Stream the Ariel Quartet’s Final CCM Concert of 2019

Although the theaters and concert halls at the University of Cincinnati’s nationally ranked and internationally renowned College-Conservatory of Music are temporarily silent, audiences can still experience world-class performances through CCM’s new CCMONSTAGE Online video series. This week’s release showcases the Ariel Quartet’s concert of fugues from Oct. 22, 2019.

The performance features W.A. Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546; Bartok’s String Quartet No. 1, Op.7; and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 and 133.

The concert from Oct. 22, 2019, features Beethoven’s Große Fuge (or “Great Fugue”), which the Ariel Quartet performed in its debut Beethoven cycle at CCM in the 2013-14 performance season. Arts reporter Janelle Gelfand praised the ensemble’s performance: “From start to finish, the musicians wonderfully captured Beethoven’s emotional grit and fire, coupled with some of the most sublime music ever written.”

Described by the American Record Guide as “a consummate ensemble gifted with utter musicality and remarkable interpretive power,” the Ariel Quartet has earned a glowing international reputation. The ensemble is comprised of Alexandra “Sasha” Kazovsky, violin; Amit Even-Tov, cello; Gershon Gerchikov, violin; and Jan Grüning, viola. The group was formed in Israel in 1998 and has served as CCM’s string quartet-in-residence since 2012.

The Ariel Quartet’s 2019-20 CCM concert series was made possible by the generous contributions of an anonymous donor, The Estate of Mr. William A. Friedlander, Mrs. William A. Friedlander, Dr. Randolph L. Wadsworth, Mr. & Mrs. J. David Rosenberg, Mr. & Mrs. Harry H. Santen, Elizabeth C. B. & Paul G. Sittenfeld, Mr. & Mrs. Thomas E. Stegman, Dr. & Mrs. Theodore W. Striker and Mrs. Harry M. Hoffheimer.

Receive updates on future CCMONSTAGE Online performances by subscribing to our mailing list.

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Featured image at top: Ariel Quartet members Jan Grüning, Amit Even-Tov, Gershon Gerchikov and Alexandra “Sasha” Kazovsky. Photo/Marco Borggreve

Musical Family Gives Living Room Performance of Beethoven String Quartet

A family of musicians stuck at home during the pandemic found a perfect venue for a chamber music performance — their living room. The four string players, including two UC College-Conservatory of Music students, performed the first movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3 and shared it online for music lovers everywhere to enjoy.

The home concert features Cleveland Orchestra violinist Kathleen Collins and her children: Daniel Fields, a student violinist at CCM; Matthew Fields, a student cellist at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University; and Maya Fields, a student violist at CCM.

The performance received rave reviews from the family’s live-audience member, Cleo the dog. Tune into the performance on CCM’s YouTube channel.

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Video provided by Maya Fields

CCM Philharmonia Presents Powerful Works by Beethoven and Mahler on Jan. 31

“The Long Goodbye” features Beethoven’s Piano Sonata “Les Adieux” & Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. Tickets available online. 

The CCM Philharmonia opens its 2020 CCMONSTAGE Orchestra Series with “The Long Goodbye” at 7:30 p.m. this Friday, Jan. 31 in Corbett Auditorium. The performance features Beethoven’s emotionally powerful Piano Sonata E-flat Major, Op. 81a, “Les Adieux” and Mahler’s ninth — and final — Symphony in D Major.

Led by CCM Director of Orchestral Studies Mark Gibson, the CCM Philharmonia’s concert features passionate masterworks performed by the college’s student stars. Beethoven’s “Les Adieux” sonata, completed in 1810, was inspired by the composer’s sadness as his friend Archduke Rudolph fled the country during Napoleon’s siege of Vienna. The work is praised for its “extraordinary power and imagination” in “dealing with the emotions of separation and, ultimately, reunion — music meant to be heard with the eyes and heart as well as the ears” (NPR Music).

Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, completed in 1910, is the composer’s final completed symphony and is often considered as foreshadowing his death, which occurred before the work was premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. It is described in the Guardian’s “50 Greatest Symphonies” series as both a “hymn to the end of all things” and as an “ultimately affirmative love song to life and to mortality.”

