December Brims with Music in Cincinnati
Black Friday,
Cyber Monday. Whatever it is, the holiday season is upon us. And with it comes an abundance of music.
Here, like
so many gifts piled on Santa’s sleigh, are some of the musical offerings to be
had in the few weeks until December 25.
Beginning tonight (Dec. 1) at 7:30 p.m. in Bellarmine Chapel on the campus of Xavier University: Hear Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra cellist Alan Rafferty perform Haydn's Cello Concerto in D Major with the Xavier University Chamber Orchestra. Free and open to the public.
Beethoven
was born in December (the 16th according to baptismal records). The Cincinnati
Symphony Orchestra will say “Frohe Geburtstag” Dec. 3 and 4 at Music Hall with an all-Beethoven concert led by guest
conductor Hans Graf. Guest artist will
be Orion Weiss, stepping in for previously announced Jeffrey Kahane, who is
ill. Weiss will perform the Piano
Concerto No. 3 at 11 a.m. Dec. 3, 8 p.m. Dec. 4. Also on the program are Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 7 and Overture to “The Ruins of Athens.”
Tickets begin at $10. Call (513)
381-3300 or order online at www.cincinnatisymphony.org
Tenor Marco Panuccio presents “O Holy Night,” a
concert of holiday music with pianist Carol Walker and organist Blake Callahan,
at 8 p.m. Dec. 4 at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral
downtown. Catch Panuccio between
engagements in opera houses around the world for this one. Tickets are $20, $10 for students, at the
Cincinnati Opera box office (513) 241-2742.
The a
capella chamber choir Cincinnati Camerata led by
director Christian Miller presents “Waking Mary,” the group's annual Marian
concert, at 7 p.m. Dec. 5 in Mother of God Church in
Covington. Hear Bach’s Advent
cantata “Wachet auf,” music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance and Magnificat
by Peter Morabito. Admission is free.
“Feast of Carols”
with ensembles of the University of Cincinnati
College-Conservatory of Music, Cincinnati Children’s Choir and guest
choirs from Elder, St. Xavier and Lakota West High Schools, at 5 p.m. Dec. 4, 2 and 5 p.m. Dec. 5 in Corbett Auditorium at
CCM.
Conducting duties will be shared by
Earl Rivers, Brett Scott, Olga Artemova, Brandon Dean, Robyn Lana, David Allen,
Anthony Nims and Karl Thomsen. Admission
is $10, $5 for non-UC students, UC students free, at the door.
The May Festival continues its tradition of
holiday concerts with “A May Festival Christmas”
(formerly “Carolfest”) at 3 p.m. Dec. 4 at Music Hall. Guest artist with the May Festival Chorus and
Youth Chorus will be soprano Karen Slack, who recently made her Metropolitan
Opera debut in the title role of Verdi’s “Luisa Miller.”
May Festival director of choruses Robert Porco and May
Festival Youth Chorus director James Bagwell will conduct. Tickets are $18, $8 for students. Call (513) 381-3300, or order at www.mayfestival.com
If you
like a cello, you will love eight, which is how many you will hear on “Cello Portraits,” next concert by concert:nova at
8 p.m. Dec. 5 in the Know Theater, 1120 Jackson
St., Over-the-Rhine, and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6 at the
Mercantile Library, 414 Walnut St. (11th floor), downtown. The multi-media show will include live
photography by Michael Wilson, a portraitist known for his work with
musicians. Wilson’s photographs will be
projected onto a large screen behind the players to provide up-close details
often unnoticed the audience. Cellists
performing will be: Richard Belcher (Enso Quartet), Christina Coletta (c:n, Dayton
Philharmonic), Ilya Finkelshtyn (CSO principal cellist); Sarah Kim (free
lance), Theodore Nelson (c:n, CSO), Tao Ni (CSO), Susan Marshall Petersen (CSO)
and Alan Rafferty (CSO, Northern Kentucky University faculty).
The octet will perform this delicious program:
Brahms Motets, Op. 110, No. 1 ("Ich aber bin Elend"), Op. 110, No. 3 ("Wenn wir in Hochstein Noten Sein") and Op. 109, No. 2 ("Wenn ein Starker Gewappneter") for eight cellos
David Popper, Requiem, arr. Ed Laut for six cellos, featuring Tao Ni
Pierre Boulez, "Messagesquisse," featuring Theodore Nelson
J.S. Bach, Chaconne from Partita in D Minor for Violin, BWV 1004, arr. Alan Rafferty for cello, featuring Alan Rafferty
Mahler, "Liebst du um Schoenheit"
Gabriel Faure, "Le Secret"
Heitor Villa-Lobos, "Bachianas Brasileiras" No. 1, featuring Ilya Finkelshtyn
The Beatles, "I am the Walrus" and "Across the Universe," arr. Julie Spangler
Admission is $20, $10 for students, at the door, or call Ticket Hotline at 1-800-838-3006.
The Blue Ash Symphony Orchestra performs its holiday
concert at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5 in Montgomery Assembly of
God Church, 7 950 Pfeiffer Rd. in Blue Ash. Music director Michael Chertock will conduct
seasonal music and the concert will feature violinist Jackie Tso, age 13, in
the first movement of Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Tso is a 2009 winner of the BAMSO Young Artist
Competition. Admission is free.
There’s
more than “Silent Night” and “Jingle Bells” this time of year. Linton Chamber Music presents quartets and quintets at 4 p.m. Dec. 5 at First Unitarian Church in Avondale and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6 at Congregation Beth Adam in Loveland. An ensemble comprising pianist Anna Polonsky, violinists Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu and Benjamin Beilman, violist John Dalley and cellist Peter Wiley will perform Beethoven's Variations for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op. 44, Dvorak's "American" Quartet in F Major and Shostakovich's Quintet for Piano and Strings in G Minor, Op. 57. (Wiley, former cellist of the famed Beaux Arts Trio, is also a former principal cellist of the CSO.) Tickets are $30 at the door, or call (513) 381-6868. Information at www.lintonmusic.org
Hear more chamber music by the Harlem
Quartet at 8 p.m. Dec.
