Lobby chandeliers will be taken out and replaced with more streamlined “torchiere” lights
Music Hall will close in less than two months, and we’ve been writing a number of updates about the plans. Finally, the Enquirer has a page that is dedicated to renovation stories. Watch for a call for your own Music Hall Memories soon!
Here’s the link. You can also go to cincinnati.com and put Music Hall Renovation in the search box.
Of course, Music Hall is home to the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, May Festival, and when the rehab is done, Cincinnati Ballet.Read More »
Music Hall: Planned configuration of Springer Auditorium/Michael Nyerges/The Enquirer
After more than two years of waiting, the group that is renovating Music Hall has finally revealed the plans for the hall. Yes, you’ll get 62 percent more restrooms and lots of new bars in the plan, now at $135 million. But what’s happening to the concert hall, Springer Auditorium? It has long been known for its grandeur as well as its fine acoustics. There will be a vast number of changes to the concert space. They include changing the cubic volume of Springer Auditorium, building new walls of concrete board inside the old walls, re-raking all three floors with new materials (concrete with wood overlay), moving the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra farther out into the hall on a thrust stage, putting the musicians on risers installing new acoustical clouds, reworking the orchestra shell, taking out about 1,000 seats, putting in new seats and changing the configuration of them, which includes getting rid of the center aisle.Read More »
The arts are in full swing when it’s cold outside. Here are a few of my favorite things to “clip and save” in the coming weeks from Classical and Dance calendars:Read More »
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is betting that the worst of the storm of the century, Jonas will miss Cincinnati. They are offering a deal — name your own price for Friday night by calling 513-381-3300 and asking for Pay What You Can tickets. Or, for either Friday or Saturday, you can use promo code STAY AWAY JONAS to get half off tickets for either performance. Both concerts are 8 p.m. in Music Hall.
Here’s the program:
Colin Currie; Photo by Marco Borggreve
Guest conductor Cristian Măcelaru leads Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations, which includes the lovely “Nimrod” heard at Lumenocity 2014. The soloist is the extraordinary percussionist Colin Currie, who performs music written for him by American composer Julia Wolfe.
In riSE and fLY, subtitled “A Body Concerto,” he first plays entirely on his body, with claps, chest slaps and stamps, then moves to a variety of found objects for “street percussion” effects.
Gunther Schuller had lifelong ties to Cincinnati
Also featured on this program is music of Gunther Schuller, who at age 17 was named Principal Horn of the CSO and has composed two works for the orchestra. Here’s my tribute to Schuller, written when he died in June.
Music Hall’s Springer Auditorium will look quite different when it reopens after a $130 million renovation. Photo from Enquirer files
Perhaps you saw the article about Music Hall, — which closes in five months for renovation — informing visitors of what to expect in the coming months. But there was a sidebar that never made print.
The Enquirer asked this question of local concertgoers, Music Hall stakeholders and resident companies via e-mail and on Facebook: “As we move to 2016 and Music Hall closes in June for a massive renovation, what are your thoughts, concerns, and/or hopes about the project?”
Here are some of the responses:
“My main concern, as always, is for the acoustics of Music Hall. As you well know, even the smallest physical change can have a major impact on the acoustics. Let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best!” – Pat Nott, College HillRead More »
Everyone loves lists. Here are just 10 of my favorite concert memories from 2015. As soon as I wrote them, I realized there were many more I had left out, from the superb concert:nova concerts to Xavier Piano Series, the Linton Series, and a wonderful Mahler concert recently by the CCM Philharmonia.
Best rock fusion: Shrieking fans, long lines snaking to the bars, a crush of people surrounding a band in the lobby – those are things you wouldn’t expect at a concert of the 120-year-old Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra’s second annual collaboration in Music Hall with Cincinnati’s MusicNOW Festival, founded by Bryce Dessner a decade ago, rocked. The March concerts included the debut of Dessner’s indie-rock band The National with Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony – a first for both.
Cincinnati Opera’s Turandot
Best sight gags in an opera: Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte,” directed by Robin Guarino at CCM in April, had bawdy translations and hilarious sight gags that drew belly laughs. The updated production featured a Mid-Century Modern house with a hot tub, and a couple of swinging Albanian strangers looking like John Lennon and George Harrison had just wandered off the set of the “The Magical Mystery Tour.” It was brilliantly sung by CCM opera students and Mozart’s witty music was buoyant and fleet in the hands of conductor Mark Gibson.Read More »
Did you attend Lumenocity? Would you go again, or after the third time, is it time to “give it a rest and move on to something new? When the first Lumenocity debuted in 2013, it was a phenomenon that galvanized the city. Presented by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and designed by the OTR firm […]
Gunther Schuller, a giant of American music, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and the man who defined the fusion of classical and jazz as “Third Stream,” died on June 21 at age 89. Many tributes note that he was the youngest French hornist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra early in his career (1943-45).
“It was a very rich and rewarding period in my life, a growing period because I was 17 to 19 (years old),” Schuller told me in an interview.
After concerts, he often continued playing in late-night jazz clubs in Cincinnati. However, his ties to Cincinnati continued for his entire life. In fact, he taught at the old College of Music, which is where he met his wife Marjorie. (Perhaps he was also their youngest-ever faculty member!)Read More »
James Conlon leads May Festival soloists, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and May Festival Chorus in Haydn’s The Creation. Photo provided by May Festival/Mark Lyons
Looking back at last month’s May Festival, the five-concert season was an artistic triumph. The only disappointment was in the attendance. Officials blamed it on Memorial Day weekend, which fell this year on the festival’s opening, rather than closing concerts.
The May Festival Chorus/ photo provided by May Festival/Mark Lyons
But currently, behind the scenes, those in high positions are discussing how the festival might reinvent itself. And as I noted in this column, the challenges are many. Not least will be finding a superb artistic leader — or leaders — to succeed James Conlon. As Conlon said before he left town to conduct opera in Italy, “As I look forward and know that every music lover in Cincinnati looks forward to the future of the May Festival, whatever form it may take, I hope that the core value of this legacy of choral music will be preserved.”
The Cathedral Basilica was a magical setting for Bach. Photo provided by May Festival/Philip Groshong
Where else can one hear such tremendous music, a marathon that takes place over two weekends each May? The breadth and depth this year were astonishing. The chorus has never sounded better, with a large amount of credit going to Robert Porco, celebrating his 25th season as director of choruses.
In memory of B.B. King, one of the greatest blues artists of all time, who died this week, I am posting an interview I did with him in 2007, when he played Cincinnati Music Hall.
I’ll never forget the time he played the Cincy Blues Festival down at Sawyer Point, and there must have been 20,000 people on the lawn! Rest in Peace, B.B.Read More »