Tickets to “The Long Goodbye” are on sale now through the CCM Box Office. The performance on Jan. 31 marks the continuation of the 2019-20 CCMONSTAGE Orchestra Series. The series concludes on Feb. 15 with a special concert by the CCM Philharmonia featuring guest conductor Louis Langrée, Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Performance Time

7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 31

Location

Corbett Auditorium, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets

Single ticket prices start at $25 each; student and group discounts available. Pricing is inclusive of all fees. All performances are reserved seating.

Tickets and subscriptions can be purchased online though our e-box office, over the phone at 513-556-4183 or in person at the CCM Box Office in the Atrium of UC’s Corbett Center for the Performing Arts.

Learn about additional ticket options for current CCM students.

Directions and Parking

CCM is located on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. Please visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions for detailed driving directions to CCM Village.

Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the end of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit the UC Parking Services website for information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors.

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A preeminent institution for the performing and media arts, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is the largest single source of performing arts presentations in the state of Ohio. All event dates and programs are subject to change. For a complete calendar of events, please visit us online at ccm.uc.edu.

Story by CCM Graduate Student Kelly Barefield

CCM Welcomes World-Renowned Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter for Master Class on Sept. 27

CCM students and the general public are invited to attend a free master class with acclaimed violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter on Friday, Sept. 27.

Four-time Grammy Award-winner Anne-Sophie Mutter presents a master class at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019 in CCM’s Mary Emery Hall Room 3250. The “undisputed queen of violin-playing” (The Times, London), Mutter will work with CCM string students during the two-hour session, which is free and open to the general public.

Mutter’s visit to CCM coincides with her weekend performances with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which features her on Beethoven’s Violin Concerto to celebrate the composer’s 250^th birthday. The CSO concerts are presented on Saturday, Sept. 28 and Sunday, Sept. 29 at Music Hall. For more information about the events with the CSO, please visit cincinnatisymphony.org.

Please contact Associate Professor of Violin, Won-Bin Yim for more information on the master class at CCM.

About Anne-Sophie Mutter
Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical phenomenon: for more than 40 years the virtuoso has now been a fixture in all the world’s major concert halls, making her mark on the classical music scene as a soloist, mentor and visionary.

The four-time Grammy Award winner is equally committed to the performance of traditional composers as to the future of music: so far she has given world premieres of 27 works – Unsuk Chin, Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutoslawski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir André Previn, Wolfgang Rihm and John Williams have all composed for Anne-Sophie Mutter. Furthermore, she dedicates herself to numerous benefit projects and to supporting tomorrow’s musical elite: in the autumn of 1997 she founded the “Association of Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation e.V.”, to which the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation was added in 2008. These two charitable institutions provide support for the scholarship recipients, support which is tailored to the fellows’ individual needs. Since 2011, Anne-Sophie Mutter has regularly shared the spotlight on stage with her ensemble of fellows, “Mutter’s Virtuosi”. 

Anne-Sophie Mutter’s 2019 concert calendar features performances in Asia, Europe, North and South America, once again reflecting the violinist’s musical versatility and her unparalleled prominence in the world of classical music: in March she has performed the world premiere of Sebastian Currier’s Ghost Trio at Carnegie Hall. In San Francisco, she will give the world premiere of Jörg Widmann’s String Quartet – both works were commissioned by her and are dedicated to the violinist. In September she will perform for the first time in her career as part of an open-air concert. Entitled Across the Stars, this event features some of the most outstanding works by John Williams, who has won several Oscars for his compositions, and takes place on Munich’s Königsplatz. Most of the works on this open-air programme are special arrangements made for Mutter. August sees the release of her CD recording of this new Williams repertoire, which has not been heard in this form anywhere else so far. Another thematic focus in 2019 are the violin concerti by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which she performs throughout Europe and in the USA. In South America and in Europe, she appears with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and plays the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Daniel Barenboim and Yo-Yo Ma – an extraordinary cast. Together with “Mutter’s Virtuosi”, the ensemble of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, she performs for the first time in South America.

