Price Hill String Quartet Presents FREE All-Mendelssohn Concert on May 2

The Price Hill String Quartet.

The Price Hill String Quartet.

CCM’s new Community Partner the Price Hill String Quartet will present a FREE all-Mendelssohn program beginning at 7:30 p.m. this Thursday, May 2, at the LISH Art Gallery in Price Hill. This concert is open to the general public and will conclude with the first and last movements of the Mendelssohn Octet performed by the Quartet and four members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra!

The Price Hill Quartet is the string quartet of Music for Youth in Cincinnati (MYCincinnati). The Quartet is comprised of two MYCincinnati directors and two current CCM students, and is funded in part by CCM and CCM’s ArtsWave Community Partnership grant.

Learn more about CCM’s New Community Engagement Initiatives here.

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Congratulations to the University of Cincinnati’s Class of 2013!

Photography by Dottie Stover.

Photography by Dottie Stover.

Congratulations to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Class of 2013! You can view a live video stream of UC’s Commencement Ceremonies here. UC will host ceremonies in the Fifth-Third Arena Shoemaker Center at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, 2013.

9 a.m. ceremony will include the following colleges:
  • Allied Health Sciences
  • Business
  • College-Conservatory of Music (CCM)
  • Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP)
  • Nursing
  • UC Blue Ash
2 p.m. ceremony will include the following colleges:
  • Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH)
  • Engineering & Applied Science
  • McMicken College of Arts & Sciences (A&S)
  • UC Clermont
Photography by Dottie Stover.

Photography by Dottie Stover.

Following the University’s 9 a.m. commencement ceremony, CCM will host a cookout in room 300 of the Dieterle Vocal Arts Center. The luncheon is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. and graduates, parents and friends are welcome to attend.

CCM will then celebrate the Class of 2013 with a Graduation Convocation Ceremony at 1:30 p.m. in Corbett Auditorium. Students receiving baccalaureate, masters, doctoral and artist diploma degrees in April 2013 will be recognized at the Convocation.

The ceremony will be in full academic regalia, and will feature a faculty and student procession. The ceremony will also include recognition of this year’s Distinguished Alumnus Award RecipientDeron Hall (MM, Music Education) and this year’s Distinguished Service Award RecipientDianne M. Rosenberg (BSED, Special Education and MED, Special Education). Tickets are required.

Learn more about CCM’s Graduation Convocation Ceremony here.

Photography by Dottie Stover.

Photography by Dottie Stover.

CCM Video: A Farewell in Song from the Musical Theatre Program’s Class of 2013

CCM Musical Theatre's graduating class of 2013.

CCM Musical Theatre’s graduating class of 2013.

The graduating seniors from CCM’s Musical Theatre program bid a heartfelt farewell to their time at the University of Cincinnati with a performance of Craig Carnelia’s “Flight” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Somewhere” (from the musical West Side Story) accompanied by Julie Spangler:

Learn more about CCM Musical Theatre’s recent graduates here!

CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Community Partner: ArtsWave

UC Alumnae Bring Visual Effects and Costumes to New Oz Movie

UC Magazine reports on the roles that two UC alumni played in the success of the recent feature film Oz: The Great and Powerful:

  • Debbie Denise, CCM ’73, visual effects executive producer
  • Jessica Peel-Scott, DAAP ’93, assistant costume designer.

CCM alumna Debbie Denise is executive vice president of production at the Academy Award-winning visual effects and animation studio Sony Pictures Imageworks, which Disney hired for the film. Considered one of the country’s most experienced visual-effects production executives, Denise oversees production of all the company’s films, which have included Harry Potter, The Amazing Spider-Man and Men In Black 3. She is particularly an expert on 3-D Stereoscopic Production.

You can read the entire UC Magazine feature here.

CCM Senior Lauren Roesner Wins Third Prize at 2013 Lotte Lenya Competition

2013 Lotte Lenya Competition winners (left to right): Lauren Roesner, Alison Arnop, Douglas Carpenter, and Maren Weinberger. Photo: Kurt Weill Foundation for Music.

2013 Lotte Lenya Competition winners (left to right): Lauren Roesner, Alison Arnop, Douglas Carpenter, and Maren Weinberger. Photo: Kurt Weill Foundation for Music.

We are delighted to announce that graduating CCM student Lauren Roesner (BFA Musical Theatre, 2013) has been named a winner of the 2013 Lotte Lenya Competition. The soprano was awarded third prize in the prestigious international theater singing contest during the final round of the competition on Saturday, April 13. Congratulations Lauren!

The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, which sponsors the competition, distributed a record $61,500 in prizes this year. Roesner received a third prize of $7,500. CCM alumna Heather Phillips, soprano, was also a finalist in the competition and received an award of $1000.

Several other current and former CCM students were awarded special prizes during this year’s competition. Learn more about those awards here.

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CCM Alumnus David Daniels Profiled in April 2013 issue of ‘Opera News’

Photographed by Michal Daniel as Orfeo in the Minnesota Opera production of Orfeo ed Euridice, 2010  © Michal Daniel 2013

Photographed by Michal Daniel as Orfeo in the Minnesota Opera production of Orfeo ed Euridice, 2010
© Michal Daniel 2013

CCM alumnus David Daniels (BM, 1990) is profiled in the April issue of Opera News, which is on newsstands now. As previously reported, the acclaimed countertenor is a 2012 Opera News Award-winner.

