CCM Student Elena Villalón Named Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2019 National Council Auditions

CCM student Elena Villalón (center) with the other winners of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. From left to right: Miles Mykkanen, William Guanbo Su, Elena Villalón, Thomas Glass and Michaela Wolz. Photography courtesy of Ken Howard.

We are thrilled to report that current CCM student Elena Villalón has been named a Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2019 National Council Auditions! After a months-long series of auditions involving more than 1,000 singers at the district, regional and national levels, a panel of expert judges named Villalón and four other singers as the winners of the 65th annual Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Each winner receives a $15,000 cash prize. You can learn more about all of the 2019 National Council Winners by visiting www.metopera.org/about/auditions/national-council-auditions/winners.

Senior Voice Performance major Elena Villalón has been named a Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2019 National Council Auditions.

A soprano from Austin, Texas, who studies with CCM Professor William McGraw, Villalón joins Houston Grand Opera’s studio artist program in the 2019-20 season, after being a finalist and winning the audience prize in the 31st annual Eleanor McCollum Competition. She has been a vocal fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and at Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy. Her CCM performances include the roles of Adele in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Lucy in Menotti’s The Telephone and Miss Wordsworth in Britten’s Albert Herring.

As previously reported, fellow CCM-trained singers  Joshua Wheeker, tenor (CCM Voice 2007-2012); Murrella Parton (MM Voice, 2017) also advanced to the Met’s National Council Semi-Finals this year.

This marks the second consecutive year that CCM singers have “won the Met,” as CCM alumna Jessica Faselt (MM Voice, 2016) was one of five singers who won the 2018 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. You can learn more about Faselt’s win courtesy of the Cincinnati Business Courier.

CCM alumni and students frequently advance to the final rounds of the Met’s National Council Auditions, which is widely considered to be the nation’s most prestigious vocal competition. In 2017, four CCM alumni competed in the semi-finals, including Faselt; Summer Hassan, soprano (MM Voice, 2014); Andrew Manea, baritone (MM Voice, 2016); and Cody Quattlebaum, bass-baritone (BM Voice, 2015) — who was chosen as a finalist during that year’s national competition.

About the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions

Following the creation of the Met’s National Council in the 1952-53 season, the first Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions took place in 1954 in the Twin Cities. For over 60 years, the annual competition has helped launch the careers of countless young singers, including some of opera’s greatest stars. Every season, over 100 former participants in the National Council Auditions appear on the Met roster.

The district-level and regional auditions, held across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, are sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council and administered by National Council members and hundreds of volunteers from across the country. Currently in its 65th year, the program has launched the careers of such well-known stars as Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Frederica von Stade, Deborah Voigt, Lawrence Brownlee, Thomas Hampson, Eric Owens, Angela Meade, Nadine Sierra, Jamie Barton and Ryan Speedo Green. The competition garnered international attention with the release of the 2008 feature-length documentary The Audition, directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, which chronicled the 2007 National Council Auditions season and Grand Finals Concert.

 

CCM Announces 2019 Opera Scholarship Competition Winners

Six students won awards in CCM’s 2019 Opera Scholarship Competition, which was held on Saturday, March 16, 2019 at Corbett Auditorium.

Since its inauguration in 1976, the annual competition welcomes current and incoming CCM voice students to compete for scholarships and cash prizes, and a panel of judges composed of opera industry professionals selects each year’s class of prizewinners.

The 2019 CCM Opera Scholarship Competition winners are:

Victor Cardamone, first-year Master of Music student
From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Studying at CCM with Tom Baresel
Prize: Full-tuition scholarship and the Corbett Award ($15,000)
The Corbett Award is supported by the Corbett Foundation in cooperation with CCM.

Carlos Cardenas, first-year Artist Diploma student
From Bogota, Columbia; Studying at CCM with Daniel Weeks
Prize: Full-tuition scholarship and the Italo Tajo Memorial Award ($15,000)
This award is supported by the Italo Tajo Memorial Scholarship Fund (established by Mr. Tajo’s wife Inelda Tajo) in cooperation with CCM.

Samuel Kid, incoming Master of Music student from the University of Michigan
From Ann Arbor, Michigan
Prize: Full-tuition scholarship and the Andrew White Memorial Award ($12,500)
This award is supported by the Andrew White Memorial Scholarship Fund in cooperation with CCM.

Teresa Perrotta, second-year Master of Music student
From Orlando, Florida; Studying at CCM with Gwen Detwiler
Prize: Full-tuition scholarship and the Seybold-Russell Award ($10,000)
This award is supported by the Seybold-Russell Scholarship Fund in cooperation with CCM.

Amanda Olea, second-year Master of Music student
From Mexico City, Mexico; Studying at CCM with Gwen Detwiler
Prize: Full-tuition scholarship and the John Alexander Memorial Award ($10,000)
This award is supported by the John Alexander Memorial Scholarship Fund in cooperation with CCM.

Maria Miller, first-year Master of Music student
From Paducah, Kentucky; Studying at CCM with Amy Johnson
Prize: Norman Treigle Award ($3000)
This award is supported by the Norman Treigle Opera Scholarship Competition Award Fund in cooperation with CCM.

The judges panel for CCM’s 2019 Opera Scholarship Competition included:

• Thomas Bankston, Artistic Director of Dayton Opera
• Lawrence Edelson, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of American Lyric Theater in New York, where he oversees the Composer Librettist Development Program.
• Neal Goren, Founder and Artistic Director of Catapult Opera, a new touring company premiering in fall 2020 with a new Robert Wilson production of Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors.

