Chamber Orchestra clarinetist to perform at Holocaust & Humanity Center opening

January 25, 2019 janellegelfandLeave a comment

As part of the community celebration of the Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center on Sunday, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra principal clarinetist John Kurokawa will lead a program of music celebrating our nation’s diversity driven by immigration, and touching on local survivors’ stories featured in the new Holocaust Museum.

The Center opens to the public at its new home at Union Terminal on Sunday, Jan. 27.

Kurokawa performs a FREE concert of about an hour in length at 3 p.m. in Reikert Auditorium at Union Terminal.

His program includes “Viktor’s Tale” from the movie The Terminal; Bonia Shur’s “Fleeting Thought” (the late composer at HUC was a Latvian native who escaped the Nazi invasion, fleeing to Israel and later moving to the United States where he would become a major musical force in the Reform Jewish Movement in America); and Messiaen’s “Abyss of the Birds,” a movement from the “Quartet for the End of Time,” which was written and premiered in a prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany.

Sarah Weiss, executive director, talks about the mural at the entrance of the new location of the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center at Union Terminal during a hard hat tour last month.

There will also be selections from the movie “Schindler’s List” as well as the music of Bella Kovacs, a celebration of Klezmer music.

Kurokawa will also perform the Sonata for clarinet and piano by Francis Poulenc, dedicated to the memory of his friend Arthur Honneger, which Kurokawa says is “a wistful and somber remembrance of his friend as well as a celebration of life.”

Read more about the new Holocaust and Humanity Center at Bizjournals.com/cincinnati. Remember, the Arts Front is free, but you may need to register for a FREE subscription.

Many refugees came through Union Terminal during World War II

Here’s the whole Grand Opening schedule on Sunday, Jan. 27:

1:00 PM Holocaust survivor & descendants processional followed by opening ceremony and ribbon cutting

2:00 PM Holocaust survivor Renate Frydman shares her husband’s survival story

3:00 PM Special performance by the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra’s John Kurokawa

Union Terminal was a welcome sight for the U.S. service men and women returning from the war, as well as for refugees.

4:00 PM The making of Cincinnati’s Newest Museum panel discussion with exhibit designers Berenbaum Jacobs & Associates and Jack Rouse Associates

For more info: holocaustandhumanity.org

Who are the next leaders in the arts?

November 18, 2018November 19, 2018 janellegelfandLeave a comment

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.

So who are the 10? Read the story here.

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.

Brahms Concerto shines with Ehnes in CSO season finale

May 14, 2018 janellegelfandLeave a comment

James Ehnes performed Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major with the CSO. Photo provided

Violinist James Ehnes’ inspired playing in the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra over the weekend can only be described as masterful. The golden sound that he achieved on his 1715 Stradivarius violin was stunning. In Saturday’s concert, it was equally fascinating to hear Ehnes reveal the Cincinnati connection behind his $8 million instrument.Read More »

Terracotta Warriors have arrived

April 21, 2018 janellegelfandLeave a comment

I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the Chinese Terracotta Warriors exhibition right before the opening at Cincinnati Art Museum this week. Here’s my interview for the Business Courier with co-curator Hou-mei Sung. It is a rare opportunity to see these Chinese treasures. And don’t forget, you need a timed ticket to see it.

Chinese officials were also here this week, as well as reporters from the China Daily News. Enjoy my small gallery of photos.Read More »

Sapling sculptures grow at Taft

April 20, 2018 janellegelfandLeave a comment

So, earlier this week I took a peek at the environmental stick work sculptures that are going up on the lawn of the Taft Museum of Art. It was interesting to see the scaffolding-like structure that the sculptures were being created around.

Sculptor Patrick Dougherty happened to be there, working hard with his crew of volunteers, so I asked him what anchors them down. The saplings are actually planted into the ground. They don’t have roots, but sometimes they actually do sprout roots, he said.

Here’s my interview with him for the Business Courier. Enjoy the photos.

Taft Museum: Volunteers needed for monumental stick sculpture

March 6, 2018 janellegelfandLeave a comment

Ready or Not, (2013) North Carolina Zoo, Asheboro, NC. Used by permission. Photo: Juan Villa

The Taft Museum of Art is seeking volunteers to work outdoors at the museum this April on a monumental art installation by Patrick Dougherty. Dougherty, who was born in Oklahoma and raised in North Carolina, specializes in creating large interactive sculptures out of tree saplings.

The sculpture will take three weeks to create — with your help — and it will last for two years. Visitors will be able to touch and walk through the sculpture.Read More »

How ‘cool pictures’ became a groundbreaking book about Music Hall

October 26, 2017 janellegelfandLeave a comment

071917,r1,f12-Edit — Matthew Zory. Photo by Michael Wilson

You’ve seen double bassist Matthew Zory performing in a tux with the bass section at the back of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra each week since he joined the orchestra in 1993.

But maybe you don’t know that for 16 months, Zory was inside Music Hall’s construction zone, wearing a hard hat with his camera slung over a shoulder, documenting the $143 million renovation project from the basement to the Rose Window.

“I could go anywhere, wherever I wanted,” said Zory, “When there were guys working overhead, they would put up danger tape. I know it’s a standard construction site — there were holes in the floor and no rails up yet. But the (construction crew) would help me out.”

What began as curiosity and a hunt for “cool pictures” by Zory, who “dabbles in photography,” evolved into a substantial photography book documenting the process and the people behind Music Hall’s renovation.

“Through the Lens: The Remaking of Cincinnati’s Music Hall,” a limited edition by Cincinnati Book Publishing, will be available Dec. 1.Read More »

Classical notes: Arts news around town

October 17, 2017October 17, 2017 janellegelfandLeave a comment

Young Professionals Choral Collective performing at Rhinegeist Brewery. Provided: YPCC

Innovative OTR chorus to host national directors, singers: The Young Professionals Choral Collective (YPCC), the innovative local choir that is led by KellyAnn Nelson, plans to bring together more than 150 young professionals and choir directors from across the country for a weekend of song and exploring the “City that Sings.”

The event, Oct. 21-22, will share the innovative choral collective model with national choral leaders.

What makes this choir so special? The group appeals to 20-to-40-somethings who love to sing and socialize — sometimes simultaneously. They rehearse, perform concerts and — yes, party too — in bars, breweries and other alternative venues in the OTR area. The chorus is diverse, with as many men as women. They perform demanding literature, and do it well. Since Nelson founded it in 2012, membership has swelled to more than 900.Read More »

Don’t miss BLINK

October 12, 2017October 13, 2017 janellegelfandLeave a comment

BLINK Parade — 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.

Click here to see the map or download the event guide.

However you decide to see it, you can be sure that BLINK will be like nothing Cincinnati has ever seen.

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

January 8, 2017January 8, 2017 janellegelfandLeave a comment

It 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.