Guest conductor Neal Gittleman leads the CCM Philharmonia on Thursday, Nov. 29. Photography by Andy Snow.
CCM’s month-long Cage Centennial Celebration comes to a close at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 29 with the Philharmonia Orchestra’s annual “American Voices” concert, featuring special guests Percussion Group Cincinnati. CCM welcomes guest conductor Neal Gittleman for this concert.
“American Voices XV – Celebrating John Cage at 100” features Charles Ives’ Three Places in New England, John Cage’s 4’33″, Lou Harrison’s Piano Concerto (with Kris Rucinski, soloist) and John Cage’s Renga, with Music for Three (with Percussion Group Cincinnati).
About Neal Gittleman
Currently in his 18th season as Artistic Director of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Neal Gittleman enjoys a career and reputation of international dimensions. With the historic merger of the Dayton Ballet, Dayton Opera and Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra into the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance in July 2012, Gittleman’s 2012-13 conducting duties have expanded to include a production of Stewart Sebastian’s Mozart Dances and holiday performances of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker with Dayton Ballet, as well as a semi-staged Act I of Wagner’s Die Walküre and a fully-staged production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with Dayton Opera.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Gittleman graduated from Yale University in 1975. He continued his musical studies with the eminent teachers Nadia Boulanger and Annette Dieudonné in Paris, Hugh Ross at the Manhattan School of Music and Charles Bruck at both the Pierre Monteux Domaine School and the Hartt School of Music, where he was the recipient of the Karl Böhm Fellowship. In 1984, he was the Second Prize Winner of Geneva’s Ernest Ansermet International Conducting Competition, and, two years later, he was awarded Third Prize at the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition in New York City. In 1989, he was selected for the American Conductors Program at the American Symphony Orchestra League’s annual conference in San Francisco.
Gittleman’s conducting career began in 1981 as Assistant Conductor of the Hartt Symphony Orchestra and the Hartt Opera Theater. Subsequently, he served as Assistant Conductor of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra (under the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductors Program) and as Associate Conductor of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He was also the distinguished Resident Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for three seasons, preceded by six years of service as its Associate Conductor. For four seasons, starting in 1998, Gittleman led an annual three-concert series of Classical Connections with The Phoenix Symphony, and, for five seasons – from 2000 through 2005, he led the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s series of “Discovery Concerts.”
As guest conductor, he has appeared with numerous orchestras, including l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Alabama, Chicago, Indianapolis, Oregon, New Jersey, Phoenix, Saint Louis, San Antonio, San Francisco and Seattle symphonies, the Minnesota, Philadelphia and National Repertory orchestras and the Buffalo and Rochester philharmonic orchestras as well as the ensembles of Anchorage, Bangor, Baton Rouge, Chattanooga, Cincinnati, El Paso, Eugene, Green Bay, Jacksonville, Knoxville, New Haven, Omaha, San Jose, Springfield and Chicago’s Grant Park and Oregon’s Britt Music Festivals. He has also conducted Canada’s Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra London, México City’s Orquesta Filamónica de la Ciudad de México, UNAM Philharmonic and Orquesta Cámara Bellas Artes, Bosnia’s Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra and Germany’s Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and led performances of Handel’s Messiah in Tokyo and Osaka.
At home in the opera pit as well as on the concert stage, Gittleman has conducted for the Hartt Opera Theater, Syracuse Opera Company, Milwaukee’s Skylight Opera Theatre and Dayton’s Human Race Theatre Company. During the 1997-98 season, he made an acclaimed debut with the Dayton Opera, conducting Gounod’s Faust, followed, in subsequent seasons, by productions of Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Adamo’s Little Women, Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. He has also led performances of the Milwaukee Ballet, Hartford Ballet, Chicago City Ballet, Ballet Arizona and Theatre Ballet of Canada.
As Music Director of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Gittleman regularly conducts classical, Pops, educational and summer concerts. In addition, he leads the orchestra’s nationally known “Classical Connections,” a popular and innovative series offering audiences a “behind-the-scenes” look at masterpieces of the symphonic repertoire. His first CD with the DPO – “Tomas Svoboda – Piano Concertos” – with the composer soloist in the First Concerto and Norman Krieger soloist in the Second – was released in the summer of 2001. This was quickly followed by “Gershwin in Prague,” with performances of Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F with the Prague National Symphony Orchestra, again with Norman Krieger as soloist. Both albums are available on the Artisie 4 Recordings label. In 2004, Albany Records released “A Celebration of Flight,” comprised of new scores by William Bolcom, Robert Xavier Rodríguez, Michael Schelle and Steven Winteregg. His most recent recordings appear on the DPOalive label: William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1(“Afro-American”) and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6; Elgar’s In the South, Wagner’s A Faust Overture, Franck’s Symphony in d; Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben and Stravinsky’s Apollon Musagète.
Gittleman and his wife, Lisa Fry, make their home in Dayton.
Performance Time
8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29
Location
Corbett Auditorium, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati
Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to “American Voices XV” are $12 general admission, $6 non-UC students, UC students FREE.
Tickets can be purchased in person at the CCM Box Office, over the telephone at 513-556-4183 or online at ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice.
Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.
For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
CCM Season Presenting Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation
CCM VILLAGE NEWS ARCHIVES 
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