About CCM Opera
The Department of Opera at CCM boasts one of the most comprehensive training programs for opera singers, coaches and directors in the United States. Students at CCM work with some of the most renowned teachers and artists active in opera today.

CCM students and alumni frequently advance to the final rounds of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 2017, four CCM alumni competed in the semi-finals: Jessica Faselt, soprano (MM Voice, 2016); Summer Hassan, soprano (MM Voice, 2014); Andrew Manea, baritone (MM Voice, 2016); and Cody Quattlebaum, bass-baritone (BM Voice, 2015) — who was chosen as a finalist in the national competition. In 2018, former CCM Artist Diploma in Opera Performance student Brandon Scott Russell (MM Voice, 2018; AD Vocal Performance, 2018) took first place at the Met’s National Council Auditions Southeast Regional Competition and went on to compete in the semi-final round. This year, three CCM alumni and students will advance to the Met’s National Council Semi-Finals: Joshua Wheeker, tenor (CCM Voice 2007-2012); Murrella Parton (MM Voice, 2017); and Elena Villalón, soprano, currently studying at CCM with William McGraw. The semi-finals take place in New York on March 24, 2019. Learn more at metopera.org/about/auditions/national-council-auditions/.

In addition, CCM’s Mainstage Opera and Studio Opera Series have received some of the National Opera Association Production Competition’s highest honors throughout the years, taking home six of the 18 non-professional prizes awarded in 2010 and four prizes in 2011.

CCM Opera graduates have performed on the stages of the world’s greatest opera companies, including Cincinnati Opera, Metropolitan Opera (New York), Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera (London), La Scala (Italy) and more.

CCM’s 2018-19 Mainstage Opera season concludes with W.A. Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus), conducted by Jiannan Cheng with stage direction by Robin Guarino. The opera runs April 12-14, 2019 at CCM’s Corbett Auditorium. Learn more about the production at uc.edu/news/articles/2018/09/n201495.html

CCM Welcomes Kathleen Kelly as New Associate Professor of Opera Coaching

CCM Interim Dean bruce d. mcclung has announced the addition of Kathleen Kelly as the college’s new Associate Professor of Opera Coaching. An accomplished opera coach, conductor, pianist and teacher, Kelly’s appointment begins on Aug. 15, 2018.

Kelly currently serves as an associate professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance. She joined the faculty in 2015 as the school’s first coach/conductor of opera. While there, she conducted performances of Giulio Cesare, Così fan tutte, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dinner at Eight, the difficulty of crossing a field and L’heure espagnole/Gianni Schicchi, which won the American Prize in Opera Performance. She also led workshops for The Dream of the Red Chamber, Kept and Black Clown and oversaw the musical preparation for the university-wide performances of the new critical edition of Porgy and Bess.

Kelly was the first woman and first American named as director of musical studies at Vienna State Opera, where she oversaw the daily musical life of more than 50 ensemble singers in more than 50 operas from 2010 to 2013. She also curated a recital series in the opera house’s famous Mahlersaal and served as the series’ principal pianist. She was the recitative accompanist for new productions of The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, and assisted Maestro Franz Welser-Möst on new productions of Kát’a Kabanová and Z mrtvého domu.

Before moving overseas, Kelly served as the music director of the Houston Grand Opera Studio as well as the company’s head of music staff from 2006 to 2010. Highlights of these years include conducting her own chamber music arrangement of Hansel und Gretel in a remarkable production by Basil Twist, serving as pianist for the Eleanor McCollum competition and curating the HGOS recital series at Rienzi.

From 1997 to 2006, Kelly served as an assistant to the music director at the Metropolitan Opera, specializing in the works of Wagner, Strauss and Berg. During that time, because of her success as a prompter and musical assistant, she was the focus of a Wall Street Journal article and a Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast feature. From 2005 to 2008 Kelly was also the music director of the Berkshire Opera, conducting two productions each summer and overseeing the young artist program.

As a conductor, Kelly has led the 2018 Schwabacher Concerts at the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Francesca Zambello’s critically acclaimed Ariadne auf Naxos at the Glimmerglass Festival (nominated for an International Opera Award), The Marriage of Figaro at Wolf Trap, the premiere of Emmerich Kálmán’s Arizona Lady at Arizona Opera, Carmen and Madama Butterfly at Opera Columbus, Hansel und Gretel at El Paso Opera and the Alexandria Symphony in Virginia. She also conducted the West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s A Coffin in Egypt, starring Frederica von Stade.

Kelly earned Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in piano performance from Arizona State University and received a Fulbright Scholarship in Music to study at the Musikhochschule Lübeck in Germany.

She has performed internationally as a recital pianist, including performances at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Vienna’s Musikverein and Tucson’s Desert Song Festival. Her recital partners have included Jamie Barton, Thomas Hampson, Renee Fleming, Christine Goerke, Albina Shagimuratova, Valentina Nafornita, Patrick Carfizzi, Michael Kelly, Jill Grove and Troy Cook.

Kelly has taught master classes in the United States and internationally, including at Interlochen Academy, CCM, Baylor University, Vanderbilt University, Arizona State University, Western Ontario University, Peabody Conservatory and Moscow Conservatory, among others. She is also a regular guest coach for Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz program, and works regularly with young artist programs nationally, notably at the Los Angeles Opera, the Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Seattle Opera and in the CoOperative Training Program at Westminster Choir College.

