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!

CCM Winds, Jazz, Musical Theatre, Guitar And More On Display This Weekend!

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You will find something for everyone on the CCM stage this weekend!

At 8 p.m. this evening (Friday, April 12), the CCM Wind Orchestra closes out its successful 2012-13 season with a survey of contemporary American composers. The eclectic program will include works by Samuel Barber, Warren Benson and more! Learn more about this performance here.

CCM welcomes acclaimed tenor Lawrence Brownlee to the stage at 8 p.m. this Saturday, April 13, for an encore performance of the program from his recent Carnegie Hall debut. Brownlee will be accompanied by composer, conductor and pianist Damien Sneed for this special performance. Learn more about this performance here.

CCM’s Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab Band will celebrate the impact of adjunct instructor of jazz drums and “living guru of big band drumming” John Von Ohlen with a swinging tribute concert at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 14. Learn more about this performance here.

CCM Wind Orchestra Celebrates Contemporary American Music on April 12

CCM’s Wind Symphony. Image by UC Photographic Services.

CCM’s Wind Orchestra presents a historical survey of significant contemporary American composers at 8 p.m. on Friday, April 12, in UC’s Corbett Auditorium.

The eclectic program will include music by American composers with a variety of backgrounds:

• Samuel Barber (1910-1981), Pulitzer Prize winner known for, among other works, his wildly popular Adagio for Strings.
• German-born Ingolf Dahl (1912-1970), who settled in Los Angeles and was a conductor, critic and pianist, playing for Hollywood films and working with artists such as Victor Borge and Benny Goodman.
• Warren Benson (1924-2005), known for his dynamic works for percussion and winds, who was a professional musician by age 14 and who went on to play timpani in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
• Michael Daugherty (b.1954), Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance whose often-performed works are influenced by popular culture, Romanticism and Postmodernism.

CCM Director of Wind Studies Glenn D. Price conducts this performance, which closes out the Wind Orchestra’s 2012-13 concert series.