Category: classical music

Viva Voices celebrates An Appalachian Spring

janellegelfandLeave a comment

Covington-based Viva Voices Choral Organization is presenting An Appalachian Spring, a concert inspired by the rich traditions of Appalachia — including a Bluegrass band.

This special event will take place at 4 pm. Saturday, April 26, at First Baptist Church, 4410 Alexandria Pike, Cold Spring, Kentucky. The concert is free and open to the public—no tickets required.

The program will include “Come Away to the Skies: A High Lonesome Bluegrass Mass,” accompanied by a bluegrass band. Hosted by Jen Dalton, TV anchor of Local 12 and STAR 64, the concert will feature the Viva Voices Chorale & Chamber Ensemble, with special guest appearances by the Viva Voices Children’s Choir & Youth Chorus. In all, there will be more than 200 singers and instrumentalists, including co-composer, Tim Sharp, on the banjo.

The Bluegrass Mass will be conducted by Viva Voices Founding Artistic Director Tony Burdette and Assistant Artistic Director Houston Tyrrell.

The co-composer, Tim Sharp, said, “I’m absolutely thrilled to bring A High Lonesome Bluegrass Mass to Northern Kentucky this spring! It’s an honor to collaborate with the incredible Viva Voices, whose passion and talent will bring this unique fusion of bluegrass and sacred music to life. The Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati region has such a rich choral music heritage, and I can’t wait to share this deeply personal work with audiences who appreciate the spirit of
bluegrass and the soul of choral music.”

This event is presented in collaboration with the Christian Appalachian Project, which has been dedicated to improving the lives of Appalachian communities for 60 years. Donations will be accepted to benefit their work.

Supported in part by ArtsWave and the National Endowment for the Arts, An Appalachian Spring promises an uplifting musical experience that honors the culture and resilience of Appalachia.

For more information, please contact: Viva Voices Choral Organization
Email: tonyburdette@vivavoices.net
Website: http://www.vivavoices.net

Tenor Lawrence Brownlee wows at Matinée Musicale

janellegelfand2 Comments
Tenor Lawrence Brownlee and pianist Donald Lee III in Memorial Hall. Photos by Gayna Bassin

Tenor Lawrence Brownlee is one of the world’s most in-demand opera singers, and a star of the bel canto repertoire. He’d just returned from Paris before his recital for Matinée Musicale on Sunday, telling the audience in Memorial Hall that he had starred in 10 performances of Bellini’s “I Puritani” with Opéra national de Paris. Just announced, he will star as Arturo again next season in a new production of “I Puritani” at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as in “La Fille du Régiment.”

“Recitals are opportunities to create special moments. They’re not about perfection,” he said, laughing.

There were no signs of jet lag in this performance. One could admire the exciting timbre of his high notes, his control and flexibility through virtuosic cadenzas, and the beauty of his phrasing. It was surprising that he opened with eight of his program’s most demanding songs and arias. Six were by renowned composers of the bel canto style of singing, Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini.

Between numbers, performed with his collaborative pianist (and CCM alumnus) Donald Lee III, he spoke about things such as growing up in Youngstown, OH, where his father was choir director in the church, and his mother the featured singer.Read More »

Cristian Măcelaru unveils his inaugural season as CSO music director

janellegelfandLeave a comment
Cristian Măcelaru rehearses the CSO for concerts this weekend.

Cristian Măcelaru, the CSO’s newly appointed music director-designate, unveiled programs for his first season as music director in the 2025-26 season in a press conference today at Music Hall.

He’ll be conducting six subscription programs plus a special concert with Yo-Yo Ma. Click here to read the highlights, and visit cincinnatisymphony.org to see the full schedule.

For a preview of what’s to come, you can see the maestro in action this weekend conducting Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” The program includes “Southwestern Shakedown” from “Blues Symphony” by acclaimed jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, a friend. There’s also Chausson’s “Poème” and Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2, both featuring American violinist Randall Goosby as soloist.

You can read his thoughts about Antonin Dvořák in this column.

Măcelaru leads the CSO, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 8 and 2 p.m. Feb. 9 in Music Hall. Tickets: 513-381-3300, cincinnatisymphony.org.

 

 

CCM piano professor continues ‘WTC Project’

janellegelfandLeave a comment
Dror Biran

Dror Biran, professor of piano at CCM, will be performing all 12 Preludes and Fugues from Book II of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (known to pianists as WTC).

His faculty recital is 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11 in Werner Recital Hall at CCM, and it’s free.

“The WTC Project has been in the works for two years now, which resulted in recording the first book,” he told me.

The Israeli-American is a superb artist who has performed widely and won several competitions, including the Cleveland International Piano Competition (1997), where he also received a special prize for the best performance of works by Chopin. He earned a doctorate at the Cleveland Institute of Music and taught at the University of Louisville, Youngstown State University and Case Western Reserve University before joining the CCM faculty.

Performing the entire WTC Book Two is feat of concentration and intelligence, not to mention musicality. It’s bound to be memorable.

 

 

Grammy Awards local ties

janellegelfandLeave a comment

The Grammy Awards were announced today, and there are a few familiar names this year. The biggest news: Elaine Martone has won Producer of the Year, Classical for a host of recordings, including: Joy! (John Morris Russell & Cincinnati Pops). It is her sixth Grammy Award in her stunning career. Congratulations to Elaine, who produces the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops recordings. She is truly world-class. (Martone is married to Robert Woods, founder of Telarc Records, which was famous for the 100 or so Pops albums they recorded during the Erich Kunzel years … )

The other supporting works on her list are:

• Bartók: String Quartet No.3; Suite From ‘The Miraculous Mandarin’ (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra)
• The Book of Spells (Merian Ensemble)
• Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra)
• Divine Mischief (Julian Bliss, J. Eric Wilson & Baylor University Wind Ensemble)
• Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra)
• Schubert: The Complete Impromptus (Gerardo Teissonnière)
• Stranger at Home (Shachar Israel)
• Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra).

