Tag: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Inauguration music to feature fanfare with CSO ties

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Don’t forget to stream the inauguration orchestral fanfares at noon today, featuring 14 musicians from across the nation, including one from Cincinnati. You’ll find the livestream on social media and at cincinnatisymphony.org …

In the meantime:

Composer Peter Boyer — well known to the CSO and Pops — announces that the United States Marine Band has commissioned him to compose a new piece of music to be premiered at the Inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States. His new work, “Fanfare for Tomorrow,” will be performed as part of the one-hour Prelude music of the Inauguration ceremony, conducted by the Marine Band’s director, Colonel Jason Fettig, at the U.S. Capitol on January 20. The Inaugural Prelude takes place from 10 am to 11 am EST.

“Fanfare for Tomorrow” began as a brief piece for solo French horn, originally commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra last year, as part of their Fanfare Project in response to the pandemic.

“I have significantly expanded and developed that music for a full concert band for this commission (and I will be preparing an orchestral version also),” Boyer says.

Here’s the link to the CSO version– performed by the CSO’s Elizabeth Freimuth.

The Prelude program also includes music by American composers Kimberly Archer, Adolphus Hailstork, Jim Stephenson and John Williams. Boyer says that CSPAN will include complete coverage of this early event.

The U.S. Marine Band will also accompany Lady Gaga in the National Anthem during the ceremony.

Cincinnati Opera panel to discuss diversity in the arts

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Participants in a previous Cincinnati Opera performance of “Opera Goes to Church”

This is a no-miss:

Cincinnati Opera Center Stage presents an honest and informal discussion about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts, to be streamed live on social media next Thursday (Jan. 21) at 7 p.m.

The conversation will be moderated by Cincinnati Opera Artistic Advisor (and superstar opera bass) Morris Robinson. It will feature a panel of expert educators, performers, and professionals discussing opportunities to break down barriers through this important work. The program concludes with a question-and-answer session.

The panel:

  • Morris Robinson, bass and Cincinnati Opera Artistic Advisor, moderator

  • Flávia Bastos, PhD, Cincinnati Opera board member and distinguished research professor of art education, University of Cincinnati School of Art

  • Tiffany Cooper, director of community engagement and diversity, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

  • Jennifer A. Ingram, founder and CEO of Calibrated Lens and former vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion at United Way of Greater Cincinnati

This event will be streamed live—registration is not required. Watch on Facebook or YouTube on Thursday, January 21, at 7:00 p.m.

The year in review in the arts

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The CSO’s first digital experiment last spring in Music Hall was music for four musicians.

What a year! If you’re a musician or a music fan, you probably remember the last live concert you attended or performed before Covid-19 shut down the country in March. Mine was on March 10: My granddaughter’s middle school orchestra concert.

Looking back, I realized that my annual “best of the year” in performances could only apply to the 10 weeks before we were locked down. So I wrote my Year in Review column for the Business Courier in two parts, as BC — Before Covid — and after.

Soprano Angel Blue wowed in Barber in a CSO livestream.

There were some unforgettable shows during both periods. In the second half — a season of screens — I am still enthralled by the Sept. 26 CSO digital program streamed from Music Hall, conducted by Louis Langrée. Gorgeous-voiced soprano Angel Blue gave an emotional performance of Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” a piece rarely heard. And what a treat it was to hear Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” as originally scored for 13 instruments.

And in a rare live performance by Cincinnati Ballet outdoors at Sawyer Point, I loved a new work for four dancers, choreographed (and danced) to Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat (fourth movement) by soloist David

Cincinnati Ballet danced at Sawyer Point

Morse. It was thrilling to see the exuberance and strength, the lifts and turns of the entire company. The program was enhanced by performances by a CSO quartet and Cincinnati Opera singers Victoria Okafor and Maria Miller.

You can read that column here (it’s free).

Earlier this year, local critic and retired opera singer Rafael de Acha asked people in the arts to answer the question, “What have you been during during the pandemic?” for his blog, rafaelmusicnotes.com.

