One of the most interesting stories I have had the privilege to write for the Business Courier was about 10 up-and-coming young arts patrons who will be guiding our great Cincinnati arts institutions in the decades to come. For as long as I’ve covered the arts here, there has been hand-wringing over who will replace those great philanthropists and board leaders who have gone before. The Nipperts and Corbetts are just two of most well-known names from the previous generation, among many others.
Cincinnati has a great history of generosity and stewardship that goes back more than a century. You only need to consider this:
The CSO turns 125 in 2020
Cincinnati Opera turns 100 in 2020
Art Academy of Cincinnati turns 150 in 2019
UC’s College-Conservatory of Music is celebrating its 150th this year.
That kind of legacy takes leadership and creativity. And it takes changing with the times. Who could have imagined that an arts event called Blink could bring a million people downtown last year?
These young leaders already hold some of the city’s most important board roles. I think the arts are and will be in very good hands.
Where to find arts news and reviews: Visit the new Arts Front at bizjournals.com/cincinnati. It’s free, but you may need to register for a free subscription. For the latest CSO review of Beethoven’s Ninth, click here.
Mary Ellyn Hutton wrote music criticism for 23 years for the Cincinnati Post.
Mary Ellyn Hutton will be remembered as a journalist with unflagging dedication to Cincinnati’s musical arts. The longtime classical music critic for the Cincinnati Post continued to cover the classical scene for more than a decade after the demise of Cincinnati’s afternoon newspaper in 2007.
She died surrounded by her family on May 28 after a battle with lung cancer. The Hyde Park resident was 77.Read More »
Visitors hear an opera performance in the beautifully restored Corbett Tower during a free open house at Music Hall in October
If you missed the free community open house when Music Hall reopened in October, you’ll have another chance during ArtsWave’s upcoming campaign. Music Hall will be open to all on March 24. It’s just one of 12 Saturdays of free fun spanning the entire ArtsWave campaign.
The goal for this year’s 2018 “Make Waves” campaign will be announced early on Thursday.
ArtsWave, the nation’s oldest and largest community arts fund, previously offered an Arts Sampler Weekend of live performances, art and more.
The new concept, ArtsWave Days, will feature events at different venues with different themes on each Saturday between February 3 and April 21. In all you’ll find more than 100 free community performances throughout the campaign.Read More »
The incomparable Jamie Barton performs Jan. 26 at Memorial Hall
Baby it’s cold outside – but Winter is the season when the arts heat up. In the coming weeks, there are many tempting concerts and events to warm you up. So, bundle up, because there are a few that you won’t want to miss.
Jan. 11-12: Canticle. The Vocal Arts Ensemble reprises Kile Smith’s gorgeous “Canticle,” a setting of the biblical Song of Solomon (or Song of Songs), 7:30 p.m. Jan. 11 and 12 in Memorial Hall. Tickets start at $25. 513-381-3300, vaecinci.org.
Jan. 12-13: Conlon returns. James Conlon, music director laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival, returns to conduct the CSO in Schubert’s Rosamunde Overture and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. Violinist Jennifer Frautschi is soloist in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in Music Hall. Tickets: 513-381-3300, cincinnatisymphony.org.
James Conlon at the 2016 May Festival Photo provided
Jan. 19: Star soloist at Moveable Feast. CCM’s biggest fundraiser, this year on Friday, Jan. 19, will feature a performance by alumnus and star trumpeter Brian Newman, who will solo with the CCM Jazz Orchestra as the “opening course” in the CCM Village. Read More »
Carmon DeLeone reads “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” on Around Cincinnati Christmas
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.”
Rosemary’s Clooney’s iconic “White Christmas” is featured
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.
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 »
a multi-generational crowd filled Music Hall for the “Star Wars” show at the Pops. Mark Lyons, photo.
Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, John Williams composed the first soundtrack for “Star Wars.” That collaboration with George Lucas (later subtitled “A New Hope”) launched one of the most successful space epic film series of all time. Today, it’s hard to imagine these space odysseys where aliens and humanoids coexist with robotic droids without Williams’ thrilling symphonic scores.
On Friday, Williams’ music, famous for its big brass and sweeping strings, took the starring role, as John Morris Russell led the Cincinnati Pops in a retrospective of some of the Hollywood legend’s greatest themes. The second half of the program was entirely devoted to the “Star Wars” franchise, while the first sampled from other films, such as “Harry Potter” and “E.T.”