On October 16 2019 Anne-Sophie Mutter will be honoured with the Praemium Imperiale in the category music; in June she received the Polar Music Prize. Poland awarded the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for Cultural Achievements to Anne-Sophie Mutter in March 2018, making her the first German artist to receive such an honour. In February 2018 she was named an Honorary Member of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Romania awarded the Order of Cultural Merit in the rank of a Grand Officer to Anne-Sophie Mutter in November 2017; during the same month France honoured her by presenting her with the insignia of a Commander of the French Order of the Arts and Literature. In December 2016, the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports awarded her the “Medalla de oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes” (Gold Medal for Merits in the Fine Arts). In January 2015 Anne-Sophie Mutter was named an Honorary Fellow of Keble College at the University of Oxford. In October 2013 she became a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, after winning the medal of the Lutoslawski Society (Warsaw) in January. In 2012 the Atlantic Council bestowed the Distinguished Artistic Leadership Award upon her. In 2011 she received the Brahms Prize as well as the Erich Fromm Prize and the Gustav Adolf Prize for her social activism. In 2010 the Technical-Scientific University of Norway in Trondheim bestowed an honorary doctorate upon her; in 2009 she won the European St. Ulrich Award as well as the Cristobal Gabarron Award. In 2008 Anne-Sophie Mutter was the recipient of the International Ernst von Siemens Music Prize as well as the Leipzig Mendelssohn Prize. The violinist has been awarded the German Grand Order of Merit, the French Medal of the Legion of Honour, the Bavarian Order of Merit, the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria, and numerous other honors.

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Directions and Parking

CCM is located on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. Please visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions for detailed driving directions to CCM Village.Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the end of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit the UC Parking Services website for information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors.

The Ariel Quartet Welcomes Guest Artist Yura Lee for March 26 Concert at CCM

The Ariel Quartet concludes its 2018-19 concert series at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) by showcasing the works of three masters of chamber music at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26, in the acoustically stunning Corbett Auditorium. Tickets to the performance are on sale now and available for purchase online.

The concert opens with Ludwig van Beethoven’s joyous String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18, which was modeled after Mozart’s String Quartet No. 18 in A Major, K. 464.

Next on the program is Robert Schumann’s intensely expressive String Quartet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 41, No. 1.

Guest artist Yura Lee. Photo by Giorgia Bertazzi.

Finally, the Ariel Quartet will be joined by guest artist Yura Lee, viola, for a performance of Johannes Brahms’ magisterial String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 111.

A performer of international renown, Lee has won top prizes for both violin and viola in numerous competitions. At the age of 12, she became the youngest artist ever to receive the Debut Artist of the Year prize at the “Performance Today” awards given by National Public Radio. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant given by Lincoln Center in New York City. Her CD with Reinhard Goebel and the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, titled Mozart in Paris (Oehms Classics), received the prestigious Diapason d’Or Award in France. Learn more about Lee at www.yuralee.com.

Described by the American Record Guide as “a consummate ensemble gifted with utter musicality and remarkable interpretive power,” the Ariel Quartet has earned a glowing international reputation. The ensemble is comprised of Alexandra “Sasha” Kazovsky, violin; Amit Even-Tov, cello; Gershon Gerchikov, violin; and Jan Grüning, viola. The group was formed in Israel in 1998 and has served as CCM’s string quartet-in-residence since 2012. Learn more about the Quartet by visiting www.arielquartet.com. Complete program information for the March 26 concert is below.

Repertoire

• BEETHOVEN: String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18
• SCHUMANN: String Quartet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 41, No. 1
• INTERMISSION
• BRAHMS: String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 111

Performance Time

8 p.m. Tuesday, March 26

Location

Corbett Auditorium, CCM Village, University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets

Tickets are $25 for general admission, $15 for non-UC students and FREE for UC students with valid ID. General admission and non-UC student tickets are on sale now. UC students can obtain one free ticket each with valid ID beginning Friday, March. 22.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the CCM Box Office, over the telephone at 513-556-4183 or online now through our e-Box Office! Visit ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice for CCM Box Office hours and location.

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 detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.

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The Ariel Quartet’s 2018-19 CCM concert series is made possible by the generous contributions of an anonymous donor, The Estate of Mr. William A. Friedlander, Mrs. William A. Friedlander, Dr. Randolph L. Wadsworth, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bloom, Mr. and Mrs. J. David Rosenberg, Mr. and Mrs. Harry H. Santen, Mr. and Mrs. Paul G. Sittenfeld, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Stegman, Dr. and Mrs. Theodore W. Striker and Mrs. Harry M. Hoffheimer.