Additionally, Kelly is gaining recognition as a writer of articles, translations and original texts. She has written lead program articles for Wolf Trap, Houston Grand Opera and Arizona Opera. For the Arizona Lady performances, she created a new trilingual adaptation of the libretto. She also wrote the text Texanische Liebeslieder, a song cycle by David Hanlon, which premiered in 2015.

Most recently, Kelly wrote a new English translation Hansel und Gretel for Tri-Cities Opera. She was also commissioned by Wolf Trap Opera to write the libretto for Listen Wilhelmina!, a children’s opera that premiered in May 2017.

Interim dean mcclung thanks the search committee, co-chaired by Alan Yaffe and Robin Guarino, and committee members Amy Johnson, Marie-France Lefebvre and Michelle Conda for their work on finding CCM’s new associate professor of opera coaching. He adds,

“Professor Kelly brings a wealth of experience and artistry both nationally at the Metropolitan Opera and internationally at the Vienna State Opera to CCM’s nationally ranked and internationally renowned opera program.”

Please join us in welcoming Kathleen Kelly to the CCM family!

Alumni Showcase Spotlight: Soprano Tamara Wilson

CCM highlights alumni guest artists who will return to campus for the Sesquicentennial Alumni Showcase in a series of alumni spotlight stories.

Award-winning soprano Tamara Wilson (BM Voice, 2004) returns to CCM’s Corbett Auditorium to sing “Mild und leise” from Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in the Sesquicentennial Alumni Showcase on April 21!

Tamara Wilson.

Hailed by the New York Times as “a young American who sings Verdi with a passion that surpasses stereotype,” Wilson is quickly gaining international recognition for her interpretations of Verdi, Mozart, Strauss and Wagner. She is the 2016 recipient of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, an annual prize given by the Richard Tucker Music Foundation to a rising American opera singer on the “threshold of a major international career.” Other recent honors include a 2016 Olivier Award nomination and receipt of the Revelation Prize by the Argentine Musical Critics Association. Wilson is also a Grand Prize Winner of the annual Francisco Viñas Competition at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

Wilson began the 2017-18 season as the title role in Aida at the Washington National Opera in a production by Francesca Zambello. She returns to her home company of Houston Grand Opera for her role debut as Chrysothemis in Elektra and will make her Paris debut as Sieglinde in Die Walküre with the Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev at the Philharmonie de Paris. She makes her New York Philharmonic debut in Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3 (“Kaddish”) with Leonard Slatkin to celebrate Bernstein’s Philharmonic: A Centennial Festival and will also debut with the Boston Symphony in the same piece under Giancarlo Guerrero. At the BBC Proms, she will return for Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. She makes her Italian debut with Riccardo Chailly and the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with performances in Pavia, Paris and Hamburg.

Wilson made her acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in Aida and London debut in Calixto Bieto’s new production of La forza del destino at the English National Opera, for which she received an Olivier Award nomination. She also inaugurated the new opera house in Kyoto, Japan with Seiji Ozawa as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus. She was heard at Oper Frankfurt for her first performances as the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten conducted by Sebastian Weigle, the recording of which was just released by Oehms Classics. She recently debuted at the Bayerische Staatsoper and Opernhaus Zürich conducted by Fabio Luisi, both as Elisabetta di Valois in Don Carlo. She debuted at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, triumphed in Act 3 of Die Walküre as Brünnhilde with Mark Wiggleworth and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at Royal Albert Hall, and debuted with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev in Act 3 of Die Walküre as Sieglinde.

A noted interpreter of Verdi roles, she has been seen as Elisabeth de Valois in the five-act French Don Carlo (Houston Grand Opera), Amelia in Un ballo in maschera (Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Florida Grand Opera and Teatre Principal de Maó in Menorca), Elvira in Ernani (Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse), Elisabetta in Don Carlo (Bayerische Staatsoper, Zurich Oper and Oper Frankfurt), Lucrezia Contarini in I due Foscari (Théâtre du Capitole, Teatro Municipal de Santiago and Netherlands Radio Orchestra), Leonora in Il trovatore (Gran Teatre del Liceu, Houston Grand Opera and Théâtre du Capitole under Daniel Oren and Palma de Mallorca), Desdemona in Otello (Cincinnati Symphony and James Conlon), Alice Ford in Falstaff (Washington National Opera debut), Amelia Grimaldi in Simon Boccanegra (Canadian Opera Company), the title role in Aida (Opera Australia, Teatro de la Maestranza and Teatro Municipal de Santiago), Marchesa del Poggio in Un giorno di regno (Wolf Trap Opera) and Gulnara in Il corsaro (Washington Concert Opera). Other notable performances include her debut in Norma at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus at the Canadian Opera Company, her German debut at Oper Frankfurt in concert performances of Wagner’s early opera Die Feen as Ada under Sebastian Weigle, Elettra in Idomeneo under Harry Bicket at the Canadian Opera Company and under James Conlon at the Ravinia Festival and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni under James Conlon and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as with Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony.