Here are some other classical music awards, which also have a few Cincinnati connections:Read More »

Violinist, Broadway star Kelly Hall-Tompkins to perform benefit concert

janellegelfandLeave a comment
Kelly Hall Tompkins/photo provided

On Sunday, January 19, violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins will perform a recital to benefit the Ben Carlson-Berne (BCB) Scholarship Fund in support of classical music education for Cincinnati’s youth. Her performance, 3 p.m. next Sunday in the Mayerson Theater at the School for Creative & Performing Arts, is open to the public.

She performed as the “Fiddler” violin soloist in the Grammy/Tony nominated Broadway revival of “Fiddler on the Roof.” Featured as soloist in more than 400 Broadway performances, plus a Grammy-nominated cast album alongside a bonus track by Itzhak Perlman, Hall-Tompkins has been the featured subject on NBC’s Today Show with Harry Smith, and many other news outlets.

Among her awards, she received a Naumburg International Violin Competition Honorarium Prize, a Concert Artists Guild Career Grant, and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence. She is featured in the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History.

She’s also the founder of Music Kitchen-Food for the Soul, a program which has brought more than 100 chamber music performances to New York City, Los Angeles and even Paris, France, homeless shelters.

She also has a Cincinnati connection — in 2018, she was appointed as the Cincinnati Symphony‘s inaugural Classical Roots program Artist-in-Residence. To read her impressive biography, click here.

Since 2004, the BCB Fund has helped provide instruments and lessons with premier, private instructors to underserved and economically disadvantaged Cincinnati Public School (CPS) students with an interest in classical music. To date, the fund has provided 350 lesson years to 131 youth.

Here’s a story I wrote for the Courier in 2018 about how one former student benefited from the BCB Scholarship.

Details:Read More »

My top performances in Cincinnati in 2024

janellegelfandLeave a comment
Cristian Macelaru conducting Shostakovich/Photo provided by CSO

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.Read More »

Organ series to return to Cincinnati Museum Center Rotunda

janellegelfandLeave a comment

If you’ve ever heard the 1929 Grand E.M. Skinner Symphonic Concert Organ, you know the majesty of this instrument.

This historic organ, lovingly restored and installed in the Rotunda of Cincinnati Museum, can be heard in three concerts this season. Three renowned organists joined by local choirs and musicians will perform selections on the organ from Wagner to Messiaen, using every color of the symphonic spectrum.

Cincinnati Museum Center has announce the 2024–2025 Music in the Museum series, where they look forward to sharing the glorious sounds of the organ with you. Tickets are available now. Full programs are listed below.

During a capacity audience that I heard last season, s Michael Barone, host of “Pipedreams” on American Public Media told the large crowd, “There is no other organ like this in this kind of setting, anywhere. You have a treasure.”

Nearly 5,000 Pipes and four manuals — From 1987–2010, the 1929 Grand E. M. Skinner Symphonic Concert Organ was restored and installed in specially designed organ chambers. The main chambers are located on either side of the Rotunda where it meets the rear concourse. The antiphonal division is over the entrance to the Cincinnati History Museum. The organ has nearly 5,000 pipes played from a console with four manual keyboards.

Here’s the lineup:Read More »

Concert Review: Love letter to the Viola

janellegelfandLeave a comment
Photos by Gayna Bassin

It’s unusual to hear an entire program of music written for the viola. The recital on Sept. 15 in Memorial Hall by violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt and pianist Adam Golka was a rare treat.

They opened the Matinee Musicale concert season with an inventive program that included music by two women composers, born 100 years apart. Pajaro-van de Stadt called it “a love letter to the viola.”

Brahms’ Sonata Op. 120, No. 2 in E-flat Major was the perfect introduction to this duo. (The work was originally written for clarinet and piano.) I was instantly struck by the rich, compelling tone of Pajaro-van de Stadt’s instrument. The warmth was palpable in her phrasing, and she took her time to allow the music to breathe in this wonderful, autumnal work.Read More »

Rick Steves reveals cancer diagnosis; still set to live film Pops show in Music Hall

janellegelfandLeave a comment
Travel writer Rick Steves visiting the Sognefjord in Norway.

The world’s most famous travel writer Rick Steves has just announced on social media that he received a diagnosis of prostate cancer. He sounds upbeat in his message, saying it hasn’t spread and he will likely have surgery in late September.

“I have great trust in my doctor and in Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. And I have lots more to be thankful for…including the support of friends and loved ones and a strong faith that I’m in good hands,” Steves wrote on X.

The Cincinnati Symphony and Pops spokesperson Felecia Tchen Kanney confirms they are moving forward with plans for the concerts, Sept. 13-15, as well as the live filming and recording of the shows that will be made available to PBS stations across the country.

Wishing Rick all the best!

Here are the Pops concert details, with filming in collaboration with CET.

The Cincinnati Pops and CET, Cincinnati’s public television station,  are partnering for the live filming and recording of the Pops’ September 13-15 program, Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey.

John Morris Russell leads the Pops  program, which will feature on-stage narration by popular public television host and best-selling guidebook author Rick Steves. The music will include composers Edvard Grieg, Camille Saint-Saëns, Bedřich Smetana, Johann Strauss Jr., Giuseppe Verdi and others. Steves will host the program and share personal stories of his extensive travels across the continent as well as insights into European history.

All three performances, including occasional shots of Music Hall audiences, will be filmed and made available for PBS stations across the country.

For tickets and more information, visit cincinnatisymphony.org.