In the lengthy profile, Opera News editor Adam Wasserman writes, “Daniels has the uncanny ability to bridge the gap and make us believe that the composer’s note barely had time to dry on the page before it came forth from his mouth. It seems to me that the highest compliment one can pay Daniels — now in the third decade of an unprecedented career in opera — is that the music he sings sounds both strikingly contemporary and as though it were written precisely for his voice.”

Read the entire profile here.

Daniels will be singing the title role in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Giulio Cesare this month. The production is scheduled to be broadcast as a part of the Met’s “Live in HD” Series on April 27, 2013.

Current and Former CCM Students Win at 2013 Gerda Lissner Foundation Vocal Competition

Congratulations to the following CCM alumni and students who were prize winners in the Gerda Lissner Foundation 2013 International Vocal Competition!

  • CCM alumnus and countertenor John Holiday earned first prize in the competition, which came with a $10,000 cash award.
  • CCM alumnus Norman Garrett, baritone, earned second prize, with an award of $5,000. This is Garrett’s second consecutive year taking home a prize from the competition.
  • Artist Diploma candidate Yi Li, tenor, and CCM alumnus Emmet O’Hanlon, baritone, each received third prize, which came with a $3,000 cash award. This is also Li’s second consecutive year earning a prize at the Lissner Competition.

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CityBeat’s Annual ‘Best of Cincinnati’ Issue Spotlights CCM

CityBeatBestOfCinci

We are delighted to be named “Best Place to Catch a Rising Star” in CityBeat‘s annual Best of Cincinnati issue, which is on newsstands (and available online) now! CityBeat‘s editors write:

UC’s College-Conservatory of Music is one of the top three musical theater programs in the nation. Every year hundreds of aspiring high school kids audition for one of 20 or so slots in the freshman class. (That’s more selective than most Division I sports teams.) Following graduation, they head straight for Broadway where multiple productions typically feature CCM alumni. It’s not unusual for one or two to be nominated for Tony Awards, such as Karen Olivo as Anita in the recent revival of West Side Story.

We are equally thrilled to report that CCM student Kris Rucinski was recognized for performing the year’s “Best Piano Concerto” during last November’s American Voices XV concert. Again, CityBeat‘s editors write:

At a November American Voices concert honoring great American Modernist composers, UC College-Conservatory of Music first-year graduate student Kris Rucinski wowed and thrilled an audience with his performance of Lou Harrison’s challenging, complicated Piano Concerto. The late Harrison wrote it for Keith Jarrett, an indication of just how demanding a work it is. By turns fiery and meditative, developing through four challenging movements, it is as much Cecil Taylor-ish eruptive Jazz as it is calm Classical, but Rucinski showed himself more than up for the task and ready to be Jarrett’s successor – or anyone’s. One only hopes there are more chances to see him while he is a student here and before he becomes an in-demand concert soloist.

We would like to congratulate all of our friends and partners also featured in this special issue of CityBeat, too!

CCM’s Stars of Tomorrow Present Annual Musical Theatre Senior Showcase This Thursday (7 p.m.), Friday (8 p.m.) and Saturday (8 p.m.)

CCM Musical Theatre's graduating class of 2013.

CCM Musical Theatre’s graduating class of 2013.

Cincinnati audiences will get a sneak peek at an original showcase created by the 2013 graduating class from CCM’s Department of Musical Theatre during the annual “Not Famous Yet” Showcase, which runs from March 28 (Friends of CCM benefit performance) through March 30 in UC’s Patricia Corbett Theater.

The March 28 benefit performance starts at 7 p.m. and features dinner by the bite and a post-performance celebration. Tickets for this benefit event are on sale now.

The March 29 and 30 performances take place at 8 p.m. and are free, but reservations are required.

Performance Times

  • 7 p.m. Thursday, March 28 — Friends of CCM Benefit
  • 8 p.m. Friday, March 29
  • 8 p.m. Saturday, March 30

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CCM Students Named Finalists in 2013 Lotte Lenya Vocal Competition

Congratulations to current CCM student Lauren Roesner (BFA Musical Theatre, 2013) and alumna Heather Phillips (BM Voice, MM Voice, 2002-08) on being named finalists in the 2013 Lotte Lenya Vocal Competition! Held annually by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, the Lotte Lenya Competition is an international theater singing contest that recognizes talented young singer-actors, ages 19-32, who are dramatically and musically convincing in a wide range of repertoire, and emphasizes the acting of songs and arias within a dramatic context.

The Kurt Weill Foundation awards special prizes at the finals in addition to the top prizes and we are delighted to report that current CCM students Conor McDonald (MM Voice, 2014), Katie Wesler (BFA Musical Theatre, 2014) and Sofia Selowsky (MM Voice, 2014) were awarded Emerging Talent Awards. Current Artist Diploma candidate Charles Z. Owen (MM, 2012) received the 2013 Grace Keagy Award for Outstanding Vocal Promise.

Congratulations to our two finalists and our four award-winners!

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