Giancarlo Guerrero

Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, music director designate of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, makes his debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Dec. 18 and 20 at Music Hall.  He replaces guest conductor Xian Zhang, who canceled to await the birth of her first baby.  The program comprises works by Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Rossini.  CSO principal second violinist is soloist in "Winter" from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" and Beethoven's Romance No. 2. Also upcoming: the chamber ensemble Concert:nova honors the centennial of Olivier Messiaen with a multi-media performance of his "Quartet for the End of Time," complete with readings from Samuel Beckett's philosophically contrasting "Waiting for Godot" and video images by Trinidad Mac-Auliffe.
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Sy Smith and the Toyota trumpet-playing robot

You can't say there isn't variety.  In Cincinnati this holiday season, there'll be a complete Handel's "Messiah" (Knox Presbyterian Church with the Knox Choir led by Earl Rivers), Benjamin Britten's "A Ceremony of Carols" (the Vocal Arts Ensemble led by founding conductor Elmer Thomas) and "American Idol" regular, vocalist Sy Smith.  There'll also be "trumpetbot," Toyota's trumpet-playing robot, in a holiday concert with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops, and "Jumble Bells," variations on "Jingle Bells" as performed by the Cincinnati Men's Chorus in the style of Ravel, Khachaturian and Spike Jones.
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From "Over the River and Through the Woods" to "O Come Emmanuel," music in Cincinnati follows the calendar this weekend, beginning Sunday Nov. 30 with the annual "Advent Festival of Lessons and Carols" at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral.  Also coming up, in addition to "carol sings" and other holiday programs, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra welcomes guest conductor Alan Gilbert, the Pro Arte Quartet performs for Chamber Music Cincinnati and in both the letter and the spirit of the season, the chamber ensemble Conundrum presents a Christmas concert to benefit the Freestore Foodbank.
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Trey Devey

Trey Devey, 37, is the new president of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.  A consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, he brings experience in strategic assessment, organizational restructing, financial plannng and fundraising to the CSO.  With an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pensyllvania, he also holds a bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude from Northern Illinois University and is a former American Symphony Orchestra League Management Fellow.  He succeeds long-time CSO president Steven Monder, who retired in June.
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Multi-media Bach?  It was done at the Oregon Bach Festival in 2006 and will be repeated at Knox Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati with a screening of German director Bastian Cleve's film "The Sound of Eternity" to a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor by the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Chamber Choir and Philharmonia Orchestra led by Earl Rivers.  Meanwhile, Bach's great contemporary will be "Handel(ed) With Care" by the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra led by music director Paavo Järvi brings the planets themselves (Gustav Holst's) to Music Hall. 
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Chloe Hanslip

She might not be a household name yet, but advance word is that she is well on her way.  British violinist Chloe Hanslip, 21, will make her debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra led by music director Paavo Jarvi Nov. 15 and 16 in Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1.  Also on the program are Stravinsky's "Petrouchka" (1947 version) and Hindemith's Symphonic Metamosphosis of Theme by Carl Maria von Weber.
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Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

From Tchaikovsky to "Itsy Bitsy Spider,"

arachnid

it's going to be a busy weekend on the classical music scene in Cincinnati.  Add Randall Woolf's "Where the Wild Things Are" performed by concert:nova and Cincinnati Ballet's "Dracula," and it has a tasty, seasonal flavor, too.
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illustration by Till Lansmann for "Where the Wild Things Are"

concert:nova, Cincinnati's new genre-bending chamber ensemble, opens its second season Oct. 30 at the Contemporary Arts Center with Randall Woolf's "Where the Wild Things Are" based on the 1963 children's book by Maurice Sendak.  Woolf's work, composed in 1997 for the American Repertory Ballet, will be performed with projections of new color drawings by German illustrator/animator Till Lassmann inspired by Sendak's book.  An exhibit of Lassmann's drawings will be on display in the CAC's sixth-floor UnMuseum.
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Michael Cavanaugh

