The Cincinnati Children’s Choir Premieres the Winner of its 2015 Competition for Emerging Composers During Annual Spring Concert on May 3

Celebrate “Angelic Spring” with the Cincinnati Children’s Choir on May 3, 2015.

CCM presents the Cincinnati Children’s Choir’s annual spring concert, “Angelic Spring,” at 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 3, in Corbett Auditorium. A CCM ensemble-in-residence, the Cincinnati Children’s Choir is directed by Robyn Lana.

Highlights of “Angelic Spring” include Ban Ban Caliban, a choral setting of Shakespearean text composed by Dan Forrest. Performed by the Cincinnati Children’s Choir Bel Canto Choir, the piece is a quirky, fun, octatonic setting for treble choir, piano and percussion including cabasa, ratchet, vibraslap and police whistle. The performance of this piece coincides with the CCM Department of Choral Studies’ ongoing Shakespeare Quadricentennial celebration.

The Bel Canto Choir will also premiere the winner of its national competition for emerging composers. This year’s winner is Kevin Padworski from Denver with his pieceVidi Aquam.

In addition to the Bel Canto Choir, the Con Brio, Vivace and Allegro and Piccolo Coro Choirs, as well as the Cincinnati Girl Choir and Cincinnati Young Men’s Choir will be performing music from around the globe, singing of travel, hope and love. The concert will feature many alumni of the Cincinnati Children’s Choir, along with this year’s graduating seniors.

“Angelic Spring” is the start of a very busy season for the members of the Cincinnati Children’s Choir. Later on this summer, the ensemble will travel to Vatican City to perform in a mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. The Cincinnati Children’s Choir has also been asked to represent the USA at the World Expo in Milan, performing under the American flag. The annual Expo gathers countries from around the world to state their thoughts on a chosen theme. This year’s theme is “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.”

The Cincinnati Children’s Choir travels often, although international performances generally happen only once every three years. Since the ensemble had traveled to Beijing in 2014 for the International Children’s Choir Festival, this latest international opportunity was an unexpected honor!

Director Robyn Lana explains, “Participation in the program fosters joyful fulfillment, a sense of achievement, increased independence, confidence and leadership qualities in our choristers.”

Performance Time
5 p.m. Sunday, May 3

Location
Corbett Auditorium, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to the Cincinnati Children’s Choirs spring concert are $12 for general admission, $6 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 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 new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

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

CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Community Partner: ArtsWave

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)

Cincinnati Children’s Choir Invited to Perform at the Vatican

Cincinnati Children’s Choir, Ensemble-In-Residence at CCM.

We are thrilled to report that CCM ensemble-in-residence the Cincinnati Children’s Choir has been been invited to perform at the Vatican in July of 2015!

Visit www.Local12.com for more information about the forthcoming trip.

The Cincinnati Children’s Choir’s CCM concert series continues at 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 8, with a program of repertoire from around the globe!

Recently Graduated Voice Student Will Travel to Italy Thanks to Fulbright Award

Recent CCM graduate and Fulbright scholar Derrell Acon. Photography by Dottie Stover.

The University of Cincinnati’s Derrell Acon just graduated from the College-Conservatory of Music with a master’s degree and plans to return in 2014 to pursue his doctorate. But in between, Acon will be leaving for Italy this August to pursue both performance opportunities and research thanks to his Fulbright award.

Acon plans to “explore the relationship between the performer and  audience.”

“I will engage in research at the National Institute of Verdian Studies in Parma,” he said. “As well as present my own lecture-recital composition entitled ‘Whence Comes Black Art?: The Construction and Application of ‘Black Motivation,’ which has been presented throughout the United States.”

Acon’s passion for performing began early on, and continued through high school where he was a participant in both solo and ensemble festivals. He was often required to translate, interpret and memorize non-English pieces. That experience might be tedious to some, but he recalls it providing him with “so much joy.”

CET Cincinnati Public Television Broadcasts Premiere of ‘Monteverdi From CCM’ on May 12

From left-to-right: Vivian Montgomery, harpsichord; vocalists: James Onstad, Derrell Acon and Xi Wang; Jennifer Roig-Francoli, Baroque violin; and Annalisa Pappano, viola da gamba. Photography by Dottie Stover.

