Cincinnati World Piano Competition Announces 2015 Finalists

After an incredible Semifinal Round on June 11, the 2015 Cincinnati World Piano Competition has its three finalists!

Congratulations to Artem Yasynskyy, Mei Rui and Nino Bakradze! You can learn more about each of these competitors below.

The final round will take place in Corbett Auditorium at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 13, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The order of performance is as follows:

• Mei Rui, United States
• Artem Yasynskyy, Ukraine
• Intermission
• Nino Bakradze, Georgia

 The awards ceremony will follow immediately after the performances. Dessert and coffee with the medalists in CCM’s Baur Room will follow the awards ceremony.

Congratulations to all of our semi finalists and best of luck to our three final competitors! Order your tickets online at here.

CWPC 2015 finalist Nino Bakradze.

About Nino Bakradze
Nino Bakradze was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, into a family of musicians. From a very early age, she has presented piano recitals worldwide including Finland, Poland, Armenia, Georgia, China, Spain, Brazil and the USA. In 2014, she was a Prizewinner in Spain’s Maria Canals International Piano Competition, and in 2012, she was awarded Third Place at the BNDS International Piano Competition of Rio de Janeiro. She won both New England Conservatory’s Concerto Competition and the Piano Honors Competition. Ms. Bakradze was a prizewinner at the International A. Khachaturian Competition in Armenia, and at the J. Flier International Piano Competition. Awards from within her home country include First Place at the N. Gabunia National Competition and the R. Rozhok and E. Gurevich Young Georgian Piano Competitions.

During tomorrow’s performance, Bakradze will perform Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30.

CWPC 2015 finalist Mei Rui.

About Mei Rui
Pianist Mei Rui’s playing has been praised as “riveting,” full of “dramatic tension and lucidity” by the Boston Globe. Dr. Rui graduated from Yale, and holds degrees in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and music. While pursuing her D.M.A., she taught as Visiting Professor of Organic and General Chemistry at the City University of New York.

In September 2013, Dr. Rui played to a sold-out audience with violinist Xiang Yu at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. She has appeared at Yellowbarn, Taos, and Norfolk, and has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, George Manahan, Shinik Hahm, Paul Katz and Roger Tapping.

At age 11, she made her orchestral debut soloing with the Beijing Radio Symphony and has since played with the Beijing Radio Symphony, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and the Yale Philharmonic. Recently she recorded Eric Nathan’s solo works to be released by Albany Records in 2015.

During tomorrow’s performance, Rui will perform Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30.

CWPC 2015 finalist Artem Yasynskyy.

About Artem Yasynskyy
Ukrainian pianist Artem Yasynskyy has appeared on many international stages. He has won prizes at major international piano competitions such as the Gina Bachauer Piano Artist Competition, the Sendai and Gian Battista Viotti Music competitions, as well as the Horowitz and First German competitions.

Mr. Yasynskyy has appeared at festivals such as the Bremer Musikfest, the Maggio Piano Festival Vercelli, the Summer Night Music Festival of Kiev, the Festival “Days of Slavic Culture” in Rome and the Polish Music Festival in Hamburg.

During tomorrow’s performance, Yasynskyy will perform Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23.

Performance Time
7 p.m., Saturday, June 13

Location
Corbett Auditorium, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to the Cincinnati World Piano Competition Finals Concert start at $35. Purchase tickets through the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra website at www.cincinnatisymphony.org or by calling the CSO box office at 513-381-3300.

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.

24 International Competitors Take the Stage This Week for the Cincinnati World Piano Competition

CCM’s Summer Performance Series is heating up this week with the return of the Cincinnati World Piano Competition!

If you missed the coverage in yesterday’s Cincinnati Enquirer, you can find Janelle Gelfand‘s extensive report on the Competition online here. See how our new bracket format works in the video below!

The First Round of the 2015 Cincinnati World Piano Competition continues through June 10, with the Semifinal Round scheduled for June 11. On Saturday, June 13, our finalists take the stage with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for the summer’s can’t-miss concert!

Tickets are still available for all rounds of the Competition and are on sale now through the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Box Office!

CCM Welcomes Greater Cincinnati Chinese Music Society for New Year Concert on March 28

The Greater Cincinnati Chinese Music Society (GCCMS) presents its 14th annual Chinese New Year Concert at 7:30 p.m. this Saturday, March 28, in CCM’s Corbett Auditorium. This unique event celebrates the cultural diversity in the tri-state region with music from East and West.

This year’s concert theme is “Songs of Bamboo,” featuring a variety of Chinese traditional musical instruments made from bamboo.