If you love a piano, here's your chance to hear lots of it in and around Cincinnati this weekend.  Michael Cavanaugh of "Movin' Out" performs music of "Piano Man" Billy Joel and more with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra at Riverbend July 12. The finals of the Cincinnati-based World Piano Competition are July 13 at the Aronoff Center. Vocally, you can hear "one hit wonders" with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra's Boogie Band and local singers in Devou Park  Amphitheatre in Covington, Kentucky July 12.  And you can fly to the Amazon with Cincinnati Opera's "Florencia en el Amazonas" by Daniel Catan at Music Hall July 10 and 12.  In news of the arts in Cincinnati, the Fine Arts Fund has made its 2008 allocations. Top recipient is the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with $3,491,270 of the total $11 million allocated.
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Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra president Steven Monder at Music Hall in Cincinnati

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra president Steven Monder wasn't wearing a tie for his "retirement event" June 29 at Riverbend Music Center.  Monder, 63, retired June 30 after 37 years of service to the orchestra, 31 of them in the top leadership position, making him the longest-tenured chief executive of any major American orchestra.
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Click http://www.cincinnatiopera.org/webisodes for what you can expect at Cincinnati Opera’s “Lucie de Lammermoor,” to be presented by Cincinnati Opera at 7:30 p.m. June 26 and 28 at Music Hall.

Soviet tank in Tallinn, Estonia, scene from "The Singing Revolution"

Besides Cincinnati Opera, there's a lot of singing going on this week in Cincinnati. Check out Cincinnati World Cinema's "The Singing Revolution" at 7 p.m. June 25 and 26 at the Cincinnati Art Museum to see how it can change the world.  www.cincyworldcinema.org   And Trekkie alert: The Cincinnati Pops led by Erich Kunzel presents "Star Trek: The Music" June 28, and in news of music in Cincinnati, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music has appointed Robin Guarino of New York's Juilliard School as J. Ralph Corbett Distinguished Chair in Opera effective Sept. 1, 2008.


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Indra Thomas

Popping up with the daisies in Cincinnati this June is a whole lot of music.  The Cincinnati Symphony and Pops open their 2008 Riverbend season with (respectively) violinist Mikhail Simonyan and the Von Trapp Children. Music08 continues at the University of College-Conservatory of Music with guest composers Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, Jack Body and more.  The Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra led by Mischa Santora celebrates the season itself with soprano Indra Thomas ("Summertime") at CCM and Anderson Center.
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From Appalachia to Iberia, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra led by Mischa Santora offers three mini-festivals in 2008-09. Highlights include Beethoven with Awadagin Pratt, "Three Kentucky Psalms" by Alice Parker, Manuel de Falla's "Master Peter's Puppet Show" with the Madcap Puppet Theater and a staged performance of Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
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Music08, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music's annual new music festival, has parallel programs for younger students.  Accent08 is for college and advanced high school musicians.  Crescendo08 is for high school and middle schoolers.  All happen at the same time, June 15-21, in a week-long symbiosis at CCM.
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eighth blackbird

Music08, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music's annual new music festival June 15-22 at CCM, features guest composers Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski and Jack Body.  Highlight of the eight-day event is the Cincinnati premiere of Reich's Double Sextet performed by eighth blackbird.  Thought it may be the last of CCM's MusicX new music festivals, at least for a while, it promises to be an upbeat one.   To be heard opening night --  8:30 p.m.  June 15 in Robert J. Werner Recital Hall -- will be Rzewski's "The Fall of the Empire," a Music07 commission performed by CCM percussionist Allen Otte, and Piano Trio No. 2, "Lost Traces," by MusicX artistic director Joel Hoffman, head of the CCM composition department.  Rzewski and Hoffman will close the show with their joint composition Music08 Music, Part I, for duo piano.  Admission is free and open to the public.
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