I thank him for that, because it made me look back at how I had the opportunity to document the impact of the pandemic on our arts community in the pages of the Business Courier. Here is some of that column:Read More »

Lights, cameras, action: Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker at Home’ to debut tonight on WLWT

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From a previous production, principal dancer Melissa Gelfin De-Poli (this year’s Sugar Plum Fairy) performs with Cervilio Miguel Amador; Photography: Peter Mueller

Tonight, for the first time ever, Cincinnati Ballet, WLWT (Channel 5) and Frisch’s have teamed up to present televised performances of the holiday classic “The Nutcracker.” This year’s “The Nutcracker at Home presented by Frisch’s” will premiere in Prime Time, 8 p.m. December 22, with additional re-broadcasts throughout the holiday season on both WLWT and MeTV, Cincinnati channel WLWT 5.2.

The re-imagined, one-hour broadcast is “a holiday gift to the community,” says Cincinnati Ballet President and CEO Scott Altman.

The performance was recorded in Music Hall using safety protocols. The production will introduce new choreography by Artistic Director Victoria Morgan with support from artistic team, who worked with Emmy award-winning Director David Ashbrock to adapt the ballet for television.

Please look below to see the entire cast.

Due to the pandemic, dancers will wear masks and follow socially-distancing guidelines, but Morgan said audiences will enjoy an up-close, immersive experience of The Nutcracker like never before.

“With eight cameras capturing moments from every angle, even on the stage itself, this is a truly unique experience,” said Morgan. “Those magical moments we share together each year remain in this production — Clara and the Nutcracker Prince, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, plus we’ve added a few surprises just for this broadcast version.”

Cincinnati Ballet Music Director Carmon DeLeone and 35 Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
musicians recorded a special score for the performance at Music Hall in late November. DeLeone
also spent many hours editing the music for this special broadcast. A streaming version of the
production will be also available to watch for a limited time after Christmas. More details to come at
cballet.org.Read More »

Cincinnati Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ to be digital only

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After high hopes of mounting an in-person, socially distanced “Nutcracker” this season, Cincinnati Ballet has announced that the production will be digital only. The reason is due to the ongoing surge of coronavirus locally.

“Given the ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases across the region, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel all in-person performances of The Nutcracker at Cincinnati Music Hall,” said Cincinnati Ballet President and CEO Scott Altman, in a statement. “We have a responsibility to the community to do all we can to stop the spread of COVID-19. While we will dearly miss performing for live audiences, we are producing and recording a re-imagined, hour-long performance everyone can enjoy in the comfort and safety of their own homes. We could think of no better gift for the community this holiday season.”

It is being reimagined as The Nutcracker at Home presented by Frisch’s Big Boy, and performances will be free.

The performance will be recorded at Cincinnati Music Hall following strict health and safety protocols. The production will feature Artistic Director Victoria Morgan’s whimsical choreography, Main Company dancers, and gorgeous sets and costumes.

“All those magical moments we share together each year remain in this production,” said Morgan. “Clara and the Nutcracker Prince, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, plus we’ve added a few surprises just for this digital version.”

A unique element is that the company’s partner in the pit, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, will create a recording of Tchaikovsky’s score for this special performance. Cincinnati Ballet Music Director Carmon DeLeone will conduct 35 CSO musicians for the recording at Music Hall.

Cincinnati Ballet successfully created live, in-person performances for Ballet in the Park and Cincinnati Made earlier this season.

More details will be announced in the coming days. Information: cballet.org.

Impressions of the CSO’s “Live from Music Hall”

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Louis Langrée leads the CSO and violinist Augustin Hadelich in a rarely heard violin concerto for “Live from Music Hall.”

Question: How is recording a concert for livestream different from a regular recording session or an orchestra rehearsal?

“It’s a very strange, weird experience,” said CSO maestro Louis Langrée, during a recording session at Music Hall last week. “Because, when it’s a recording, you record bits, and you might do a run-through and make patches on what didn’t work. There is all this editing. We can’t do that. So we run it twice, and if there are places, or some movement where either I need to do it again, or the film director needs to do it again, we run it a third time.”

You may have noticed that the orchestra is facing the acoustical shell, with backs to the hall — not only to hear each other better but because the visuals looking out into the hall are pretty on film. The musicians are widely spaced, with Plexiglas between the winds. Playing without an audience is odd for the musicians and maestro.Read More »

Cincinnati arts in top 20 of U.S. communities

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CCO musicians performing at Pyramid Hill sculpture park, Hamilton
May Festival Chorus

A new report from the National Center for Arts Research names Cincinnati in the top 20 of large communities for arts vibrancy. The report takes “a data-driven approach to assessing characteristics that make up a community’s vibrancy rather than base the ranking on our own opinion about locations or on a popular vote.” Four measures were analyzed: supply, demand, and public support for arts and culture on a per capita basis.