On the concert stage, Wilson debuted with the Cleveland Orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Franz Welser-Möst, the National Symphony in Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 (“Lobgesang”) with Matthew Halls and with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem conducted by Marin Alsop at the BBC Proms, which was recorded for commercial release. She has been heard in the Verdi Requiem with the Orchestra de Lyon under Leonard Slatkin, her Atlanta Symphony debut in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony conducted by Robert Spano, Malaysian Philharmonic debut conducted by Mark Wigglesworth in Verdi and Wagner, and as soprano soloist for performances of Missa solemnis with John Nelson and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (available on DVD). She made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop in Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, as well as in Baltimore for Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Verdi’s Requiem and Britten’s War Requiem. Wilson performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Marin Alsop and Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Donald Runnicles at the Grand Teton Music Festival, Mozart’s Requiem with Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 (“Lobgesang”) with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra. A favorite of the Oregon Bach Festival, she debuted in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem under Helmuth Rilling for the opening of its 40th Anniversary season, subsequently returning for the same piece in Rilling’s final season as music director. She has returned to sing Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Rilling, Marguerite in Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher under Marin Alsop, Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, a concert of Verdi, Britten and Wagner with Matthew Halls and Beethoven’s Ah, perfido. She added to her concert repertoire when she performed Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder with the Milwaukee Symphony conducted by Asher Fish.

An alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Wilson’s awards include the George London Award from the George London Foundation, as well as both a career grant in 2011 and study grant in 2008 from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. Other notable awards include first place in the 2005 Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers in Houston and finalist in the 2004 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She was a featured soloist at the 2010 NEA Opera Honors, in which she sang “Ernani, involami” from Verdi’s Ernani to honor recipient Martina Arroy.

In addition to her operatic and orchestral performances, Wilson is an avid lecturer on vocal technique. She has been a guest master class lecturer for the National Pastoral Musicians in the Chicago area.

Learn more about the Sesquicentennial Alumni Showcase concert and view a complete list of guest artists at ccm.uc.edu/about/villagenews/save-the-date/sesquicentennial-alumni-showcase.
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SESQUICENTENNIAL ALUMNI SHOWCASE CONCERT

REPERTOIRE
STRAUSS: Overture to Die Fledermaus (1874); featuring the CCM Philharmonia led by Christopher Allen
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 82 “Emperor” (1811); featuring Anton Nel, piano
SAINT-SAENS: Violin Concerto No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 61; featuring Yang Liu, violin
WAGNER: “Mild und leise,” from Tristan und Isolde (1859); featuring Tamara Wilson, soprano
-Intermission-
Work for saxophone and jazz combo; featuring Janelle Reichman, saxophone
ROSSINI: “Cruda sorte,” from L’Italiana in Algeri (1813); featuring Helene Schneiderman, mezzo-soprano
SCHUMANN: Konzertstück for Four Horns, Op. 83 (1849); featuring Allene Hackleman, Julie Beckel Yager, Nathaniel Willson, Jennifer Paul, soloists
Musical Theatre numbers; featuring Betsy Wolfe, vocalist, with Roger Grodsky, conductor
STRAUSS: Champagne Song from Die Fledermaus

PERFORMANCE TIME
8 p.m. Saturday, April 21

Please note: UC’s Nippert Stadium will also host an FC Cincinnati game at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 21, 2018. The full FC Cincinnati Soccer game schedule can be found at www.fccincinnati.com/2018-schedule.

LOCATION
Corbett Auditorium, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

PURCHASING TICKETS
Tickets for CCM’s Sesquicentennial Alumni Showcase Concert are $20 general, $15 non-UC students, and FREE for UC students with a valid ID.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the CCM Box Office, over the telephone at 513-556-4183 or online 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 information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the 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

CCM Hosts Met Opera District Auditions This Saturday

Promising opera singers compete for a chance to “win the Met” and kick-start a major operatic career at the Metropolitan Opera District Council Auditions for Ohio. This free event will take place 9 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28, in CCM’s Robert J. Werner Recital Hall.

Local audiences have the opportunity to sample operatic selections sung by some of Ohio’s most talented young singers throughout the day at this event!

Each year, the Metropolitan Opera holds National Council Auditions throughout the country and Canada in order to discover promising young singers, give singers from around the country a chance to be heard by the major opera companies of the United States and Canada, and find potential participants for the Lindemann Young Artist Development program, an opera training program sponsored by the Met. There are four rounds of competition — district, regional, semi-final and final. The Ohio district is one of 42 districts throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The winners of the Ohio district will advance to the regional auditions, held in Chicago in January 2018. The National Semi-Finals and Grand Finals Concert will take place in New York City at the Metropolitan Opera House in April 2018. Last year, four CCM alumni competed in the semi-finals: Jessica Faselt, soprano (MM Voice, 2016); Summer Hassan, soprano (MM Voice, 2014); Andrew Manea, baritone (MM Voice, 2016); and Cody Quattlebaum, bass-baritone (BM Voice, 2015) — who was chosen as a finalist in the national competition.

Out of the pool of incredibly advanced and polished singers, approximately 10 are chosen each year as finalists in the national competition, and from those, approximately five “win the Met.” The five Grand Winners receive $15,000 each, and many go on to successful careers as opera stars. The process of this rigorous and stressful competition was documented in The Audition, a film following the finalists of the 2007 auditions.

Past winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions include Renee Fleming, Susan Graham, Samuel Ramey, Frederica von Stade and Deborah Voigt.

Learn more about the National Council Auditions at metopera.org/about/auditions/nationalcouncil/.

Event Time
9 a.m.–6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28

Location
Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Admission
Admission to the Metropolitan Opera District Council Auditions for Ohio is FREE. Reservations are not required.

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 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

CCM Announces 2016-17 Studio Series of Opera, Musical Theatre, Dance and Acting Productions

All-time favorites and daring new works receive equal billing during CCM’s 2016-17 Studio Series. This year’s 13-part series of performing and media arts events features an eclectic mix of opera, musical theatre, dance and acting productions, all featuring CCM’s acclaimed “stars-of-tomorrow.”

