Universal Sports Network Premieres Student-Produced ‘2013 Gold Rush Expedition Race’ Film Tonight

Photography by Kaori Funahashi.

The Universal Sports Network presents the premiere broadcast of the student-produced 2013 Gold Rush Expedition Race documentary film at 6:30 p.m. ET tonight, Oct. 24!

The Gold Rush Expedition Race documentary films chronicle one of the foremost expedition races in the world. Each 90-minute documentary features an international field of 50 elite athletes tackling a grueling 275-mile course through the California wilderness as they test their mental and physical limits in the toughest competition in North America. Over the course of four days, teams face merciless heat and sleepless nights while trekking, mountain biking, climbing and kayaking amidst the beauty of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The race is part of the Adventure Racing World Series (ARWS) and the winning team receives an entry into the ARWS World Championship.

Each film has been produced by a team of UC students hailing from the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP), and the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.

Working under the guidance of professional television director/producer and CCM Electronic Media (E-Media) alumnus Brian J. Leitten (BFA, 2001) and E-Media Professor Kevin Burke, these students shot, edited, scripted and produced the film on location in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Both Leitten and Burke advise the project and provide professional guidance and feedback to the students during all phases of the documentary’s development.

Earlier this month, GearJunkie.com hailed the Gold Rush Expedition Race project as “undoubtedly one of the most amazing educational initiatives we’ve seen.”

Learn more about the Gold Rush Expedition Race project by visiting ccm.uc.edu/about/villagenews/notations-ovations/student-produced-film-series-airs-on-universal-sports-network.

All broadcast times Eastern and subject to change. Learn more about the Universal Sports Network by visiting http://universalsports.com.

CCM Alumnus Travis Hagenbuch Nominated For Fourth Primetime Emmy

CCM Alumnus Travis Hagenbuch with the first two Emmys he won.

CCM alumnus Travis Hagenbuch (BFA, 2007) was nominated for his fourth primetime Emmy award this year (ceremonies were held on Sept. 22).

Nominated in the category of “Lighting Design,” Hagenbuch has designed lighting for such live televised events as the Olympics, President Obama’s inaugural celebration, a Super Bowl halftime show with Tom Petty, the Academy Awards, the Grammy Awards, the Tony Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, BET Awards, as well as TV specials for Lionel Richie, Betty White’s 90th birthday and Celine Dion.

The three Emmys has won to date are for the Vancouver Olympics’ opening ceremony in 2010 and for two Grammy ceremonies in 2011 and 2012.

You can learn more about Travis Hagenbuch courtesy of UC Magazine.

CET Cincinnati Public Television Broadcasts Premiere of ‘Monteverdi From CCM’ on May 12

From left-to-right: Vivian Montgomery, harpsichord; vocalists: James Onstad, Derrell Acon and Xi Wang; Jennifer Roig-Francoli, Baroque violin; and Annalisa Pappano, viola da gamba. Photography by Dottie Stover.

CET Cincinnati Public Television will premiere Monteverdi from CCM at 8 p.m. on Sunday, May 12, on the CET Arts channel. This program is part of an exciting new collaboration between CCM and CET, which will bring CCM’s world-class performances to PBS viewers throughout the Greater Cincinnati viewing area.

You can read more about this collaboration here.

Monteverdi from CCM was shot on location in CCM Village in November of 2012. The performance features CCM’s Chamber Choir, Early Music faculty members, students and guest artists presenting highlights from Claudio Monteverdi’s Madrigals of Love and War and Selva Morale e Spirituale.

You can learn more about the November performance here.

Monteverdi from CCM is scheduled to air on the CET Arts channel during the following times:

CCM E-Media Presents Free Screening of ‘Gold Rush Expedition Race’ Film on April 24

CCM E-Media will host a debut screening of the documentary film Gold Rush Expedition Race at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24 in the MainStreet Cinema of UC’s Tangeman University Center. Admission is free and open to the general public.

The screening of this hour long film will be preceded by a brief introduction and followed by a question and answer session with the student producers, camera operators and film editors.

Educationally grounded, professionally driven and student produced, the Gold Rush Expedition Race documentary is a collaborative film produced by an interdisciplinary group of students at UC working under the guidance of a professional television and film producer/director. Sponsored by the UC Forward Collaborative, the project involved 33 students from four academic programs at three colleges at the University of Cincinnati:

• the Division of Electronic Media at the College-Conservatory of Music
• the Graphic Communication Design Program at the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning
• the Department of Communication and the Department of Anthropology at the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences

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

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.

CCM’s Department of Classical Guitar Celebrates 40 Years with Free Anniversary Concert on April 6

CCM Classical Guitar Ensemble members (left to right) Kirk Redman, Evan Fiehrer, Donald Broerman and Andrew Otte.

CCM presents a special 40th Anniversary Concert of classical guitar music performed by students and alumni from the Department of Classical Guitar at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 6 in Patricia Corbett Theater. This performance is FREE and open to the public, and a gala reception will follow in the Baur Room in UC’s Corbett Center for the Performing Arts.

The performance is the centerpiece of a celebratory weekend during which students, alumni and supporters of the Classical Guitar Department will gather at CCM to celebrate the department’s 40th year. The concert will showcase CCM talent at all levels, featuring the CCM Classical Guitar Ensemble, three young guitarists from the Preparatory Department and several alumni duos and trios.

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

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 Jazz Welcomes Special Guest Steven Bernstein For Evening of James Bond Film Music on March 10

CCM’s Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab Band welcome guest artist and guest composer Steven Bernstein for a concert that is guaranteed to be “Shaken, Not Stirred” at 007 p.m. on Sunday, March 10, in UC’s Corbett Auditorium.

“Special agents” from CCM’s award-winning Lighting Design program will help present this evening of James Bond film music with a dynamic and colorful twist. Scott Belck and Dominic Marino conduct.

“Shaken, Not Stirred” features Bernstein’s adaptations of composer John Barry’s iconic and legendary James Bond film scores. Barry, who died in January 2011 at the age of 77, scored 11 James Bond films between 1963 and ’87. He composed a number of other highly acclaimed film scores, including those for Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa, both Grammy Award winners.

CCM Professor’s Book, ‘The Symphonic Repertoire – Vol. 1,’ Was a Decade in the Making

CCM Professor of Musicology Mary Sue Morrow.

For the last 10 years, CCM professor Mary Sue Morrow has dedicated herself to completing her late mentor’s series of books.

Weighing in at nearly 900 pages, the Symphonic Repertoire – Volume I may be the first of its kind. Other literature on the 18th century symphony just skims the surface of the era.

“We looked at symphonies by many different composers,” says Morrow. “Mozart and Haydn were not the only symphony composers in the 18th century.” The massive volume includes essays by Morrow and her co-editor, Bathia Churgin, and 20 other scholars.

UC Hosts Global Lens Film Festival Jan. 14 – April 15

CCM E-Media presents the Global Film Initiative’s 2012 Global Lens film series.

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music’s Division of Electronic Media (CCM E-Media) and the University of Cincinnati Libraries will host free public screenings of 10 award-winning narrative feature films from Albania, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Rwanda and Turkey this spring as part of the Global Film Initiative’s 2012 Global Lens film series.

All films will be shown at 2 p.m. on Mondays in the TUC MainStreet Cinema on the campus of the University of Cincinnati.