From Music in Cincinnati

December Brims with Music in Cincinnati

Posted in: 2010
By Mary Ellyn Hutton
Nov 29, 2010 - 11:11:44 PM

 

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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.

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Hans Graf
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Orion Weiss
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

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Marco Panuccio
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.

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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.

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Earl Rivers
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.

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Springer Auditorium, Music Hall
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.”
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Karen Slack
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

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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.

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Michael Chertock
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

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Harlem String Quartet
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

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Jeremy Collins
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).

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John Morris Russell
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Debby Boone
  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

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Robyn Lana
Cincinnati Children’s Choir will perform a “Winter Concert” at 7 p.m. Dec. 12 in Corbett Auditorium at CCM.   Director Robyn Lana will conduct holiday music representing many countries and traditions.  Tickets are $10, $5 non-UC students, UC students free, at the door.

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Vocal Arts Ensemble in St. Peter in Chains Cathedral
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

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Musica Sacra
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Helmut Roehrig
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.

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Jelani Eddington at the Mighty Wurlitzer in the Ballroom at Music Hall
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.

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New York Polyphony
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

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Knox Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati
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

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Robert Porco
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

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Paavo Järvi
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Hilary Hahn
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

 

 


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