It was written by a German, premiered in Dublin and became a staple of the English oratorio repertoire.  Handel's "Messiah" will be performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and May Festival Chorus led by guest conductor/baroque interpreter Nicholas McGegan December 17, 19 and 20 at Music Hall.  Soloists are soprano Dominique Labelle, mezzo-soprano Marietta Simpson, tenor Norman Shankle and bass Christopheren Nomura.
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One of Cincinnati's philanthropic angels, Louise Dieterle Nippert, has established an $85 million Musical Arts Fund, 75% of which will benefit the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.  The purpose of the gift, called "transformational" by CSO president Trey Devey, is to help perpetuate the CSO as a full-time, world class orchestra performing at the highest professional level.  The balance of the Fund will go Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati Ballet for the purpose of maintaining the CSO as their resident orchestra and to help support smaller arts organizations in Cincinnati on a case-by-case basis.
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"Adoration of the Magi" by Hieronymus Bosch (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Since it made history in 1951 as the first opera written for television, Gian-Carlo Menotti's one-act "Amahl and the Night Visitors" has never gone out of style.  The touching work, about a crippled boy and his mother who are visited by The Three Kings on their way to Bethlehem, has several connections to Ohio and Cincinnati history, including the original Amahl, Chet Arkins, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra music director (1970-75) Thomas Schippers, who conducted the world premiere telecast.  "Amahl" can be heard again this season at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College in Batavia and Ascension Lutheran Church in Montgomery.
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If you haven't had enough of the witching season, there's more at Cincinnati's Music Hall this weekend.  Vocalists Megan Hilty and Julia Murney, Glinda and Elphaba, respectively, in "Wicked" on Broadway, will perform with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra led by Steven Reineke at 8 p.m. November 13 and 14, 3 p.m. November 15.  They replace previously announced guest artist and "Wicked" star Kristin Chenoweth (Glinda), who canceled because of illness.  The  program, dubbed "Wicked Divas," will comprise diva moments from Broadway, including "Wicked."   
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Making babies is always a serious proposition, but in Francis Poulenc's opera bouffe "Les Mamelles de Tiresias" the subject takes on surreal proportions.  That's because the libretto is by Guillaume Apollinaire, the turn-of-the-century poet who coined the word "surrealism" and was sincerely concerned about replenishing France's population.  The opera will be presented in a semi-staged, Opera Studio production at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music November 6-8, finale of CCM's "Fete Francais" this fall.
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Vocal Arts Ensemble with music director Donald Nally

Donald Nally, newly appointed music director of Cincinnati's Vocal Arts Ensemble, is committed to introducing audiences to contemporary music.  He will open the VAE's 30th anniversary season accordingly, with James MacMillan's powerful "Cantos Sagrados" ("Sacred Songs") November 6 at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral.  Each of the VAE's four concerts during the 2009-2010 season will feature "new music," with, among others, works by Kaija Saariaho, John Tavener, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Steven Stucky and David Lang.
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Northside Tavern, Hamilton Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio

The revolution has come to classical music.  "Classical Revolution," that is, a nation-wide movement to take classical music to the people (instead of expecting the people to come to classical music).   Founded in San Francisco in 2006, non-profit "Classical Revolution" has a chapter in Cincinnati now.  Happenings -- concert is too formal a word -- take place the first Sunday of each month at Northside Tavern on Hamilton Avenue in Northside.
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Both Cincinnati Ballet and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra are keeping Cincinnati's arts profile high these days despite the troubled economy.  The ballet collaborated with Columbus' Ballet/Met in a splendid production of "Swan Lake" in both cities October 16-25.  The CSO, led by music director Paavo Järvi, is in Japan on a two-week tour calculated to maintain and enhance its image as a world class orchestra. The tour was fully paid for in advance through a combination of presenter's fees and donations by a cadre of generous CSO supporters.
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Steven Gross and Randy Gardner

The Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra conducted by music director Mischa Santora offers Haydn, Stravinsky and Ginastera on its Oct. 18 program at Memorial Hall in downtown Cincinnati (with repeat Nov. 22 at Anderson Center in Anderson Township).  Or is it Haydn?  The Concerto for Two Horns attributed to him may actually be by Italian composer Antonio Rosetti.  However, there is no mystery about "Pulcinella,"which Stravinsky based on music by 18th-century composer Giovanni Pergolesi.  WCPO-TV's Dennis Janson will narrate an adaptation of "Pulcinella" by Santora.  Soloists in the Haydn (??) are CCO French hornists Steven Gross and Randy Gardner.  Also on the program is Alberto Ginastera's "Variaciones concertantes."
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Soprano Emily Pulley

Love a soprano?  Who doesn't?  The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra led by music director James R. Cassidy has a fab four for you Oct. 16 and 17 in the new Francis K. Carlisle Performing Arts Center at Notre Dame Academy in Park Hills, Kentucky.  Hear favorites like "O mio babbino caro," "Habanera" "Song to the Moon" and "Glitter and Be Gay" sung by Audrey Luna, Stacey Rishoi, Emily Pulley and Heather Buck on this vocal sonarama.
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Violinist Sayaka Shoji

Figuratively speaking, you can take off with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in a preview of its upcoming tour of Japan Oct. 15-17 at Music Hall. Guest artist is Japanese violinist Sayaka Shoji in the Sibelius Violin Concerto.  CSO music director Paavo Järvi conducts Barber's Adagio for Strings and Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, also to be performed on the Oct. 22-Nov. 4 tour.
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Conductor/pianist William Eddins

With pianist/guest conductor William Eddins performing Gerhswin's Piano Concerto In F and leading works by Aaron Copland and Roberto Sierra, the Oct. 9 and 10 Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concerts at Music Hall are American through and through.  Also this weekend are a "Strings and Winds" program by the Linton Chamber Music Series; pianist James Tocco, violinist Arnold Steinhardt and the Amernet String Quartet at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music; and a salute to Motown by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra led associate conductor by Steven Reineke.
   And congratulations are due to conductor Kelly Kuo and pianist Awadagin Pratt, Kuo for winning a 2009 Solti U.S. Career Assistance Award, Pratt for his invitation to perform at the White House Nov. 4 as part of "Classical Music Day."
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Berlin citizens chipping at the wall in November, 2009 (photo courtesy U.C. news)

The Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago in November.  The University of Cincinnati is one of several U.S. universities chosen by the German Embassy to participate in "Freedom Without Walls," a celebration organized to commemorate the event.  There will be an international conference at U.C. Nov. 8 and 9 to mark the 20th anniversary, an exhibit through December at U.C.'s Langsam Library, an all-Beethoven concert at the U.C. College-Conservatory of Music Oct. 7, a film festival in November and the unveiling of a segment of the wall for permanent display in Cincinnati.
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Paavo Järvi (photo by Mark Lyons)

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is bringing music director Paavo Järvi closer to his audience.  The orchestra's new four-concert Sunday matinee series at Music Hall includes post-concert discussions by Järvi, guest artists and members of the CSO.  The new format is barrier-breaking in other ways, too, with an abbreviated program (about an hour of music) and tickets priced 25 percent less than CSO evening concerts.   The series opens at 3 p.m. Sept. 27 at Music Hall with violinist Alina Pogostkina in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and Erkki-Sven Tüür's Symphony No. 7, "Pietas."  The discussion, with Järvi, Pogostkina and Tüür, will be moderated by Mark Perzel of radio station WGUC, FM 90.9.
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