The event not only features an annual appearance by the CCM Philharmonia (conducted by CCM’s Director of Orchestral Studies Mark Gibson), it also serves as a homecoming for alumnus tenor Yi Li (AD Opera, 2013), a current member of the Washington National Opera and a 2014 winner of the Metropolitan National Council Auditions Grand Finals (alumna Amanda Woodbury (MM, 2012) was also a Grand Finals Winner in 2014).

Yi Li, tenor.

A native of Jinan, China, Yi Li also participated in CCM’s festival in Spoleto, Italy, as well as the Opera Studio Nederland in Amsterdam. Recent performances include Tamino in The Magic Flute, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Alfredo in La traviata, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Rodolfo in La bohème, and Cavaradossi in Tosca. In addition to his win in the Met finals, he won first prize at the 2012 Opera Columbus Irma M. Cooper Vocal Competition; the 2009 International Singing Competition in Marmande, France; and the 2008 World Chinese Singing Competition of Taipei.

Other guests joining Li, Gibson and the Philharmonia include China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra members Ying Dong and Hui Zhang as well as Cincinnati Ballet member Sirui Liu. It is sure to be an exciting event for all! Happy the Year of the Goat!

For complete details about this event, please visit www.cincinnatichinesemusicsociety.org or email info@cincinnatichinesemusicsociety.org.

Performance Time
7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 28

Location
Corbett Auditorium, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to the 2015 Chinese New Year Concert are available through the Greater Cincinnati Chinese Music Society. Ticket prices are $20 for family, $25 for general and $50 for patrons. For tickets, please call 513-658-3852 or 513-885-1328.

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.

CCM’s Lonely Instruments for Needs Kids Program Announces 2015 Instrument Collection Dates: March 14 and 15

CCM holds its annual LINKS (Lonely Instruments for Needy Kids) Collection Days on Saturday, March 14, and Sunday, March 15, at Joseph-Beth Booksellers (2692 Madison Rd., Rookwood Pavilion, Cincinnati). The hours for the collection drive are 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday and noon – 5 p.m. Sunday.

LINKS, a project of the Friends of CCM with support from Buddy Roger’s Music, Joseph-Beth Booksellers and WGUC 90.9 FM, began in 1993 as the brainchild of CCM alumnus Bill Harvey (BM Music Education, 1971), Vice President of Buddy Roger’s Music.

Harvey, well-respected by music teachers in the Greater Cincinnati area, wanted to fill the need of getting instruments into the hands of students whose parents were not able to buy, rent or borrow an instrument. The solution was somewhat simple — a “recycling program” for musical instruments.

Since 1993, LINKS has placed more than 2,000 instruments into the hands of children unable to purchase or rent instruments of their own. LINKS accepts donations of new and used instruments from the Greater Cincinnati community, then places them with students in local elementary, middle and high school bands and orchestras, as well as with students in the CCM Preparatory Department. Students are qualified by the recommendation of their music teacher, and a LINKS scholarship application is submitted in the student’s name.

Even if the instrument is not in perfect condition, donations are gladly accepted. Buddy Roger’s Music generously contributes the time to carefully restore, tune and clean each instrument. All of the donations are tax deductible, and Joseph-Beth Booksellers will donate 20% of store purchases back to LINKS during the collection days (learn more here). Entertainment during the collection will be provided by local music students of all ages.

If you do not have an instrument, you can still assist young musicians who need a helping hand by making a contribution to the LINKS fund at https://ccm.weshareonline.org/ws/opportunities/LINKS.

In addition to the March 14 and 15 collection days, instruments are accepted year-round at any Buddy Roger’s Music Store. Call 513-729-1950 for store locations.

For more information on LINKS or to make a monetary donation, call the CCM External Relations Office at 513-556-2100.

Vote for CCM in CityBeat’s Annual “Best of Cincinnati” Readers Survey

Click here to place your vote!

The polls are currently open for CityBeat’s 19^th Annual Best of Cincinnati® Readers Survey and we are delighted to report that CCM has been nominated in several areas!

Within the Arts & Nightlife category, CCM has been nominated as Best Local Theatre Company.

Our string quartet-in-residence – the Ariel Quartet – has been nominated in for Best Local Classical Music Group.

Another ensemble-in-residence at CCM – the Cincinnati Children’s Choir – is up for Best Local Vocal Arts Group.

Several CCM faculty members have also received nods for Best Local Musician.

Within the Urban Life category, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music has also been nominated as Best College/University.

Your votes count! Show your support for all of CCM’s Best of Cincinnati® nominees by visiting http://survey-citybeat.wehaaserver.com/survey-120-best-of-cincinnati-2015.html and casting your ballot today!

