Tag: WGUC

The world premiere of ‘John Lewis: Good Trouble,’ a lavish ‘Turandot’ and ‘Figaro’ will grace Cincinnati Opera’s 2027 season

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Cincinnati Opera will mount Puccini’s “Turandot” for the first time since 2015. Production photos of Palm Beach Opera Turandot, January 24, 2020. Bruce Bennett – Palm Beach Opera

Cincinnati Opera’s 2027 Summer Festival will open with the world premiere “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” chronicling the life of the U.S. Congressman and Civil Rights icon. The season will include a lavish production of Puccini’s “Turandot,” not seen in Music Hall since 2015. And Mozart’s irresistible comedy “The Marriage of Figaro” will round out the mainstage season.

As we have come to enjoy in recent years, there will be several single-night musical events.  In celebration of a new, $6 million gift from the Harry T. Wilks Family Foundation, “Viva Verdi!” will feature some of Verdi’s best-loved operatic music in a Music Hall concert in Springer Auditorium (7:30 p.m. June 25, 2027).  And the popular Studio Sessions of intimate musical evenings curated by the performing artists will continue in two performances in Wilks Studio, July 1 and July 14, both at 8 p.m. in Wilks Studio at Music Hall. More details on those events will be unveiled later.

Performances will run from June 18 through August 1, 2027.

Artistic director Evans Mirageas announced details of the 2027 on July 25 to the Music Hall audience assembled for opening night of Bizet’s “Carmen.”

Said Mirageas in a statement: “During our 2026 season, it was thrilling to see how enthusiastically audiences responded to The Black Opera Project’s first work, Lalovavi,’ an encouraging sign that this endeavor has arrived at just the right time. We continue that momentum next summer by shining a light on an inspiring American icon with the world premiere of ‘John Lewis: Good Trouble.’ Combined with the epic emotions of ‘Turandot,’ the witty charm of ‘The Marriage of Figaro,’ the celebratory spirit of ‘Viva Verdi!,’ and the artist-curated Studio Sessions, we look forward to creating memorable experiences that connect and uplift our community.”

More details:Read More »

Soundtrack of America and much more at the CCO’s Summermusik festival

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The Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra’s 12th Summermusik festival will hail America at 250 whil it carries on the orchestra’s tradition of imaginative programs across the city and region. This summer’s festival, Aug. 4-29, will included the artist debuts of renowned cellist Zuill Bailey and Fabiola Méndez, a virtuoso of the cuatro, a Latin American string instrument.

Eckart Preu is music director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra

Eckart Preu, music director of the CCO, will open the mainstage season with the world premiere of  “Visions of Humanity and Unity,” featuring Bailey as soloist. The cello concerto is a tribute to America’s 250th birthday this year, and each of its five movements is composed by a different composer: Mark O’Connor, Avner Dorman, Enrico Chapela, Zhou Tian and Chanda Dancy.

Cincinnati-based opera soprano Victoria Okafor joins the CCO for a semi-staged performance of Kurt Weill’s 20th century masterpiece “The Seven Deadly Sins.” And audience favorite Roger Klug returns to The Redmoor for a Chamber Crawl highlighting the legacy of American rock legends such as Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson.

The festival will continue the successful mix of four mainstage concerts at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, as well as weeknight “Chamber Crawls” and Sunday matinees dubbed “A Little Afternoon Musik.” Read More »

Israeli Chamber Project’s harrowing trip to Cincinnati

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The Israeli Chamber Project with violinist Antje Weithaas played Chamber Music Cincinnati this week.

Imagine being a touring musician while your country is at war. Clarinetist Tibi Cziger and his wife cellist Michal Korman were in a safe room with their three children in Tel Aviv when their home was hit and damaged by a bomb from Iran. The couple, members of the Israeli Chamber Project, were on the brink of their North American tour. They quickly decided that Korman would stay home with their traumatized children, while Cziger would travel to the U.S.

