Here are five stories involving the arts in Cincinnati that we’ll be following in 2018:Read More »
Category: classical music
The best things I heard in 2017
In 2017, Cincinnati audiences heard sensational performances by living legends, as well as musical rarities and world premieres. This year’s list – a baker’s dozen — highlights some musical milestones, such as Cincinnati Opera’s first opera by a woman, as well as some of my personal favorites of the past year.Read More »
Year in review: Classical music made news in 2017
The year 2017 was a year of big change for Cincinnati’s arts organizations. The most significant story – one that garnered a large piece in the New York Times — was about Music Hall, home to the city’s major performing arts groups, which finished up a massive, ambitious renovation costing at least $143 million.
Music Hall reopened with fanfare on Oct. 6 and 7. The weekend included a community open house that drew thousands. Opening night revelers basked in the elegant new decor and patron-friendly amenities, which include cup holders for the first time on wider seats, more bars and more restrooms.
There are now more than 1,000 fewer seats and Springer Auditorium is physically smaller. The musicians sit on risers on a new “thrust” stage, 12 feet closer to the audience than before. All of that – including new materials such as concrete floors – means that the acousticians are still in the “tuning” phase of what is really a new hall-within-a-hall.
The renovation was just one sign of the importance of Cincinnati’s growing arts district surrounding Washington Park. Read More »
‘Around Cincinnati Christmas’ to feature local celebs, Christmas music
A holiday tradition continues with the 13th annual Around Cincinnati special airing at 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Here’s the lineup of stories and music from producer/host Lee Hay:
Readings:
A new reading of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” from the Cincinnati Ballet’s longtime conductor, Carmon DeLeone.
A new Memories from the Hills of Home story from Katie Laur.
Our theater contributor Rick Pender reads the story ‘Postage.”
CCM Professor Michael Burnham recites “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.”
Music:
The late Katie Reider’s beautiful rendition of “Silent Night.”
Maysville, Kentucky native Rosemary Clooney‘s performance of “White Christmas.”
Native American musician Douglas Blue Feather performs “Angels We Have Heard on High.”
Local Grammy nominee Zak Morgan sings ‘O Come All Ye Faithful.”
Hamilton, Ohio’s world group The Klaberheads perform their “Christmastime in Margaritaville.”
Cincinnati’s Keith Little (The Cincinnati Blues Man) with his rendition of “The Christmas Song.”
Adagio Trio (harp, flute, cello) performs “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”
Finally, it’s the Steve Schmidt Organ Trio with “Merry Christmas, Baby.”
Around Cincinnati Christmas will air at 7 p.m. on December 24 on 91.7 WVXU, 88.5 WMUB, wvxu.org, and on the free WVXU mobile app.
VAE’s ‘Candlelit Christmas’ a radiant celebration of the season
The Vocal Arts Ensemble’s annual Candlelit Christmas concert offered transformative choral treats spanning centuries and continents.
Sunday’s concert in Over-the-Rhine’s Memorial Hall was packed – the third sellout of the season. And small wonder. The all-professional vocal ensemble has developed a following for its inventive programs and peerless execution.
With the collaboration of the Canterbury Brass, this program captured the holiday spirit with a few entertaining and humorous selections, too. Who could ever forget the brass quintet’s “Twelve Days of Christmas”? The clever arrangement by Howard Cable altered the lyrics to include “some brass music on a CD,” with a dozen snippets from the classical hit parade played by the brass musicians between verses. The audience cheered.Read More »
Finding a niche: Memorial Hall’s Longworth-Anderson Series
The Memorial Hall Society’s Longworth-Anderson Series was such a hit last winter, it’s coming back for a second season. The winter lineup is impressive: Grammy Award-winning band Los Lobos (Best Mexican-American/Tejano Music Performance), the all-girl folk band I’m With Her and country star Marty Stuart.
Longworth-Anderson has found a niche. Its concept is both diverse and non-traditional, presenting artists from multiple genres, including rock, pop, folk, bluegrass and jazz. Last year, the series – held in Memorial Hall’s intimate jewel box of a theater — sold out four out of six events, held winter and spring.
