Tag: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

CSO, Pops cancel fall season; live-streamed shows planned

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An image I captured during the CSO’s livestream from Music Hall in May.

It’s no surprise. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra announced today that its fall season concerts for the CSO and Pops are canceled through Jan. 3 2021 due to Covid-19. Click here to read the story.

Louis Langrée

The orchestra joins a growing number of major North American orchestras that are canceling all or part of their 2020-21 seasons amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus.

The Indianapolis Symphony was the latest to cancel its entire season on July 24. Here’s a link to the news.

The Nashville Symphony also has announced it will not play in 2020-21. It will furlough its musicians, staff and even its music director, Giancarlo Guerrero. Press release here.

Toronto announced that it will not have its usual season, but will present scaled-down ensembles, even in its home in Roy Thomson Hall..

Those who have announced they will cancel their fall seasons only (for now) include The New Jersey Symphony, which is led by music director Xian Zhang, who earned her doctorate at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

The San Francisco Symphony, with its season canceled through Dec. 31, was to have welcomed its new music director Esa-Pekka Salonen this fall.

Other major orchestras canceling fall seasons include the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony, Chicago Symphony (through Dec. 23) and the Baltimore Symphony, optimistically to the end of November.

CSO announces 5 new diversity fellows

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Amy Nickler

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) have selected five accomplished musicians for their next class of CSO/CCM Diversity Fellows.

The performance fellowship program was launched in 2015 out of a desire to help American orchestras be more inclusive and to better represent the communities they serve. The mission is to eliminate obstacles that can prevent musicians of color from achieving their full potential. It is funded with a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Through the collaborative program, CCM and the CSO provide graduate level academic study
and professional development and performance opportunities for the Diversity Fellows.

“The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra exists to serve our community. Our entire community,”
said CSO President Jonathan Martin. “But how can we authentically serve our entire community
if a significant part of that community doesn’t see themselves reflected in our organization? The
CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship is one of many steps we are taking to address this disparity. By
providing professional opportunities to a more diverse group of outstanding musicians, we hope
to cultivate—and begin changing —the next generation of American orchestral musicians.”

The new Fellows are:Read More »

What will make you feel safe going to a concert or museum?

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As the country begins to open up after the pandemic lockdown, I’m seeing many surveys coming across my email, asking “What will make you feel safe going back to your old activities?”

Those activities, for me, include returning to concerts, plays, museums, ballet, the intimate venues and the larger ones, events that take place indoors and outdoors. I miss it all.

Of course, it’s a complex question. It’s clear that arts organization around the world have been pondering how they would reopen — safely — ever since everything closed in mid-March.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra took a first step with a chamber music concert live-streamed from an empty Music Hall last Saturday. Click here to read my impressions, free on Bizjournals.com.

I’d like to hear from you. What might make you feel safe attending an arts or cultural entity again? Social distancing, face masks and hand sanitizer? Reliable Covid-19 treatments and tests? A vaccine?

Comment here, on Facebook or send me a note a Janellesnotes@yahoo.com

CSO to live-stream first Music Hall concert since pandemic shut-down this Saturday

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Concertmaster Stefani Matsuo will be one of the musicians featured in the CSO’s first “Live from Music Hall.”
Photo by Jake Anderson

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra will present Live from Music Hall, the first physically distanced live performance from the stage of Music Hall, 8 p.m. Saturday, May 16. The performance will be streamed on the CSO’s Facebook page, YouTube channel and website.

It is the first live performance in Music Hall since the Covid-19 pandemic closed all theaters in mid-March. The small ensemble of musicians will be following social distancing procedures onstage. There will be no audience in the hall.

The concert is dedicated “to the people of Cincinnati and beyond, to lift their spirits, and to thank those who have been at risk for their contributions to our continued safety and well-being,” said music director Louis Langrée.

Langrée will host the live-streamed, chamber music performance from the house of Springer Auditorium. CSO musicians will be playing Gustav Mahler’s Piano Quartet and the world premiere of the first piece for The Fanfare Project, a work written for principal oboist Dwight Parry by CSO Creative Partner Matthias Pintscher.Read More »

Louis Langrée to host online event tonight

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CSO music director Louis Langrée will host “Louis on 125 – The Luminaries” in a special one-hour livestream event, 7 p.m. today (April 31), available on Facebook and YouTube.

Join Langrée via live-stream as he explores the orchestra’s origin and extraordinary musical legacy in honor of the CSO’s 125th anniversary. This final installment in the three-part “Louis on 125” series explores some of the many musical greats that have collaborated with the CSO in the first 125 years and provides a look at the CSO’s history.
The event was moved online due to the pandemic.
In the photo: Composer George Gershwin (first on the left) with taxi horns outside of Cincinnati’s Emery Theater following the CSO performance of An American in Paris.

Covid-19 update: Digital resources to calm and entertain

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The CSO and Pops are making recordings available online. Mark Lyons, photo

Here’s a list of things to do, thanks to ArtWave and other sources:

ArtsWave’s daily Mindful Music Moments This free online series offers 10 weeks of daily doses of guided meditation set to music by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Opera.

