Jesús López-Cobos

Jesús López-Cobos, former music director of  Teatro Real in Madrid and music director emeritus of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, is suing director Gerard Mortier and  Teatro Real for defamation. The suit proceeds from a remark Mortier made to the Austrian daily newspaper Kurier in which he asserted that the theater had fired Lopez-Cobos for working too little with the orchestra. Lopez-Cobos, 73, denies Mortier's assertions and states that he left the theater of his own accord.
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Neeme Järvi

The Järvi International Summer Academy for Conductors takes place each summer in idyllic Pärnu, Estonia in conjunction with the International Pärnu Music Festival. It is a unique blend, with everything from instruction by three renowned maestros, Neeme Järvi, his son Paavo Järvi and Leonid Grin, to relaxation on Pärnu's immaculate white sand beaches. The 2013 edition is July 12-24. Deadline to apply is April 15.
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Cincinnati May Festival Chorus

A new "strategic partnership" between the Cincinnati May Festival and Cincinnati's Vocal Arts Ensemble promises benefits for both organizations. The May Festival Chorus can draw upon the professional voices of the VAE, especially male singers, who are much in demand. VAE singers will be able to perform the larger choral-orchestral repertoire with the May Festival Chorus and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Administratively, the two organizations will share staffing and resources such as box office, accounting, development and technology. (first published in Express Cincinnati, April, 2013)
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Michael Samis

Cellist Michael Samis, son of Cincinnati Symphony first violinist Sylvia Samis, will make his debut album for Delos Records with a forgotten work, the 1864 Cello Concerto by Carl Reinecke. The journey to discovering it was not easy and bringing it to the concert stage with the Gateway Chamber Orchestra of Clarksville, Tennessee even involved Sylvia.
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Alexander Yakovlev, gold medalist of the 2012 World Piano Competition

The World Piano Competition, a Cincinnati institution for half a century, has a new lease on life, with a just-entered collaboration with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Under the leadership of interim executive director Mark Ernster, the Competition has been re-designed top to bottom, with the adoption of the CSO as its official orchestra and CCM as the site venue. The finals concert of the Artist Division of the 2013 Competition has been set for July 13 with the CSO led by associate conductor Robert Trevino.
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The Hannaford Ensemble

Looking for a name for her new ensemble, violist Denisse Rodriguez looked to Cincinnati history, specifically Samuel Hannaford, architect of Music Hall. After all, Music Hall is her place of business and that of her fellow ensemble members, all of whom are also members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
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Robert Treviño

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra associate conductor Robert Treviño overcame a humble background in Texas to conduct in some of the most prestigious houses in the world, including the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Currently a candidate for several music director positions, he has just renewed his contract for a third year with the CSO. Treviño can be heard on CSO Young People's concerts, on Cincinnati Arts Wave's Sampler concert March 2 featuring the CSO, Cincinnati Ballet, Opera, Shakespeare Company and May Festival Chorus, and in his Cincinnati Pops debut with vocalist Judy Collins February 10 at Music Hall.
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Music in Cincinnati contributor Laura A. Hobson writes about the Chapel Music Concert Series at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemerin Hyde Park, now in its fifth season.
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Dwight Parry

Principal oboist Dwight Parry is one of the most visible members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Not only does he play the all-important oboe solos (and incidentally, sounds the A to tune the rest of the orchestra), he gets out into the community by teaching, making presentations in schools and by participating in the CSO's pre-concert Prelude Videos. Parry will be even more "out in front" when he performs Mozart's Oboe Concerto with the CSO Feb. 1 and 2 at Music Hall.
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Louis Langrée

Though he will be onstage for only six of the 20 concerts in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's 2013-2014 season -- his first as music director -- Louis Langrée has assembled a well-rounded and thoughtful lineup. There will be new music and familiar favorites, popular guests and new faces, some intriguing collaborations and continuing community outreach in the form of the orchestra's "One City, One Symphony" project inaugurated in November, 2012.
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Gil Shaham

Violinist Gil Shaham is a risk-taker. At 18, on short notice, he boarded the Concorde and filled in for Itzhak Perlman with the London Symphony, performing not one, but two concertos. He gives this advice to his children now: ‘"You should try something new. Don’t be worried about people making a judgment or you making a mistake. You should always try." Shaham returns to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for concerts featuring the Brahms Violin Concerto Jan. 25 and 26 at Music Hall.  (first published in the Cincinnati Enquirer Jan. 20, 2013)
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Paavo Järvi

It has been nearly two years since Paavo Järvi conducted the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a post he filled with distinction for a decade.  In his first  return to the orchestra since May, 2011 he feels right at home, he said.  He brings with him a program of Schumann (Overture to "Genoveva"), Brahms (Symphony No. 2) and Lutoslawski, with guest artist Stewart Goodyear in the Polish composer's 1987 Piano Concerto. Concerts are Jan. 10 and 12 at Music Hall in Cincinnati, plus there will be a community concert (without the Lutoslawski) Jan. 11 in Hamilton, Ohio.
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Paavo Järvi

It has been almost two years since Paavo Järvi conducted the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which he served as music director from 2001-2011.  He returns Jan. 10 and 12, 2013 to Cincinnati's Music Hall with a program of Schumann ("Overture to Genoveva") and Brahms (Symphony No. 2) with him, as well as the Piano Concerto by Witold Lutoslawsk,i featuring pianist Stewart Goodyear.
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James Conlon

Birthdays crowd the marquee for the 2013 Cincinnati May Festival.  Led by James Conlon, celebrating his own 34th season as music director, the Festival will celebrate the bicentennial of Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner and the centennial of Benjamin Britten. The two-weekend event opens with Mozart's Requiem May 10 and Britten's War Requiem May 11, both at Music Hall.  Opera scenes and choruses by Verdi and Wagner close the Festival May 18, also at Music Hall.
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James Conlon (photo by Dan Steinberg, Los Angeles Opera)

With the disappearance of music education in the schools, efforts to build the audience for classical music have become increasingly important. James Conlon, music director of Los Angeles Opera, the Ravinia Festival and Cincinnati May Festival, comments on enhancing concerts with multi-media, programming new music and preserving traditions such as choral music, as exemplified by Cincinnati's annual choral festival.
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