CCM’s Studio Series opens with Elizabeth Swados’ RUNAWAYS, co-produced with Know Theatre of Cincinnati.

Season highlights include Elizabeth Swados’ powerful and rarely-seen musical Runaways co-produced with Know Theatre of Cincinnati and two world-premieres produced by the Opera Fusion: New Works Lab in partnership with Cincinnati Opera.

CCM’s Department of Musical Theatre also presents the world-premiere of a musical revue showcasing the work of legendary Broadway collaborators Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt. Devised and directed by Aubrey Berg, the Patricia A. Corbett Distinguished Chair of Musical Theatre at CCM, They Were You: The Songs of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt features songs from throughout the celebrated duo’s oeuvre.

This year’s lineup also includes the return of two popular festivals, the 48-Hour Film Festival and the TRANSMIGRATION Festival of Student-Created Plays.

CCM’s Studio Series runs from Sept. 21, 2016, through April 22, 2017. Please see below for full production and ticketing details.

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CCM’S 2016-17 STUDIO SERIES

8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21 (preview)
8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22
8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23
3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24
3 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25
• Studio Musical Theatre Series •
A co-production between CCM and Know Theatre of Cincinnati
RUNAWAYS
Music, lyrics and book by Elizabeth Swados
Vince DeGeorge, director and choreographer
Luke Flood, music director
Runaways is a collage of songs, monologues and dances that captures the energy, courage and honesty of a group of teenagers who are running away “from home… from a boyfriend… from a predator… from themselves.” Created in 1977 by groundbreaking theatre artist Elizabeth Swados, Runaways was born from interviews and workshops that she held with children and young adults who were escaping from their deteriorating family lives. It is a challenging piece of theatre that ultimately celebrates the power of the imagination and the resilience of the human spirit.
Location: Know Theatre of Cincinnati, 1120 Jackson Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202
Admission: Ticket prices range from $15 – $25. Tickets available through the Know Theatre Box Office by calling 513-300-5669 or online at http://knowtheatre.com.

Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation
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7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22
• Opera Fusion: New Works Lab •
A collaboration between CCM Opera and Cincinnati Opera
Co-Artistic Directors Robin Guarino and Marcus Küchle
SOME LIGHT EMERGES
Composed by Laura Kaminsky
Libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed
Robin Guarino, director
Bradley Moore, conductor
Funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, CCM Opera and Cincinnati Opera present a rare behind-the-scenes look at the creation of an original work! Presented in collaboration with Houston Grand Opera, Some Light Emerges takes its inspiration from the creation of Houston’s iconic Rothko Chapel by philanthropist and art collector Dominique de Menil.
Location: Cincinnati Club Oak Room, 30 Garfield Place, Cincinnati 45202
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available on Monday, Sept. 12. Please contact the Cincinnati Opera box office for tickets at 513-241-2742 or www.cincinnatiopera.org.
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8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5
8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6
8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7
2 & 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8
2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9
• Studio Musical Theatre Series •
THEY WERE YOU: The Songs of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt
Lyrics by Tom Jones
Music by Harvey Schmidt
Aubrey Berg, director
Stephen Goers, musical arrangements
CCM proudly presents the world premiere of a musical revue showcasing the work of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt. Devised and directed by Aubrey Berg with musical arrangements by Steve Goers, They Were You features songs from The Fantasticks, Celebration, 110 in the Shade, The Bone Room, Colette Collage and more. This revue celebrates Jones’ and Schmidt’s ability to reflect the human condition with humor, compassion and wry affection.
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Oct. 3. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation
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8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20
8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21
2 & 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22
• Studio Acting Series •
MIDDLETOWN
Written by Will Eno
Richard E. Hess, director
Middletown considers the strange beauty of life and its sometimes unbearable weight. Inspired by Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, the inhabitants of Middletown have a remarkable talent for articulating the hiccups of fear and anxiety in their souls with moving delicacy. The folks are friendly, and the view of star-dappled skies and modest homes is familiar and comforting. Welcome to Middletown.
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Oct. 17. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Acting Studio Series Sponsor: Neil Artman & Margaret Straub
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8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4
8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5
2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6
• Studio Opera Series •
BRIGHT-EYED JOY! A RICKY IAN GORDON CABARET
Composer Ricky Ian Gordon, one of America’s most respected composers of art song, opera and musical theatre, joins CCM’s Opera and Voice singers and pianists for an evening of his music. Come watch our “stars-of-tomorrow” work with a living legend!
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Oct. 31. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Opera Department Sponsor: Mr. & Mrs. Edward S. Rosenthal

