Score” events for the Chicago Symphony), and in San Francisco, where designer/director James Darrah has collaborated on a number of productions. I saw his vision for Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting, which included screens, actors wandering over platforms, projections of the text jumbled up, lighting… To me, it all detracted from the masterpiece at hand and was just too much to absorb.

And yes, the Cincinnati Symphony is also experimenting in a three-year “Pelleas Project” with extra-musical elements, also designed by Darrah.Read More »

Voice Alumni Compete in 2017 Met Opera National Council Auditions Semi-Final

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Becky Butts's avatarCCM VILLAGE NEWS ARCHIVES

Four UC College-Conservatory of Music alumni will compete in the Semi-Final round of the 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, which will take place in New York on Sunday, March 12.

The prestigious competition for young singers has four rounds: District, Regional, Semi-Final and Final. Ten of the semi-finalists will move on to the final round, where five of them will be pronounced winners. Each winner receives $15,000, and the other finalists receive $5,000 each. This year’s final round will take place on Sunday, March 19 on the stage of the Met Opera.

The four CCM alumni who will participate in the Met Council Semi-Finals are Jessica Faselt, soprano (MM Voice, 2016); Summer Hassan, soprano (MM Voice, 2014); Andrew Manea, baritone (MM Voice, 2016); and Cody Quattlebaum, bass-baritone (BM Voice, 2015). Read their bios below to learn more about these outstanding young musicians.

Known…

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Sandra Rivers steps in for André Watts at Phoenix festival

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André Watts

Pianist and CCM professor Sandra Rivers is stepping in for André Watts to perform two extra programs for the Phoenix Chamber Music Society this week. Piano legend Watts is unable to perform for the Winter Festival due to ongoing cancer treatments, according to the festival’s website.

Rivers, who has collaborated with stars such as Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and Kathleen Battle, was already slated to perform Brahms sonatas with the wonderful violist/violinist Nokuthula Ngwenyama last Sunday. But after arriving, she was invited to add a heaping plate of repertoire at the last minute for performances on Monday and Wednesday, as well.

“It’s very exciting,” Rivers said by phone on Sunday. “I’ve been in nonstop rehearsals since I arrived.”

Last night she played the four Brahms Op. 119 piano pieces (Klavierstücke), as well as the lovely Brahms Sonata Op. 120, No. 1 for piano and clarinet with David Shifrin, who also directs the festival.

And tomorrow night, she will join four other artists to anchor Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452. This one will be in the Music Pavilion at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West. It’s sold out. Rivers only concern: What to wear so as not to clash with the very red room!

Meanwhile, we send good vibes and our best wishes to Mr. Watts for a quick recovery! I hear that he hopes to be back on the concert stage by this summer.

 

CCM Piano Professor Sandra Rivers to play at Phoenix Chamber Music Society’s 8th Winter Festival

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Attention friends in the Phoenix area!

Becky Butts's avatarCCM VILLAGE NEWS ARCHIVES

CCM Professor of Collaborative Piano Sandra Rivers will perform in three concerts at thePhoenix Chamber Music Society’s Eighth Winter Festivalnext week.

Rivers will play piano in concert with violist and violinist Nokuthula Ngwenyama on Sunday, March 5 and she will join clarinetist David Shifrin to play works by Brahms on Monday, March 6. Both concerts will be held in private homes in Phoenix, Arizona.

On Wednesday, March 8, Rivers will play a concert of works by Beethoven and Mozart with Shifrin, clarinet; Stephen Taylor, oboe; Julie Feves, bassoon; Frank Morelli, bassoon; William Purvis, horn, and fellowship students from the Yale School of Music. The concert will be held at the Music Pavilion of the iconic Taliesin West home, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The national historic landmark is located in the desert foothills of the McDowell Mountains outside of Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Society invited…

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CCM Announces 2017 Opera Scholarship Competition Results

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Congratulations to these students. I was able to hear some of them, and was very impressed!

Becky Butts's avatarCCM VILLAGE NEWS ARCHIVES

Artist Diploma candidate Yi Li with Mark Gibson and the CCM Philharmonia.

Five voice students were named winners of CCM’s 2017 Opera Scholarship Competition, which was held on Saturday, Feb. 25, in UC’s Patricia Corbett Theater.

Since its inauguration in 1976, the annual competition welcomes current and incoming CCM voice students to compete for scholarships and cash prizes, and a panel of judges composed of opera industry professionals selects each year’s class of prizewinners.