• Baker Hunt Art & Cultural Center’s daily online art project

• The Children’s Theater of Cincinnati podcast and performance of
“Suffragettes: With Liberty and Voting For All”

• Cincinnati Art Museum online collection

• Cincinnati Museum Center’s Wonder Zone videos (starting with Kellogg the Corn Snake

• Cincinnati Opera’s podcast with Evans Mirageas. You’ll learn about the life and work of everyone who brings opera to life, from performers and seasoned stage directors to rising contemporary composers.

• Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s Home Safaris Facebook Live events

• Online classes with Clifton Cultural Arts Center

• Hear a live recording of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in Concert

• Watch the Cincinnati Pops perform American Soundscapes: Star Trek

• Classics for Kids. Click here to find podcasts, activity sheets, lesson plans and more. The 6-minute episodes are produced by Cincinnati Public Radio.

• On-demand streaming from Know Theatre of Cincinnati (tickets required)

• Musical Mornings with Linton Chamber Music Peanut Butter and Jam
Sessions

• Sound Discoveries: Liz Wu instructs in musical instruments you can make at home.

• Virtual story times from the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton
County — including “Fiona’s Feelings”

Starling Chamber Orchestra: See Boyun Li play the Bruch Violin Concerto. Live recording from Starling Showcase of amazingly talented young students, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, conducted by François López-Ferrer. Recorded live on February 22, 2020 in Werner Recital Hall at CCM.

Watch for updates: Coronavirus causing cancellations in Cincy’s concert season

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From a recent Linton Chamber concert. Linton has canceled concerts this weekend.

You’ve probably seen the cancellations across the country due to COVID-19 — of sporting events, parades and arts presentations in large theaters — from opera and ballet to “Hamilton” (canceled in San Francisco).

Just in: The Findlay Market Opening Day Parade on March 26 will be either canceled or postponed.

As far as the arts in Cincinnati, I’ve gotten official word that the Linton Chamber Music Series concerts on March 15-16 have been cancelled this weekend. In addition, there will be no “Peanut Butter & Jam Session” this week at Mt. Washington Presbyterian Church or next week at Sycamore Presbyterian Church. Information here.

Because the University of Cincinnati is canceling in-person classes from March 14 through April 13, I’m hearing from faculty members that performances at the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) will be canceled through the end of the semester. It’s possible that some may be live-streamed, if you interpret the UC message below: Read More »

All Beethoven, all the time

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Stefani Matsuo
Photo by Jake Anderson

Beethoven’s 250th birthday this year (Dec. 16 2020) is offering musical groups around the world a reason to celebrate this revolutionary composer. This weekend, the chamber ensemble concert:nova is presenting Beethoven’s violin and cello sonatas in three consecutive concerts. It will offer a chance to hear musicians of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, including new concertmaster Stefani Matsuo, performing with some excellent pianists, faculty members at CCM and Oberlin.

Here’s the lineup. There will be cake — presents not necessary.

The concerts are at the First Lutheran Church, 1208 Race Street in OTR. Tickets are $25 in advance; $30 at the door or $60 for the whole birthday bundle. Click here to purchase.Read More »

Service set for former CSO bassoonist William Winstead

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Winstead performing on the Linton Music Series recently. Photos by Tina Guiterrez

 

 

A service is planned on Sunday, Feb. 23, at Music Hall for William Winstead, former principal bassoonist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Visitation will begin at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 23 with the funeral to follow at 6:30 p.m. in Corbett Tower at Music Hall.

Karin Pendle, a pioneering scholar of women in music and a mentor to many

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Karin Pendle low resShe was a soloist with Cincinnati May Festival and edited “A City that Sings” on Cincinnati’s choral history

Karin Swanson Pendle was a pioneer in the scholarship of women in music and a professor who inspired legions of students at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

For many, she was a mentor. Personally, it was through her groundbreaking course on women in music at CCM that I became acquainted with the breadth and depth of women’s contributions to music. It became a passion that continues to this day. Although Dr. Pendle was a demanding and sometimes formidable professor, she was also fiercely supportive even while pushing her students to achieve their highest potential. If we ever displayed self-doubt, she was quick to remind us that “you have a brain,” always encouraging us to think, dig deeper and find our own answers.

“Her praise was rare, but precious,” said musicologist Jennifer Thomas.

Dr. Pendle died on Dec. 9 at Twin Towers in College Hill, Cincinnati. She was 80.

Dr. Pendle edited and wrote a chapter for “Women and Music: A History,” one of the first textbooks ever printed on women’s roles in music when it was published in 1991 by Indiana University Press. She also edited the textbook’s second edition, published in 2001.

It remains an invaluable survey of women’s activities in music performance, composition, teaching and patronage from the time of ancient Greece to the present day, illuminating achievements by women that have been largely invisible through the centuries.Read More »