Voting ends at midnight on Tuesday Feb. 10. Look for results in the April 1 issue of CityBeat!

CCM Slideshows: Hansel and Gretel

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CCM’s Mainstage Series resumes this evening with a contemporary production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s timeless opera Hansel and Gretel. Running Nov. 20 – 23, this magical production also features the Cincinnati Children’s Choir, ensemble-in-residence at CCM. Mark Gibson conducts with stage direction by Robin Guarino.

Above, enjoy a preview slideshow of the opera that Richard Strauss regarded as “a masterpiece of the highest quality.”

WCPO calls the opera the number one thing to do in Cincinnati this weekend, and the Cincinnati Enquirer and CityBeat have also highlighted the production! Learn even more about Hansel and Gretel here.

Performance Times

• 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20
• 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21
• 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22
• 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23

Location
Corbett Auditorium, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to CCM’s Mainstage production of Hansel and Gretel are $31-35 adults, $20-24 non-UC students and $18-22 UC students with valid ID.

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/hansel-and-gretel-mainstage.

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 & Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Mainstage Season Production Sponsor: Macy’s

Community Partner: ArtsWave

CCM Performs Claudio Monteverdi’s Large-Scale Masterwork ‘Vespers of 1610’ on Nov. 16

Guest artists and student soloists for CCM’s performance of Monteverdi’s ‘Vespers of 1610.’ Photography by Jay Yocis.

Next Sunday, CCM will present Claudio Monteverdi’s masterwork Vespers of 1610, featuring regional and national Early Music guest artists, the CCM Chamber Choir, Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra and student soloists with CCM’s Director of Choral Studies Earl Rivers conducting. The performance will be staged at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Cincinnati.

“Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 is the Beethoven 5th of Early Music,” Rivers explains. “Monteverdi retained many of the Renaissance traditions in the work but fused the older style with the advent of the new, florid Early Baroque style of music. Vespers of 1610 is a significant international repertory work that students will be performing throughout their careers.”

Anchoring the advent of music in the Baroque era as a large-scale masterwork, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 displays a range of lavish colors for vocal and instrumental soloists; six, seven, eight and 10-voice choral textures; and virtuosic embellishments and improvisations. The first major choral/orchestral repertory work of the early Baroque period, Vespers of 1610 features solo, chamber and ensemble music displaying the historic past of Renaissance polyphony and Gregorian chant, as well as music of the future in the form of Baroque chamber duets, concerted choruses and large-scale instrumental movements.

This lavish presentation will involve many participants such as Early Music guest and local artists including:

• Alexander Bonus and Stephen Escher, cornetto
• Christopher Canapa, Alex Krawczyk and Linda Pearse, sackbut

A Continuo Group comprised of:

• Adriana Contino, cello
• Dieter Hennings, theorbo
• Annalisa Pappano, lirone and viola da gamba
• Elizabeth Motter, Baroque harp
• Rodney Stucky, archlute and Baroque guitar
• Michael Unger, continuo organ and harpsichord

And featuring CCM student soloists:

• Grace Kahl and Jacqueline Stevens, soprano
• Paulina Villarreal, mezzo-soprano
• Allan Palacios Chan and Marcus Shields, tenor
• T. J. Capobianco, tenor (Duo Seraphim)
• Jacob Kincaide, bass
• Brandon Bell, bass-baritone (Laudate Pueri and Magnificat)

About Alexander Bonus, cornetto
Alexander Bonus maintains a varied career performing historic brass and keyboard instruments, in addition to his conducting, researching, and teaching activities. He has performed with ensembles including Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra; Folger Consort; Tragicomedia; Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra; the Washington Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble; the Newberry Consort; and Chicago Opera Theater. Dr. Bonus also appeared onstage in the Boston Early Music Festival production of Lully’s Psyché, and is heard on BEMF’s recording of this work, released on the CPO label. He holds a PhD in Musicology from Case Western Reserve University as well as MM and BM degrees from the Eastman School of Music. His scholarship appears in the latest edition of the Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments and Oxford Handbooks online among other sources. Dr. Bonus is the Assistant Professor of Music at Bard College, where he directs the Bard Baroque Ensemble and teaches courses in music history, theory, and historical performance practices.

About Annalisa Pappano, viola da gamba and lirone
Artistic director of Catacoustic Consort, Annalisa Pappano performs throughout the United States and Europe. She is recognized for bringing together the best international talent to present groundbreaking programs and landmark performances. Pappano studied at Indiana University’s Early Music Institute (Wendy Gillespie) and at Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Catharina Meints).