CET Cincinnati Public Television will premiere Monteverdi from CCM at 8 p.m. on Sunday, May 12, on the CET Arts channel. This program is part of an exciting new collaboration between CCM and CET, which will bring CCM’s world-class performances to PBS viewers throughout the Greater Cincinnati viewing area.

You can read more about this collaboration here.

Monteverdi from CCM was shot on location in CCM Village in November of 2012. The performance features CCM’s Chamber Choir, Early Music faculty members, students and guest artists presenting highlights from Claudio Monteverdi’s Madrigals of Love and War and Selva Morale e Spirituale.

You can learn more about the November performance here.

Monteverdi from CCM is scheduled to air on the CET Arts channel during the following times:

‘Music in Cincinnati’ Reviews CCM’s Monteverdi Project

Mary Ellyn Hutton provides a comprehensive review of CCM’s Nov. 28 Monteverdi Project concert for Music in Cincinnati, declaring that “early music is thriving at CCM.” You can read her full review here.

As previously reported, the Nov. 28 Monteverdi concert was recorded for future broadcast as part of an exciting new collaboration between CCM and CET, Cincinnati Public Television. Learn more about this collaboration here or read the News Records‘ coverage here.

Behind-The-Scenes At CET’s First CCM Video Shoot

CCM officially kicked-off its exciting new collaboration with CET Cincinnati Public Television earlier this week with the Nov. 28 Monteverdi Masterworks concert. Today, you can enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at the shoot, courtesy of CET.

Learn more about the collaboration here.

CCM Choral Series Presents Culmination of ‘Monteverdi Project’ on Nov. 28

From left-to-right: Vivian Montgomery, harpsichord; vocalists: James Onstad, Derrell Acon and Xi Wang; Jennifer Roig-Francoli, Baroque violin; and Annalisa Pappano, viola da gamba. Photography by Dottie Stover.

CCM’s Chamber Choir teams with Early Music faculty, students and guest artists for an evening featuring highlights from Claudio Monteverdi’s secular masterwork (Book 8: Madrigals of Love and War) and sacred collection (Selva Morale e Spirituale) beginning at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 28 in Corbett Auditorium.

The performance is the apex of CCM’s Monteverdi Project, made possible through a generous grant from the Willard and Jean Mulford Charitable Fund of the Cambridge Charitable Foundation. Directed by Earl Rivers, and featuring the CCM Chamber Choir, the Monterverdi Project has been coached by CCM Early Music Faculty members Vivian Montgomery, harpsichord, and Annalisa Pappano, gamba and lirone. Guest artist continuo members include Michael Leopold, theorbo; Elizabeth Motter, Baroque harp; Jennifer Roig-Francolí, Baroque violin; James Lambert, contrabass and gamba; Yaël Senamaud, Baroque violin; and Rodney Stucky, archlute and Baroque guitar.

This concert event will be recorded for future broadcast as part of an exciting new collaboration between CCM and CET, Cincinnati Public Television.

Janelle Gelfand’s ‘Arts in Focus’ Features CCM Alumna Xian Zhang

Earlier this week, the Cincinnati Enquirer‘s Janelle Gelfand profiled former CCM student and faculty member Xian Zhang.

Zhang made history as the first female music director of an Italian orchestra when she was named director of Milan’s Orchestra Verdi in 2009.

You can read Janelle’s entire post here.

Guest Artist Massimo La Rosa Presents ANFE Benefit Concert on April 3

Guest Artist Massimo La Rosa.

On Tuesday, April 3, the Consulate of Italy in Detroit and CCM are pleased to present a benefit concert for the Associazione Nazionale Famiglie Emigrati’s (National Association of Immigrant Families or ANFE) Light of Life Fund featuring Massimo La Rosa, principal trombone for the Cleveland Orchestra, accompanied by Elizabeth DeMio, pianist.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. in CCM’s Robert J. Werner Recital Hall. Tickets to the concert are $15 general admission and $10 for children 12 and under and can be purchased at the door. For additional information, please contact the ANFE at anfe.benefitconcert.cincinnati@gmail.com or 216-501-3063.