7 in Robert J. Werner Recital Hall at CCM. Presented by Chamber
Music Cincinnati, the group will perform Beethoven's Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3, “The
Figure” by Judith Lang Zaimont, Billy Strayhorn's “Take the A Train," Borodin's Quartet No. 2 in D Major
and“The Adventures of Hippocrates” by Chick Corea. The Harlem Quartet is a first place laureate of the
Sphinx Competition for Black and Latino string players. Tickets are $25 at (859) 581-6877 and online
at www.CincyChamber.org
The Greater Cincinnati Guitar Society presents guitarist Jeremy Collins in a program of classical guitar favorites, original compositions and holiday arrangements at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10 at the Wyoming Fine Arts Center, 322 Wyoming Ave. A Cincinnati native, Collins was a soloist on Public Radio's "From the Top" series for young artists with Christopher O'Riley. Tickets are $10 at the door (free for members of the GCGS).
Step
right up for “Happy Holidays with the Pops” with
the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra led by guest conductor John Morris Russell at 8 p.m.
Dec. 10 and 11, 3 p.m. Dec. 12, at Music Hall. Guest artist will be Debby Boone in classics from the film “White
Christmas” (starring her mother-in-law Rosemary Clooney). Russell, creator of the CSO’s late, much
lamented “Home for the Holidays” show at the Taft Theater, will conduct and
preside (Russell is now music director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in
Windsor, Ontario). Tickets begin at $10.
Call (513) 381-3300 or order at www.cincinnatipops.org
Robyn Lana
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The Vocal Arts Ensemble will present its first annual Elmer Thomas Founder’s Concert in honor of VAE founder
Elmer Thomas at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 11 at St. Boniface Church, 1750 Chase Ave. in Northside and 3 p.m. Dec. 12 in St. Peter in Chains
Cathedral downtown. Thomas, professor emeritus of choral studies and conducting at CCM, will lead the 21-voice,
all-professional choir with orchestra in J.S. Bach’s “Magnificat” and other
works associated with the Nativity.
Admission is $20, $10 for students and Enjoy the Arts members, at the door and online at www.cincvae.org
The annual Christmas concert by
the Musica Sacra Chorus led by director Helmut Roehrig, will take place at 3 p.m. Dec. 12 at Our Lord
Christ the King Church, Linwood Ave. and Ellison Rd. in Mt.
Lookout. Admission is free.
Hear the “Mighty Wurlitzer,” the theater organ that reigned in the
(former) Albee Theater in downtown Cincinnati, in its new home, the Music Hall Ballroom, at 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. Dec. 16. Presented by the
Society for the Preservation of Music Hall, the concert features noted theater
organist Jelani Eddington. Expect holiday favorites, adorned with the
Santa’s bag of sounds and special effects only a theater organ -- or a full
orchestra -- can produce. The Children’s
Choir of the School for Creative and Performing Arts will be special guest.
Tickets are $25, $20 for students, seniors and groups of 10 or more, at the
Aronoff Center Ticket Office. Call (513
621-2787.
St. Peter in
Chains’ “Great Music in a Great Space” series will present the male
vocal quartet New York Polyphony in a Christmas
concert, “I Sing the Birth,” at 7:30
p.m. Dec. 17 at the Cathedral, 8th
and Plum Streets downtown. Noted for
their recordings the group will span the
centuries, from Gregorian chant to modern music. Admission is $35 in advance, $38 at the door,
$15 for students. Call (513) 421-2222 or
order online at www.stpeterinchainscathedral.org
One of
the finest church music programs in the city is based at Knox Presbyterian Church in Hyde Park. Led by Earl Rivers, the Knox Choir, soloists,
organist Christina Haan and a chamber orchestra will present a Christmas
concert at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 18 at the church,
Michigan and Observatory Avenues in Hyde Park. On the program are works
spanning the Baroque, late-Romantic and Mid-20th Century eras: J.S. Bach’s Cantata for Christmas Day, “Christen, atzet diesen Tag”
(“Christians, engrave this glad day”), Camille Saint-Saens’ Christmas Oratorio
and Gerald Finzi’s “Magnificat.” Soloists
will be sopranos Alison Scherzer and Debra Van Engen, mezzo-sopranos Theresa
Merrill and Ivy Walz, tenors Will Compton and Cameo Humes and bass-baritones
Timothy Bruno and Jonathan Stinson. A
free-will offering will be accepted. Information
at www.knox.org
No longer
the “property” of the May Festival, Handel’s “Messiah”
will be performed by the CSO and May Festival Chorus
at 3 p.m. Dec. 19 at Music Hall. May Festival Chorus director Robert Porco
will conduct. Tickets, from $10, are
available at (513) 381-3300 or visit www.cincinnatisymphony.org
But wait,
the CSO has another gift under the tree. CSO music director Paavo
Järvi will be back for his first CSO concert since opening the season in
September at 8 p.m. Dec. 17 and 18 at Music Hall. (He’s had international engagements in the
interim.) It will be a most engaging
program featuring violinist Hilary Hahn in
Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 (the “Turkish”), Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella” Suite
(think Punch and Judy), Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony and Bartok’s 1939
Divertimento. Not lollipops, maybe, but
delicious. Tickets from $10 at (513)
381-3300 or visit www.cincinnatisymphony.org
