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

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.

CCM Professor of Drama Michael Burnham Retires

CCM Professor of Drama Michael Burnham joined the faculty in 1984. He retires later this month.

CCM Professor Michael Burnham has been a faculty member since 1984 and when asked about his many years of work for CCM, he muses, simply, “I liked all of them.” He will retire this month, following the conclusion of the school year and his work as director for CCM’s upcoming production of Execution of Justice, which runs April 18-20 as part of this year’s Studio Series.

“Professor Michael Burnham has been the artistic thorn in the side of every student who has entered CCM Drama for the past 29 years,” says Richard E. Hess, CCM’s A.B., Dolly, Ralph and Julia Cohen Drama Department Chair. “He digs into the mind of each and every new student, causing disruption, chaos and sometimes a little irritation, all in service of deeper thinking, harder questioning, more creativity and expansion of possibilities. Michael’s wonderful mind has touched the hearts of every student lucky enough to work with him.”

CCM Winds, Jazz, Musical Theatre, Guitar And More On Display This Weekend!

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You will find something for everyone on the CCM stage this weekend!

At 8 p.m. this evening (Friday, April 12), the CCM Wind Orchestra closes out its successful 2012-13 season with a survey of contemporary American composers. The eclectic program will include works by Samuel Barber, Warren Benson and more! Learn more about this performance here.

CCM welcomes acclaimed tenor Lawrence Brownlee to the stage at 8 p.m. this Saturday, April 13, for an encore performance of the program from his recent Carnegie Hall debut. Brownlee will be accompanied by composer, conductor and pianist Damien Sneed for this special performance. Learn more about this performance here.

CCM’s Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab Band will celebrate the impact of adjunct instructor of jazz drums and “living guru of big band drumming” John Von Ohlen with a swinging tribute concert at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 14. Learn more about this performance here.

CCM Presents Guest Artist Lawrence Brownlee in Recital on April 13

Acclaimed tenor Lawrence Brownlee presents a guest artist recital at CCM on Saturday, April 13, 2013. Photography by Derek Blanks.

CCM presents a special recital by tenor Lawrence Brownlee at 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 13, in Corbett Auditorium. This performance is presented by the CCM Busse Fund. Tickets are on sale now.

Brownlee will be accompanied by composer, conductor and pianist Damien Sneed, whose spiritual arrangements will be featured on the program. In addition, Brownlee will sing works from the 19th and 20th centuries, including music by composers Giuseppe Verdi and Francis Poulenc. Brownlee recently performed the same program at his Carnegie Hall debut, accompanied by pianist and conductor Martin Katz, with whom he recorded an album of Italian songs under EMI Classics in 2006.

Originally from Youngstown, Ohio, Brownlee has had a quick rise to sought-after status as an operatic tenor. Since graduating from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2001, he has won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and received the Richard Tucker Award and Marian Anderson Award. Brownlee has taken the stage with some of the world’s top opera companies including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House, Hamburg State Opera and Opéra National de Paris. In addition to his EMI Classics release of Italian songs, he is featured on EMI’s release of Rossini’s Stabat Mater and on the Metropolitan Opera’s Met in HD recording of Rossini’s Armida, both from 2010.

Brownlee’s performing career has taken him back to Ohio before, for performances of Bach’s Magnificat with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2002 and of Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra in 2003. His return for this CCM encore performance of his Carnegie Hall debut program will be an event not to be missed.

CCM Dance Showcase Spotlights Student Choreographers March 7 – 9

CCM showcases the work of student choreographers March 7-9. Photography by Will Brenner.

CCM proudly presents the next Studio Series production, featuring the original works of student dance choreographers, March 7-9 in UC’s Cohen Family Studio Theater. This production is free and open to the general public, but reservations are required. The 2013 Choreographers Showcase is directed by Assistant Professor of Dance Deirdre Carberry.

CCM Dance is constantly innovating and presenting new choreography, and this showcase is no exception. Junior ballet major Elizabeth Ernst found her inspiration in a set of traditional Latin pieces arranged by Cincinnati’s beloved “Prince of Pops” Erich Kunzel. “I knew that I wanted to choreograph for the show,” she explains. “But I had no idea what I wanted to do until one day I was cleaning my room and listening to music when one of the songs [arranged by Kunzel] came on, and I could not stop dancing! I knew from that point on that if I was going to choreograph, it was going to be to that music.” Ballet with a Latin twist was the result of Ernst’s vision, involving dancers performing to a recording of the Cincinnati Pops.

