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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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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.”

 

My last list … for now … of the best of 2016

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636184558582936207-052816-May-Fest-08-1-.jpgIt seems that the end of a year always results in lists — looking back and looking ahead. And invariably, my list is different from your list. There were so many other great performances that I could have added here — the Polish Festival at CCM, the Ariel Quartet, the great jazz heard every week in our community, and the high-energy shows by John Morris Russell and the Cincinnati Pops… not to mention the entire opening season this fall at the CSO, with Emanuel Ax, Hilary Hahn, Lang Lang, Gil Shaham and Branford Marsalis!

I loved it all. But here’s my column, in case you missed it, for better or worse. At the list’s end, I look back at two of the big stories in the arts that I covered, and look forward to the opening of Music Hall next October.

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CCM E-Media Alumnus Nicholas Lipari Assistant Edits Latest Star Wars Film, ‘Rogue One’

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Rogue One editor is one of CCM’s own…

Curt Whitacre's avatarCCM VILLAGE NEWS ARCHIVES

CCM alumnus Nick Lipari. CCM alumnus Nick Lipari.

The force is strong with CCM alumnus Nicholas Lipari (BFA E-Media, 2012), who served as assistant editor on the latest film in the popular Star Wars saga, Rogue One! The blockbuster film opened on Dec. 15 with the biggest Thursday preview showing box office receipts of 2016, earning $29 million.

Although he may not be a Jedi (yet), Lipari is quickly making a name for himself in the film industry. “Nick is one of the youngest assistant editors in LA working at this level,” says CCM Professor of Electronic Media Kevin Burke. “The Assistant Editor works directly with the editor on the film,” Burke explains. Prior to his work on Rogue One, Nick served as the assistant editor on the recent live action adaptation of Disney’s The Jungle Book.

This success comes as no surprise to Burke, as Lipari took top prizes in several national…

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Critic’s notebook: The chapter of the gods concludes

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Here’s one of the performances I’ve been lucky to catch this fall in Cincinnati.

Soprano Mithra Mastropierro was superb as Brunnhilde
Soprano Mithra Mastropierro was superb as Brunnhilde

Last month, Queen City Chamber Opera mounted the final installment, Act III, of Wagner’s opera “Siegfried,” at the Dunham Performing Arts Center on the West Side. The performance, which was well attended on a bright Sunday afternoon, marked the first complete performance of “Siegfried” in Ohio in a century. (It was in collaboration with the Wagner Society of Cincinnati.)

(The first two acts were performed in the previous two years. It’s a rather epic way to perform a Ring Cycle… )

What is so remarkable about the efforts of the company’s founding music director Isaac Selya is the quality that he has been able to achieve on a shoestring. His orchestra — complete with five extraordinary horn players, harp and timpani — filled nearly half of the auditorium floor.Read More »

Ariel Quartet Concert Series Continues Oct. 25 at CCM

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Second concert in Ariel’s series coming up!

Becky Butts's avatarCCM VILLAGE NEWS ARCHIVES

After its stunning opening performance of the 2016-17 season in September, the Ariel Quartetreturns to CCM in concert at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 25 in Corbett Auditorium with a program featuring the works of Mozart, Shostakovich and Dvořák. Tickets are available through the CCM Box Office.

The Ariel Quartet, string quartet-in-residence at CCM. The Ariel Quartet, string quartet-in-residence at CCM. Photo by Saverio Truglia.

The Ariel Quartet is comprised of Alexandra Kazovsky, violin; Amit Even-Tov, cello; Gershon Gerchikov, violin; and Jan Grüning, viola. Grand Prize winners at the 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and 2014 recipients of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, the Quartet was formed in Israel 16 years ago and now serves as CCM’s distinguished string quartet-in-residence.

Cincinnati Enquirer writer Janelle Gelfand said nearly every seat in CCM’s Corbett Auditorium was filled for the Quartet’s Sept. 6 opening concert and praised the “vibrant” performance.

“I loved the…

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CCM Alumni Return in Concert with the US Air Force Band on Oct. 21

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Becky Butts's avatarCCM VILLAGE NEWS ARCHIVES

Several UC College-Conservatory of Music alumni will return to campus and perform as part of a community relations concert tour with the U.S. Air Force Concert Band and Singing Sergeants at 8 p.m. Friday, October 21 in Corbett Auditorium.

The concert is free and open to the general public but ticket reservations are required. Tickets are available online at https://bit.ly/USAFBandTour or in person at UC’s Veterans Programs and Services Office.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force Band, the premier musical organization of the U.S. Air Force, which includes the Concert Band, Singing Sergeants and four additional ensembles. For three consecutive years, the Concert Band and Singing Sergeants have been the featured performing ensemble of Macy’s nationally broadcast Fourth of July fireworks show in New York City.

The tour is part of the Air Force Band’s “Advancing Innovation Through Music” (AIM) educational outreach program…

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The last Lumenocity

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I have to agree with some comments I have seen and heard regarding the final Lumenocity, held indoors for the first time. While I admired some of the designs, they didn’t hold my attention like the previous shows, outdoors in Washington Park. Rather than stories and recognizable local imagery — such as famous Cincinnatians, local icons or Charley Harper animals–  this was more a choreography of abstract images set to music. Except of course for Music Hall and Cincinnati of the future. Inventive as some of these images were, I found myself more engaged by the playing of the orchestra. But if it brought new people to see the orchestra, that was its real success.