The College-Conservatory of Music at UC has been busy adding faculty members recently. Dean Stanley Romanstein announced these prominent new profs this week:
Kristin Lee has been appointed Assistant Professor of Violin beginning Aug. 15, 2021. She is a recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as a top prizewinner of the 2012 Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions.
A new podcast created by UC College-Conservatory of Music alumni takes listeners inside the entertainment industry with stories and advice from Broadway performers, television actors, movie producers, make-up artists and more.
“School, Stage & Screen” is a revealing 11-episode podcast about success stories and fantastic failures from the entertainment industry — as experienced by graduates of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Producer Brian J. Leitten (BFA E-Media, ’02) and Broadway performer Dylan Mulvaney (BFA Musical Theatre, ’19) delve into the differences between college and the real world with other CCM alumni like Diana Maria Riva (actor from Netflix’s Dead To Me), Andrea Stilgenbauer (producer of Kidding and The Affair on Showtime) and Brian Newman (Jazz Musician and Bandleader/Arranger for Lady Gaga’s Vegas Residency “Jazz & Piano Show”).
The podcast will be available wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, TuneIn, Stitcher and the CCM website.
Episode 2, which dropped this week is a conversation about big breaks and national tours by original and current cast members of Hamilton on Broadway; Andrew Chappelle (BFA Musical Theatre, ’09) discusses the difficulties of finding his voice as an artist, while Raven Thomas (BFA Musical Theatre, ’16) dishes about losing hers mid-show.
Here’s the lineup looking ahead:
Up to 500 seats are now available for all in-person CSO and Pops performances at Music Hall. In accordance with the expanded capacity for indoor events ordered by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, the orchestra has added availability for all in-person events this spring.
All performances will still be limited capacity with socially distanced seating and mask requirements throughout Music Hall. Read more about health and safety protocols.
In-person concerts at Music Hall continue this weekend with two different programs of Mozart with soloists Conrad Tao (Mozart Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major) and violinist Melissa White in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, in G Major, “Strasburg,” MAR 12-14 in Music Hall.
From personal experience, I have felt very safe with all of the protocols that are in place. Concerts are about 70 to 80 minutes in length with no intermission.
I’ve been told that some concerts have added performances due to demand. Now that more people are getting vaccinated, I’m very optimistic that the demand will increase.
Don’t forget, I’m reviewing concerts again. You’ll find them on the Cincinnati Business Courier’s Arts Front (it’s free to read). Last week’s performance of Mahler’s “The Song of the Earth” was unforgettable. Click here to read about it.
Tickets: 513-381-3300, cincinnatisymphony.org
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.
One of the favorite memories of my music journalism career was visiting the Vienna Boys Choir in their school in the lovely Augarten Palace in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna. At the time, the famed boy choir had some Cincinnati Boychoir members.
The legendary choir is prized worldwide for the pure tone of its young singers, who, pre-pandemic, carried on a busy world tour schedule. They have appeared in Cincinnati multiple times. This holiday season, with 300 concerts canceled for the ensemble, they have created a beautiful online program: “Vienna Boys Choir: Silent Night.”
Their “World Online Tour” can be followed on idagio, where you can register free, and then purchase concerts. This one, which is about an hour long, costs $9.90, and is available until 5:59 p.m. Dec. 31. Click here to book.
Their selections are lovely — including Es ist ein Ros´entsprungen (Lo, how a rose e’er blooming), Max Reger’s serene lullaby Maria Wiegenlied (Mary’s lullaby) and of course Still Nacht (Silent Night).
Because of stay-at-home orders, the concert is streamed from the palace’s state rooms, which have baroque architectural features, and there are also some outdoor scenes. All four of the tour choirs perform. The sound is exceptional.
The choir’s dramaturg, Dr. Tina Breckwoldt, writes from Vienna: “Our holiday offering is a traditional German/Austrian selection, for that feeling of warmth and gemütlichkeit. The boys are singing around a Christmas tree, decorated with real candles, apples, and gingerbread (some gingerbread choristers as well).”
Don’t miss the snowball fight in the gardens at the end as the credits roll.
