Melissa Gelfin De-Poli and Cervilio Miguel Amador dancing The Nutcracker from a previous Cincinnati Ballet season. Photography: Peter Mueller
Thanks to Covid-19, this has been a terrible time for everyone, including workers and performers in the arts, who have been among the hardest hit in the nation. And the new variants have not made their comeback any easier.
Hamilton County has teamed up with ArtsWave to announce that it will award $2 million in nonprofit arts and cultural grants funded through the County’s allocation of American Rescue Plan (ARP) dollars.
The grants will be awarded to combat the negative economic impact of Covid-19 on the local arts community and to fuel the region’s economic restart. Links to the applications and funding guidelines are available on the County’s Covid relief site – https://513relief.org/ and https://www.artswave.org/apply.
The Covid-19 relief grants will cover costs incurred due to business disruption, in a two-year period in which performing arts venues and museums lost significant box office and admissions revenue. The grants can also cover costs of mitigation expenses for re-opening and adaptations required for digital programming. Total grant amounts will be based on operating revenue from the prior fiscal year.
ArtsWave will host a virtual information session on Wednesday, February 3, 2022, from 12–1 p.m. answering questions and outlining the eligibility and application process. To join the information session, visit artswave.org/apply and click on “Hamilton County ARP Arts and Culture Grants Information Session.”
View of the CSO performing a livestreamed concert in Nov. 2020
I’ll never forget the fear in the eyes of both performers and audience members in the first few live, indoor performances I saw in the early months of the pandemic in 2020. We were masked, spaced vastly apart and there was no intermission to avoid viral spread. Otherwise, many performances were livestreamed online, with musicians masked and separated by space and screens.
Then in 2021, as vaccines became available and theaters began to reopen to full audiences, there was elation and relief by many who were able to finally attend a show in person.
Every concert, play, ballet or art exhibition I attended in 2021 was deeply moving because it showed the perseverance of artists — indeed of all humanity — during this unprecedented time. I feel that we’ve come a long way.
Now, we are buffeted again by the Omicron variant. Just announced, there are at least two museum “pauses” (Cincinnati Art Museum is closed Jan. 3-12 and the Taft Museum of Art is closed Jan. 3-13).
“Hairspray” is postponed to a later date due to Covid in the cast.
There are also a few postponed performances. At the Aronoff Center, “Hairspray” scheduled to play January 4 – 9, 2022 is being rescheduled due to breakthrough positive Covid cases within the company of “Hairspray.” Ticket holders are encouraged to hold onto their tickets while the engagement is being rescheduled.
At Music Hall, the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati is postponing its January 8 and 9 performances of “The Song Among Us” to a later date, to be announced. The release states that the postponement “is prompted by production challenges exacerbated by the recent rise in positive Covid cases across the nation.” Ticket holders may complete this form or call the box office at 513-381-3300 for ticket options, including donations, exchanges, and refunds.
I prefer to see the glass half full. I believe we will get through this, and the arts will persevere.
Singers Michelle DeYoung and Sean Panikkar share bows in Mahler’s “The Song of the Earth” with the CSO. (Photo by Lee Snow)
I wrote a list of some of my favorite performances in 2021 in a column for the Business Courier. My list begins with Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in Music Hall last March, and ends with “The Marriage of Figaro” at CCM in November. I’d like to know some of yours, too. (Let me know here, or on Facebook.)
And looking ahead, here is my list of “best bets” in 2022. It’s really just a broad sweep — because there are so many chamber music, vocal concerts, art exhibitions and dance performances that have yet to be announced. I think we have a lot to anticipate.
Verdi’s opulent “Aida” will be presented at Cincinnati Opera in summer 2022. Photo courtesy of Opéra de Montréal, Yves Renaud
Marco Panuccio in Donizetti’s “Lucie de Lammermoor”/photo by Philip Groshong
I always looked forward to hearing the latest program that tenor Marco Panuccio was planning for his popular “O Holy Night” concert for the holiday season. This year, as I compiled my list of holiday shows, I didn’t hear from Marco, and I missed him. I didn’t know, like many of you, that he was battling a terrible virus named Covid-19. He died last weekend.
This Friday, Cincinnati Opera artistic director Evans Mirageas will devote his weekly segment at around 6:30 p.m. (right after the 6 O’Clock Symphony) to Marco’s memory. He’ll play excerpts from Marco’s performance as Edgard in Cincinnati Opera’s “Lucie de Lammermoor” (in French) in 2008.
CSO on opening night/photo provided by Hannah Kenney
Since the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra officially opened its subscription season this weekend (here’s the review), I decided to look at the arts calendar to see what musical performances I want to get on my November calendar.
Wow! I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of our performing arts are ramping up. My November calendar looks almost normal, which in Cincinnati means that you can be out every night of the week. So here are some of my picks.
Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m. – At CCM, renowned Russian pianist and pedagogue Boris Berman performs a guest recital performance in Robert J. Werner Recital Hall. Admission: FREE.
Nov. 7, 4 p.m. — Linton Music Series “Pure Bach,” featuring violinist Jennifer Koh performing the solo violin works of Bach. First Unitarian Church. For tickets and program, click here.
Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m. – Ariel Quartet, CCM String-Quartet-in-Residence, continues its concert series with Lera Auerbach’s “Frozen Dreams,” which premiered in 2020, and Béla Bartók’s penultimate quartet, String Quartet No. 5. Robert J. Werner Recital Hall
Tickets: Prices start at $29.50.
Daniil Trifonov in recital
Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m., Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov performs a recital at Music Hall, presented by the CSO. His program includes music by Karol Szymanowski, Debussy, Prokofiev and Brahms.
Note: For all CSO events and concerts, click here.
Nov. 11, 8 p.m. —Stephen Hough recital at Xavier. Hough is a longtime visitor to the Xavier Piano Series, and is something of a Renaissance man. This month, he graces the cover of BBC Music magazine. His program includes Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Chopin’s Ballade No. 3 and Hough’s own “Partitia.” It’s in Xavier’s Gallagher Center Theater on the XU campus. For tickets and info about the entire Xavier Music Series, click here.Read More »
Isaac Selya led the Queen City Opera Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s rarely-heard Symphony No. 7
Isaac Selya, artistic director and conductor of Queen City Opera, is known for inventive productions, usually of lesser-known operatic repertoire. He often pairs operas with social issues. Even Act I from Wagner’s Walkure featured a partnership with Women Helping Women and a discussion about domestic abuse.
As the arts begin to emerge from Covid-19, it was a good time for Selya to present a non-operatic project. On Sept. 5 in Finneytown Performing Arts Center, he led a rare performance (and possibly the Midwest premiere) of Tchaikovsky’s unfinished Symphony No. 7 in E-flat Major, “Life.” Two excellent young opera singers, tenor M. Andrew Jones and soprano Raquel González, performed arias and scenes from Tchaikovsky’s operas “Eugene Onegin” and “Iolanta.”
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.
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.
CSO audiences and musicians have been greatly socially distanced for this spring’s in-person shows.
I am one of the lucky people who has been able to see live, in-person concerts at Music Hall as organizations have begun opening up now that Covid appears to be waning.
Cincinnati is one of the first cities in the nation to welcome people back into the concert hall, albeit with plenty of Covid mitigation. I have to admit, for my first visit back to Music Hall — even before the vaccine became available to most people — I had some trepidation. But the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, as well CAA, which oversees Music Hall, have taken excellent precautions. With all of the social distancing in a 2200+ seat hall, an audience of 300 seemed pretty sparse. And with 90-minute concerts and no intermission, I barely encountered anyone at all. Just parked the car, donned a mask, saw the concert and left.
I loved this concert featuring Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde.” And how great that the orchestra made it available free for streaming a few weeks later.
Mandy Gaines
Now that the state is allowing 30% of hall capacity to be seated, it is nice to see up to 500 people. It really does make a difference, and I’m sure it does to the musicians, as well. Here’s my review of the Pops last weekend with Cincinnati treasure Mandy Gaines and that terrific singer Darius de Haas.
Melissa White made her subscription debut in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, “Strasbourg.”
And here’s my report of Louis Langrée’s Mozart festival with the CSO, the first time nearly 500 were allowed attend.
Thankfully, we have had our art museums to visit over the pandemic. Now, we can look forward to the May Festival — a slimmed-down version of that massive choral experience, of course. Read about it here.
And Cincinnati Opera will return as well, although not in Music Hall but at Summit Park, on land that was formerly the Blue Ash Airport. (Years ago, I met a relative there, who was delivering us a cello on his private plane… ) Here’s the story.
And yes, theater is returning too. Playhouse in the Park will seat reduced audiences for two productions this spring, and also offers some outdoor events. Here’s the announcement.
Cincinnati Ballet will begin moving into its new, $30.8 million home in Walnut Hills this June. (Click here to read about it.) The company has done an admiral job presenting both outdoor and indoor performances during the pandemic.
All of these organizations have had to toss out their planned seasons and re-imagine them with new productions and concert programs.
I admire CCM for putting together an imaginative performance series online. I have enjoyed myriad virtual shows over the past year. But there is nothing like experiencing a performance live and in person.
We’ve all missed all of it, terribly. I feel grateful to live in a city where arts leaders are creatively and safely reopening to allow in-person experiences.
Opera Fusion: New Works, the forward-looking collaboration of Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music to develop new opera, is hosting a livestreamed workshop on Monday for a new opera that is to be premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2022-23 season.
“The Hours” is written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts and librettist Greg Pierce, both of whose works have been performed by Cincinnati Opera in recent seasons. Puts is the composer of “Silent Night,” which was mounted here in 2014; Pierce was the librettist for “Fellow Travelers,” which premiered in 2016.
A free public livestream of excerpts can be viewed on Monday, March 15, 5 p.m.-6 p.m., at cincinnatiopera.org.
Greg Pierce
The composer and librettist will collaborate in real time with the artists to shape the work, which is receiving its first workshop in Music Hall’s Ballroom. Click here to see the cast.
Cincinnati Opera artistic director Evans Mirageas will also host a conversation with the creators during the hour.
“The Hours” is a commission of the Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The opera, which tells the story of three women whose lives have a literary connection, is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Michael Cunningham, as well as the Paramount Pictures film. Click here to read about the film, which starred Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman.
Opera Fusion: New Works is funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