Opera Production Sponsor: Genevieve Smith
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7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14
• Opera Fusion: New Works Lab •
A collaboration between CCM Opera and Cincinnati Opera in partnership with the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater’s New Works Program
Co-Artistic Directors Robin Guarino and Marcus Küchle
INTIMATE APPAREL
Composed by Ricky Ian Gordon
Libretto by Lynn Nottage
Robin Guarino, director
Paul Cremo, Dramaturg
Timothy Meyers, conductor
Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, CCM Opera and Cincinnati Opera present a rare behind-the-scenes look at the creation of an original work! Adapted by Lynn Nottage from her prize-winning 2003 play of the same name, Intimate Apparel tells the story of Esther, a 35-year-old seamstress in 1905 New York City. Esther sews lingerie for a living, interacting with a wealthy Fifth Avenue wife, a Tenderloin prostitute and a Jewish fabric merchant on the Lower East Side, with whom she shares a closeness that cannot be pursued further because of his religion. Esther embarks on a letter-writing relationship with a Panama Canal laborer, leading to marriage and ultimately heartbreak, but she maintains her strength of character and determination to make a better life for herself.
Location: Cincinnati Club Oak Room, 30 Garfield Place, Cincinnati 45202
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Please contact the Cincinnati Opera box office for tickets at 513-241-2742 or www.cincinnatiopera.org.
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7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20
• E-Media/Acting Film Series •
THIRD ANNUAL CCM 48-HOUR FILM FESTIVAL
Join us for our annual celebration of original film work by students. After random team placement, student authors, actors, directors, editors and composers have 48 hours from 7 p.m. on Friday night to 7 p.m. on Sunday night to create finished original short films. At the close of the 48-hour period, audiences can join us in UC’s MainStreet Cinema to enjoy eight original short films by eight amazing teams.
Location: MainStreet Cinema, UC’s Tangeman University Center
Admission: FREE
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8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3
8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4
2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5
• CCM Opera d’arte – Undergraduate Opera Series •
ALBERT HERRING
Composed by Benjamin Britten
Libretto by Eric Crozier, freely adapted from a story of Guy de Maupassant
Jesse Leong, conductor
Kenneth Shaw, director
Britten’s brilliantly witty score comes to life again at CCM, presented with the effervescence and energy unique to the outstanding young artists of Opera d’arte! Set in the small town of Loxford, in East Sussex, Albert Herring explores the themes of losing innocence and coming of age in the face of old fashioned morality and social stratification.
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Jan. 30. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

This production of Albert Herring is presented in honor of Rafael and Kimberly de Acha

Opera Department Sponsor: Mr. & Mrs. Edward S. Rosenthal

Opera Production Sponsor: Genevieve Smith
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8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17
8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18
2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19
• Studio Opera Series •
TRANSFORMATIONS
Music by Conrad Susa
Libretto by Anne Sexton
Avishay Shalom, conductor
Emma Griffin, director
CCM’s Studio Series presents the Brothers Grimm fairy tales like you’ve never seen them before! This 1973 chamber opera, with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anne Sexton, is darkly humorous with audaciously recounted tales, and filled with mid-20th-century references, both literary and musical. Based on Sexton’s acclaimed 1971 book of poems of the same name, Transformations promises to challenge audiences’ understanding of what “happily-ever-after” truly means. This production contains adult themes and is not recommend for young audiences.
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Feb. 13. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Opera Department Sponsor: Mr. & Mrs. Edward S. Rosenthal

Opera Production Sponsor: Genevieve Smith
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8 p.m. Thursday, March 2
8 p.m. Friday, March 3
2 & 8 p.m. Saturday, March 4
• Studio Dance Series •
DANCE STUDENT CHOREOGRAPHER’S SHOWCASE
André Megerdichian, director
Come experience the next generation of emerging choreographers as CCM dance majors take the stage with exciting and diverse new works.
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Feb. 27. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

The Dance Department gratefully acknowledges the support of the Corbett Endowment at CCM.
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7 p.m. Wednesday, March 8
7 p.m. Thursday, March 9
7 p.m. Friday, March 10
• Studio Acting Series •
TRANSMIGRATION 2017
A Festival of Student-Created New Works
Richard E. Hess and Brant Russell, producers
TRANSMIGRATION, so named for “the movement from one place to another” or “the transition from one state of being to another,” is a festival of new works created by the acting students in CCM Acting. Six teams of actors craft and perform five original 30-minute shows. Performed simultaneously in different locations throughout CCM Village, TRANSMIGRATION will allow the audience to sample four different new works of their choosing in one spectacular evening. “Thanks to the [Acting] program at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music,” observed CityBeat’s Rick Pender, “theater fans were offered a jolt of onstage vitality.”
Location: Various locations throughout CCM Village
Admission: Admission is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, March 6. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Acting Studio Series Sponsor: Neil Artman & Margaret Straub
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8 p.m. Thursday, March 30
8 p.m. Friday, March 31
2 & 8 p.m. Saturday, April 1
• Studio Musical Theatre Series •
CHILDREN OF EDEN
Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Book by John Caird
Vince DeGeorge, director and choreographer
Steve Goers, musical director
From the composer of smash hits Wicked and Godspell comes a uniquely personal and intimate retelling of the biblical Genesis story. Through the narratives of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah and his family, this beloved 1991 musical explores the uniquely human trait to desire adventure but yearn for the comfort and safety of home, or, “Eden.”
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, March 27. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation
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8 p.m. Thursday, April 20
8 p.m. Friday, April 21
2 & 8 p.m. Saturday, April 22
• Studio Acting Series •
VERY DUMB KIDS
By Gracie Gardner
Brant Russell, director
Sarah Nehal was murdered while working as a correspondent in New Delhi while her college friends were at home in the U.S. watching TV on the internet and peddling their esoteric skill sets. One year after her funeral, her friends meet for their annual Fourth of July reunion. Very Dumb Kids explores entitlement and how its effects are visited upon the disenfranchised as well as the privileged. But it’s also about empowerment, exploring how to live responsibly in an irresponsible universe. Join CCM Acting as we embark on our new play commissioning initiative: plays that speak to the unique experience that is being young in America; plays that are written for and about our students; plays that will go on to be produced by educational institutions and professional theater companies all over the country; plays that will involve a new generation of artists and audiences. And you’ll be able to say you were there when it all started.
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, April 17. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Acting Studio Series Sponsor: Neil Artman & Margaret Straub
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Reserving Tickets
All Studio Series performances held in CCM’s Cohen Family Studio Theater are free and open to the general public, but reservations are required. Reservations can be made the Monday before each show by visiting the CCM Box Office in person or calling 513-556-4183. Limit two tickets per order.