So began an odyssey just to get here. Cziger, who is founder and artistic director of the Israeli Chamber Project, and flutist Guy Eshed, principal flutist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, flew from Tel Aviv to Athens to Zurich to Chicago. (The others were coming from New York, Georgia and Germany.) From Chicago, the musicians were unable to get a flight to Cincinnati. The group, based in Israel and New York, had already been forced to make changes with some substitute players for their first two tour performances due to their travel woes. They decided to drive.

The fact that they arrived on time for their Chamber Music Cincinnati performance on March 24 in Memorial Hall was nothing short of a miracle. Their performance was not only a feat of superb artistry and virtuosity, but also of grit, determination and even courage. The audience stood for lengthy ovations at its conclusion.

For the tour, the ensemble joined with the distinguished violinist Antje Weithaas, now a professor at Berlin’s Hochschule fur Musik, and named “Instrumentalist of the Year” at Germany’s 2025 Opus Klassic. Besides Cziger and Eshed, the ensemble was rounded out by violinist Itamar Zorman (winner of the 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition); violist Guy Ben-Ziony (currently visiting professor at the Robert Schumann University of Music and Media in Düsseldorf); and pianist Assaff Weisman, a graduate of The Juilliard School where he now teaches. Cellist James Kim admirably stepped in at the last minute to play for Michal Korman for the whole tour. He is on the faculty of University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music and cellist of the Lysander Piano Trio.

They opened with Bernard Hermann’s “Souvenir de Voyage” for clarinet and string quartet. The first movement’s theme, a haunting tune set against lush strings, was ideal for the rich timbre of Cziger’s clarinet. Clarinet and violin traded themes much of the time, and their phrases were were tinged with nostalgia in the slow movement, Berceuse. The evocative finale was inspired by J.M. W. Turner’s Venetian watercolors, and began in the two violins, almost like a Kreisler miniature. Hermann, of course, is revered for his film scores, and these souvenirs were like small cinematic gems, and a wonderful discovery.Read More »

Opera review: CCM’s ‘Mahagonny,’ ‘Les Mamelles’ double bill is a triumph

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CCM’s Opera Department mounted a double bill, including Poulenc’s “Les Mamelles de Tirésias,” shown above. Photos by Mark Lyons

In Poulenc’s surreal opera “Les Mamelles de Tirésias,” (The Breasts of Tirésias), Thérèse opened her blouse and two balloons popped out. As her “breasts” floated away, Thérèse, who decided to become a feminist, promptly popped them, grew a beard, changed her name to Tirésias and sang a ravishing waltz.

It was giggly, outrageous and in many ways, timeless.

Jose Maria Condemi, the new Associate Director of Opera at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, made his directorial debut over the weekend with an impressive double bill of Kurt Weill’s “Mahagonny Songspiel” and Francis Poulenc’s “Les Mamelles de Tirésias.”

Smartly staged and featuring a cast of fresh rising-stars and imaginative sets by students Luke Dufilho (Mahagonny) and EJ Goodman (Les Mamelles), it was an enchanting evening of theater. From the steamy, dissolute world of Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny to Poulenc’s surreal fantasy of Zanzibar — where a man could produce 40,049 babies in one day — the audience was alternately riveted and howling with laughter.

Condemi, who is an alumnus of CCM and has an extensive portfolio, joined the faculty in August of 2025. He’s familiar to Cincinnati Opera fans, who saw him stage “Ainadamar,” “Don Giovanni,” “La Traviata,” “Tosca” and “Lucia di Lammermoor.”

In the small orchestra pit, these two jazzy and bubbly scores received spirited readings by CCM musicians, conducted by William Langley, currently resident conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, among other titles. He’s a gifted and very busy maestro, and has returned several times to lead productions at his alma mater, CCM, where he earned a Master’s Degree with Mark Gibson.