The 2017 CCM Opera Scholarship Competition winners are:

Nicolette Book (first year Artist Diploma student)
From Minneapolis, Minnesota, studying with William McGraw
Prize: Full-tuition scholarship and the Corbett Award ($15,000)
The Corbett Award is supported by the Corbett Foundation in cooperation with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Caitlin Gotimer (second year Master of Music student)
From Long Island, New York, studying with Kenneth Shaw
Prize: Full-tuition scholarship and the Italo Tajo Memorial Award ($15,000)
This award is supported by the Italo Tajo Memorial Scholarship Fund (established by…

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A maestro’s rare recital 

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It’s always interesting to see a different side of an artist. On Sunday, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra music director Louis Langrée departed from his day job to collaborate at the piano with mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor in a program of French and German art song at the Linton Series. It was a beautiful recital, and reminded me of other conductor-pianists who have performed at the keyboard in concert: Native son James Levine, Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas… and Thomas Schippers played the Organ Symphony with the CSO. Watch for my review.

Chasing an orchestra around the world

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img005I had to laugh when I stumbled upon Cincinnati Enquirer critic Henry Humphreys’ description of trying to catch up with the Cincinnati Symphony on its 1966 World Tour. The ’round-the-world tour was famously funded by the U.S. State Department, but apparently, they didn’t fund Henry’s trip… Because of journalistic standards, his — and my — employer has always paid the critic’s way. One of the most common assumptions I hear from readers is that the orchestra pays for and provides accommodations, etc., for the accompanying critic on tours.

Not so. Until about 10 years ago, I was not even allowed on the bus with musicians to get to concert halls in far-away foreign cities, and I always book my own flights and hotels. Once, I nearly missed a show in Vienna’s Musikverein when my connecting flight was canceled from Amsterdam. A flight attendant tracked down my luggage sitting on the tarmac, or it might still be there, and literally threw it on a plane they had found to take me to Wien… I have so many stories. But here’s Henry’s:

“Enquirer music critic Henry S. Humphreys barely made the delayed opening concert of the CSO world tour at Salonika. There was no space available on CSO flights from Athens to Salonika. No bus space. He was sold a train ticket, then thrown off the train because it was over-crowded. He returned to Athens airport, wrangled a seat near crew of plane which took off after a 55-minute argument about whether takeoff should be made. No hotel room in Salonika for Humphreys, so he located attic boarding house space. He could have used a fan — even a palm leaf one, he says.”

 

5 things to know about The Lego Batman Movie if you are 8 (or older)

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Jack reviews The Lego Batman Movie, in theaters on Feb. 10.
Jack reviews The Lego Batman Movie, in theaters on Feb. 10.

Let’s be clear. If I didn’t have an 8-year-old to take me, I never would have gone to that advance screening of the new Lego Batman Movie. But I have to say that both Jack, who is a third-grader, and I thought the latest Lego movie was “awesome.” I admit I was skeptical about how entertaining a nearly two-hour movie filled with animations of superhero minifigs could be.

However, Jack — whose own tabletop explosion of Legos (er, sorry, Lego Bricks) rivals some of Gotham City’s worst scenes of destruction in the movie — was on the edge of his seat. Indeed, so were most of the adults in the room, who (when they weren’t laughing) were no doubt wishing they could put a few scenes on “pause” to get a better look. For instance, the lineup of Batman’s Bat-vehicles in his futuristic Batcave was truly impressive.

Even the credits were fun, with voices by actors such as Will Arnett, Rosario Dawson, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Cera and Siri.  (I noticed quite a bit of Apple product placement, as well.)

I won’t divulge the plot. Suffice it to say that The Joker is up to his old tricks, and Batman, a real loner with several personality disorders, ultimately learns the meaning of family with his adopted son, Robin.

Jack’s review

Best part: That would be hard to tell. They were all really good. I would say the battle (in Gotham City). All the action was cool, and it was really funny.

Funniest joke: The password to Batcave.

Animation: It was really good. I don’t know how they did it. They probably just animated it, but they could have built it all out of Legos. But that would take forever.

What you need to know: It’s really good and it’s hilarious, and it has a great story-line. They added a bunch of superheroes and villains, and they also added villains from totally different places, like Harry Potter villains, sea monsters and King Kong.

Fun fact: They added a dark wizard, Voldemort from Harry Potter, and he actually yelled real curses, real Harry Potter spells.

Jack’s Rating: 5 stars