For additional information on reserving tickets for CCM’s Studio Series, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/villagenews/did-you-know/how-to-studio-series.

Some off-campus Studio Series productions require paid admission or reservations through a partner organization’s box office. Please refer to individual production listings for more information.

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 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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A preeminent institution for the performing and media arts, CCM is the largest single source of performing arts presentations in the state of Ohio.

All event dates and programs are subject to change. For a complete calendar of events, please visit us online at ccm.uc.edu.

CCM Alumnae Tamara Wilson and Amanda Woodbury Receive Major Awards from Richard Tucker Music Foundation

We are ecstatic to report that CCM alumnae Tamara Wilson (BM Voice, 2004) and Amanda Woodbury (MM Voice, 2012) have both received major awards from the prestigious Richard Tucker Music Foundation.

Wilson, a soprano who studied with Barbara Honn while attending CCM, has been named winner of the 2016 Richard Tucker Award. Dubbed the “Heisman Trophy of Opera,” the Tucker Award carries the foundation’s most substantial cash prize of $50,000, and is conferred each year by a panel of opera industry professionals on an American singer at the threshold of a major international career. Featuring such luminaries as Renée Fleming, Stephanie Blythe, Lawrence Brownlee, David Daniels, Christine Goerke and Joyce DiDonato, the list of past winners reads like a who’s who of American opera. Wilson is a previous recipient of the Foundation’s Sara Tucker Study Grant in 2008 and Richard Tucker Career Grant in 2011.

Barry Tucker, president of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation and son of the Brooklyn-born tenor, commented, “I first met Tamara Wilson when she auditioned for – and won – a Sara Tucker Study Grant in 2008. I was blown away not only by the power and sheer beauty of her voice, but also by how grounded she is as a person. Last year, when I was listening to the Saturday matinee broadcast of Aida from the Met and realized it was her singing the title role, I couldn’t have been more impressed by how she’s evolved as an artist. She has a bright future ahead of her, and we are thrilled to have her as our 2016 Richard Tucker Award winner.”

Wilson is not the only CCM-trained singer honored by the Richard Tucker Music Foundation this year. Woodbury, a soprano who studied with William McGraw while attending CCM, has been named a 2016 Richard Tucker Career Grant recipient. Selected through a vocal competition, these grants are provided to singers who have begun professional careers and who have already performed roles with opera companies nationally or internationally. As previously reported, Woodbury was awarded the Foundation’s Sara Tucker Grant in 2014.

About the Richard Tucker Music Foundation
Founded in 1975, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation is a non-profit cultural organization that honors the artistic legacy of the great American tenor through support of talented American opera singers and by bringing opera into the community.

The Foundation’s awards program offers grants for study, performance opportunities and other career-enhancing activities, thereby providing professional development for singers at several levels of career-readiness. You can learn more about the Richard Tucker Music Foundation by visiting richardtucker.org/about.

Soprano Tamara Wilson (BM Voice, 2004).

About Tamara Wilson
American soprano Tamara Wilson made her much-anticipated Metropolitan Opera debut in December of 2014 in the title role of Aida, when the New York Times praised the “laserlike authority of her high notes,” and observed: “Her voice blooms with her palpable involvement in her own story: Her singing is urgent, her physical performance restrained yet powerful.”

Nominated for a 2016 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera after her English National Opera debut last fall as Leonora in La forza del destino, the soprano will make further debuts next season at the Bayerischer Staatsoper and Deutsche Oper Berlin. She was a finalist in the 2004 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a Grand Prize Winner at Barcelona’s Annual Francisco Viñas Competition, a winner of the George London Award and the recipient of both a 2008 Sara Tucker Study Grant and a 2011 Richard Tucker Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation.

After launching the present season headlining Aida at the Aspen Music Festival, Wilson returned to Oper Frankfurt as Elisabeth de Valois in Don Carlo; sang Lucrezia in Verdi’s I due Foscari in Santiago, Chile; made her Cleveland Orchestra debut; and joined Marin Alsop for Mahler in São Paulo. Back in the States after touring Japan as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, the soprano looks forward to taking Brahms’s German Requiem on an East Coast tour with Seraphic Fire and singing Desdemona in Otello at Cincinnati’s May Festival, in celebration of James Conlon’s 37th and final year as Music Director. Last season Wilson made her role and house debuts headlining Norma at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, following recent debuts at Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and Carnegie Hall. In addition to being a CCM graduate, Wilson is also an alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio.

CCM alumna Amanda Woodbury.

About Amanda Woodbury
An alumna of Los Angeles Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program, Amanda Woodbury was recently honored with the second place and Audience Choice awards in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition. She also won the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a 2014 Sara Tucker Study Grant, and both second place and Audience Choice awards at Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition.

Woodbury made her professional debut as Micaëla in Carmen at Los Angeles Opera, where she returned as Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. She then joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera, appearing as Tebaldo in Don Carlo and covering the roles of Antonia and Stella in Les Contes d’Hoffmann.

