CCM Announces Initial Concert Schedule for 2014-15

CCM is pleased to announce initial details on its 2014-15 Concert Series. From J.S. Bach and W.A. Mozart to Leonard Bernstein and Ray Charles, CCM’s student ensembles, faculty artists and guest performers will traverse the breadth and depth of the performing arts in this dynamic series of events.

Encompassing over 50 different concerts, this series begins with a performance by the internationally acclaimed Ariel Quartet with legendary guest artist Menahem Pressler on Sept. 9, 2014, and concludes with a number of performances by CCM’s Preparatory Department running May 1 – 9, 2015.

Other highlights of CCM’s 2014-15 concert series include:

• a performance of Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello featuring the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Timothy Lees and Ilya Finkelshteyn,
• choral concerts celebrating the Shakespearean Quadricentennial,
• a Wind Orchestra tribute to Leonard Bernstein,
• a guest artist recital by renowned German countertenor Andreas Scholl,
• a joint faculty artist recital by CCM’s two Naumburg gold medalists Awadagin Pratt and Soyeon Kate Lee,
• a rare stateside performance by the Cambridge-based Academy of Ancient Music,
• jazz concerts celebrating the music of Ray Charles and Duke Ellington,
• a guest artist recital by renowned pianist Stephen Hough co-presented with the Xavier University Classical Piano Series,
• a CCM Ballet Ensemble production of Stravinsky’s Les Noces,
• and much more!

Several perennial favorites are also returning this season, including the Feast of Carols holiday concert, the Steel Drum Band’s annual performance, the 18th PRISM showcase and the 10th installment of PIANOPALOOZA, which celebrates the piano concerti of Rachmaninoff.

Professor Emeritus Frank Weinstock Returns to the CCM Stage This Evening

Professor Emeritus Frank Weinstock returns to CCM for the Bearcat Piano Festival.

This evening, CCM welcomes back Professor Emeritus of Piano Frank Weinstock for the opening concert of the fifth annual Bearcat Piano Festival! Beginning at 7 p.m. in the Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, this performance is free and open to the general public.

Weinstock will perform Beethoven’s Alla ingharese quasi un Capriccio, Op. 129 (“Rage Over a Lost Penny”), Schumann’s Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17 and Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960.

About Frank Weinstock
American Frank Weinstock has had a distinguished career as a performer, teacher, and adjudicator. His appearances as recitalist, soloist and chamber musician have taken him throughout the United States, as well as to South America, Asia, Europe and Africa. As concerto soloist, Mr. Weinstock has appeared with such conductors as Jesús López-Cobos, Erich Kunzel, Keith Lockhart, Jorge Mester, Gunther Schuller, Markand Thakar and Luthero Rodrigues. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Weinstock has performed with the Tokyo and American String Quartets, Leonard Rose, Larry Combs, Glen Dicterow, the Percussion Group Cincinnati and with members of the Guarneri, LaSalle, Manhattan and Berkshire Quartets.

Frank Weinstock is Professor Emeritus of Piano at CCM where he taught for 31 years until his retirement in 2011; towards the end of that time, he also served as that school’s associate dean and interim dean. He is featured in Benjamin Saver’s book, The Most Wanted Piano Teachers in the USA. His current and former students hail from six continents, and are themselves prominent performers, competition winners, recording artists and professors at universities around the world. Mr. Weinstock has been a member of the performing faculties at the Aspen and Eastern Music Festivals, the Great Wall International Music Academy in Beijing, and the Opera Theater and Music Festival of Lucca (Italy), and has been a juror for many competitions, including the Gina Bachauer, Cleveland, Hilton Head and Virginia Waring International Piano Competitions, as well as the Canadian Music Competition and the American Pianists Association Competition.

Cincinnati Public Radio, Cincinnati Enquirer and Gramophone Magazine Preview CCM’s February Performances

The latest installment of WVXU’s Around Cincinnati features a number of upcoming CCM performances! First up, guest artist D. Lynn Meyers gives Jim Stump a preview of this week’s Mainstage Production of Metamorphoses (Feb. 5 – 9). You can listen to their full conversation here.

Later on in the program, Brian O’Donnell speaks with CCM faculty members Awadagin Pratt and Michael Chertock about the Bearcat Piano Festival and Pianopalooza (Feb. 6 – 16). You can listen to the interview here.

The Cincinnati Enquirer‘s list of Top Arts Picks for February is also filled with CCM happenings, including the Bearcat Piano Festival, Metamorphoses, and Les Misérables (Feb. 27 – March 9). Read the full preview here.

Even Gramophone Magazine’s latest podcast features an upcoming CCM performance, as James Jolly speaks with guest artist Gerald Finley about his current tour with pianist Julius Drake, which comes to CCM’s Corbett Auditorium on Feb. 5! You can download the podcast here.

CCM Video: WCPO News Features CCM’s Opera Boot Camp

CCM’s “Realizing Rossini” summer workshop, featured on WCPO TV.

Tune in to Cincinnati’s WCPO Channel 9 noon newscast today, as Arts Reporter Matt Peiken provides a look inside CCM’s Realizing Rossini opera boot camp. Conductors and pianists, along with a carefully selected cast, are participating in this one-of-a-kind experience while in residence at CCM.

You can view the entire segment online here.

A complete schedule of summer opera performances is listed below, with highlights including semi-staged productions of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Cinderella.

CCM Video: Introducing the 2013 World Piano Competition

The world will be watching this July as today’s most sought-after piano teachers and artists come together with up-and-coming international performers for the 2013 World Piano Competition!

CCM Village will serve as the home of this year’s Competition, and finalists in the Competition’s Artist Division will have the distinct honor of performing with the world-renowned Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, July 13! Don’t miss a moment of the excitement: order your tickets or all access passes today!

A complete schedule for the Artist Division Competition is listed below. Learn more about the 2013 World Piano Competition here.

Event Information
All events listed below take place on the campus of the University of Cincinnati unless otherwise indicated. Please see individual event information for single ticket and subscription prices, along with ordering information.

Tickets to World Piano Competition events are available through the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Box Office.

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.

CCM’s Sixth Annual Pianopalooza Concert to Support Disaster Relief Efforts in Japan

Photography by UC Photographic Services.

CCM will support disaster relief efforts in Japan by donating proceeds from the sixth annual Pianopalooza concert to the cause. This year’s event takes place at 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 17 in Corbett Auditorium and celebrates the sounds of the piano with performances by CCM student pianists from Japan along with CCM faculty.