"LumenoCity" to Return to Washington Park

There will be three free concerts beginning at 8:30 p.m. each night (expanded from two last August). Each will include visuals projected onto the façade of Music Hall. Both the CSO, led by music director Louis Langrée, and the Cincinnati Pops, led by conductor John Morris Russell, will perform, as will guests from the May Festival Chorus, Cincinnati Ballet and Cincinnati Opera. The light show will accompany the 40-minute CSO segment, which will comprise the second half of the show. Works to be heard (and seen) include Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” John Adams’ “Short Ride in a Fast Machine,” the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, “Nimrod” from Edward Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations and Alexander Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” from “Prince Igor.” Last season's inaugural "LumenoCity" drew over 35,000 visitors.

The visual elements are being developed by Brave Berlin, a creative design and production company based in Cincinnati. The visuals will be projected from trailers on Race Street onto the façade of Music Hall.

A new element of “LumenoCity” this year will be LumenoCity Village on the south side of Washington Park (outside the LumenoCity viewing area). There will be pre-concert performances in the Washington Park bandstand, arts and crafts and food and beverage services. LumenoCity Village will be open beginning at 3 p.m. Aug. 1 and 11 a.m. August 2 and 3.

The designated viewing area in Washington Park will be fenced and attendance will be limited to 12,500 people each night. Admission is free, but tickets are necessary. They will be available to the general public beginning June 9 at 8 a.m. at lumenocity2014.com and May 19 to CSO or Pops 2014-15 season ticket holders (five or more concerts) and to donors of $250 or more to the CSO’s annual fund (since September 2013). Note: fencing will not block the view of Music Hall or diminish the sound for anyone outside the perimeter. For further information, call (513) 744-3372.

For those who attended Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concerts Friday and Saturday (March 21 and 22) at Music Hall in collaboration with the 2014 MusicNOW Festival – and for those who did not – the world premiere works heard at those concerts – Nico Muhly’s “Pleasure Ground” and David Lang’s “mountain” -- are being recorded for release on the CSO’s Fanfare Cincinnati label. Both were CSO commissions.

Midori will join the CSO Chamber Players at 7:30 p.m. Friday (March 28) in Mayerson Theater at the Erich Kunzel Center for Arts Education (School for Creative and Performing Arts). The program includes works by Kodály, Shostakovich, Piazzolla and Dohnányi. Tickets are $25 and $35, $12 for CSO Ignite members (ages 18-30). Call (513) 381-3300, or visit www.cincinnatisymphony.org

The Ariel Quartet, string quartet-in-residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, completes its cycle of the complete string quartet of Beethoven this week in three concerts, all at 8 p.m. in CCM’s Corbett Auditorium. Tuesday (March 24) hear Op. 18, No. 4 in C Minor and Op. 59, No. 1 in F Major ("Razumovsky"). On Thursday (March 27), the Ariel will perform Op. 18, No. 5 in A Major and Op. 130 in B-flat Major (with Grosse Fuge, Op. 133). The cycle will conclude on Saturday (March 29) with Op. 18, No. 6 in B-flat Major, Op. 74 in E-flat Major ("Harp") and Op. 132 in A Minor. Tickets are $20, $15 for non-UC students, UC students free one hour prior to the concert. Call (513) 556-4183, or order online at ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice

Meanwhile, the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra led by music director James R. Cassidy goes globetrotting with a program of ten works under ten minutes each by composers from nine countries and five continents. Concerts are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday (March 28 and 29) in Greaves Concert Hall at Northern Kentucky University. Hear music by Dvorak, Barber, Rossini, Weinberger, Abreu, Grainger, Beethoven, Mussorgsky and Elgar. Tickets are $35, $27 and $19, children 18 and under 50% off. Call (859) 431-6216, or order online at kyso.org