Violinist Giora Schmidt Joins CCM Faculty as Visiting Assistant Professor of Violin

CCM Interim Dean bruce d. mcclung is proud to announce the appointment of acclaimed violinist Giora Schmidt as Visiting Assistant Professor of Violin.

Praised by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as “impossible to resist, captivating with lyricism, tonal warmth, and boundless enthusiasm,” Schmidt has appeared with many prominent symphony orchestras including Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Canada’s National Arts Centre, Toronto, Vancouver and the Israel Philharmonic. He made his Carnegie Hall debut performing the Barber Violin Concerto with the New York Youth Symphony.

In recital and chamber music, Schmidt has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, San Francisco Performances, the Louvre Museum in Paris and Tokyo’s Musashino Cultural Hall. His festival appearances include the Ravinia Festival, the Santa Fe and Montreal Chamber Music Festivals, Bard Music Festival, Scotia Festival of Music and Music Academy of the West.

Born in Philadelphia in 1983 to professional musicians from Israel, Schmidt began playing the violin at the age of four. He has studied with Patinka Kopec and Pinchas Zukerman at the Manhattan School of Music, and the late CCM faculty member Dorothy DeLay and Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School.

Schmidt was the first prize winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Greenfield Competition in 2000, the recipient of a 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant and won the Classical Recording Foundation’s Samuel Sanders Award in 2005. From 2004 to 2006 he was selected to be a Starling Fellow at The Juilliard School.

Committed to education and sharing his passion for music, Schmidt was on the faculty of The Juilliard School and the Perlman Music Program from 2005 to 2009. Through technology and social media, he continues to find new ways of reaching young violinists and music lovers around the world. Over 70,000 people from around the world follow his Facebook page, facebook.com/gioraschmidt.

Please join us in welcoming Professor Schmidt to the CCM family!

Learn more about CCM’s illustrious faculty by visiting ccm.uc.edu/about/villagenews/faculty.

In Memoriam: Emeritus Faculty Member and LaSalle Quartet Violinist Walter Levin

CCM professor emeritus Walter Levin. Photo by Sandy Underwood.

It is with great sadness that we share news of the passing of emeritus faculty member Walter Levin, founding member and first violinist of the LaSalle Quartet and a CCM faculty member from 1953 until 1986. Levin passed away in Chicago on Aug. 4, 2017, at the age of 92. He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Evi, and two sons, David and Tom.

Born in Berlin on December 6, 1924, Levin and his family emigrated to Tel Aviv in 1938. Levin was accepted to Juilliard in 1946, where he studied with Ivan Galamian and Hans Letz. The LaSalle Quartet was formed during this period, taking its name from the nearby LaSalle Street where the Quartet members rehearsed. Upon graduation, the Quartet comprised of Levin, Henry Meyer, Peter Kamnitzer and Jack Kirstein became quartet-in-residence at Colorado College.

In 1953, the LaSalle Quartet came to what was then known as the College of Music in Cincinnati (the College of Music would merge with the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1955 before again merging with UC to become the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 1962). The Quartet served as CCM’s string quartet-in-residence for over 30 years, while also touring the world.

The LaSalle Quartet in the late 1970s: Peter Kamnitzer, Lee Fiser, Walter Levin and Henry Meyer.

After making its European debut in 1954, the LaSalle Quartet won international recognition for its masterful interpretations of the major works in the chamber music repertory. The Quartet’s programs offered a remarkable spectrum of music from all periods, including premieres of major works by 20th century composers.

The Quartet became particularly well regarded as the leading interpreters of “The Second Viennese School,” performing complete cycles of the quartets of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern throughout the United States and Europe. The LaSalle Quartet’s Deutsche Grammophon recording of these complete cycles created a sensation in the music world, winning the Grand Prix du Disque in 1972. TIME Magazine called the album “a landmark in recorded music.” In 1978, the LaSalle again won the Grand Prix du Disque, this time for its recording of the Five Late Quartets by Beethoven. The following year, the Quartet won the Edison Prize for the first recording of Alexander Zemlinsky’s Second String Quartet.

During his 33-year tenure at CCM, Levin greatly enhanced CCM’s reputation on the international stage. He also served on the faculty at Basel’s Musik-Akademie der Stadt and the Musikhochschule Lübeck. His students included the conductor James Levine, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, pianist Stefan Litwin, and members of the Alban Berg Quartet, the Arditti Quartet and the Ariel Quartet.

CCM Professor Emeritus Lee Fiser, the LaSalle Quartet’s cellist from 1975 to 1987, writes: “Walter was the last of my three colleagues who brought me to LaSalle and CCM. His passing is a great loss to the String Quartet world.”