She has performed throughout Belgium, England, Ireland, Colombia, Canada, and the U.S., has appeared on nationally syndicated radio and has played at the Berkeley and Vancouver Early Music Festivals and the Ojai Music Festival. Pappano is a member of Atalante (England) and has performed with numerous other ensembles including the Houston Grand Opera, the Cleveland Opera, the Portland Opera, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Les Voix Baroques, Opera Atelier, the Toronto Consort, the Concord Ensemble, Cappella Artemisia (Bologna), the Dublin Drag Orchestra, Wildcat Viols, and Consortium Carissimi.

Pappano has taught at Viola da Gamba Society of America national conclaves, the Viola da Gamba Society Pacific Northwest and Northeast chapters, the San Diego Early Music Workshop, Viols West, the Madison Early Music Workshop and has been a guest lecturer at numerous universities.

She led the Catacoustic Consort to win the grand prize in the Naxos / Early Music America Live Recording Competition and recorded a program of Italian laments on the Naxos label. Pappano completed a performance practice orchestra workshop at Miami University in Ohio. She is currently teaching viola da gamba at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

About Linda Pearse, sackbut
Canadian-born Linda Pearse is recognized as a specialist in the exquisite musical repertoire of early seventeenth-century Italy. Dr. Pearse is Assistant Professor of Brass at Mount Allison University (New Brunswick) and Lecturer for Baroque trombone at Indiana University Bloomington. Following studies at McGill University, a career in Europe included regular performances with the Stuttgart Philharmoniker, Stuttgart Opera House, the Basel Symphony, La Cetra, piano possible and the Stuttgart Musical Theater. Pearse is the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Early Music Summer Baroque Workshop and directs the award-winning ensemble ¡Sacabuche!

Recent performances include a twelve-concert tour to Beijing with the interdisciplinary program “Matteo Ricci: His Map and Music” (Dec 2010), a tour to Hong Kong and Macau China (June 2013), and tours to Victoria, Nanaimo, and Salt Spring Island, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, New York, San Francisco, Bloomington (IN), Madison (WI), Kansas City and Houston. Her most recent project “Venetia 1500” is inspired by the Barbari Aerial Woodcut of Venice from 1500 and creates a conversation between new music, early music, texts and images, that finds resonances with Maritime cultures in decline. Her critical edition of Seventeenth-Century Italian Motets with Trombone is published with A-R Editions (April 2014).

Performance Time
5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16

Location
Christ Church Cathedral
Fourth & Sycamore Streets
Cincinnati, OH 45202

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 are $20 for general admission, $15 for non-UC students and free for UC students with valid ID.

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/monteverdi-vespers. Visit ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice for CCM Box Office hours and location.

Tickets will also be available beginning at 4 p.m. on the day of the performance at Christ Church Cathedral; cash and checks only at the door.

Parking and Directions
For more information on Cathedral hours and parking, please visit www.christchurchcincinnati.org.
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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Community Partner: ArtsWave

CCM’s production of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 is made possible by funding from the Cambridge Charitable Foundation and CCM’s Tangeman Sacred Music Center.

CCM Welcomes the Academy of Ancient Music for a Performance of JS Bach’s Orchestral Suites on Nov. 9

The Academy of Ancient Music. Photography by Patrick Harrison.

CCM welcomes the Cambridge-based Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) for a rare stateside performance at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 9, in Corbett Auditorium.

Under the direction of Richard Egarr, the acclaimed period-instrument orchestra will present JS Bach’s Orchestral Suites, showcasing the musical sophistication and expressive subtleties of the Baroque era composer.

The Orchestral Suites are a series of grand and graceful dances, paying homage to the French baroque style as championed by the ballet-obsessed King Louis XIV.

Written during Bach’s years in Leipzig, where he had a wider range of instruments at his disposal than ever before, the Suites revel in new sonorous possibilities and employ varied combinations of wind, brass, stringed instruments and timpani.

Watch the Academy of Ancient Music perform an excerpt from the Orchestral Suites below.

Hailed as the “finest period-instrument orchestra in the world” by Classic FM, the AAM’s residency at CCM is supported by the Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Fund of the Cambridge Charitable Foundation, Ritter & Randolph, LLC, Corporate Counsel.

Learn more about the Academy of Ancient Music’s upcoming visit to CCM courtesy of Catacoustic News here.

About the Academy of Ancient Music
For more than 40 years the Academy of Ancient Music has enriched the lives of thousands the world over with historically informed performances of baroque and classical music of the highest calibre. Founded in 1973 by Christopher Hogwood, the orchestra has since performed on all six inhabited continents and recorded an unrivalled catalogue of over 300 CDs.