This season she sang Leïla in Les pêcheurs de perles at the Met, and looks forward to appearing as Musetta in La bohème with the Los Angeles Opera. Having taken part in the Met’s “Rising Stars” concert tour, she looks forward to headlining a new Met production of Roméo et Juliette and making house debuts at PORTopera as Micaëla in Carmen and at Atlanta Opera as Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Woodbury completed her Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance at CCM in 2012, after receiving her Bachelor of Music from Indiana University.

In a 2014 interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, Woodbury reflected on her recent success and on her time at CCM, telling 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.”

You can read the Enquirer‘s full interview with Woodbury online here.

Learn more about the achievements of CCM’s students and alumni by subscribing to The Village News!
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Story by Curt Whitacre

CCM’s 2014-15 Mainstage Series Comes to a Close with Mozart’s Famed Opera ‘Cosi Fan Tutte,’ April 9-12

CCM concludes its 2014–15 Mainstage Series with a true powerhouse: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Così fan tutte. The celebrated opera buffa returns to the Patricia Corbett Theater stage at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 9, and plays through Sunday, April 12.

Director of Orchestral Studies Mark Gibson conducts and J. Ralph Corbett Distinguished Chair in Opera Robin Guarino directs. Assistant Conductor Yael Front conducts the matinee performance on Sunday, April 12. This production will be sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Guarino is certainly no stranger to Così, as she has successfully directed the opera multiple times for the world-renowned Metropolitan Opera (the Met) in New York City. Notably, her September 2013 engagement with Così also marked the return of beloved conductor James Levine to the Met’s podium for the first time since May 2011. A Cincinnati native, Levine is a former pupil of LaSalle Quartet violinist and CCM Professor Emeritus Walter Levin.

In his review for the New York Times, Anthony Tommasini hailed the Met’s production of Così as the most “vibrant, masterly and natural performance” of the work he had ever heard. Tommasini especially lauded Guarino’s direction, calling it “effortlessly in sync” with Levine’s conducting.

Mozart’s opera, with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, follows the well-worn tread of light Classical Era opera. Officers Ferrando and Guglielmo are certain that their fiancées Dorabella and Fiordiligi (respectively) will always be true to them… a belief not shared by Don Alfonso, who, in his certainty that women can never be faithful and trustworthy, makes a wager with the two that he can prove within one day that their fiancées are fickle. To this end, he concocts a scheme with the soldiers: they will pretend to be called off to war, return disguised as “Albanians” and they will each attempt to woo the other’s fiancée.

Confusion, cross-dressing and romantic banter abound as the scheme unfolds, testing Dorabella and Fiordiligi’s resolve as well as Ferrando and Guglielmo’s skills in deception.

With enjoyable music and a lighthearted plot transported to mid-20th century America, Così fan tutte is the perfect way to welcome spring and say a fond farewell to CCM’s Mainstage Season!

The Company

• Ann Toomey as Fiordiligi*
• Jessica Faselt as Fiordiligi^
• Adria Caffaro as Dorabella*
• Eleni Antonia Franck as Dorabella^
• Joseph Lattanzi as Guglielmo*
• Simon Barrad as Guglielmo^
• Alec Carlson as Ferrando*
• Chris Bozeka as Ferrando^
• Grace Kahl as Despina*
• Jasmine Habersham as Despina^
• Derrell Acon as Don Alfonso*
• Tyler Alessi as Don Alfonso^

* – Performs Thursday, April 9 and Saturday, April 11
^ – Performs Friday, April 10 and Sunday, April 12

The Creative Team

• Mark Gibson, conductor
• Robin Guarino, stage director
• Lydia Brown, musical preparation
• Ryan Howell, scenic designer
• Caroline Spitzer, costume designer
• Wes Calkin, lighting designer
• Una Lin, wig & make-up designer
• Kevin Semancik, sound designer
• Sarah Stewart, stage manager
• Maria Fuller, Levi Hammer and Kihwa Kim, rehearsal pianists

Performance Times

• 8 p.m. Thursday, April 9
• 8 p.m. Friday, April 10
• 8 p.m. Saturday, April 11
• 2 p.m. Sunday, April 12

Location
Patricia Corbett Theater, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to CCM’s Mainstage production of Così fan tutte 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/cosi-fan-tutte-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 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 Alumna Tamara Wilson Receives Glowing Reviews for Her Metropolitan Opera Debut

Soprano Tamara Wilson (BM Voice, 2004).

Soprano Tamara Wilson (BM Voice, 2004) recently made her Metropolitan Opera debut, singing the title role in the Met’s revival of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida and leaving the critics gushing in the process!

In his review for the New York Times, Zachary Woolfe writes, “Ms. Wilson’s voice is most arresting in the laserlike authority of her high notes, but she softens the steel for sensitive moments, as when she dreams of escape with Radames in the third act… Her voice blooms with her palpable involvement in her own story: Her singing is urgent, her physical performance restrained yet powerful.”

Writing for New York Classical Review George Grella observes, “With a combination of unerring pitch, exacting vibrato, careful dynamics and excellent phrasing, [Wilson] let the character of Verdi’s lines speak for themselves, rather than forcing her own vocal personality onto them. Her individual presence came through with a consistent, gripping intensity that was clear with every note.”

During her time at CCM, Wilson studied with Barbara Honn.

Below, watch a featurette on Opera Australia’s 2009 production of Aida, which also featured Wilson in the title role.

Learn more about the Metropolitan Opera’s current production of Aida by visitingwww.metopera.org/opera/aida-verdi-tickets.

Find a full list of Wilson’s upcoming engagements by visiting www.tamarawilsonsoprano.com.