Tag: John Morris Russell

Cincinnati Opera releases world premiere recording of ‘Blind Injustice’

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(L to R) Mark Godsey, Rickey Jackson, Laurese Glover, Derrick Wheatt, Eugene Johnson, Nancy Smith, and Clarence Elkins. Photo by Space Cabin Studios/provided by Cincinnati Opera

Cincinnati Opera has just announced the release of the live audio recording of the world premiere production of “Blind Injustice,” the acclaimed new opera with music by Scott Davenport Richards and libretto by David Cote. Directed by Robin Guarino, the opera was recorded in the Wilks Studio at Cincinnati’s Music Hall in July 2019 and is being released on the Fanfare Cincinnati label.

The digital album is now available for purchase via Amazon Music, iTunes, and other digital music retailers, and for streaming via Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, and other music streaming services.

The CD is available for pre-order at cincinnatiopera.org/bravo-shop.

The recording features the original cast, the Cincinnati Opera Chorus, members of YPCC, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra led by Cincinnati Pops Conductor John Morris Russell.

The opera explores the true stories of six innocent people who were convicted of crimes they did not commit, then ultimately freed by the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) at UC Law. A collaboration with the OIP and Cincinnati’s Young Professionals Choral Collective (YPCC), the opera is based on casework by the OIP and the book Blind Injustice by UC law professor and OIP Director Mark Godsey. Read More »

Three Halloween shows — from virtual to in-person

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KSO musicians

J.R. Cassidy, music director of the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, wins the prize for most creativity during Covid in finding an indoor venue big enough for a live orchestra concert with social distancing.

The KSO will be opening its 29th season on Halloween night in an industrial warehouse in Hebron, KY.

“Keeping musicians employed and playing during the Covid crisis requires following safety guidelines that are nearly impossible to enact within traditional auditorium settings,” says Cassidy, in his release.

A warehouse is the concert hall this weekend for the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra

So the resourceful conductor looked for an unconventional space. Verst Group Logistics generously offered the Symphony the use of its Hebron warehouse. It has the square footage of a football field and 40-foot high ceilings to address adequate distancing and circulation concerns.

But that’s not all. An orchestra needs rehearsals. The City of Bellevue helped out for a single rehearsal at the former Joe’s Crab Shak.

The program, “Strings Noir,” is a Halloween mix of string classics that should provide a good scare for musicians and audience alike, Cassidy says. The music includes Ottorino Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No.3; Arnold Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht (1943 revised); Bernard Hermann’s Suite from Pyscho; and Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge.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 »

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.

Live stream tonight: Walnut Hills High teen to perform as finalist in Hilton Head Piano Competition

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Kasey Shao, 16, a rising star pianist and a junior at Walnut Hills High School, is a finalist in the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. You can hear her perform the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 for the Final Round with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Morris Russell at 7 p.m. tonight (March 14).

It will be live-streamed here.

Kasey studies with Ran Dank at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

The last time I interviewed her, she was preparing for the Van Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition. You can read about her previous performances and competitions in that article.

For info about the competition, click here.

We wish her luck!

‘Classical Roots’ to explore Music Hall’s diverse history

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Classical Roots Community Mass Choir
Photo provided

This year’s “Classical Roots” concert will explore Music Hall’s history as a gathering place for a wide spectrum of Cincinnati’s society.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s “Under One Roof,” led by Pops conductor John Morris Russell, will take place at 7:30 p.m. on April 20 in Music Hall. The program will illuminate Music Hall’s history — both as a great concert venue for the orchestra in the main hall and as a community gathering place that hosted many of the greatest jazz, soul, rock and R&B artists of the 20th century in the Greystone Club. Today that space in the South Hall is known as the Music Hall Ballroom.Read More »

Review: Pops’ American Originals looks back a century

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Steep Canyon Rangers
Steep Canyon Rangers stole the show at the Pops. Lee Snow, photo

The Cincinnati Pops’ American Originals concert on Friday was a trip down memory lane to America’s musical roots a century ago.

For Vol. 2 of his Americana project, Pops maestro John Morris Russell brought together an eclectic  group  of guests, ranging from the sensational bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers to the extraordinary singer and MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Rhiannon Giddens.

Like the first edition, the show was recorded live in Music Hall for an album on the Pops’ Fanfare Cincinnati label by the Grammy-winning producer Elaine Martone and engineer Michael Bishop.Read More »

Review: Pops ‘Star Wars’ show is glorious tribute to John Williams

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20171013_POPS_ml6592
a multi-generational crowd filled Music Hall for the “Star Wars” show at the Pops. Mark Lyons, photo.

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, John Williams composed the first soundtrack for “Star Wars.” That collaboration with George Lucas  (later subtitled “A New Hope”) launched one of the most successful  space epic film series of all time.  Today, it’s hard to imagine these space odysseys where aliens and humanoids coexist with robotic droids without Williams’ thrilling symphonic scores.

On Friday, Williams’ music, famous for its big brass and sweeping strings, took the starring role, as John Morris Russell led the Cincinnati Pops in a retrospective of some of the Hollywood legend’s greatest themes. The second half of the program was entirely devoted to the “Star Wars” franchise, while the first sampled from other films, such as “Harry Potter” and “E.T.”

It was the Pops’ first performance in Music Hall following a $143 million renovation that has updated the 140-year-old building and completely reconfigured the orchestra’s home in Springer Auditorium. A multi-generational, sold-out crowd filled the hall. In the new Pops configuration, it seats nearly 2,500. (A few tickets might be available for Sunday’s show.) Read More »

Follow the Cincinnati Pops on tour

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John Morris Russell rehearsing for Pops Holiday show in Music Hall
John Morris Russell rehearsing for Pops Holiday show in Music Hall

The Cincinnati Pops has a website and a Twitter hashtag so fans can follow the orchestra on its first-ever tour to Florida over the coming week. Get updates from the tour by visiting cincinnatipops.org/florida or follow #PopsOnTour via social media. The site has a map of the tour stops, a blog, videos and information about the artists.

The orchestra’s first performance is this Sunday at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg. The other dates are the Broward Center for Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 8; the Ocean Reef Cultural Center in Key Largo on Dec. 10; and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota on Dec. 11.

Read more about the tour in this article.

Here’s a link to my review of Friday’s Pops tour preview  program at Music Hall.

And here’s a link to the review of last weekend’s all-Tchaikovsky concert by the CSO in Music Hall.