Cincinnati Art Museum announced today that it is temporarily suspending in-person visitation to slow the spread of Covid-19.
The museum will take a “community health break in support of health care workers and Cincinnatians” starting tomorrow, Nov. 21, through Dec. 14.
The outdoor Art Climb will remain open, and CAM’s digital offerings will allow the community to stay engaged with the museum during this time.
Cameron Kitchin, Cincinnati Art Museum’s director, said the decision is voluntary, and that the museum considers it a responsibility to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“Community wellness, in all of its dimensions, is our guiding force at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Today’s decision is difficult, yet our museum is clear-eyed about our place in civic responsibility,” Kitchin said in a statement.
The museum intends to reopen in time for its big upcoming show, “Frank Duveneck: American Master,” opening on Dec. 18.Read More »
The Young Professionals Choral Collective (YPCC) kicks off its 9th season with an unconventional, in-person performance on the Purple People Bridge at 6 p.m. today (Friday) October 16th. Their concert takes place in perhaps the most unusual venue ever used by a local arts organization — although they have come up with a number of other creative places to sing.
Produced in partnership with The Carnegie’s Creative Disruption Committee, Building Bridges – Keep the Arts Alive’ will be one of the first in-person, public choral performances in Cincinnati since March and demonstrates the importance of continuing to support the arts through the pandemic.
Repertoire features two original works by Jacob Stone, commissioned by YPCC through the Young Professional Composers Project. The performance also features an arrangement of Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, signifying what the arts are to so many people during COVID-19 times.
(You may recall this mention when I interviewed YPCC’s new director Danielle Cozart Steele for this story about how choruses can safely rehearse.)
Performers will be fully masked and socially distanced for the duration of the performance, lasting approximately 25 minutes. YPCC singers will be joined by select members of the Cincinnati Boychoir for a portion of the program.
What to expect: This event is free and open to the public. Masked-singers will be situated along the thinner, “walking” portion of the bridge, and socially distanced spots will be marked on the wider portion for audience members to occupy.Read More »
Cincinnati Opera and CET have announced plans for “Cincinnati Opera at 100,” an hour-long televised program commemorating Cincinnati Opera’s centennial. Featuring
insights from local and national opera experts and performances by artists from across the country, “Cincinnati Opera at 100” will premiere on CET 48.1 on Friday, July 3 at 9 p.m. EST.
Additional airings will follow on CET Arts 48.3 through Tuesday, July 7.
The nation’s second-oldest opera company, Cincinnati Opera presented its first performance on June 27, 1920, at Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, and its annual Summer Festival has become a Cincinnati arts-going tradition.
Though the company’s 100th Anniversary Season was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, “Cincinnati Opera at 100” transports the opera-going experience into viewers’ homes, including performances by much-loved singers from recent Cincinnati Opera productions and historical highlights from opera experts.Read More »
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.
Go downtown, and you might see this new Beam of Hope lighting up the sky over Cincinnati.
The installation at the Banks serves as a beacon of solidarity as the Cincinnati region manages through the COVID-19 pandemic, say its designers, Brave Berlin and Vincent Lighting Solutions. They are the same team that successfully executed BLINK, Cincinnati’s record breaking light and art event, in October.
The Beam of Hope started shining on April 10th and will continue to be lit from dusk until the COVID-19 pandemic is under control. Beam of Hope is designed as a visual symbol of solidarity and not an attraction that people should be compelled to visit.
“We have learned that light and art bring us together in moments of joy and sorrow,” said Steve McGowan, Partner at Brave Berlin. “Let this small gesture remind us all that we are in this together and that we will come out of it a brighter more unified people.”
It is sponsored by the Carol Ann and Ralph V Haile, Jr. Foundation, and made possible by the producers of Blink.
“We respect work ethic and the brave sacrifices that are being made for us to feel safe, secure and healthy,” said Tim Maloney, President & CEO, the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation. “We’re proud to put Cincinnati’s creative spirit on display to show our respect and gratitude for everyone giving of themselves to tackle this global crisis.”
Details:
Number of light fixtures: 6 Clay Paky Mythos high Density light units
Lumens: 23,000 Lumens per fixture for a total of 138,000 Lumens