The Strad has published a complete obituary at www.thestrad.com/walter-levin-founder-and-first-violin-of-the-lasalle-quartet-has-died/7006.article. The Chicago Sun-Times has also published an obituary at chicago.suntimes.com/news/renowned-violinist-music-teacher-walter-levin-dead-at-92/.

An upcoming performance by CCM’s current string quartet-in-residence, the Ariel Quartet, will be presented in honor of Walter Levin. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends during this time.

In Memoriam: Emeritus Faculty Member Ronald de Kant

We are saddened to share news of the passing of Ronald Zecher de Kant, Emeritus Professor of Clarinet at CCM. Born in Lancaster, PA, on Oct. 30, 1931, de Kant passed away in Cincinnati on June 22, 2016. He is survived by his wife, Brenda Mitchell of Cincinnati, daughter Monique (Niki) of Vancouver, BC, and cousin Barrie Zecher (wife Leoma) of Lititz, PA.

CCM Professor Emeritus Ronald de Kant.

De Kant was professor of clarinet at CCM from 1987 until his retirement in 2004. During his tenure at CCM, he also served as chair of woodwinds and brass from 1989-2004. Many of his former students have held positions in major Canadian and US orchestras and military bands.

De Kant received the Artist Diploma from Juilliard in 1953, where he studied with Daniel Bonade. Following Juilliard, during his military service, he taught for two years at the U.S. Naval School of Music in Washington, DC. He then performed as principal clarinet for a year in Toronto with Canada’s National Ballet Orchestra. He was principal clarinet with the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra from 1956-65, then principal clarinet of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra from 1965-80. He was also principal clarinet of the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra 1967-83 and performed with the Santa Fe Opera 1970-72. An active chamber musician, at various times he was a member of the New Orleans Woodwind Quintet, the Vancouver Woodwind Quintet, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Chamber Ensemble, and the Cassenti Players. He was a soloist with both the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. Recordings as clarinet soloist include the Mozart Quintet with the Purcell String Quartet and the Copland Clarinet Concerto with the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra.

In addition to his time as a CCM faculty member, De Kant taught at the university level concurrently with his orchestral appointments in both New Orleans and Vancouver. He also taught part-time at the University of British Columbia from 1965-80, then full-time until 1983. From 1977-84 he coached woodwinds at the Banff Centre for the Arts, where he premiered the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano by Oscar Morawetz. He was professor of clarinet at Arizona State University 1983-87. He taught clarinet at Louisiana State University during the 2004-05 academic year.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Professor de Kant’s family and friends during this time. You can share your memories of Ronald de Kant online at www.neidhardyoungfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Ronald-De-Kant. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association.

CCM Welcomes Rachel Calin as Associate Professor of Double Bass

Rachel Calin

University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) Dean Peter Landgren has announced the addition of acclaimed double bassist Rachel Calin to the college’s roster of distinguished string performance faculty members. Calin’s appointment as Associate Professor of Double Bass becomes effective on August 15.

Celebrated for her proficiency as both a pedagogue and a performer, Calin has been called “a lyrical soloist in command of her instrument,” by the New York Times. In 1994 she won the Juilliard Concerto Competition, making her concerto debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Orchestra. Subsequently, she has made concerto appearances with the Burlington Ensemble, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, and the Sejong Soloists.

Calin has dedicated herself to both teaching and chamber music. She is the longstanding sole bass faculty member at the Perlman Music Program, a program for exceptionally gifted pre-college aged musicians headed by Toby and Itzhak Perlman. She has also held faculty positions at Stony Brook University and the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University.

As a chamber musician, Calin has appeared in concert throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. She can be heard on NPR’s Performance Today, both in live and recorded broadcasts, and has collaborated with Myung-Wha Chung, Lawrence Dutton, Frank Huang, Ron Leonard, Itzhak Perlman and Gil Shaham, among others.

She has performed frequently with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, and has made appearances at the Aspen Music Festival, Live from Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart, and Ravinia. Calin can also be heard on numerous movie and commercial soundtracks, including The Departed and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. She has given the world premieres of works by composers such as Lera Auerbach and D. Edward Davis and has performed with many contemporary music ensembles including Sequitur, Composers Concordance and Metropolis Ensemble.

Calin received a BM and MM from the Juilliard School, where she studied with both Homer Mensch and Eugene Levinson. In addition to Juilliard, she also trained with Jeff Bradetich, Paul Ellison and Denise Searfoss. She was the recipient of an instrument loan from the Karr Foundation and currently performs on a double bass crafted by Carlo Giuseppe Testore in 1690.

While announcing her appointment, Landgren commented, “Ms. Calin is a perfect fit for CCM. Her prowess as a pedagogue will help us continue to prepare the next generation of performing artists for positions on the world’s stage. She is an ideal successor to Professor Albert Laszlo, who retires this fall after a highly successful tenure at CCM.”