Even though Rosanne Cash was a headliner, it wasn’t guaranteed that the fledgling series would take off. Read More »
Music of the season
The holidays are upon us. You’ll find inspiring music in many of the region’s sacred spaces, as well as in the newly renovated Music Hall — now beautifully decorated for the holiday season. I’ve highlighted a few of my favorite concerts coming up this month, and discovered a few new ones, too.Read More »
Levine’s May Festival appearance canceled amid sex abuse allegations
The Cincinnati May Festival has canceled the appearance of James Levine this May following allegations over the weekend of sexual misconduct that began in the 1960s.
The festival announced on Monday that the performance of Verdi’s Requiem will take place as scheduled on May 18, 2018. A replacement conductor will be announced at a future date.
The festival’s decision followed news that the Metropolitan Opera has suspended Levine after reports surfaced that he had allegedly molested at least three young men for years, according to the New York Times.
Levine, now 74 and suffering from Parkinson’s disease, is a native of Cincinnati, where he began his musical training and was a graduate of Walnut Hills High School. He was scheduled to open the festival on May 18 with Verdi’s Requiem, a work that he conducted in New York on Saturday, which was broadcast live over public radio from the Met.
Levine was May Festival music director from 1973 to 1978. His last appearance at the festival was in 2005. His appearance was to have celebrated the return of the May Festival to Music Hall after its $143 million renovation.
The New York Post broke the news on Dec. 2 about a 2016 Illinois police report detailing the allegations of sexual abuse of a then-teenage musician in 1986, while Levine was music director at the Ravinia Festival outside of Chicago. Peter Gelb, general director of the Met, told the New York Times that, at the time, Levine had denied the accusation and the Lake Forest Police Department did not follow up.
However, in graphic accounts reported by Michael Cooper in the Times online edition on Sunday, two more men have come forward to allege sexual misconduct with Levine when they were teenagers.
Levine is one of the most celebrated conductors in America. Salacious rumors have swirled around his private life for decades, but he has consistently denied any wrongdoing. According the Times, Gelb said that the Met had investigated allegations twice previously during Levine’s 40-year tenure at America’s most important opera house.
Levine has been a beloved figure at the Met, where he has conducted more than 2,500 performances. Now confined to a motorized wheelchair after widely-publicized health problems, he stepped down to become music director emeritus last year.
The Met has canceled his upcoming conducting engagements.
CSO’s ‘Pictures’ impresses at Music Hall
A crowd-pleasing program and a rare trumpet soloist added up to an electric evening at the Cincinnati Symphony orchestra on Saturday.
Music Hall was fairly full for Saturday’s concert, which was highlighted in the second half by a magnificent performance of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” in the well-known Ravel orchestration. There was also a remarkable performance by Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, who made her Cincinnati debut in Arutiunian’s Trumpet Concerto in A-flat Major.
But first, the program, led by guest maestro Andrey Boreyko, opened with another rarity: Stravinsky’s Funeral Song of 1908. Read More »
Theater upgrades at CCM earn bravos
I decided to go to UC’s College-Conservatory of Music last night to see what kinds of renovation upgrades the arts and media school got for $15 million.
After hearing a vibrant performance of the CCM Wind Orchestra and Wind Ensemble in Corbett Auditorium — the official unveiling of the redo — here’s the verdict: The new seats are more comfortable, the new carpeting is attractive, sight lines are great and Corbett’s wonderful ambiance and fine acoustics have been carefully preserved.
Launched in spring of 2016, the $15 million project has benefited all of CCM’s performance venues, including Patricia Corbett Theater (which has newly refurbished seats and new HVAC systems), Cohen Family Studio Theater, Werner Recital Hall and Watson Hall.
Corbett Auditorium, though, has the most extensive updates. They include an all-new stage floor, a new main curtain and valence and new LED house lights. You’ll also find new ADA seating locations and a new assisted listening system.
With slightly larger seats (20 to 22 inches wide) and more leg room, the auditorium has lost a few seats, with capacity now around 669, says Ray Dobson, senior director of performance operations.
Behind the scenes, state-of-the-art upgrades won’t be immediately apparent to audiences, but will offer students the chance to work with the latest in theater technology.
“It was a big leap for us, but now we’re able to give students a solid foundation in what’s out there in new technology,” Dobson said during a pre-concert tour.Read More »
