Category: WGUC classical radio

Louisville Orchestra’s new Principal Harpist to perform at NKU

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Grace Roepke, the newly-appointed Principal Harpist of the Louisville Orchestra, is coming to Greaves Concert Hall at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) to perform a solo recital on Wednesday, April 2 at 7:00 p.m.

Her program will include standard solo classical harp material, including J.S. Bach, Jean Cras, Marcel Grandjany, as well as contemporary Canadian composer Caroline Lizotte and more. The concert is free and open to the public.

Roepke’s playing has been described as “Impeccable fingering and footwork” by Classical Voice of North Carolina, the statewide arts journal.

Equally at home as an orchestral harpist or a soloist, Roepke has received top prizes in the Dutch World Harp Competition, The American Harp Society National Competition and the Lyon & Healy Awards.

As a soloist, she has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra and The Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, among others. She has appeared as a Guest Principal Harpist with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Roepke also champions contemporary music. She has premiered a number of contemporary works with renowned artists, such as Yo Yo Ma and Anne Sophie Mutter. Roepke has served on the faculty of the Brevard Music Center, and has given master classes at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Suzuki of the Americas Conference.

Her concert is co-sponsored by Northern Kentucky University School of the Arts (SOTA), the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Harp Society,  the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), and the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA).

The recital will take place at Greaves Concert Hall, Northern Kentucky University (NKU), 141 Fine Arts Building, 1 Louie B Nunn Drive, Highland Heights, KY 41076.

Admission is free, and no advance reservations are required. For more information, please visit https://www.nku.edu/academics/artsci/about/SchoolOfTheArts/news-events/music.html.

For parking options and a good campus map, please visit https://nku.edu/sotaparking

Questions can be addressed to boxoffice@nku.edu, or by calling the box office between 12-4 p.m. Monday through Friday at 859-572-5464.

Rick Steves, Cincinnati Pops show to premiere April 3 on CET

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Rick Steves hosted the Cincinnati Pops, and even picked up the baton once/photos by JP Leong

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra anounced this week that Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey, co-produced by local public television station CET and based on Rick Steves’ performance with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra last September, is scheduled to premiere Thursday, April 3, at 8 pm on CET, ThinkTV16 and the PBS App.

The concert will also be distributed nationally by American Public Television (APT) starting on April 1.

The original show was performed and filmed in Music Hall in Sept. 2024. Here’s my review, free to read on bizjournals.com.

“Hosting this event — combining three of my loves: travel, history and music as a tour guide on stage with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and maestro John Morris Russell — has been one of the creative highlights of my career. It’s a one-hour celebration of live classical music like none other,” said the popular public television host and guidebook author.

Show goes on, but network outage reported at Music Hall

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The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has reported a network outage at Music Hall. Saturday’s Classical Roots in-person performance in Music Hall will continue as planned. However, the digital premiere will now take place on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. (instead of live) on the CSO’s YouTube channel and website.

Also, the box office is closed, but the website, cincinnatisymphony.org, is fully operational.

The orchestra said in a statement that it is working quickly to resolve the issue.

Viva Voices celebrates An Appalachian Spring

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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

Kentucky Symphony to mount ‘Carmen in Concert’

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Kirstin Chávez as Carmen

J.R. Cassidy and the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra are teaming with an excellent cast and members of the School of the Arts at NKU for a full concert presentation of George Bizet’s “Carmen.” The concert staging — 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 28 and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 30 in Greaves Concert Hall, NKU — is timed for the 150th anniversary of the premiere of “Carmen” in March, 1875, in Paris.

Besides its freespirited title character, it’s an opera that features one great tune after another. As a soldier (DonJose) and bullfighter (Escamillo) compete for Carmen’s attention, the affair spirals out of control, leading to her demise.

Mezzo-soprano Kirstin Chávez stars in the title role. Her interpretation of Carmen has taken her around globe and into such celebrated venues as Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the Arena di Verona in Italy, and the Welsh National Opera. Matthew Pearce, a native of Northern Kentucky is Don Jose. This season, he sings Don Pizzarro in Paer’s Leonora (Chicago Opera Theatre) and the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto (Pacific Opera Victoria).

Baritone Morgan Smith takes on the role of the bullfighter Escamillo. He has created 16 roles in world premieres, including Starbuck in Jake Heggie’s celebrated Moby-Dick. Smith has also earned praise for performances in traditional repertoire, notably Escamillo (Carmen), the title role of Don Giovanni, Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Count Alamaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Four Villains (Les contes d’Hoffmann), and the title role of Eugene Onegin. Recently, Morgan’s work as Richard in Kevin Puts’ The Hours has been heard in workshops with Cincinnati Opera and The Metropolitan Opera.

James Cassidy will conduct. The production will be directed by Audrey Chait, who is on the artistic staff at Cincinnati Opera, and has been a member of the NKU music department faculty since 2019.  Local students and area singers will fill out the cast, along with NKU choirs, dancers, and youth choirs from the prep department and Ignite.

For additional info and tickets — kyso.org or (859) 431-6216.

Tenor Lawrence Brownlee wows at Matinée Musicale

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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

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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’

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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

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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

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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 »