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 »
Harry Bicket’s Baroque concert of Handel and Rameau brought a breath of fresh air to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra over the weekend.
A glance at the program told the story of how rare it was to hear these Baroque gems in Music Hall. Every single piece on the program – even Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 11 – was being performed by the orchestra for the first time.
And there was no better partner in this repertoire than the superb British countertenor Iestyn Davies, who made his Cincinnati debut in arias from Handel operas. Davies is one of a new generation of countertenors now making international waves. Read More »
CCM alumna Jessica Faselt, 25, of Iowa City was among five singers named as the winners of the nation’s most prestigious vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Faselt earned a Master of Music degree in Voice in 2016, and was a winner of the Corbett Award at CCM.
The other winners are: Madison Leonard, 26, soprano (Coeur d’Alene, ID); Ashley Dixon, 26, mezzo-soprano (Peachtree, GA); Hongni Wu, 23, mezzo-soprano (Jingdezhen, China); and Carlos Enrique Santelli, 26, tenor (Orlando, FL).
Each winner receives a $15,000 cash prize and the exposure that has launched the careers of many of opera’s biggest stars.
And in another local tie, CCM Artist Diploma in Opera Performance student Brandon Russell was a semi-finalist in this year’s Met National Council Auditions. He competed in the semi-final round held on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera on April 22, and was awarded $1,500.Read More »
Superstar pianist André Watts and a stellar lineup of other artists will help Cincinnati’s Linton Music Series celebrate its 40th anniversary next season.
“In planning Linton’s 40th anniversary season, we wanted to uphold Dick Waller’s tradition of ‘music-making among friends’ that he established 40 years ago,” said co-artistic directors Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson, speaking of Linton’s founder Dick Waller.
“The season features so many world-class artists that are looking forward to gathering in Cincinnati to make great music together. It’s the combination of these artists, intimate settings, and captivated audiences that really makes Linton Chamber Music concerts so special.”Read More »
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 »
Peggy Wolverton, organist of Covenant-First Presbyterian Church, 717 Elm Street, downtown, is performing a free organ concert featuring music of the Baltic States.
“Covenant-First is likely the only church in the U.S. where this music is heard!” she says. “We in the West have become quite familiar with choral and orchestral music of the Baltic States, but our exposure to music for the organ and other genre has been considerably less.”
She’ll be performing on the church’s historic, century-old Austin Pipe Organ. Built by the Austin Organ Co. of Hartford, Connecticut, it was considered one of the largest organs in this part of the country, with 51 stops and more than 3,100 pipes.
Her concert, 4 p.m. Sunday April 22, will survey the music of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. She says she became interested in that repertoire partly out of “self-defense,” she says. Her husband, Dr. Vance Wolverton, a former professor of music at NKU, is a leading authority in the choral music of the Baltics. As he has edited and published choral scores, he’s been given many organ scores by the composers and conductors that he’s met along the way.Read More »
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.
The Cincinnati May Festival announced today a two-year contract extension for Robert Porco, Director of Choruses, through the end of the 2020 May Festival.
Porco has served in that role since 1989, preparing the volunteer May Festival Chorus for hundreds of performances for the festival, as well as for concerts with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops.Read More »
Since 1997, Paul John Stanbery has led a festival that is unique in the Midwest: The Ohio Mozart Festival.
“Our Mozart presentations continue to be a cultural drawing card for the entire region,” says Stanbery, music director of the Butler Philharmonic. “The chance to present this stunningly beautiful score in a place that has such an acoustically and visually rich environment is surely a ‘bucket list’ opportunity. Upon entering, one feels as though they were transported to Vienna, just for an afternoon.”
Stanbery and his orchestra, the Butler Philharmonic, presents the “Grand Finale Concert” of the Ohio Mozart Festival at 4 p.m. Sunday; April 22 at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 171 Washington St. in Hamilton.
This concert marks the first performance of symphonic music in the historic church, which has an acoustical environment that rivals the cathedrals of old Europe.Read More »
I was fascinated by the large-scale arrangement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 performed by Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra over the weekend. It’s regarded as one of Beethoven’s more “classical” symphonies, calling for a smaller complement of players. But for this performance in Music Hall, there were 92 players onstage. (According to the CSO, Langrée was using a new critical edition by Bärenreiter.)
Curious about this arrangement, I spent some time digging through my personal library to no avail. Then, online, I found a doctoral thesis by Mark Christopher Ferraguto of Cornell University that mentioned a performance of the Fourth for a large-scale public concert in 1825. Beethoven arranged it for an estimated 94 musicians for the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music) concert in a large ballroom of the Imperial Court.
Here’s the review, which you can read free at bizjournals.com, thanks to their new initiative to cover the arts.
What did you think?