It was the Pops’ first performance in Music Hall following a $143 million renovation that has updated the 140-year-old building and completely reconfigured the orchestra’s home in Springer Auditorium. A multi-generational, sold-out crowd filled the hall. In the new Pops configuration, it seats nearly 2,500. (A few tickets might be available for Sunday’s show.) Read More »
Example of a parade such as will be seen at BLINK tonight at 7 p.m. Photo provided
BLINK starts tonight with a parade from Findlay Market to Washington Park in OTR. What exactly is BLINK? Think Lumenocity on steriods. The four-night event, 7 p.m. to midnight each night, is a spectacle of light “projection mapping,” art installations, lighted displays, Cincinnati’s famous murals “painted” with light, and much more, along the path of the Cincinnati Bell Connector. There will be interactive displays for “hands-on” participation as well as live entertainment all along the 3.6 mile streetcar line, from Findlay Market to The Banks.
And it’s all free.
“It’s shaped around unity and the values we hold as a community,” says Timothy Maloney, president & CEO of the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation, founding sponsor.
But with 60 attractions spanning 20 city blocks, you need a plan. Take it all in (or parts of it over a few days) by planning dinner, drinks or a performance in tandem. I plan to go the Cincinnati Pops season opener in the newly renovated Music Hall — which is incidentally right across the street from many of the attractions, and right on the streetcar line. I might decide to just jump on the streetcar and hop on and off.
It’s been a privilege. I can truthfully say I have loved every minute of writing about the arts in Cincinnati for the Cincinnati Enquirer. I am thankful to you, the readers of both print and digital, the people who have called me, written letters, followed me on social media, come up to me at Music Hall to say hello or to talk about music, and who have taken my OLLI class, “Behind the Scenes in the Arts.”
It has been a wonderful, totally unexpected ride that became 26 years almost overnight.
From the first day that I walked into the newsroom, never having taken a journalism course, I was starstruck by the people who worked there. What talent and creativity! In those days, I filed a review right after the symphony concert on Friday nights, which meant I raced to my car behind Music Hall, tore Downtown to the Enquirer building while forming the opening lines in my head, and wrote on a deadline of 45 minutes with a copy desk editor barking, “Where’s that review?” Loved those late-night editors, who would fix my typos and write the headlines. The best one described a pianist, to be nameless here, who slogged through a bizarre performance of Rach 2: “(Pianist) phones it in — From Mars.” I was usually home by 2 a.m. and the review was in the morning paper.
With James Conlon and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and May Festival Chorus at Carnegie Hall, May 2014; photo provided by Spring for Music, Steve Sherman
But besides the reviews, I have loved writing stories about people. Sometimes I think that the whole artistic world has passed through Cincinnati. I’ve interviewed and met opera stars, violin legends, conductors, composers, crooners, rockers and movie stars. I couldn’t believe going backstage at the Met to interview Cincinnati’s own James Levine, who had pictures of his childhood home behind his desk. He knew everything happening in the Queen City. His mother, Helen, it turned out, had been sending him all of my clippings.
Then there was Rosemary Clooney. Driving down to Augusta, Kentucky, with photographer Craig Ruttle to spend time in her home was unforgettable. Later, John Kiesewetter, Jim Knippenberg and I covered her funeral. Yes, there were Hollywood stars. But more touching were the folks of Maysville who came out to bring their “girl singer” back home.
With rocker Peter Frampton in his studio at his Indian Hill home talking about his gig with the Pops.With Rosemary Clooney and her husband, Dante DiPaolo
When Erich Kunzel died in 2009, I was proud that Reds announcer Marty Brennaman mentioned during the game the next day that The Enquirer had done a nice job on his obituary. Early that morning, I was interviewed on NPR about the Cincinnati Pops maestro, and the force of nature that he was. And about a week later, I was on tour in Japan with the CSO. On a day off at the mountainous shrine of Nikko, a man in my tour group said as we ate lunch, “Cincinnati. I heard you just lost a conductor there.” He’d heard my interview, 6,000 miles away.Read More »
There 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.
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 »
Where to find arts news and reviews: Visit the new Arts Front at bizjournals.com/cincinnati. It’s free, but you may need to register for a free subscription. For the latest CSO review of Beethoven’s Ninth, click here.
There are a lot of 