In Memoriam: Van Cliburn

Janelle Gelfand looked back on the life and career of pianist Van Cliburn in yesterday’s issue of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The internationally acclaimed pianist had a number of Cincinnati ties, starting with his mother, Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn, who graduated from CCM with a Bachelor of Music in 1915.

Van Cliburn was a generous supporter of CCM, establishing the Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn Student Lounge in the old Mary Emery Hall in honor of his mother and funding an undergraduate piano scholarship at CCM for many years. He will be missed but never forgotten.

Learn more about Cliburn’s indelible legacy here.

Two CCM Prep Violinists to Perform with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Left to right: Christina Nam, Robert Treviño and Skye Park.

On Tuesday, Feb. 19 and Wednesday, March 20, two students from the CCM Preparatory Department (CCM Prep) will perform the first movement of Bach’s concerto for two violins on the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s A Family of Strings program!

The students, Skye Park of Lexington, KY and Christina Nam of West Chester, OH, are from CCM’s Starling Preparatory String Project and are studying with CCM faculty member Kurt Sassmannshaus.

The concert is part of the CSO’s Young People’s Concerts series, and will feature CSO musicians under Associate Conductor Robert Treviño. Park and Nam performed the same work last summer at the Great Wall International Music Festival in Beijing and the performance was broadcast in November on NPR‘s From the Top.

CCM Announces Spring 2013 Calendar of Major Events

CCM is delighted to announce its spring schedule of performances. The largest single source of performing arts events in the state of Ohio, CCM presents more than 100 major public performances from Jan. 12 through May 19, ranging from faculty and guest artist concerts to fully supported opera, drama and musical theatre productions.

CCM’s spring semester performance schedule includes the return of Cincinnati’s premiere fundraiser “A Moveable Feast” on Jan. 18, an evening of motion-picture music featuring acclaimed film composer and distinguished UC alumnus Randy Edelman on Jan. 27, a celebration of Giuseppe Verdi’s sacred masterwork Requiem on Feb. 1 and 2, a monumental “Mahler Marathon” on March 2, the Ariel String Quartet’s inaugural season finale on April 9, a guest artist recital by acclaimed tenor Lawrence Brownlee on April 13 and the eighth installment of CCM’s popular Pianopalooza concert on April 21.

Also this spring, CCM’s Division of Electronic Media presents the 10-part Global Lens Film Series (Jan. 14 – April 15), Cincinnati Children’s Choir celebrates its 20th anniversary (March 9), the Classical Guitar Department celebrates its 40th anniversary (April 6) and CCM’s year-long Kurt Weill Festival continues with a variety of unique concerts and productions (Feb. 28 – March 12).

Download a digital copy of CCM’s Spring 2013 Calendar of Major Events today.

Event Information
All events listed below take place in CCM Village on the campus of the University of Cincinnati unless otherwise indicated. Admission is free to many CCM performances, although some events do require purchased tickets or reservations. Please see individual event information for details and ordering information.

All event dates and programs are subject to change. Visit ccm.uc.edu or contact the CCM Box Office at 513-556-4183 for the most current event information.

Enquirer Previews CCM’s ‘Mad Men’ Inspired Take on ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

Photography by Mark Lyons.

Jackie Demaline takes a closer look at CCM’s unique spin on William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in today’s edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer. A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs through this Sunday, Oct. 7, in Patricia Corbett Theater.

Learn more about director Michael Burnham‘s unique approach to the play and scenic designer Ryan Howell‘s collaboration with Toronto-based artist Amy Shackleton and CCM’s Division of Electronic Media here.

CCM Slideshows: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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CCM proudly presents a colorful new twist on William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, running through Oct. 7 in UC’s Patricia Corbett Theater.

Are you coming to campus for UC Homecoming this weekend? Come to CCM Village after the Homecoming Kickoff Party at the Myers Alumni Center on Friday for an 8 p.m. performance or come early on Saturday and catch a matinee of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at 2 p.m. (kick-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.).

This is a perfect weekend to experience EVERYTHING going on at the University of Cincinnati! Don’t miss the opening of CCM’s must-see 2012-13 Mainstage Series.