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Story by Curt Whitacre

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.

CCM Alumna Amanda Woodbury Makes Solo Debut with Cincinnati May Festival This Weekend

CCM alumna Amanda Woodbury.

CCM alumna Amanda Woodbury (MM, 2012) will make her Cincinnati May Festival debut as a soloist this Saturday (and will also perform a preconcert recital tonight) and the Cincinnati Enquirer provides a preview in a new Q&A with the soprano.

Earlier this year, Woodbury was named a winner of the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions (along with fellow CCM alum Yi Li) and a 2014 Sara Tucker Grant Recipient (along with fellow CCM alum John Holiday).

She reflects on those recent successes and on her time at CCM in the feature, telling the Enquirer’s Janelle Gelfand, “I sang two roles onstage [at CCM], Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Madame Lidoine in Dialogues of the Carmelites. I can’t tell you how much that has helped my career. It helped me to prepare for the next step, and just everything they did opened up doors for me. I’m so glad I went to CCM, because I passed up Juilliard for CCM.”

CCM Welcomes Acclaimed Director Emma Griffin to its Opera Faculty

Please join us in welcoming Emma Griffin to CCM’s Department of Opera! Photography by Heather Phelps-Lipton.

CCM Dean Peter Landgren has announced the appointment of stage director Emma Griffin to the faculty of CCM’s Department of Opera. Griffin joins CCM as Assistant Professor of Music in Opera/Directing beginning in August of 2014.

Lauded by the New York Times for her “intelligent staging,” Griffin earned her BFA in Theatre from New York University in 1994 and has served as adjunct faculty in directing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts since 1999.

She is the Artistic Director of the OBIE-award winning Salt Theater. Highlights with Salt include Stage Door where she was awarded a FringeNYC Excellence Award for Best Director, Rinne Groff’s Inky, The Cherry Orchard and Conquest of the Universe.

Griffin has also directed work at theaters such as Perseverance Theater, Geva Theater Center, Syracuse Stage, Southern Rep, Actor’s Express, Virginia Stage and Williamstown Theater Festival.

She is a frequent collaborator on new music and theater pieces, including Corey Dargel’s Removable Parts, which received an “Outstanding Performance Art Production” at the New York Innovative Theatre Awards and Thirteen Near Death Experiences; Susan Bernfield and Rachel Peters’ Stretch, a fantasia; and Phil Kline’s Out Cold & Zippo Songs at BAM’s Next Wave Festival.

Griffin’s opera credits include The Cunning Little Vixen and Wozzeck at the Opera Philadelphia/Curtis Opera Theater; I Capuleti e i Montecchi, The Rake’s Progress, Postcard from Morocco and The Magic Flute at Curtis Opera Theater; and Les Mamelles de Tirésias and The Cunning Little Vixen at Juilliard Opera. The New York Observer hailed her production of The Cunning Little Vixen as one of the “Top 10 Performances of 2013.”

Griffin is currently developing the performance piece Backstage Door with playwright Sybil Kempson and The Three Christs, a new work by composer Corey Dargel for the NEWSPEAK ensemble.

Learn more about CCM’s accomplished faculty by visiting ccm.uc.edu/about/villagenews/faculty.

CCM’s Bearcat Piano Festival and Pianopalooza Showcase Return Feb. 6 – 16, 2014

Next month, CCM celebrates the art of the piano with a star-studded series of master classes, guest artist concerts and more! Launched in 2010 by Piano Department Chair Awadagin Pratt, the 2014 Bearcat Piano Festival welcomes a plethora of visiting pianists this February, including:

• Professor Emeritus Frank Weinstock on Feb. 6.
• Peabody Conservatory Piano Chair Boris Slutsky on Feb. 7.
• 2013 World Piano Competition Gold Medalist Marianna Prjevalskaya on Feb. 8.
• University of Louisville Piano Professor Dror Biran on Feb. 9
• Juilliard graduate (and brother of UC President Santa J. Ono, PhD) Momoro Ono on Feb. 11.

The celebration culminates with the return of Pianopalooza on Feb. 16. In honor of the Valentine’s Day holiday, this year’s concert celebrates “Keys to Love and Romance!”

For a complete schedule of festival events and additional information, please visit ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice/bearcatpianofestival. Some performances require paid admission.

Stay tuned for even more information about this exciting series of events!

CCM Props Artisan Earns Industry Interest With A “Fake Food Feast”

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The April 29th issue of the Cincinnati Enquirer spotlighted the work of CCM MFA candidate  Karestin Harrison, who was invited to present her “Fake Food Feast and Cook Book” showcase at this year’s United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) National Conference in Long Beach in late March.

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.