The cast of Kurt Weill’s “Mahagonny Songspiel”

Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s “Mahagonny Songspiel” of 1927 is a 30-minute precursor to the full-blown opera, “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.” It offers a grim, cynical picture of Germany between the wars. I saw the Friday (Feb. 27) performance in CCM’s intimate Cohen Family Studio Theater (CCM has alternate casts).Read More »

Notre-Dame Cathedral’s Vincent Dubois impresses on Museum Center’s E.M. Skinner Organ

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Vincent Dubois, titular organist of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris

Hundreds of aficionados of organ music — as well as admirers of the stunning Art Deco Rotunda in Cincinnati Museum Center — braved a dark and stormy night on Oct. 29 to attend the opening concert of the Music in the Museum series. The excellent organist Vincent Dubois, now titular organist of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, performed a substantial program on the great E.M. Skinner concert organ built in 1929, the year Union Terminal began construction.

The organ is designed in the American Symphonic Organ tradition, able to produce every tone of a symphonic orchestra, and then some. Cincinnati’s E.M. Skinner organ is one of the treasures of the United States.

At one moment, Dubois paused to thank those who have supported the organ, saying, “It’s rare to find this quality of voicing… I enjoyed discovering so many colors and textures. It’s infinite in that instrument.”

Besides his Paris post, Dubois is newly appointed Professor of organ interpretation and improvisation at the Hochschule für Musik (University of Music) in Saarbrücken, Germany. His wide-ranging selections included many by French composers, some rarely heard, which were a treat to hear.

Dubois opened with J.S. Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582. His sound was instantly enthralling, from the deep tones of the repeating bass line (or ground bass) to the wonderful embellishments that unfolded above it. The music in the highest register had a spiritual quality, and you could see that the organist felt every note. The concluding fugue was majestic, and he held its final note at length, allowing the sound to continue ringing in the resonant acoustic of the Rotunda.

Dubois with Kelly Hale conducting behind the organ, and page turner Bert Nelson.

Dubois called upon two collaborators for the next three works: Russell Burge, CCM Professor of Percussion, and Kelly Hale, Professor Emeritus of Opera and Coaching, who conducted the spacially separated duo.

Percussionist Russell Burge was situated against the Rotunda wall, the clearest acoustical spot for the collaboration.

Jean-Philippe Rameau was represented by the dance, “Les sauvages” from Rameau’s 1735 opera-ballet, “Les Indes galantes,” accompanied by marvelous drumming by Burge. The work was inspired by a visit to France by Indigenous American chiefs in 1725.

Dubois then fast-forwarded to 20th-century France with three movements from Francis Poulenc‘s “Suite française,” originally an orchestral suite from his incidental music to a play, “La Reine Margot.” Typical of Poulenc, there were dissonances and witty dialogues between organ and snare drum. The colors of the organ ranged from warm to reedy.

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Spooky Halloween music

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What’s your favorite spooky music for Halloween? Mine is “Night on Bald Mountain.” There’s also “Symphonie fantastique” (gulp). Here are a few classical suggestions for holiday listening:

WGUC (90.9 FM) will be playing its annual Tunes from the Crypt, from 6-8 p.m. on Oct. 31.

Dia de los Muertos

If you’ve got a ticket to the Cincinnati Symphony’s CSO Proof event, “Dia de los Muertos,” 8 p.m. tonight, Oct. 30, you’re lucky. The candlelit event is SOLD OUT. It will be visually appealing and they collaborating with local artist Rebecca Nava Soto, a Mariachi band and the Cincinnati Baila! Dance Academy. The program features Latin American music and will have candles, an ofrenda and have epitaphs in a graveyard, where guests can add their own voice to the ofrenda.

There are still tickets for Disney’s “Hokus Pokus in Concert,” Nov. 1 and 2 in Music Hall. Join Max, Allison and Dani on a magical Halloween romp through Salem as they match wits with the legendary Sanderson sisters. Catch this bewitching film on the big screen as the Cincinnati Pops performs the score live to film. 513-381-3300, or click here.