In 2006 Richard Egarr succeeded Hogwood as Music Director, and has since led the orchestra on tours of Europe, Australia, the USA and the Far East. His notable recordings with AAM include JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Handel’s complete instrumental works Opp.1-7, music by the 17th century English composer Christopher Gibbons, and Birth of the symphony: Handel to Haydn, the first release on the orchestra’s in-house record label AAM Records.

The AAM’s artistic excellence has long been fostered by a range of guest artists. Pianist Robert Levin and singers Dame Emma Kirkby, Dame Joan Sutherland and Cecilia Bartoli were among those performing regularly with the AAM in the early days, and ongoing relationships with mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, counter-tenor Iestyn Davies and violinist Richard Tognetti lie at the heart of the AAM’s present-day artistic success.

The AAM’s 2014-15 season will take listeners on a musical Grand Tour, from Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione  di Poppea to Mozart’s magisterial piano concertos via Venice and the North African coast. International plans include a major tour of the United States and Canada, with performances at Washington DC’s Strathmore Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Carnegie Hall in New York. Planned releases on AAM Records in 2014-15 include recordings of JS Bach’s Orchestral Suites and the 1727 version of the St. Matthew Passion.

The AAM is Associate Ensemble at London’s Barbican Centre and Orchestra-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge. Visit www.aam.co.uk to find out more. 

Repertoire
All works by JS BACH:

• Orchestral Suite No. 4, BWV 1069 (c. 1725)
• Orchestral Suite No. 2, BWV 1067 (c. 1738-9)
• Orchestral Suite No. 1, BWV 1066 (c. 1725)
• Orchestral Suite No. 3, BWV 1068 (1731)

Performance Time
5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9

Location
Corbett Auditorium, CCM Village,
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to the Academy of Ancient Music’s performance at CCM are $20 for general admission, $15 for non-UC students and free for UC students with valid ID.

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/academy-of-ancient-music. 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 campus of the University of Cincinnati. 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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The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation: Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor

ArtsWave: Community Partner

The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Fund of the Cambridge Charitable Foundation, Ritter & Randolph, LLC, Corporate Counsel: Visiting Artists Sponsor

CCM Welcomes Classical Guitarist Oscar Ghiglia for 40th Anniversary Residency This Weekend

Guitar virtuoso Oscar Ghiglia.

CCM’s Guest Artist Series welcomes legendary classical guitarist Oscar Ghiglia for a very special performance at 4 p.m. this Sunday, Oct. 12. This concert celebrates Ghiglia’s 40th residency at CCM! The performance is free and open to the general public.

CCM guitarists have been the enthusiastic beneficiaries of Ghiglia’s concerts and master classes since 1974. He is the major and, perhaps, most persuasive exponent of Andrés Segovia-inspired European guitar playing.

About Oscar Ghiglia
Oscar Ghiglia was born in Livorno, Italy, to a pianist mother and a painter father. While attending Rome’s Santa Cecilia Conservatory, he participated in Segovia’s summer master classes in Siena and Santiago de Compostela. His graduation from the Conservatory in 1962 was followed by several important awards: first prize in the Orense Guitar Competition, first prize in the Santiago de Compostela Guitar Competition and first prize in the Radio France International Guitar Competition.

In 1964, Andres Segovia invited Ghiglia to be his assistant in master classes in California. Since then, Ghiglia has given concerts and master classes throughout the world. In addition to appearing extensively in all parts of North and South America and Europe, he is a frequent performer in the Far East, Israel, Argentina, New Zealand and the South Pacific, and has recorded for Angel, Nonesuch and Stradivarius Records. While being active as a concert artist, Ghiglia has always favored teaching as a sister-profession. Very few well-known guitarists today have not at one time or another been in his classes and profited from his lessons.

Ghiglia is currently professor emeritus of guitar at the Basel Music-Akademie, and gives summer courses in Europe, America and the Middle East. He established the classical guitar summer program at Aspen, Colorado, and taught there for twenty years. He now regularly gives summer classes at the Festival d’Arc in southern France, at the Chigi Academy in Siena, Italy and at the Festival Gargnano, Italy. The Hartt School of Music awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2004 for his outstanding contributions to classical guitar teaching and performance. In 2009, the Guitar Foundation of America presented him with their prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

Repertoire

• J.S. BACH: Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, BWV 998
• FERNANDO SOR: Caprice “La Calme,” Op. 50
• MANUEL DE FALLA: Homenaje “Le Tombeau de Debussy” (1920)
• FRANK MARTIN: Quatre Pièces Brèves (1933)
• MANUEL PONCE: Sonata Romantica (1928)

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.