It’s interesting that such a report would come out during a pandemic, when most arts organizations closed their doors in March, and have been struggling to survive ever since. The reason, the report says, it offers the report “as a celebration and reminder of the arts’ enduring importance, resiliency, and vibrancy.

“We should not forget the essential role that the arts play in fueling community development, emotional health, cultural literacy, social cohesion and integration, and creative expression. Ultimately, the communal nature of arts participation will be a strength to communities hungry to come together again and affirm existential meaning after prolonged isolation, trauma, and polarization.”

Indeed.Read More »

Local classical music focuses on music by African American composers

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Anthony McGill performing at the Linton Music Series recently/ photo by Tina Gutierrez

 

Something good has come out of all the turmoil this summer. Arts organizations are programming music and even entire seasons devoted to the music of African American composers. It is music long neglected in our country. From the King of Ragtime Scott Joplin, whose “Maple Leaf Rag” appears on the Pops’ digital program on Oct. 3, to Florence Price, whose elegant symphonies, concertos and piano pieces are enjoying a revival, it is wonderful music that deserves study by scholars and performances by our major institutions. And now, that is happening at the Cincinnati Symphony, the Cincinnati Pops, the Cincinnati Song Initiative and others.

The Cincinnati Symphony and Pops are programming a free “digital season,” seven livestreamed concerts recorded in Music Hall, kicking off at 8 p.m. this Saturday, Sept. 26.Read More »

“Live from Linton” — Linton Chamber Music to return, livestreamed and with small audiences

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Sharon Robinson and Jaime Laredo, married duo and co-artistic directors of the storied Linton Music Series

Linton Chamber Music will return to its devoted fans. But, like everything else these days, the 2020-21 season has been “re-imagined.”

Live performances will be streamed online from the Linton stage at First Unitarian Church. Besides that, Linton Chamber Music will be making a small, limited amount of seating available to subscribers and donors.

CSO concertmaster Stefani Matsuo, principal cellist Ilya Finkelshteyn and CCM faculty member pianist Sandra Rivers

Starting Oct. 4, concerts will be streamed Live on Sundays at 4 pm on the Linton Chamber Music YouTube Channel, with audio engineering performed by WGUC (90.9) FM. Artists include co-artistic directors Sharon Robinson and Jaime Laredo, violinist Jennifer Koh, the return of the New York Philharmonic Quartet, the Miami String Quartet, faculty members from CCM and principal players from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

The musical lineup — as always — is enticing, including an all-Bach program for solo violin (Jennifer Koh), piano trios by Mendelssohn and Schumann, Bartok “Contrasts,” the Beethoven Septet in E-flat major and the Cincinnati premiere of a work by Richard Danielpour, String Quintet, A Shattered Vessel.”

You’ll be able to view programs on your flat-screen TV or your computer. Scroll to the end of this post for instructions.

The online performances are FREE. Donations are welcome, with a support button for each program on the website.

More about the programs:Read More »

New York radio WQXR to air CSO’s Beethoven Akademie 1808 concert this month

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Maesstro Louis Langrée, with soloist Inon Barnatan, the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Akademie 1808 concert in Music Hall/AJ Waltz, photos

“Mostly Mozart Festival on WQXR,” a week-long radio festival on New York’s classical radio station, will be capped on Aug. 16 by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven Akademie 1808 concert performed last season in Music Hall and conducted by music director Louis Langrée.

On Monday, WQXR and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts announced a partnership to broadcast archival performances from the annual Mostly Mozart Festival, as well as interviews, discussions and “pop-up” performances daily from Aug. 10 to Aug. 16.  New Yorkers can listen at 105.9-FM, or anyone may stream it online at wqxr.org. On opening day, a series of pop-up outdoor performances across all five New York City boroughs will stream live on WQXR’s Facebook page.

Due to Covid-19, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, which is led by Langrée, was canceled for the first time since its founding in 1966.

The festival will close on Aug. 16 with the CSO’s recreation of Beethoven’s legendary Akademie 1808, the most important concert of the composer’s lifetime (Aug 16, 5 pm ET). Langrée had intended to lead the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in this extravagant program — four hours of some of the greatest music Beethoven ever wrote. Instead, the festival will feature the performance recorded in Music Hall on March 1, 2020 with Langrée conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and featuring the May Festival Chorus prepared by Director of Choruses Robert Porco.
Read More »