Across the river, James R. Cassidy and the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra will open their season with Nosferatu (A Symphony Of Horrors), film to live orchestral accompaniment, 7:30 p.m. Friday, October 31 in Greaves Concert Hall at NKU. The silent horror film classic Nosferatu is paired with the music from the 1828 opera Der Vampyr, adapted to the film for live orchestral accompaniment by composer Timothy Brock. The evening will open with the Disney 1929 cartoon “The Skeleton Dance” featuring Carl Stallings’ musical accompaniment, before launching into the 86-minute feature film. Attend dressed as your favorite cinematic vampire and receive a free, bloody-good drink courtesy of the KSO. For additional info and tickets — visit kyso.org or call (859) 431- 6216. Tickets: $19 – $35

Megan Moore impresses in recital, including new work by Jake Heggie

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Mezzo-soprano Megan Moore with pianist Francesco Barfoed; photo by Gayna Bassin

Mezzo-soprano Megan Moore brought a substantial, varied program to Matinee Musicale on Oct. 12 in Memorial Hall. It was her professional recital debut in the Queen City, although the singer, a native of West Chester and a Lakota West and Miami University grad, sang on Cincinnati Music Hall’s stage at age 14 with the May Festival Youth Chorus under the baton of James Conlon. “I thought I was a rock star,” she said, praising the foundation in the arts that she had received here. Now she enjoys an international career, which includes singing Rosina in “The Barber of Seville” with Seattle Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, and her company and role debut this season as Octavian in “Der Rosenkavalier” at New Orleans Opera.

Her exellent piano collaborator was Danish-born Francesco Barfoed, whom she met when both were at Juilliard. Their program included the second performance of a new song cycle by Jake Heggie, which, she told me later, he tailored to her voice. They gave its world premiere in April at the Morgan Library in New York, presented by the George and Nora London Foundation for Singers.

This was Moore’s first recital since having a baby via C-section seven weeks ago, which was an astonishing feat considering the control needed and the artistry she displayed. A large contingent of friends and family (and baby, too) were on hand, including former high school and college teachers.Read More »

Musica Sacra celebrates 60 with a world premiere

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A previous concert by Musica Sacra at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption/ photo provided

The choral ensemble Musica Sacra has commissioned a new work in honor of its 60th anniversary. Directed by Dr. L. Brett Scott, Musica Sacra will perform the world premiere of “Receiving” by award-winning composer Jessica French, 3 p.m. October, 26, 2025 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, KY. The program also includes Haydn’s “Harmoniemesse.”

Musica Sacra is second only to the Cincincinnati May Festival as the oldest continually operating community choral group in Cincinnati. It was founded in 1965 by Helmut Roehrig, whose vision was to create an ensemble for performing sacred choral literature in the spaces for which they were intended, accompanied by an orchestra, and at no charge to the public. He led the group for 50 years.

The Seattle-based composer will attend the performance. During the week, she’ll work with students at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, where Scott is Professor of Ensembles and Conducting. French’s work has been commissioned by BBC Singers, the St. Olaf Cantorei and Orchestra; the St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys (NYC), and the Choir of Trinity Church Wall Street (NYC) among others.Read More »

CCM fills more positions: Violinist Kenneth Renshaw and Tyler Ehrlich, wind studies

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Kenneth Renshaw, photo by Yang Bao

UC College-Conservatory of Music Dean Pete Jutras has been busy announcing new faculty members to fill many vacancies that have occurred this year at CCM. He’s just announced the appointment of Kenneth Renshaw as CCM’s new Assistant Professor of Violin.

In addition, the dean has announced Tyler Ehrlich, DMA, as CCM’s new assistant professor and Assistant Director of Wind Studies.

Both faculty appointments officially begin on Aug. 15, 2025.Read More »

Show goes on, but network outage reported at Music Hall

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The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has reported a network outage at Music Hall. Saturday’s Classical Roots in-person performance in Music Hall will continue as planned. However, the digital premiere will now take place on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. (instead of live) on the CSO’s YouTube channel and website.

Also, the box office is closed, but the website, cincinnatisymphony.org, is fully operational.

The orchestra said in a statement that it is working quickly to resolve the issue.