Mischa Santora

Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra music director Mischa Santora has enriched Cincinnati at the helm of the CCO for 13 years, bringing both excellence and a comprehensive mission to the community. More initiatives lie ahead as the orchestra enters its 40th season.
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The Constella Festival, Cincinnati's annual celebration of music, fine arts and dance, promises another stellar season for 2013. Scheduled to appear are violinist Joshua Bell, pianist Stewart Goodyear and conductor Paavo Järvi. Partners with Constella in presenting the five-week event are nine other Cincinnati arts organizations.
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James Conlon (photo by Dan Steinberg, Los Angeles Opera)

James Conlon is best known to Cincinnati as music director of the annual May Festival. He is also a writer and maintains a blog on MusicalAmerica.com where he comments on his travels, on music and the arts and issues affecting them in today's world. Conlon took time during his annual visit to Cincinnati to discuss his writing and his love for the May Festival.
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Cincinnati's new Arts Ambassador Fellows include a filmmaker, ceramicist, poet, cellist, violinist, puppeteer and sculptor. The 2012-2013 fellowships, which help support new and existing work, were awarded at a presentation May 8 at Memorial Hall, along with samples of the artists' work.
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May in Cincinnati means the Cincinnati May Festival, oldest continuing choral festival in the Western Hemisphere. Look also for the annual collaboration between the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the Vocal Arts Ensemble, the final concert of the Linton Music Series 2012-13 season (a special reunion of the Guarneri String Quartet) and the season finale of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, led by guest conductor Robert Spano.
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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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April in Cincinnati means "Music Now," a series devoted to what's new in music and the arts, chamber music galore, Steve Reich and something called Igudesman & Joo. Regarding the latter, if you loved Victor Borge, you'll love these two guys, who dispense classical music with wit fit to split (your sides, that is). Mozart is on the calendar, too, with his "Magic Flute" at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Hamilton-Fairfield Symphony Orchestra's annual Ohio Mozart Festival.
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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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March brings Shakespeare to Cincinnati, musically speaking. Also Mahler, Schumann and in a twist on Mussorgsky, "music at an exhibition," with paintings by Linton Music Series founder Richard Waller shown in conjunction with a special performance of Mussorgsky's colorful work. In the new music category, hear Cincinnati composer Frank Proto's new Saxophone Concerto commissioned by the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, to be premiered March at the School for Creative and Performing Arts.
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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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