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 Alumnus Noel Bouley To Make His German Debut in Title Role of Deutsche Oper Berlin’s Upcoming ‘Falstaff’

CCM alumnus Noel Bouley will sing the title role in Deutsche Oper Berlin’s upcoming production of ‘Falstaff.’

Congratulations to bass-baritone Noel Bouley (MM, 2010; AD 2011), who will be making his German debut in Deutsche Oper Berlin‘s upcoming production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff!

A native of Houston, Texas, Bouley first sang the role of Sir John Falstaff in CCM’s May 2009 Mainstage Series production of the opera. The Deutsche Oper Berlin production opens on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013.

CCM Slideshows: The Magic Flute

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

CCM’s acclaimed 2012-13 Mainstage Series comes to a close this week with a colorful new production of Mozart’s beloved comedic singspiel The Magic Flute. This production runs April 4–7 in UC’s Corbett Auditorium.

The Cincinnati Enquirer‘s Janelle Gelfand recently visited CCM to take a behind-the-scenes look at The Magic Flute‘s costumes, wigs and make-up designs. Watch her exclusive video preview here.

CCM’s 2012-13 Mainstage Series Concludes With ‘The Magic Flute’

Jacqueline Echols as Pamina and Yi Li as Tamino in CCM’s ‘The Magic Flute.’ Photography by Mark Lyons.

CCM proudly presents Mozart’s beloved comedic singspiel The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte, 1791) from April 4–7 in UC’s Corbett Auditorium. The fourth most frequently performed opera worldwide, this production will be sung in German with English dialogue (with supertitles displayed). Mark Gibson conducts with stage direction by Steven Goldstein.

Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, this beloved opera offers something for everyone: a hero and heroine questing for true love, evil villains, a comical sidekick and a whole range of beastly creatures. According to Goldstein, The Magic Flute is a sort of vaudeville variety show of the 18th century. However, this iteration isn’t all about the slapstick comedy. “My charge to the performers,” Goldstein explains, “is for the comedy to come from somewhere genuine. There is a real play back and forth between light-heartedness and deep morality in Flute and our goal is to find the truth inside of it.”

Cincinnati Enquirer Previews CCM’s Kurt Weill Festival

This weekend, the Cincinnati Enquirer‘s Jackie Demaline provided an early look at CCM’s yearlong Kurt Weill Festival. You can read her preview here.

The festival resumes next month with a Mainstage production of Kurt Weill, Langston Hughes and Elmer Rice’s great American opera Street Scene, conducted by Mark Gibson with stage direction by Steven Goldstein. Street Scene runs Nov. 15 – 18 in UC’s Patricia Corbett Theater.

Visit CCM’s official Facebook page for a behind-the-scenes look at the production!

CCM’s Resident Kurt Weill Expert Featured in New York Times

CCM’s resident Kurt Weill scholar, Associate Professor of Musicology bruce mcclung, was quoted in an Oct. 21 New York Times article on the discovery of a previously unknown recording of Weill’s “Railroads on Parade” composition from the 1939 World Fair.

Record collector Guy Walker discovered the recordings in 2007 and plans to release the music on CD this month, with liner notes by mcclung. Read the full New York Times article here.

CCM’s yearlong Kurt Weill Festival kicked-off earlier this month. You can learn more about that unprecedented series of events here.

CCM Celebrates Iconic Composer Kurt Weill With Yearlong Festival

Theatre composer Kurt Weill in New City, ca. 1945 (photo: Engel). Image courtesy of the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music.

Beginning this month, CCM will celebrate the iconic work and enduring legacy of composer Kurt Weill with an unprecedented series of events. Opening on Friday, Oct. 19, and running through Tuesday, March 12, CCM’s Kurt Weill Festival will incorporate the renowned theatre composer into a broad range of both public performances and classroom exercises.

Perhaps best known for The Threepenny Opera and its opening ballad, “Mack the Knife,” Weill’s work has been championed by performers as diverse as Louis Armstrong, Bobby Darin, Nina Simone, The Doors, Judy Collins, Teresa Stratas, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Todd Rundgren, Tom Waits, Lou Reed and Sting.

CCM’s yearlong Kurt Weill Festival will include Mainstage opera and musical theatre productions, cabaret performances, collaborative concerts, master classes and more. Funded in part by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, CCM has never before hosted a festival of this magnitude.

CCM’s Schumann Bicentennial Festival Concludes Tonight

CCM Orchestras’ celebration of Robert Schumann’s repertoire concludes this evening (Nov. 5) with an 8 p.m. finale concert in Corbett Auditorium featuring the Philharmonia Orchestra. Ulrich Nicolai, conductor and professor at the Hochscule für Musik und Theater (University of Music and Performing Arts) in Munich, guest conducts. Tickets are $10 general admission, $5 non-UC students, UC students FREE.

CCM Orchestras Commemorate the 200th Anniversary of Robert Schumann’s Birth

Annunziata Tomaro conducts a rehearsal in Teatro Nuovo.

CCM Orchestras will begin its fall concert season with the Schumann Bicentennial Festival, a celebration of Schumann’s timeless compositional prowess and diverse repertoire. Performances will showcase symphonies, overtures and the Piano Concerto in A Minor, with soloist and Eminent Scholar in Chamber Music, James Tocco. Ulrich Nicolai, conductor and professor at the Hochscule für Musik und Theater (University of Music and Performing Arts) in Munich, will guest conduct the festival’s opening and closing concerts. A series of free Schumann Festival Atrium Concerts will also be held to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of Robert Schumann’s birth.