CCM’s Music in the Library Concert Series Continues with the Music of Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones on April 2

CCM students will celebrate the works of famed musical theatre duo Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt during a free performance at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 2, in CCM’s Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library.

A look back at CCM’s 1994 Hot Summer Nights production of Jones and Schmidt’s THE FANTASTICKS, which featured 2015 Musical Theatre Young Alumni Award recipient Mickey Fisher (far left) in the cast! Photography by Sandy Underwood.

Dubbed “Celebration: The Music of Schmidt and Jones,” this concert, which is part of the school’s Music in the Library Series, will feature selections from the catalogue of the composer-lyricist team behind The Fantasticks and 110 in the Shade.

Pianist Craig Dalton and harpist Rachel Miller accompany students from CCM’s famed musical theatre program on hit songs such as “Try To Remember” and “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” as well as lesser-known gems from Celebration, Philemon and Collette Collage.

The concert will also include a special preview of CCM’s upcoming Studio Series production of 110 in the Shade, which opens on Thursday, April 9 (admission to 110 in the Shade are free, but reservations are required; tickets become available at noon on April 6).

“Celebration: The Music of Schmidt and Jones” will take place in the Gorno Library Reading Room, 6^th Floor, Blegen Library. The performance is free and open to all.

CCM Students Bring ‘Pierrot Lunaire’ to Stages Across Cincinnati This March and April

A group of CCM students will revive Arnold Schoenberg’s 1912 melodrama masterpiece Pierrot Lunaire—both in excerpts and in its entirety—during several free performances across the city this March and April.

The CCM ensemble consists of Jillian McGreen, soprano; Matthew Umphreys, piano; Nave Graham, flute; Mikey Arbulu, clarinet; Walter Park, violin; and Amy Pirtle, cello.

The sextet will first perform excerpts of the work at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 8, at the Cincinnati Art Museum as part of their MUSE Concert Series.

The ensemble will next give a complete performance of Pierrot in CCM’s Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library as part of their “Music in the Library” series at 1 p.m. on Thursday, March 12.

A month later, the group will again perform the entire work at Northside Tavern during the monthly Classical Revolution Cincinnati event at 8 p.m. on Sunday, April 12. The performance will also be part of the annual Constella Festival and will occur alongside other featured musicians including Detroit Symphony Orchestra bassist Rick Robinson and his group CutTime and acclaimed local cellist (and CCM Preparatory Department instructor) Nathaniel Chaitkin.

Based on French poet Albert Giraud’s cycle about a deformed, lunar-obsessed harlequin and his misfit puppet companions, Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire still stands as a landmark in German Expressionist music. It is particularly noted both for its revolutionary atonal approaches to music as well as its employment of Sprechstimme, a “sing-speak” style in which vocalists aim for non-pitched, approximate notes often followed by a sudden fall to create an eerie type of rhythmic speaking. The combination of these two techniques—as well as the small, varied ensemble required—helps evoke an atmosphere that is scary and jarring but also beautiful and engaging, setting a world in which Pierrot explores various vices and decadences.

If you have the opportunity, don’t miss out on hearing these free performances by CCM students of one of the most acclaimed works of the twentieth century!

Two Free ‘Music in the Gorno Library’ Concerts Showcase CCM Talent This April

Join UC Libraries at two upcoming concerts to be held in the Albino Gorno Memorial Music (CCM) Library Reading Room.

• 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 3: The CCM Philharmonia will perform Haydn’s Symphonies 6, 7 and 8 (“Morning, Noon and Night”) conducted by CCM graduate student Aik Khai Pung.
• 2 p.m. Sunday, April 14: The inaugural concert on the CCM Library’s 1888 Steinway Parlor Grand piano will feature music arranged by Clara Schumann, edited by CCM faculty member Jonathan Kregor, associate professor of composition, musicology and theory. The music will be performed by students of CCM’s Michael Chertock, associate professor of keyboard studies, and Awadagin Pratt, associate professor of keyboard studies. Dr. Kregor will give remarks about the music.

Orchestra Concert Scheduled for the CCM Library

UC Libraries will host an orchestra concert in the Albino Gorno Memorial Music (CCM) Library Reading Room on the 6th floor of Blegen Library at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 4. The concert is part of the “Music in the Gorno Music Library” series.

Free and open to the public, the concert is in celebration of the impending publication of The Eighteenth Century Symphony, the first volume of The Symphonic Repertoire, a five-volume series being published by Indiana University Press. It includes over 100 composers and covers musical style, performance practice, aesthetics, and institutions. The book is edited by CCM musicology professor Mary Sue Morrow and is scheduled to be issued in May 2012.

CCM Early Music Lab Performs Medieval Beneventan Chant

CCM’s Early Music Lab will join guest Ensemble 1521 for a free performance of Canto Beneventano, a medieval chant from Santa Sofia Benevento, on Wednesday, June 1 at 8:30 p.m. in CCM’s Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library. Admission to this performance is free.