Featured image at top: Photo/Saverio Truglia
Inset image: Photo/Giorgia Bertazzi

Summer Memories: Music Education Students Study Abroad in Europe

As part of the first music education study abroad trip, a group of 20 adventurous CCM students traveled to Europe to study in the countries where Western art music was born last summer.

Associate Professor of Music Education Eva Floyd hopes to organize a second study abroad trip in spring 2018. The first trip led the students to Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg and Paris on the 12-day adventure to deepen their appreciation and understanding of music. Students participated in master classes, performed in historic venues, attended concerts and visited cities in which some of classical music’s greatest composers lived and worked.

“When you see the places where Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven were born, lived or worked, it makes the music seem more human,” Floyd said, adding that half of the students had previously never travelled internationally.

Supported by grants from UC International and the Tangeman Sacred Music Center, this was the first study abroad trip for a CCM music education class, according to Floyd.

Traveling to the cities in which these great composers created masterpieces gave new life to their art and added personal dimension to music beyond what can be taught in a classroom.

Similar to learning a foreign language, music literacy is strengthened through studies as well as experience. The act of engaging with a culture first hand is a crucial step towards fluency. Likewise, studying and experiencing music in the countries of its origin encourages a broader understanding of music and music education.

Program participant Taylor Limbert, a junior in vocal music education, reflected on his experience with the program:

“Actually talking with and learning from and performing for people from other cultures was so enriching and I’m so glad I had that opportunity. I had been to Europe before last summer’s trip but this trip was by far the most important in my personal journey as an educator and a person.”

Students in front of Esterhazy Palace in Austria, home one of Haydn’s most important patrons.

Students observed music classes of a variety of grades and levels and participated in workshops at the Kodaly Institute in Hungary and the Orff Institute in Salzburg. They had previously studied the famous “Kodaly approach” to music education“seeing it in person made them realize the full potential of music education,” Floyd said.

As part of the program students were able to walk in the figurative footsteps of classical giants. They visited Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria — home to one of Haydn’s most important patrons. Students also toured Liszt’s and Kodaly’s residences in Budapest, Beethoven’s and Haydn’s residences in Vienna and Mozart’s birth home and family residence in Salzburg. Participants also heard concerts while traveling through these historic cities, including the famous Vienna Boys Choir.

Not only did the students visit cultural landmarks, they also had the opportunity to perform in some of the most historically significant and recognizable venues such as the Kodaly Institute in Hungary, St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Mondsee Cathedral outside Salzburg and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

“It is a privilege to see and walk through historic cathedrals,” Floyd said. “To make music in such a space allows you to take a piece of it home in your heart.”

Floyd prepared the group’s choral repertoire and organized a choral conducting master class with Peter Erdei, professor at the Liszt Academy and Kodaly Institute, for both CCM and Kodaly Institute students.

“The interchange between students from all corners of the globe was very exciting and proved to be a rich experience for all,” said Floyd, who studied in Hungary for two years before joining CCM faculty.

“The experience is so much more than just learning content and traveling. It helps you learn about yourself. It is very beneficial to get out of your comfort zone, and to be an outsider with language and culture. This helps you empathize with others and find confidence within yourself.”

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Story by CCM graduate student Charlotte Kies

World-Renowned Concert Pianist and Psychiatrist Richard Kogan Explores the Mind and Music of Chopin on Oct. 10

Guest artist Richard Kogan.

World-renowned concert pianist and psychiatrist Richard Kogan takes the stage at CCM at 7:30 p.m. this Friday, Oct. 10, for a celebration of the mind and music of Polish composer and virtuoso pianist Frédéric François Chopin.

Presented by the Friends of CCM and the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute, this unique concert program combines the cherished works of Chopin with observations about the relationship between the composer’s mind, his creative motivations and his music. A frequent performer with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Kogan is a Juilliard-trained pianist and an alumnus of Harvard Medical School.

About Richard Kogan
Richard Kogan has a distinguished career both as a concert pianist and as a psychiatrist. He has been praised for his “eloquent, compelling, and exquisite playing” by the New York Times, and the Boston Globe wrote that “Kogan has somehow managed to excel at the world’s two most demanding professions.” He has gained renown for his lectures and recitals that explore the role of music in healing and the influence of psychological factors on the creative output of composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.

He performed Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and gave an address entitled “The Power of Music in Healing Mind and Body” at the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He has recorded a DVD for Yamaha/Touchstar Productions entitled Music and the Mind. Yo Yo Ma wrote of this DVD, “I came away from this extraordinary lecture and performance deeply moved by a fascinating presentation that only Dr. Kogan, psychiatrist and concert pianist, can deliver.” Kogan has won the Concert Artists Guild Award and the Chopin Competition of the Kosciuszko Foundation and received the 2005 Artsgenesis Creative Achievement Award.

Dr. Kogan’s presentations are extraordinary, one-of-a-kind performances. He tells vivid stories about famous composers who suffered mental problems—frequent among highly creative people—while illustrating the composer’s work by exquisitely playing excerpts from their compositions. From composers such as Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, Schumann, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Leonard Bernstein, Dr. Kogan shares an insight and journey into some of the most creative minds, while humanizing medicine and bringing more of the person into medical practice. Dr. Kogan will open your ears and eyes to the symphony that is humanity, music and medicine.

Kogan is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music Pre-College, Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. He completed a psychiatry residency and an academic fellowship at NYU. He has a private practice of psychiatry in New York City and is affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical College as co-director of its Human Sexuality Program. He is also co-chairman of the recently established Weill Cornell Music/Medicine Initiative.

Performance Time
7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10

Location
Patrica Corbett Theater, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets for this Prestige Event Series concert are $50 for general admission, $40 for Friends of CCM members. Event proceeds raised by the Friends of CCM support student Scholarships and travel for CCM’s “stars of tomorrow.” Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute’s sponsorships will benefit their core programs.

Tickets can be purchased over the telephone at 513-556-2100 or online at ccm.weshareonline.org/ws/opportunities/TheMindandMusicofChopin. A dessert reception will follow the program.

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 detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Community Partner: ArtsWave

This performance is presented by the Friends of CCM and the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute.

Art of the Piano Concert Series Continues Tonight With Awadagin Pratt and Dennis Thurmond Joint Recital

CCM faculty member and World Piano Competition Artistic Director Awadagin Pratt.

CCM’s Art of the Piano summer festival and concert series continues at 7 p.m. this evening with a joint recital featuring Tai Chi of Improvisation author Dennis Thurmond and World Piano Competition Artistic Director (and CCM Artist-in-Residence) Awadagin Pratt.

Thurmond and Pratt’s program promises to be a true blending of genres, as the duo present the world premiere of “VII Structures” for two pianos, bass and percussion, which has influences from Bill Evans to Sergei Prokofiev to Keith Jarrett to Olivier Messiaen.

Pratt also promises that the concert will feature a rousing Fourth of July encore!

CCM Professor Brett Scott Named Director of Cincinnati’s Musica Sacra Chorus

We are happy to report that CCM Assistant Professor of Ensembles and Conducting L. Brett Scott has been appointed as Music Director of Cincinnati’s Musica Sacra Chorus.

Scott was nominated by Dr. Helmut J. Roehrig, who founded Musica Sacra in 1965. Dr. Roehrig will now assume the title and duties of Music Director Emeritus, and will continue to be involved in some decision-making aspects of the Chorus.

Scott has been a faculty member at CCM since 2007. He conducts the CCM Chorale and the Opera D’Arte undergraduate operas, and is also director of Cincinnati Camerata.

He is currently Vice President of the National Collegiate Choral Association, and has conducted, taught and lectured in Canada, Portugal and Cuba as well as throughout the United States. At the recent 2013 Portugal International Choral Festival, he conducted the ESML Chamber Choir to Gold and a first place finish in their category.

CCM’s Bearcat Piano Festival Presents Guest Artist Dror Biran in Concert on Feb. 9

CCM welcomes guest artist Dror Biran as part of the fifth annual Bearcat Piano Festival on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014.

CCM welcomes guest artist Dror Biran for a FREE concert performance as part of the 2014 Bearcat Piano Festival at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 9, in the Robert J. Werner Recital Hall.

Biran will perform J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major, BWV 825; James Wilding’s Legend: A Homage to Robert Schumann; Beethoven’s Sonata in D Major, Op. 10, No. 3; and Chopin’s Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58.